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Building the Mesh

This section describes the step-by-step procedure for preparing the mesh for the centrifugal pump. The mesh is created using the General Mesher.

Inlet and Volute Meshes Select General Mesher in the Mesh Panel. Select CAD Surfaces inlet_inlet, inlet_mgi, inlet_wall, volute_mgi, volute_outlet, volute_rotating_walls, volute_wall in the Geometric Entities Panel and click Add Surfaces icon for CAD Surfaces in the Properties Panel. Ensure Relative to All CAD Surfaces is selected for Cell Size Specification. Enter Maximum Cell Size as 0.01, Minimum Cell Size as 0.001 and Cell Size on Surfaces as 0.005. Click Create Mesh. A new mesh mesh is created under Built Meshes in the Geometric Entities Panel. The meshed volumes inlet and volute are generated under Volumes.

Figure 6.16 - Inlet and Volute mesh settings

Rotor Chamber Mesh Select General Mesher in the Mesh Panel. Select CAD Surfaces rotor_blades, rotor_bot, rotor_inlet, rotor_mgi, rotor_top in the Geometric Entities Panel and click Add Surfaces icon for CAD Surfaces in the Properties Panel. Ensure Relative to All CAD Surfaces is selected for Cell Size Specification. Enter Maximum Cell Size as 0.01, Minimum Cell Size as 0.0005 and Cell Size on Surfaces as 0.005. Click Create Mesh. A new mesh rotor is created under Built Meshes in the Geometric Entities Panel. The meshed volume rotor is generated under Volumes.

Figure 6.17 - Rotor mesh settings

Note: The mesh can be edited/ replaced by selecting it under Built Meshes, and modify the mesh parameters in the Properties Panel. Click Create Mesh to reflect the changes.

The mesh created for the fluid domain is shown below:

Figure 6.18 - Inlet mesh

Figure 6.19 - Rotor mesh

Figure 6.20 - Volute mesh

Create interfaces

In this section, the Mismatched Grid Interfaces (MGIs) are generated between boundaries.

The steps to create the MGIs are as follows:

1. Geometric Entities Panel > Volumes > Boundaries, select boundaries as shown in Table 6.1.
2. Click Connect Selected Boundaries via MGI icon to create the MGI entities (see, Figure 6.21)

A group display of entities can be viewed using the Group Entities by Volumes/Types icon in Geometric Entities Panel toolbar.

Connecting interfaces	Boundaries	Entity
Inlet and rotor chamber	inlet_mgi and rotor_inlet	MGI01
Rotor chamber and volute	rotor_mgi and volute_mgi	MGI02

Table 6.1 - Creating interfaces

The new entities are created under MGI in Volumes (see, Figure 6.22).

Figure 6.21 - Connecting inlet to rotor chamber

Figure 6.22 - Created interfaces

 

´	Note:  If MGIs are created by connecting the wrong boundaries, delete the created MGIs by clicking on Delete Selected Geometric Entity icon and then recreate the MGIs.