Periodic Space Filling Models (Tile)

This appendix describes commands for producing good-quality meshes of models that tile space, such as polycrystalline materials models. Such models are often referred to as "periodic", but since that term already has a different meaning in Coreform Cubit, the keyword "tile" is used instead. Meshes may be smoothed across periodic boundaries. Periodic boundary conditions can be automatically set up, according to ALEGRA conventions (SAND99-2698).

Tile commands are alpha features and should be used with caution.

Initial setup

First import the model and merge the surfaces. Then mesh it with any method that will create meshes that match across the tile (periodic) boundary, say with scheme polyhedron or sweep. Once the mesh is created, specify the "tile vectors", which lets Coreform Cubit know that the nodes across the periodic boundaries are actually the same node:

Tile {x <period> | y <period> | z <period>}
[x <period>] [y <period>] [z <period>]

The 'period' you specify is actually the vector offset from one boundary to its match. Specify one tile command for each coordinate axis that the model is periodic in. E.g.

Tile x 1
Tile y 1
Tile z 1

You can see which nodes are matched to a given node by some combination of tile vectors with the following command: Tile Debug Node <id>

If you later need to delete these tile vectors, use the following command:

Tile Off

Creating Nodesets

Once the tile vectors are specified, you can set up periodic boundary conditions that meet ALEGRA specifications. The command is:

Tile Nodeset <start_id>

This will create a nodeset for all combinations of tile vectors that actually connect nodes. The nodesets created will be reported to you. The nodesets will be consecutive starting with the given 'start_id', except that if there are no nodes for a particular combination there will be no nodeset and the id space will have a hole. To delete these nodesets, use the

Tile Off

command rather than the usual commands to delete nodesets.

Smoothing

Once a mesh has been created and the tile vectors have been specified, you can smooth the mesh and keep the periodic boundaries exactly offset by the tile vectors. Only hex meshes are currently supported. A variety of 3d smoothing schemes are supported, including laplacian, equipotential, untangle, and condition number.

Smooth Volume <volume_id_range> [Global [Float <dim>] ]

Use "Global" if you are smoothing a collection of volumes. Use "float 3" if you want nodes on surfaces, curves, and vertices to be able to move off of their geometric owner. Use "float 2" if you want just nodes on curves and vertices to be able to move off of their owner (but stay on an owning surface). It is often useful to specify that some of the nodes are fixed using the "node position fixed" command.

Example

# make the geometry
#{brick_size=500}
brick wid {brick_size}
brick wid {brick_size}
body 2 move {brick_size} 0 0
brick wid {brick_size}
body 3 move {brick_size} {brick_size} 0
brick wid {brick_size}
body 4 move 0 {brick_size} 0
brick wid {brick_size}
body 5 move 0 0 {brick_size}
brick wid {brick_size}
body 6 move {brick_size} 0 {brick_size}
brick wid {brick_size}
body 7 move {brick_size} {brick_size} {brick_size}
brick wid {brick_size}
body 8 move 0 {brick_size} {brick_size}
merge all

# mesh it
vol all int 3
mesh vol all

# set the tiling vectors
tile x {brick_size*2}
tile y {brick_size*2}
tile z {brick_size*2}
tile debug node 256
tile debug node 245

# set the tiling nodesets
tile nodeset

# mess up the mesh quality
# volume all smooth scheme randomize
# smooth volume all
surface all smooth scheme randomize
smooth surface all
draw hex all

# fix the mesh quality
node in volume all position fixed
node in surface all position free
volume all smooth scheme laplac
# volume all smooth scheme untangle beta 0.08
smooth volume all global float 3
draw hex all