Grid Generation

Loci-Stream software is strictly a solver, so it does not include a grid generator. There are several excellent grid generation packages available. The HPCMP Capstone mesh generation software handles meshes with complex geometry, and supports an output format that is immediately usable within Loci-Stream.

Free/Open Source Grid Generators

• HPCMP Create Genesis (Preferred generator)

• AFLR (preferred generator)

• Gmsh

• SnappyHexMesh

• SolidMesh(AFLR2D/3D)

• Salome(SMESH)

Commercial Grid Generators

• coreform

• Cadence(Pointwise)

• GridPro

The grid generators often export to many commonly used mesh formats. Loci-Stream can use grids that are in the following formats: gmsh, cgns, ugrid, plot3d, fluent, ccm. From a user perspective, the cgns and ugrid formats are used commonly by Loci-Stream users.

A Common Workflow

A common approach used for generating meshes that are usable in Loci-Stream is shown below.

1. Use a CAD program to generate geometry

2. Export the geometry to the IGES format

3. Import the IGES file to the HPCMP Capstone mesh generator

4. Mark the boundaries using Capstone (used for applying boundary conditions)

5. Create surface mesh on geometry using Capstone

6. Take surface mesh and generate volume mesh using the command-line version of AFLR3D (Capstone can also create volume meshes as it is built upon the AFLR3D library)