Adaptive Wrap Meshing

Adaptive wrap meshing is a useful utility to get a clean, water tight shell mesh out of 2D mesh containing several intersecting parts and small gaps which do not need to be modeled.

A hole-gap patching functionality with a user-defined threshold helps to automatically close openings. You can define element refinement based on proximity, feature/intersection lines, and refinement boxes. Before the wrapping process starts, the leak detection functionality can be used to check if the resulting wrapped surface mesh will create desired cavity or not with the given settings. Optional automatic surface remeshing of the wrapping result ensures good surface mesh quality.

Create Adaptive Wrap Mesh

  1. From the 2D ribbon, click the arrow next to the Surface Mesh tool set name and select Adaptive Wrap from the list of options.
    The Adaptive wrap mesh tool opens.
  2. Click the Elements collector and select all elements for wrapping from the panel area.
  3. If you do not want to wrap a particular closed shell element, click the Seed Nodes collector and create a seed point enclosed in those shell elements from the panel area.
    These shells will not be present in the final results.

    It is recommended that you first find out all baffles and inflate them manually to get perfect results.

  4. Specify which features in the model to refine.
    Simple
    Extract features based on the defined feature angle. Open or closed loop features are considered and can be extracted.
    Connected
    Extract features based on the defined feature angle. Only closed loop features are considered and can be extracted.
    User Defined
    Manually select features to refine via a selection panel. If you have a large model and do not want to refine feature everything, this option is useful.
  5. Define mesh parameters.
    Max element size
    Maximum 2D element size in the model that will control the average element size.
    Min element size
    Minimum element size to be used for feature refinement.

    Define the minimum element size accordingly to precisely preserve features.

    Gap patch tolerance
    Determine which gaps to patch.

    If two components/element groups have a gap between them and are within the gap patch tolerance, then the gap between them will be patched. Override the functionality of the gap patch at specific components/element groups by defining a proximity control for them.

    Hole patch tolerance
    Determine which holes to patch.

    Closed loop free edges spanned within one or more components are considered.

    Baffle thickness
    Define the thickness assigned to baffles in the model. A baffle represents open – zero thickness shell face. Baffle thickness parameters inflate the baffle with defined thickness during wrapping.
  6. Define proximity controls.
    Use proximity mesh controls to avoid contact between selected components and any refinement gaps between them. Global and local proximity mesh controls can be defined.
    1. Activate the Consider proximity controls check box.
      The Adaptive Wrapper Proximity Control dialog opens.
    2. Activate the Self proximity for all elements check box and enter a lower bound value to define global controls.
      All proximity above the given value will be resolved.
    3. Click Add Row to add groups to local proximity controls.
      Within Group
      Consider proximity refinement for all of the components/surfaces/regions you selected as long as the gap or proximity between the components is above the specified Proximity lower bound.
      Across Group
      Only consider proximity refinement for all components/surfaces/regions across Group 1 and Group 2 as long as the gap or proximity between the components is above the specified Proximity lower bound. Proximity for the components within one group will not be considered.
      Note: For surface/region selection, all mesh controls created for adaptive wrapper should have surface/region selection only.
    4. Select a group, click the comps collector, and define the group in the panel area.
    5. Enter a Proximity lower bound value for the group(s).
    6. Activate Self Proximity to refine the proximity of elements within one component above the Proximity lower bound.
      Only available for Within Group.
    7. Activate the Select check box for groups to be considered.
    8. Click OK.
  7. Define refinement controls.
    Element avg size
    Refine based on the average element size in the model.
    Curvature
    Specify a maximum chordal deviation, which determines which features are refined. When this parameter is disabled, features will not be refined even though features are defined in wrapper parameters.
    Refinement Box
    Create localized mesh refinement within a user-specified box-shaped volume. Click Create to open the Refinement Box subpanel in the CFD Tetramesh panel. Once a box has been created, click the Box collector and select the refinement box to be utilized in the wrapping job from the panel area.
  8. Define advanced options.
    Create intersection lines
    Refine wrapped mesh at the intersecting lines of input elements.
    Organize wrap elements by base comps
    Split wrapped elements so that they are organized based on input components.

    Duplicate naming is not allowed, therefore the wrapped components will be named the original component name followed by _Wrap. If the Remesh option is not activated, a component called Adaptive Wrapper will be created. If the Remesh option is activated, another component will be created called Adaptive Wrapper_Remesh.

    Remesh
    Remesh the entire wrapped component with the defined growth rate and span angle. The element size used for remeshing will be automatically detected.

    If this parameter is enabled along with the parameter organize wrap elements by base comps, then wrapped components will be remeshed and named with the original component name followed by _Wrap_Remesh.

    Separate assemblies will be created for wrapped and remeshed components.

  9. Define leak detection.
    For bigger models, it is important to check for leaks before you start wrapping. For example, for an external aero/underhood analysis, leak detection mesh controls can help make sure a cabin, engine, and fuel tank are properly sealed, prohibiting mesh from being created there.
    1. Click the Nodes collector and define a node within shells to be enclosed by the wrapper.
  10. Click Check to start the leak detection process.
    If there are any leaks, they will be shown by 1D lines. You can close the bigger patches manually or increase the gap patch size to close theses gaps. By changing the parameters, it might be possible that newly created patches might not seal the volume. It is always recommended to perform leak detection after all settings are defined.
  11. If there are no leaks in the model, click Mesh.