Workshop 4
Geometry Cleanup and Repair
14. 5 Release
Introduction to ANSYS
DesignModeler
© 2012 ANSYS, Inc. November 20, 2012 1 Release 14.5
Objective
• Demonstrate the methodology for
working with assembly models in Turbine
DesignModeler.
• Finding geometry imperfections
through various analysis tools and
simplifying/repairing model.
Compressor
The basic steps involved are:
1. Importing geometry file of into DM
2. Identifying geometry
corruptions/issues
3. Geometry repair and defeaturing
4. Creation of fluid volume
5. Modification on extracted flow volume
for ease in meshing
Center Housing
© 2012 ANSYS, Inc. November 20, 2012 2 Release 14.5
Launching Design Modeler
• First start Workbench
• Go to Project Page Component Systems Geometry
1. Double click on Geometry Tab
2. Click Right Mouse Button (RMB) on Geometry template then
click on New Geometry
1 2
© 2012 ANSYS, Inc. November 20, 2012 3 Release 14.5
Unit Selection
• DM starts with a prompt to select desired length unit. Select “Millimeter” and click OK.
© 2012 ANSYS, Inc. November 20, 2012 4 Release 14.5
Importing Geometry
• Import parasolid file
turbo_charger_tutorial.x_t
– [Main Menu] File Import External Geometry
File…
– Browse to file “turbo_charger_tutorial.x_t” in
the Input Files folder and open it
– In Details View, select “XYPlane” as Base Plane
and “Add Frozen” for Operation
– Click on “Generate” to import the model
© 2012 ANSYS, Inc. November 20, 2012 5 Release 14.5
List of Bodies imported after “Generate”
Total 10 Bodies were imported. 8 are Solids and 2 are
Surfaces. Names can be seen in above image.
© 2012 ANSYS, Inc. November 20, 2012 6 Release 14.5
Changing Display Settings (1)
• Turn off “Frozen Body Transparency” to view
imported bodies as Opaque
– Deselect [Main Menu] View Frozen Body
Transparency
Frozen Body Transparency “ON” Frozen Body Transparency “OFF”
© 2012 ANSYS, Inc. November 20, 2012 7 Release 14.5
Changing Display Settings (2)
• To see any issues in geometry change Edge Coloring
to “By Connection”
– By setting Edge Coloring to “By Connection” we can see
any single or multi-connected edges
– If there are single connected edges, it means
geometry is open and not a solid body. There is
hole/seam/leak which needs to be closed.
– Single connected edges are displayed in Red Single connected edges shown in Red
Edge Coloring set to “By Body Color” Edge Coloring set to “By Connection”
© 2012 ANSYS, Inc. November 20, 2012 8 Release 14.5
Sewing Surface Bodies (1)
• Select two surfaces bodies named “Surface1” and
“Surface2” (see images below) to “Sew” them
together
– “Sew” operation will connect two surface bodies making
them one body and removing duplicate edges
– Click on [Main Menu] Create Body Operations
“Surface1” “Surface2” “Surface1” and “Surface2”
© 2012 ANSYS, Inc. November 20, 2012 9 Release 14.5
shown together
Sewing Surface Bodies (2)
• In Details View
– Select “Sew” for Type
– Select 2 surface bodies (select “Surface1” first and then
“Surface2” to maintain name of new body as “Surface1”)
– Keep Create Solids? to “No”
– Click on “Generate” or press F5
Single surface body “Surface1”
is formed after “Sew”
© 2012 ANSYS, Inc. November 20, 2012 10 Release 14.5
Closing Hole using Surface Patch
• “Surface1” is still a surface body as it has one
missing face/hole as can be seen in image below
• This hole can be removed using “Surface Patch”
– Click on [Main Menu] Tools Surface Patch
– Select all 4 red edges and click “Generate”
Missing Face/Hole
in surface body
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Hole is patched Release 14.5
Converting Surface Body to Solid Body
• “Surface1” is now a closed surface body and can be
converted to solid body using “Sew”
– Click on [Main Menu] Create Body Operations
– In Details View, Select “Sew” for Type
– Select the surface body
– Keep Create Solids? to “Yes”
– Click on “Generate” or press F5
– Rename “Surface1” body as “Solid9” for consistency
Symbol shows it is
Solid Body
© 2012 ANSYS, Inc. a solid body
November 20, 2012 12 Release 14.5
Using Repair Tools (1)
• Repair tools can be used to automatically/semi-
automatically clean the geometry using certain
specified criteria
• Let us search for any hard edges in the model and
clean it
– Repair tools can be accessed through [Main Menu]
Tools Repair
– Select “Repair Hard Edges” for identifying and
cleaning hard edges in the model
– Select “All Bodies” for Bodies To Search
– Set Find Faults Now to “Yes”
– One hard edge was found. Click on “Hard Edge 1” in
the Details View to zoom in to the hard edge
– Turn ON “Shaded Exterior and Edges” in View for
better visibility
– Click “Generate”
© 2012 ANSYS, Inc. November 20, 2012 13 Release 14.5
Using Repair Tools (2)
Hard Edge removed after
“Generate”
Hard Edge
© 2012 ANSYS, Inc. November 20, 2012 14 Release 14.5
Using Repair Tools (3)
• Let us now search for any sliver faces in the
model and clean it
– Click on [Main Menu] Tools Repair Repair
Slivers
– Select “All Bodies” for Bodies To Search
– Set Max Sliver Width Limit to “0.5 mm”
– Set Find Faults Now to “Yes”
– One sliver face was found. Click on “Sliver 1” in the
Details View to zoom in to the sliver face
– Turn ON “Shaded Exterior and Edges” in View for
better visibility
– Click “Generate”
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Using Repair Tools (4)
Sliver Face removed after
“Generate”
Sliver Face
© 2012 ANSYS, Inc. November 20, 2012 16 Release 14.5
Small Entity Search (1)
• Now, we will search for small edges in the model. This
can be done using “Small Entity Search”
• We already know that there are small edges in turbine
and compressor wheel due to thickness of blades.
Similarly, there are small edges in threaded shaft, nut,
washer, etc. So, we should exclude such geometries in
which we do not want to clean small edges.
• So, we will select three bodies for small edge search,
i.e., turbine housing, compressor casing and centre
housing. These 3 bodies are shown in image below.
© 2012 ANSYS, Inc. November 20, 2012 17 Release 14.5
Small Entity Search (2)
• For small entity search
– Click on [Main Menu] Tools Analysis Tools Small
Entity Search
– Select 3 bodies in Entity Set
– Select “Yes” for Check for Short Edges?
– Select “No” for all other settings
– Set Short Edge Limit to “3 mm”
– Set Go! to “Yes”. It will show all short edges below 3 mm in
selected bodies. In this case, there is just one edge
– Click on “Edge 1” to highlight it in Graphics View
© 2012 ANSYS, Inc. November 20, 2012 18
Small Edge Release 14.5
Merging Small Edge
• This small edge can be removed by merging it to
the adjacent edge. The two edges are shown in
images below.
• To merge two edges
– Click on [Main Menu] Tools Merge
– Select “Edges” for Merge Type
– Keep Selection Method as “Manual”
– Select 2 edges and “Generate”. This will remove
small edge.
First Edge (Small) Second Edge (Adjacent)
© 2012 ANSYS, Inc. November 20, 2012 19 Release 14.5
Geometry Modifications & Simplifications
• There are gaps and intersections between the different solid parts of external CAD file.
• Actual geometry consists of small features like holes, fillets, threads or small faces. For
CFD analysis these minute details are unwanted and can be removed.
• This simplification results in clean geometry and reduces the effort required for mesh
generation and helps to maintain mesh quality.
• Figure below shows the regions where we need to work for flow volume extraction.
1
1
2
Interference
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Gap
Enabling Beta Features
• To activate “Beta Options”, go to
Workbench Schematic Page
– Go to Tools Options
– Select “Appearance” from tree
– Scroll down and enable the check
box of “Beta Options”
• This will activate beta features
available in the DesignModeler
such as “Body Clash Detection”
and “Solid Extension”
© 2012 ANSYS, Inc. November 20, 2012 21 Release 14.5
Identifying Body Interferences (1)
Clash Detection
• Once you have turned on Beta Options you can
now use Body Clash Detection for identifying
Clashes
• [Main menu] Tools Analysis Tools Body Clash
Detection (Beta)
• Select “All Bodies” for Bodies To Search
• Select “Interference” for Clash Type
• Set Go! to “Yes”. It will show all clashes in the
model. In this case, there are two set of clashes.
• Click on “Clash 1” to highlight it in Graphics View
© 2012 ANSYS, Inc. November 20, 2012 22 Release 14.5
Identifying Body Interferences (2)
• Switch to Wireframe view for better
viewing of clash
• [Main menu] View Wireframe
• Locate various clashes in the
geometry as shown
Interference between
• Both cases involve compressor compressor casing &
casing. Adjusting/moving casing center housing
may solve problem
Interference between
compressor blades and
its casing
© 2012 ANSYS, Inc. November 20, 2012 23 Release 14.5
Measuring Amount of Overlap
• Let us measure amount of overlap/clash between
compressor casing and central housing
• Revert back to Shaded view. [Main menu] View
Shaded Exterior and Edges
• Hide all other bodies except these two bodies
• Measure distance between two faces (Face 1 and
Face 2 shown in images) of these bodies which
ideally should be mating and aligned with each Face 1 Face 2
other
• Distance can be measured using [Main Menu]
Tools Analysis Tools Distance Finder . Select
two faces to find distance between them
• It shows distance of 9 mm between faces, i.e.,
overlap between bodies is 9 mm. Moving
compressor casing by 9 mm will solve this.
© 2012 ANSYS, Inc. November 20, 2012 24 Release 14.5
Removing Body Interferences
• Compressor casing should be moved in -X direction
by 9mm to remove clash
• This can be done using Translate operation
• [Main menu] Create Body Operation
• Select “Translate” for Type
• Switch to body selection mode and select the
compressor casing and click on “Apply”
• Select “No” for Preserve Bodies?
• Under Direction Selection select edge and
direction as shown in the image
• Specify Distance of “9mm”
• Finally click on “Generate” to see the change
© 2012 ANSYS, Inc. November 20, 2012 25 Release 14.5
Filling Gaps (1)
• Now we have to remove the small gap Face 1
present between center housing and
turbine housing
• Again using “Distance Finder” we found
that it is a 2mm gap
• We will use extrude to close this face by
extruding face “Face 1” highlighted in
image
• [Main menu] Create Extrude
• Select “Face 1” shown in image for
Image 1
Geometry Image 2
• Set Operation to “Add Frozen”
• Select edge and direction as shown in
“Image 2” for Direction Vector
• Specify a Depth of “2mm”
• Keep all the other values as shown in
Details View in “Image 3”
• Click on “Generate”
• A new solid body will be generated
Image 3
© 2012 ANSYS, Inc. November 20, 2012 26 Release 14.5
Filling Gaps (2)
• In this step we will merge the additional
body created in the previous step to the
turbine casing by using “Boolean”
• The new body created is shown in
“Image 1”
• [Main menu] Create Boolean
Image 1
• Select “Unite” for Operation
• Select two bodies for Tool Bodies
• “Generate” it
Before Boolean After Boolean
© 2012 ANSYS, Inc. November 20, 2012 27 Release 14.5
Geometry Simplification (1)
• For CFD simulation threads of the bolt is least
important feature and can be removed using
“Face Delete”
• Hide all other bodies above the bolt to view the
body as shown
• [Main Menu] Create Face Delete
• Switch to face selection mode and select 3 faces
which corresponds to thread (as shown)
• Click on “Apply”
• Keep Healing Method to “Automatic”
• Click on “Generate”
Face 1 Face 2 Face 3
© 2012 ANSYS, Inc. November 20, 2012 28 Release 14.5
Geometry Simplification (2)
Before Face Delete After Face Delete
© 2012 ANSYS, Inc. November 20, 2012 29 Release 14.5
Creating Capping Surfaces
• For flow volume extraction we need
to close all the openings such as
inlets and outlets
• We have to create surfaces to close
all these openings
• We can simultaneously create four
capping surfaces by selecting the
edge loops to close
• We will use “Surfaces from Edges”
to create these surfaces
• [Main menu] Concept Surfaces
from Edges
• Select all the 8 edges of the four
edge loops to create four capping
faces
• Finally click on “Generate” to
complete the process
© 2012 ANSYS, Inc. November 20, 2012 30 Release 14.5
Fluid Volume Extraction
• Since all the openings are closed we can
use “Fill By Caps” for fluid volume
extraction
• [Main menu] Tools Fill
• Select “By Caps” for Extraction Type
• Keep all other options to default
• Finally click on “Generate” to extract
fluid volume
• After flow volume extraction you will get
three fluid volumes as shown in images
• Unwanted flow volume can be
suppressed and can be restricted getting
transferred to other components
© 2012 ANSYS, Inc. November 20, 2012 31 Release 14.5
Saving the Project
• This completes the workshop
• From the main menu select File Close DesignModeler
– Workbench will save any application data
• From the Workbench Project Page use the file menu and save
the project as “[Link]” to your working folder
© 2012 ANSYS, Inc. November 20, 2012 32 Release 14.5