Controlling mesh refinement

[johnsonha]

Coreform Cubit Version: 2022.04
Platform: Windows 11

Issue
I’m wondering if there is a better methodology to control the element size in regions within a volume without introducing planar surfaces to the refinement region. Here’s a journal example:

reset
brick x 10
brick x 2
subtract volume 2 from volume 1 keep_tool
merge all
vol all scheme tetmesh
vol 2 size 0.1
surf 1 to 6 size 10
mesh vol all

Notice that the surfaces shared by the two volumes are explicitly meshed and are planar features within the mesh. Is there a way to avoid having these planar features while still being able to define a refinement region?

[gvernon]

There is a way to do this using the Cubit-Python interface and Exodus files. I described it a little bit in a recent webinar (go to 22:20 if the link doesn’t take you to that timestamp). The routines I used can be found here:

• cubit_dakota/indenter/generate_mesh_size_function.py at main · coreformllc/cubit_dakota · GitHub
• cubit_dakota/indenter/spherical_nanoindenter.py at main · coreformllc/cubit_dakota · GitHub

[johnsonha]

Thank you @gvernon for the links. I’ll work through the example and try to apply it to my model.