TIPS & TRICKS: CONVERGENCE AND MESH INDEPENDENCE STUDY

The previous posts have discussed the meshing requirements that we need to pay attention to for a
valid result. It is important to remember that your solution is the numerical solution to the problem
that you posed by defining your mesh and boundary conditions. The more accurate your mesh and
boundary conditions, the more accurate your "converged" solution will be.

CONVERGENCE

Convergence is something that all CFD Engineers talk about, but we must remember that the way we
generally define convergence (by looking at Residual values) is only a small part of ensuring that we
have a valid solution. For a Steady State simulation we need to ensure that the solution satisfies the
following three conditions:

- Residual RMS Error values have reduced to an acceptable value (typically 10-4 or 10-5)

- Monitor points for our values of interest have reached a steady solution

- The domain has imbalances of less than 1%.

RMS Residual Error Values

Our values of interest are essentially the main outputs from our simulation, so pressure drop, forces,
mass flow etc. We need to make sure that these have converged to a steady value otherwise if we let
the simulation run for an additional 50 iterations then you would have a different result. Ensuring
that these values have reached a steady solution means that you are basing your decisions on a
single repeatable value.

Example of Monitoring a Value of Interest

As a rule, we must ensure that prior to starting a simulation we clearly define what our values of
interest are, and we make sure that we monitor these to ensure that they reach a steady state. As
previously highlighted, we also need to make sure that the Residual RMS Error values are to at least
10-4. Finally, we need to ensure that the overall imbalance in the domain is less than 1% for all
variables.

Imbalances in the Domain

MESH INDEPENDENCE STUDY

The approach outlined above results in a single solution for the given mesh that we have used.
Although we are happy that this has "converged" based on RMS Error values, monitor points and
imbalances, we need to make sure that the solution is also independent of the mesh resolution. Not
checking this is a common cause of erroneous results in CFD, and this process should at least be
carried out once for each type of problem that you deal with so that the next time a similar problem
arises, you can apply the same mesh sizing. In this way you will have more confidence in your results.

The way we carry out a mesh independence study is fairly straight forward.

- Step 1

Run the initial simulation on your initial mesh and ensure convergence of residual error to 10-4,
monitor points are steady, and imbalances below 1%. If not refine the mesh and repeat.

- Step 2

Once you have met the convergence criteria above for your first simulation, refine the mesh globally
so that you have finer cells throughout the domain. Generally we would aim for around 1.5 times the
initial mesh size.

Run the simulation and ensure that the residual error drops below 10-4, that the monitor points are
steady, and that the imbalances are below 1%.

At this point you need to compare the monitor point values from Step 2 against the values from Step
1. If they are the same (within your own allowable tolerance), then the mesh at Step 1 was accurate
enough to capture the result.
If the value at Step 2 is not within acceptable values of the Step 1 result, then this means that your
solution is changing because of your mesh resolution, and hence the solution is not yet independent
of the mesh. In this case you will need to move to Step 3.

- Step 3

Because your solution is changing with the refinement of mesh, you have not yet achieved a mesh
independent solution. You need to refine the mesh more, and repeat the process until you have a
solution that is independent of the mesh. You should then always use the smallest mesh that gives
you this mesh independent solution (to reduce your simulation run time).

- Example

The best way to check for a mesh independent solution is to plot a graph of the resultant monitor
value vs the number of cells in your simulation. This is illustrated below where we have three results
from our steady monitor points for the average temperature at an outlet.

We can see that with 4 million cells we have a result, which could be "converged" for that particular
mesh, with 10-4 residuals and imbalances below 1%. By increasing the mesh resolution to 6 million
cells, we can see that there has been a jump in the value of interest that is not within my user
specified tolerance (in this example I'll say +/-0.5 degrees).

By increasing the mesh size further we can see that the 8 million cell simulation results in a value that
is within my acceptable range. This indicates that we have reached a solution value that is
independent of the mesh resolution, and for further analysis we can use the 6 million cell case, as it
will give us a result within the user defined tolerance.

Example of Mesh Independence Study

It is important that all CFD users follow these steps to ensure that you are reporting accurate
simulation results. Please contact our Support Team if you have any further queries on this approach.
10 key points covered in our CFD Meshing Tips & Tricks webinar

A quick thanks to the large number of customers in Australia and New Zealand who attended our July
webinar on ANSYS CFD Meshing Tips & Tricks. We've had many enquiries from people wanting to
know more, so we thought we'd break the content down into the 10 key points below. If you want
more information on any specific point, then please contact us directly or post a comment in the field
at the bottom of the page.

10 key points to a successful CFD Meshing strategy (taken from the demonstration throughout
LEAP's webinar on CFD Meshing Tips & Tricks):

1. Firstly, decide what mesh connectivity your problem requires (conformal / non-conformal)
and how this will affect the setup of your geometry - single part, multi-body parts or separate
bodies.

2. Utilise the tools available for geometry clean-up - using DesignModeler or SpaceClaim Direct
Modeler - to quickly address any small surfaces, split edges, hard edges that are present in
your CAD.

3. Decide whether you can use a patch-conforming meshing approach (preferred for most CFD
cases), or need to use a patch-independent approach to tackle dirty CAD geometry.

4. Make use of the preview tools for previewing the surface mesh and inflation layers. This can
be a great time saver for large, complex models!

5. Use the show tool to indicate if there are bodies that are automatically sweepable, and/or
faces that can be easily map meshed.

6. Make sure you are using the correct meshing preference - talk to us if you need more
information on different meshing requirements for Mechanical, CFD, Explicit dynamic
problems.

7. Understand when it is helpful to use Assembly meshing. If Assembly meshing is part of your
strategy, remember that Fluent should be selected as Solver type which gives you access to
 the Cut-cell and Cut-tet methods. CFX users can use this same approach to generate Cut-tet
meshes.

8. If you are hex meshing, it is useful to understand how to use Sweep meshing controls most
efficiently. The ability to display nodes and edge parametric directions are very handy!

9. Don't forget you have the ability to use Virtual Topology and Pinch commands to cleanup
geometry in ANSYS Meshing.

10. If you are dealing with large assemblies and/or non-conformal meshes, the automatic
contact detection is a tool you cannot live without. Use it to check connectivity of bodies
with the new Body View tool. Don't forget the importance of 'group by none' for CFX users.