Advancing Layer Mesher
The advancing layer mesher generates layers of prismatic cells around the surfaces of regions or parts and fills the remaining void with polyhedral cells. This mesher either uses the initial triangular or quadrilateral surface mesh, or converts the triangular mesh to a polygonal or quad surface mesh, depending on the Surface Element Type that you select. This surface mesh is then advanced into the region volume to form cell layers. Some advantages of this approach are a conformal match on either side of an interface, and the ability to generate thicker and more uniform cell layers.
The extent and characteristics of the near-wall cell layers are user-defined. In this respect, the advancing layer mesher is a stand-alone volume mesher—it is not the same as the prism layer mesher. When using a Parts-Based mesh operation, before the advancing layer mesher becomes available, you select either the Polyhedral or Tetrahedral volume mesher – which is used for the core mesh. When the advancing layer mesher is used with custom controls, mesh settings are taken from different overlapping custom controls to create a mesh in that region with the smallest possible cell size.
The prismatic cell layers help capture the boundary layer, turbulence effects, and heat transfer near wall boundaries. Prismatic cell layers can also be projected on non-extrusion boundaries such as inlets, outlets, and symmetry planes. The core mesh provides a balanced solution for meshing complex geometries. This approach makes the advancing layer mesher suitable for various applications.
