So I'm new to SW flow simulation and I'm trying to run a heat flow analysis on a complex assembly that was imported from Inventor. I have the general settings set to heat conduction only in solids and have all my solid materials defined. For my study I'm assigning one part to be a constant temperature and I would like to see how its heat affects the surrounding parts.
Why I'm I getting this mesh generation failure?
have you used the "check geometry" command? It's been a while since I've gotten one, but if I recall correctly it was either that it ran out of memory because of the extreme # of cells, or there was something wrong with the geometry itself.
The goals and other settings won't have any impact on this error - this occurs before it even considers those.
My guess would be there is something about the Invetor model imported that SW does not understand. Exactly what this is could be a long list. Is the model entirely solids? Flow does not work in surfaces.
There are so many possibilities that without at least a picture to generate ideas I can't be of much more help.
You're likely best to contact your VAR for support.
wernyu, first things first, when does the message come up? during meshing? during solving? are there any errors in the solver window? have any iterations been completed?
i think chris is on the right track regarding geometry. if you've imported from inventor, make sure that the geometry is solid. meaning that it survives a CTRL-Q and it survives import diagnostics. if it can't, flow simulation is going to have a hard time.
the next thing is the assembly. eliminate interferences, eliminate invalid contacts. make sure that the assy is water tight (assuming an internal analysis here, if you're running external this is less important but depends on your options for how cavities are handled).
if you still have issues, double check it isn't a software problem. build a tube, pressure on one end, velocity on the other. does it run without issue? if so the software is working. if not, you've got bigger problems.
if the software is working and the geometry is good, you've got some kind of BC problem. start small. one or 2 components. basic BCs like a pressure and velocity, use air or water in the library, use standard pressure and temperature. it should run. everything should run like this. then start adding things until the problem happens.
for example last week i was getting the same error. it happened when i added a porous medium. when i looked at the definition, i had forgotten the point 0,0. added that point and the error went away.
Thanks for helping, I'm glad that you can predict the problem much precisely. i am using Propcad (a software that generating Propeller Geometries), to convert into Solidworks for my flow simulation works. I have found that if i keep changing the curve of propeller shape at the corner, such as make fillet in some radius, say 0.1mm or 0.2mm which was allowabled in solidworks then the flow simulation can calculate it, Sometimes it works but some sizes aren't. Well, i have confirmed the body is solid (without surface condition left). Also, i use "KNIT" to keep it tight after using some lofting. but still need to refine the edge of solid body(which i do not know where was the problem occur), until the mesh generation can calculate the domain. Quite wasting the time. any idea or way to solve?
Wernyu, i'm not clear on what issue is still open. Can you rephrase the question?
I mean that the propeller body only can be simulated after i made some fillet on the edge. But some fillets i made on the edge work, some doesn't work. So i need to rework again until it actually can avoid the "Mesh Generation Abnormally Terminated". i have got no idea how to solve this problem, can you please help?
Can you share the models? Sounds like import issues. Make sure they survive import diagnostics and ctrl-q with vor enabled. Import diagnostics will only work if you have no features in the model other than the import feature.
If you still have problems the mesh or bcs are the issue. The only way to identify is to use the procedure above.
Sorry Jared Conway, i have found the problem that occur on edge of my design. A small out of frame design in the geometry caused the message to occur. So, the geometry of model was the issues. thanks anyway.
Try upgrading either to SolidWorks 2013 or SolidWorks 2012 SP5.0. There were some mesh generation bugs in SolidWorks Flow fixed in those releases. See if that helps.
I get the exact same error when I try to flow simulate an APC propeller. When I simulate a simple static airfoil, it genrates no error. But when I flow simulate my propeller it gives up. I have also done the CTRL+Q import check but everything seems to be fine. It seems that although the geomtery is simple to look it is actually too cumbersome to flow simulate.
did it .. please have a look now..
Which file has the flow sim in it?