Automatic generation of quadrilateral multi-block topology for FEA/CFD applications

Mesh generation is essential in many engineering analysis applications. In most analyses the use of hexahedral meshes will enable higher analysis accuracy for given computational resources, compared to the use of tetrahedral or hybrid meshes. Unfortunately, tools that are offered in current commercial mesh generation software packages cannot produce high-quality hexahedral meshes in the same near-automatic fashion as is available for producing tetrahedral meshes. We believe that a knowledge-based engineering approach, which relies on rules obtained from experts, can be used to automatically generate hexahedral meshes. This paper demonstrates the feasibility of automating the generation of surface meshes (quadrilateral elements) via the rule based approach. A software tool was developed, which imports part geometry from AutoCAD. In a few mouse clicks, the software automatically generates a multi-block topology, using specific sets of rules. The topology is then exported into GridPro az3000 (a commercial meshing software tool) using a special topology input language (TIL). GridPro is then used to optimize the shape of the grid blocks and to generate the final mesh.