pyMeshFOAM: Automated meshing for CFD and fluid–structure simulations

Abstract

The generation of high-quality meshes is of paramount importance for accurate numerical fluid simulations. As this can be a tedious task, we have developed pyMeshFOAM, an easy-to-use code based on existing free meshing tools that automatically generates different types of structured or unstructured meshes in OpenFOAM format. From a 2D contour, pyMeshFOAM can generate a 2D mesh of the fluid around it or a 3D mesh around the shape extruded from the contour. CAD files can also be used for the geometry. Boundary layer meshing is also available. In addition, pyMeshFOAM manages the reciprocal solid meshes compatible with CalculiX in order to perform coupled fluid–structure simulations.

Keywords

• Computational fluid dynamics
• Fluid–structure interaction
• Meshing tool
• Boundary layers
• OpenFOAM