Mesh strategy-Refinement mesh (CFD: computational fluid dynamics) [1000 words] - Lab Report Example

The design of the mesh has to balance between the level of detail of the mesh and the refinement time. The volumetric mesh control makes it possible to control the mesh size and still keep the refinement time low. The trade off between refinement and the time it would take to complete the simulation needs to be calculated very carefully since it would have a huge impact on the entire exercise. The refinement of these zones would make the proximity of the simulation test to real life operation of the car easier.

One of the refinement zones is the ground which needs to maintain consistency with the actual track surface on which the vehicle will be driven. The volume control mesh makes it possible to maintain the detail around refinement zones during simulation. The refinement zones chosen have a huge effect on the aerodynamics of the vehicle under study. For this reason, it is important that the details of these areas are maintained. The symmetry between the flow and the longitudinal section of the car would be very important during the simulations.

The symmetrical division of the car would make it easy to make precise calculations of the results of the simulation. The symmetry plane can improve the results’ precision by as much as 35%. The ground refinement zone was chosen because it is very important to capture the effects that the wheels will have on the ground. The friction between the base of the wheel and the ground is an important determinant of the maximum speed that the model can be expected to move at safely. This would be partly dependent on the nature and texture of the surface and the wheel material.

The refinement enables us to capture the properties of the surface and how it affects the model’s properties. The refinement also made it possible to symmetrically cut the car into half without the overhead brought by simulation test time. This refinement zone was important because it helped capture the effects of air