There are two key factors that determine whether a mesh will be suitable for running simulations on Luminary Cloud: size and quality.

The size of a mesh impacts how quickly a simulation will run and the accuracy of the results. It is determined by the total number of cells and the size of each individual cell. A mesh with a large number of cells will require greater computing resources but may provide more accurate results, while a mesh with a small number of cells will require fewer computing resources but may provide less accurate results.

An ideal mesh should strike a balance between the two and will vary greatly depending on the geometry you are meshing. For example, more complicated flow regions will need smaller cells to correctly capture flow features.

In initial studies where you may be comparing designs rather than gathering accurate values for quantities of interest (such as lift), meshes may not need to be highly refined, allowing you to run simulations on them quickly. In later studies where you need exact values for quantities, you may need to undertake a mesh refinement study by progressively running simulations on meshes with smaller and smaller cells until you reach a point where refining the mesh further doesn’t change these values.

The quality of a mesh relates to the aspect ratio and skew angles of the individual cells within the mesh. Different flow solvers will have different abilities to handle more extremely shaped cells, and so this concept of “quality” can vary. Where possible, we suggest that you use Luminary Cloud’s automated meshing feature to improve the compatibility of your meshes with our flow solver.