Mesh generation

Mesh generation

OpenFOAM applications handle unstructured meshes of mixed polyhedra with any number of faces: hexahedra, tetrahedra, degenerate cells, basically anything.

Mesh generation is made simple by the fact that a cell is simply represented as a list of faces and a face as a list of vertices: this makes mesh handling very easy even for complex meshes with, say, embedded refinement or complex shapes near the boundary.

OpenFOAM is supplied with the following mesh generator tools that run in parallel.

Mesh generation tools
blockMesh A multi-block mesh generator
extrude2DMesh Takes 2D mesh (all faces 2 points only, no front and back faces) and creates a 3D mesh by extruding with specified thickness
extrudeMesh Extrude mesh from existing patch (by default outwards facing normals; optional flips faces) or from patch read from file
snappyHexMesh Automatic split hex mesher. Refines and snaps to surface

The main mesh generators cover two extremes: snappyHexMesh, that can mesh to complex CAD surfaces; blockMesh a simple file-driven block mesh generator.