45. Making Meshes

After preparing the contour and optionally adding a finite-thickness trailing edge, the Mesh page is where PyAero turns the working geometry into a structured wind-tunnel mesh.

_images/mesh_panel.png

Mesh page with block settings, smoothing controls, and export options.

46. Mesh Layout

PyAero builds the final mesh from four logical blocks:

  • the near-airfoil block

  • the trailing-edge block

  • the outer tunnel block

  • the wake block

This layout makes it possible to tune the boundary-layer region, the trailing edge, the farfield, and the wake independently.

_images/mesh_blocks.png

Block structure used by the structured tunnel mesh.

47. Airfoil Block

The airfoil block is the most important part of the mesh. It starts from the prepared contour and grows outward along local normals.

Its main controls are:

  • Points on contour

  • Normal divisions

  • First layer (m)

  • Growth rate

The point count is inherited from the prepared contour and shown mainly for reference. If you need a different count along the airfoil, change the preparation step first.

_images/mesh_block1bb.png

The structured near-airfoil block.

48. Trailing-Edge Block

The trailing-edge block resolves the downstream region directly behind the airfoil. It is especially important when a finite-thickness trailing edge is present.

Its controls are:

  • TE divisions

  • Downstream divisions

  • First layer (m)

  • Growth rate

_images/mesh_TE_annotated.gif

The trailing-edge block and its local resolution.

49. Tunnel Block

The tunnel block wraps the airfoil block and extends the mesh to the farfield boundary. It controls the tunnel height and the vertical distribution in the outer domain.

Main controls:

  • Tunnel height (c)

  • Height divisions

  • Thickness ratio

  • Bias

For strongly cambered airfoils, adjusting the bias can improve the outer block quality.

50. Wake Block

The wake block extends the tunnel downstream. It controls how far the domain continues beyond the trailing edge and how the downstream spacing evolves.

Main controls:

  • Wake length (c)

  • Wake divisions

  • Thickness ratio

  • Wake equalize (%)

_images/mesh_WT_wake_annotated.gif

Wake equalization in the downstream block.

51. Smoothing

The current interface exposes three smoothing modes:

  • Simple

  • Elliptic

  • Angle based

The elliptic mode exposes the richest control set. In addition to iterations and tolerance, it includes advanced controls for:

  • outer-boundary sliding

  • elliptic relaxation

  • protected guide relaxation

  • protected guide layer count

  • protected guide decay

  • guide-profile smoothing

These controls are meant to preserve the interface between the near-airfoil region and the outer tunnel block while improving the quality of the outer mesh.

52. Mesh Export

Once the mesh is generated, the export section lets you:

  • define boundary names

  • choose one or more output formats

  • write the mesh files with one basename

Supported export formats are:

  • FLMA

  • SU2

  • Gmsh .msh

  • VTU

Boundary names are validated before export so blank or duplicate labels are rejected.

Generated files use a shared basename and the correct extension is appended automatically for each selected format.

53. Examples

_images/mesh_RAE2822_MAC.png

Example final mesh around RAE2822.

_images/LE_mesh_RAE2822_MAC.png

Leading-edge close-up.

_images/TE_mesh_sharp_MAC.png

Sharp trailing-edge variant.

_images/complete_mesh.gif

Example full mesh creation result.

54. Practical Advice

  • If the mesh looks wrong near the airfoil, revisit the contour preparation step first.

  • If the trailing-edge region is too coarse, increase the trailing-edge divisions and downstream divisions.

  • If the outer tunnel looks strained, try the elliptic smoother with conservative relaxation before making large geometry changes.