SOLIDWORKS Flow Simulation supports cartesian based meshing, basically it is a grid based meshing technique that gives automatic meshing faster, even with complex geometries. However, when analyzing assemblies such as cabinet and control panels with cables and wires, SOLIDWORKS Flow Simulation fails to mesh smaller components such as cables, relays and MCBs. In such cases, Flow Simulation may not indicate that there is an error with meshing.
In these cases, one must visualize with mesh cut plots to ensure that mesh has been captured for all the solid components in the assembly.
Below is the image representing CAD and missing mesh for some components.
As observed in the above image, the user will not be able to visualize meshing for certain components, and in turn the solver will not solve this analysis due to a meshing error. This type of meshing error is sometimes called holes in the mesh.
The solution for this is to activate Preprocessor Boolean or Mesh Boolean in SOLIDWORKS Flow Simulation 2023 and later versions. This option is found in Wizard > General Settings > Analysis Type >Geometry Recognition.
With this activated, the software uses advanced functions to perform Boolean operations on the geometry, this option makes use of SOLIDWORKS Flow Simulation’s own Boolean operation functions instead of the SOLIDWORKS CAD functions.
This functionality was introduced in SOLIDWORKS 2018, and it was earlier called improved geometry handling. In 2018 – 2022, to activate the Improved Geometry Handling option, right-click the project name in the Flow Simulation tree and select Improved Geometry Handling.
To summarize, cartesian based meshing in SOLIDWORKS Flow Simulation is faster in generating meshing for complex geometries. However, in certain cases where cables and relays are present in an assembly, meshing problems arise where cells are missing in the mesh, as seen in Cut Plots. This type of problem is sometimes called holes in the mesh. By activating the Preprocessing Boolean option, issues related to invalid contact detection, meshing and other software functions can be resolved.
