Free Meshing vs Mapped Meshing

The Debate Continues…

Free Meshing

• ANSYS has a free meshing routine and its easy to use

• Will it give good results when compared with mapped meshing?

Free Meshing• Create the Geometry

Free Meshing• Create the Geometry

• Define the Mesh Size>Preprocessor

>Meshing>Size Controls>Manual Size>Global>Size

Free Meshing• Create the Geometry

• Define Mesh Size>Preprocessor

>Meshing>Size Controls>Smart Size>Basic

Free Meshing• Create the Geometry

• Define Mesh Size

• Free Mesh>Meshing>Mesh>Areas>Free>Select the Area to Mesh

Free Meshing

• Good- -easy to create the geometry -meshing is fast

• Bad- -some triangular elements are used-some elements may have poor aspect ratios

Mapped Meshing• Create the Geometry

-create the geometry in smaller sub areas using key points and lines

Mapped Meshing• Create the Geometry• Concatenate Lines

-sub areas must be bounded by 3 or 4 lines-concatenate lines around areas until each sub area has no more than 4 boundary lines

Mapped Meshing• Create the Geometry• Concatenate Lines• Mesh each area

separatelyMeshing>Mesh>Areas>Mapped>3 or 4 sided

Mapped Meshing• Create the Geometry• Concatenate Lines• Mesh each area

separately• Optional: Check Mesh

-Meshing>Check Mesh>Individual Elm>Plot Warning/Error Elements

Mapped Meshing• Good

-Lots of control over meshing and elements

• Bad-takes a lot more time to create the geometry