Building the Mesh

This section describes the step-by-step procedure to prepare the mesh and interfaces for conjugate heat transfer in a EGR cooler. The creation of multiple interfaces is time consuming if it is created manually between each fluid and solid volumes. In Simerics-MP, CAD surfaces are imported, and mesh is generated for all the fluid and solid volumes along with their interfaces automatically. If the openings of the imported domain are not closed, then they can be closed in Simerics-MP using bounding box. The bounding box is created during meshing.

Create Mesh

Select General Mesher in the Mesh Panel.
Select Advanced Mode under Setup Options.
Select EGR_Cooler under CAD Surfaces in the Geometric Entities Panel.
Select All Volumes under Mesh Location drop-down list in the Model Tab of Properties Panel.
Select Nonuniform under Bounding Box Margins drop-down list.
Enter Minimum Side Sizes as 0, 0.1, 0.1 and Maximum Side Sizes as 0, 0, 0.1.
Select Combined with Patches from the Sub-feature Options drop-down list.
Enter Maximum Cell Size as 0.0025, Minimum Cell Size as 0.00025 and Cell Size on Surfaces as 0.00125 .
Click Create Mesh. A new mesh EGR_Cooler is created under Built Meshes in the Geometric Entities Panel.
The meshed volumes EGR_Cooler, EGR_Cooler_1, EGR_Cooler_2 and EGR_Cooler_3 are generated under Volumes.
Delete the volume EGR_Cooler and rename EGR_Cooler_1, EGR_Cooler_2 and EGR_Cooler_3 under Volumes as Coolant, Metal and Air.

Figure 11.52 - Create Mesh

Note: The volume created by bounding box margins should be deleted. Since it is used to close the opening of the domain and not used in simulation.

The created mesh is shown below.

Figure 11.53 - Air volume mesh

Figure 11.54 - Coolant volume mesh

Figure 11.55 - Metal mesh

Rename Boundaries

Under Volumes > Air > Boundaries, select outside_dir1_max_1, outside_dir1_min_1 and rename as Air_outlet, Air_inlet respectively.
Under Volumes > Coolant > Boundaries, select outside_dir2_max_1.
Select Split/Combine Geometry or Grid in the Mesh Panel.
Select Split Disconnected from the Operation drop-down list in the Properties Panel, click Split Disconnected.
Rename the two new Boundaries outside_dir2_max_1_01 and outside_dir2_max_1_02 as Coolant_outlet and Coolant_inlet respectively in the Geometric Entities Panel.