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• A command "CSet,List,id" is added which lists the sets that include Cell"id". Similar com-
mands can be used for edges(Eset), patches(Pset),Splines(Sset),vertices(Vset),Vshells(VSset).
• A command "CSet,List,Set,set" has been added which lists the sets that include cells in
Cset "set". Similar commands can be used for edges(Eset), patches(Pset),Splines(Sset),verti-
ces(Vset),Vshells(VSset).
• The buttons that choose the source of spline knots can be selected by 'right click' while the
spline is being defined.
• Decomposition option for valves is now 'Combine'.
• Resuming from a database file switches to the Geometry/Template window respectively.
• The option 'Newset' in '__set, Newset,...' is infact Newset and not Subset (as in pro-
STAR).
• For multiple cylinders, there is a "Restore" button to restore the parameters that were used
to define a coordinate system.
• Edges and Splines can now be picked by clicking anywhere on them (and not just on the
knots).
• There is a third plotting window ("Workspace") that is used when defining the sections or
the sector to avoid destroying the existing Template. By default it is only visible when it is
active, but "Workspace,Option,Show,Always" make it always visible.
• "Create All" in the "Sections" menu creates all the Sections, without opening their tools.
• There is a "Multiple cylinders" button in the "Create Result" tool. It can be used with
either "Interpolation" or "Calculation".
• The layers for all cylinders are listed in "make_ev.tab".
• The grids used for interpolation are found from the topological changes and geometric
extremes for each cylinder separately. This change has the side effect of not using valve open-
ing and closing events.
• A command "Vundo" causes to undo the last change to the vertex positions.
The es-ice User Manual
• If the trimming fails, because there is a cut on a cell face of a valve curtain, you can repair
the offending cell and try to continue with the command "Trim,Recover,Curtain". This also
turns on the vertex plotting option and replots.
• es-ice can now check the mesh for the following: Centroid, Concavity, Cracks, Small
cells, Tetrahedral quality, and Warpage.
• A command is added to create a new vertex with: "Vgenerate, New, Coordinates, x, y, z"
• A command "IceTemplate,Check/ScriptCheck" checks volumes and warpages of a
sequence of meshes. It also calls for pro-STAR to check the meshes.
• es-ice now has a capability to add a ‘full extrusion layer’ for the model, i.e to the piston,
cylinder dome, cylinder wall, valves, and the ports. “Trim, Assemble” will add a full extrusion
layer if the piston extrusion shells are NOT defined and "Extrusion"> 0.0.
• The command "Check,Faces,Collapsed" finds cells with collapsed faces. The command
"Check,Faces" that finds faces shared by more than two cells has been renamed
"Check,Faces,Multiple".
• The Ice command line option "-piston-uncollapse-fraction=fraction" can be used during
"Star setup" to change the fraction of the stroke in which the cylinder layers are added.
• In "mvmesh.sh", changed "# EXEC = $ESICE/executable" to "# EXEC = $STARDIR/bin/
executable", and added "# RFLAG = -proserve=$1,$2".
• es-ice will now generate CP matches for extruded cells that contain a vertex that is
unmergedwhen the collapsing layers are added to the cylinder.
• The vertices of the ASI piston that are at or below the projection layer will simply be
translated instead of being reprojected onto the bottom of the cylinder.
• Partial boundaries for all CP tables is turned on.
• When two valves are within 0.66667 of their closed distance from each other, they are
assumed to overlap, which disables any straight fill. This value can be changed with the extra
parameter "-valve-overlap-fraction=fraction" during StarSetup.
• es-ice now creates a spline of the valve profile as it is defined. Also, it automatically resets
the "tolerance" when defining a valve. "Cursor" is the default when defining a valve.
• 1 valve template can be used as a 0 valve template by changing the valve style to "None".
• es-ice now allows sector parameters to be copied and reflected.
• "View,Section,X/Y/Z" can be used to create a section plot
The es-ice User Manual
Table of Contents
CHAPTERS:
1. Introduction
1.1 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-1
1.2 Organization of the Manual . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-2
1.3 The es-ice Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-2
1.4 Basic es-ice Functionality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-4
1.5 Provided User Panel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-6
1.6 The General Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-7
1.7 Before Starting es-ice. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-10
1.8 Introduction to the Tutorial Example. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-12
2. Geometry Import and Valve Work
2.1 Importing the Geometry Surface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-1
2.2 Defining a Local Coordinate System for a Valve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-2
2.3 Creating and Checking a Valve Profile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-3
2.4 Using the Provided Panel for Valve Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-5
2.5 Saving the Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-6
3. Meshing with the Trimming Method
3.1 Modifying Special Cell Sets of the Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-1
3.2 Creating Splines for Geometry Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-3
3.3 Creating the 2D Base Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-4
3.4 Creating the 3D Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-13
3.5 Trimming the 3D Template to the Geometry. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-16
3.6 Resolving Cells with es-ice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-17
3.7 Adding Extrusion Layers to Port Faces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-18
3.8 Assembling the Trimmed Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-19
4. Meshing with the Mapping Method
4.1 Creating the Stub Surface in the Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-1
4.2 Creating the 2D Base Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-7
The es-ice User Manual
APPENDICES:
A. Functionality and GUI Overview
A.1 Plotting and Text Outputs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A-1
A.1.1 The Plot Tool Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A-1
A.1.2 The “Views” Pull-Down Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A-3
A.1.3 The Plot Options Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A-4
The es-ice User Manual
CHAPTERS
The es-ice User Manual
The es-ice User Manual Chapter 1
Chapter 1 Introduction
1.1 Overview
es-ice is designed to facilitate moving grid, transient analyses of internal combustion engines
and is used in conjunction with pro-STAR and STAR-CD. es-ice is capable of creating grids
for two, three, four or five valve cylinders. es-ice also generates the events input for pro-
STAR and moves the mesh during STAR-CD analyses.
The strategy underlying this programming suite is straightforward. With es-ice, the user
quickly and easily generates a template that approximates the desired geometry. The template
has the connectivity of the final grid, but its shape is simple enough to be specified by a lim-
ited number of parameters. The template can be generated in a wide-variety of configurations
merely by altering the parameters. es-ice provides graphical tools for setting the parameters so
that minimal memorization of parameter names is required. The user can then either trim the
template (using the same methodology as incorporated in pro-STAR with auto mesh gener-
ation) or map the surface of the template to the surface of the geometry. The interior vertices
are then re-distributed to form a valid mesh that matches the desired geometry. After the
model and analysis setup is complete in pro-STAR, the computations are then performed
with STAR-CD and the results are displayed and analyzed via pro-STAR.
The chief benefits of this approach are the quick generation of the approximate template; the
flexibility in grid design provided by the parameterization; the ease-of-use arising from the
graphical tools; time-savings gained by automatic smoothing of interior mesh vertices, auto-
matic events generation and automatic mesh motion; the use of a proven, reliable and accurate
solver in STAR-CD; and the power and flexibility of the pre-/post-processing tool, pro-
STAR. Note that this programming suite is fully capable of solving complete cycle problems
and also of automatically preparing the necessary files for parallel computations.
represent the discretized surface which defines the boundaries of the desired domain for the
CFD calculation. The word “template” is used to represent the computational mesh to be cre-
ated. Thus the geometry is displayed in the Geometry window and the template is displayed in
the Template window.
Either the Geometry or Template window is always active. This
is indicated by the highlighted button in the Plot Tool which is
the panel located to the upper-left corner of the screen. The
user can toggle back and forth using the appropriate button to
activate the desired window. The active window comes to the
front and es-ice applies subsequent commands to that window.
The viewing perspective and zoom can be set independently in
each window. There is also a variety of other plotting options
that affect the display of the active window which are avail-
able from the Plot Tool.
Besides the plotting windows, the other large window that
comes up automatically is the main es-ice window. This window is divided into three text sec-
tions: the middle text section is the command line where the user executes es-ice commands;
the lower text section is the echo area where the commands of the current session are logged;
and the upper text section is the message area where information for the user is displayed in
response to commands. It is important to monitor this message area frequently to understand
the status of es-ice operations. Note that the information in the echo area is also sent automat-
ically to a file called es-ice.echo in the current working directory.
The main es-ice window also has several pull-down menus located along the top.
These pull-down menus are an alternative way to execute most commands. It allows the user
to execute commands by using the cursor to click and pick options.
The Select panel provides access to the other GUI panels and tools including
on-line help and is organized so that the user picks tools sequentially from top
to bottom in the course of an es-ice session.
es-ice’s on-line help is an extremely useful reference and learning tool, and is
available in several formats: via the mouse, pull-down menu and command
line. For help with most features in the GUI panels and tools, the user can
click the “Help on Context” button near the bottom of the Select panel (note
that the cursor changes shape to a question mark) and then click on any es-ice
button, option or input field located in any panel or tool. The “Help” pull-
down menu located in the upper-right corner of the main es-ice window can
be used to list the available commands from a selected category. Through the
command line the user can type help by itself for a short list of the available commands
grouped into various categories, type command by itself to generate an extensive listing of all
possible commands and their options or type help followed by a command name for a short
summary of the specified command and its options. In most cases, a Help window will open
automatically in the upper-right corner of the screen to display the results but the command
command will ask for the name of the file to output the information.
Besides the Help window, there is another text window that will open in the upper-right corner
of the screen when es-ice wants to provide extra information. The Child output window will
open to provide separated output, usually for a child process. A child process is started by es-
ice in the background which allows the user to continue working in es-ice. Most child pro-
cesses involve running the Ice executable.
active so that it can be displayed in the plot window. es-ice also has one active set of each ele-
ment but also has twenty-five internally stored sets for each element individually. These sets
are numbered such that 0 is the active set and 1-25 are the internally stored sets which can be
labelled to provide a description and locked to prevent accidental overwrites. Some of the sets
for some elements are already labelled which are reserved for specific purposes. These num-
bered sets can be used for organization and to achieve great flexibility in manipulating, storing
and recalling elements. Note that there are single set definitions for edges, splines and patches,
but there are dual set definitions each for cells and vertices since those shared elements exist
separately in the Geometry and Template windows.
Mouse functions in es-ice are mostly similar to those of pro-STAR, especially the default plot
functions: a left-click and drag rotates the plot; a double left-click and drag rotates in an alter-
nate axis; a middle-click and drag zooms; a double middle-click and drag creates a zoom box;
a middle-click replots; a double middle-click zooms off and replots; a right-click and drag
pans; a double right-click re-centers and replots.
There is always text on the bottom of the active plotting window that shows the mouse func-
tions available. “L” is for a left-click, “M” is for a middle-click and “R” is for a right-click.
Double letters represent a double click and the “->” arrow represents a click and drag. One
general difference in mouse functions is that es-ice does not limit the number of clicks used to
create a zone box, for example with the cset,subset,zone command.
Like pro-STAR, a left-click is used in es-ice to make picks with the cursor.
There are other mouse functions available in pick mode that are different from
pro-STAR. In es-ice, the cursor pick mode is continuous for most commands.
If the pick mode is continuous, there will be text on the bottom of the plotting
window that will show how to quit the pick mode: any mouse click off of the
plot on an empty section of the plotting window or typing q with the cursor in
the plotting window. If an incorrect pick was made, it is usually possible to regret it with a
middle-click so that the pick can be made again. Sometimes dynamic mode is an option,
which will suspend pick mode temporarily allowing the mouse to return to plot mode to
rotate, zoom and pan the plot. Once the newly desired view is obtained, type q with the cursor
in the plotting window to quit the dynamic mode and return to the pick mode. The shape of the
cursor will change to visually inform the user of the mode changes. Dynamic mode is useful
whenever successive cursor picks are desired and zooming in closely is necessary for accu-
racy of the picks when the points are not relatively close to each other.
Similar to pro-STAR, commands in es-ice can be executed by clicking buttons in GUI panels,
by using the pull-down menus at the top of the es-ice window or by typing commands with the
keyboard. When typing commands, the comma (“,”) or a blank space (“ “) can be used to sep-
arate the options. Only the first four letters of the command is necessary, but unlike pro-
STAR, es-ice usually does not accept incorrect spellings even if they occur after the fourth
letter of a command or option.
While pro-STAR and es-ice share many of the same commands, there are some functions and
commands that work slightly differently or have slightly different options. When entering
commands through the command line, be sure to use help to verify them and their options
until experience is gained. The text in the Help panel is written such that options beginning
with an upper-case letter are to be used directly and options in all lower-case letters are to be
replaced by the user with appropriate inputs. For example, the help,resume command shows
the following: “Resume, filename”. This means that resume is to be used directly and “file-
name” is to be replaced by the user with the appropriate name of the file.
Throughout this manual, certain terminology is used carefully to distinguish between certain
actions. The term “delete” is used to remove elements from an active set while the term
“clear” is used to remove elements completely from existence in the model. Thus, deleting is
similar to unselecting and clearing is similar to destroying. With GUI panels, the button
“Read” is used to read information from an external file and the button “Load” is used to read
information from an internally saved “image”. By default, some information is written to an
external file, but the “image” format is stored internally within the model file. Also with GUI
panels, the button “Apply” is similar to pro-STAR in that it will apply the modified parame-
ters of a panel but will not close the panel. The button “Ok”, however, will apply and then
close the panel also.
User panels in es-ice are very similar to those in pro-STAR. Panel buttons can be written to
execute a series of commands when left-clicked. A right-click on a panel button will activate
it to show the assigned commands without executing them. To add more buttons, use the
“Layout” pull-down menu at the top of the panel.
Optionally, the user can customize es-ice to automatically open the provided user panel when
the program is started. To do this, create a text file called .es-icerc in the home directory
of the user with a line that has the panel,directory,<directory_name> command in it. The
commands in this file are executed whenever es-ice is started.
before es-ice
The order of these steps are unimportant and will depend on the CAD program available as
well as the user’s skills with using the CAD program versus other CD adapco Group soft-
ware. Except for creating valve lift curves, all other steps can be done using pro-surf and pro-
STAR with auto mesh generation. If the user can work more easily in a CAD program, then
alternatively most of the work can be done there.
The computational mesh is then created using es-ice with either of two available methods: the
new “trimming” method or the original “mapping” method. The new trimming method uses
trim cell technology as incorporated in pro-STAR with auto mesh generation, while the
original mapping method uses a surface mapping or projection technique. The following dia-
gram shows the general steps in order of top to bottom.
in es-ice
Import Geometry
Star Setup
Note that pro-STAR is the general pre-/post- processor for STAR-CD. After working in es-
ice, the model and analysis needs to be setup in pro-STAR. Analyses can then be run using
serial or parallel processing with the Ice executable providing the mesh motion.
after es-ice
Unix/Linux:
Organize Setup Files and Directories (optional)
pro-STAR:
Perform Initial Setup with es-ice.PNL
Setup Boundary and Initial Conditions
Setup Analysis Controls
Write Geometry and Problem Files
SERIAL PARALLEL
ANALYSIS ANALYSIS
Unix/Linux: Unix/Linux:
Organize Analysis Files and Directories Organize Analysis Files and Directories
(optional) (optional)
Unix/Linux:
Run analysis in serial as given in Chap. 7 Run analysis in parallel as given in Chap. 7
STAR-CD:
Run Analysis
pro-STAR:
Post-Process Results
Since es-ice is an “expert systems” software, it is expected that the user have some basic
knowledge and experience with pro-STAR and STAR-CD. If the user expects to run in-cyl-
inder analyses with parallel processing, then some basic knowledge and experience with run-
ning parallel analyses is also expected. Details and explanations of software other than es-ice
will be limited.
(x,y) = (0,0)
valve 1
valve 2
valve 3
valve 4
counter-clockwise direction
of valve numbering
Figure 1-2: Alignment and Orientation of 4-Valve Cylinder Geometry (top view)
valves closed
z=0
piston at TDC
+z
Figure 1-3: Alignment and Orientation of 4-Valve Cylinder Geometry (clipped side view)
The surfaces for the combustion dome, piston crown, ports/arms and valves should be dis-
cretized with triangular (3-sided) shells, quadrilateral (4-sided) shells or a combination of
both. These surfaces are also known as “wetted” or “air-side”. Usually, the CAD geometry
consists of many separate surfaces. When they are discretized with shells, there are usually
vertex mismatches between the separate surfaces that prevent the overall discretized surface
from being completely closed. While this is acceptable for use with the mapping method in es-
ice, the trimming method requires a completely closed surface. The surface discretization will
usually match and be connected between the separate surfaces if the in-cylinder volume can
be converted into a solid body within the CAD program. Note that before doing this, surfaces
may need to be defined on the port faces to close the volume. With the trimming method, it
may also be helpful to import the surface into pro-STAR with auto mesh generation and use
its tools to check, fix and close the surface. This should especially be done at first until experi-
ence shows that the user’s method of discretizing the geometry consistently provides a closed
surface.
Although not required, it is recommended to separate different sections of the model into dif-
ferent cell types. This allows quick and easy isolation and manipulation of certain parts of the
geometry. Usually the combustion dome, piston crown, cylinder liner/wall, ports/arms and
valves are separated in this way.
es-ice can read pro-STAR with auto mesh generation database files (.dbs) as well as cell
(.cel) and vertex (.vrt) files in binary and coded format. The geometry shells can there-
fore be written to any of the mentioned files.
Finally, the valve lift files need to be generated. The valve lift files should be named
vlift0n.dat where n is the integer number of the valve according to the convention
described previously. The data should be in the form of absolute crank angle versus lift in the
units of the geometry (preferably in millimeters). es-ice will interpolate between the data
points and two lift points of 0 value are required: one just before valve opening and another
just after valve closing. es-ice will also automatically apply the appropriate offsets to the
crank angle data when necessary so that multiple cycles are automatically handled.
stored in ID 1 of the pro-STAR with auto mesh generation database file, geometry.dbs.
The following table provides some specific numbers:
Bore 90.0 mm
Stroke 87.0 mm
Connecting Rod Length 145.0 mm
Piston Pin Offset 0.0 mm
Engine Speed 2000 rpm
The valve lift files, vlift01.dat and vlift02.dat, are provided with the lift also in
millimeters. For the analysis, the cold-flow intake and compression strokes will be of interest.
This chapter will document the early steps in es-ice required to mesh the tutorial example of a
symmetric, four-valve cylinder. The previous chapter documented the preliminary steps nec-
essary before starting es-ice. Now es-ice can be started and the following steps performed:
1. Import the geometry surface
2. Define local coordinate systems for the valves
3. Create and check valve profiles
dbase,list
The Help window will open and the results of the listing will appear there:
The listing shows that the geometry surface data is saved in ID 1. These shells need to be
imported to the correct window so first activate the Geometry window with the “Geometry”
button in the Plot Tool. Execute the following command to import the data from ID 1:
dbase,get,1
Click the “Cplot” button in the Plot Tool to view the imported geometry surface:
Check that the correct geometry surface was imported and then close the currently open data-
base file by executing the following command:
dbase,close
“Newset” > “Type, Cursor” (same as the cset,newset,type,cursor command). Left-click any
cell of valve 1 and exit pick mode by clicking on an empty section of the plotting window or
typing q with the cursor in the plotting window. Recall that valve 1 is in the (+x,+y) quadrant
and also recall that es-ice uses a continuous pick mode that requires the user to exit it. All cells
of the same cell type as the picked cell are then selected as the currently active cell set (Cset
0). Click the “Cplot” button in the Plot Tool to plot these cells.
With the cells of valve 1 isolated in the currently active cell set, a local coordinate system can
now be defined easily. It should be cylindrical, the origin should be along the center of the
valve and the local z-axis should be parallel to the valve motion. The z-position of the origin
relative to the valve, the θ-orientation of the coordinate system and the direction of the local z-
axis are unimportant. Execute the following command:
local,11,cylindrical,cursor
This will define a local coordinate system with ID 11 that is cylindrical using three cursor
picks around an arc. With the cursor in pick mode, select three vertices on the upper circular
arc of the maximum valve diameter. It may be helpful to use the dynamic cursor mode.
The coordinate systems can be displayed in the plotting window by activating the “Local” flag
in the Plot Tool. They can also be listed in the output section of the main es-ice window by
using the pull-down menus and choosing “List” > “CSlist” (same as the cslist command).
p20
p10
p1
p2
p3
p4
To create the valve profile for valve 1, execute the following command:
valve,image,1,11,cursor
This will create the valve profile in “image” format for valve 1 based on local coordinate sys-
tem 11 using the cursor to pick the key points. The vertices are rotated in the valve coordinate
system to angle 0.0 and are then treated as identical if they are within "tolerance" of each
other. If "tolerance" is zero (or not specified), 0.2 times the width of the seat is used. The
default format of a valve profile is an external file called valve01.dat. The “image” for-
mat, however, stores the information internally in the es-ice model file and is preferred to
reduce the number of external files created. The vertices corresponding to the six key points
mentioned above can now be picked to create the valve profile. It may be helpful to use the
dynamic cursor mode to pick the vertices.
After creating the valve profile, it is displayed as a spline (with the next available spline num-
ber) for visualization purposes. Now check that the spline correctly follows the shape of the
valve.
use a panel that is provided to do the work on valve 2. It is easier and quicker to use the panel
for the valve work and it is recommended to use it in the future, but it is also important in the
beginning to understand the details.
First, put all the geometry shells into the currently active cell set and plot it so that the cursor
can be used to isolate the cells of valve 2 by cell type. Use the pull-down menus and choose
“Sets” > “Cset” > “All” (same as the cset,all command) and plot it. Then choose “Sets” >
“Cset” > “Newset” > “Type, Cursor” (same as the cset,newset,type,cursor command) and iso-
late the cells of valve 2. Click the “Cplot” button in the Plot Tool to plot these cells.
Then use the pull-down menus and choose “Panels” > “Directory”. Enter the directory loca-
tion of the provided panel and then choose it from the “Panels” pull-down menu to open it.
Click the “valve 2 csys 12” button and use the cursor as before to pick three vertices on the
upper circular arc of the maximum valve diameter to define the local coordinate system for
valve 2. Note that the panel button will also plot this new coordinate system and list it.
Click the “valve 2 profile” button and use the cursor as before to pick the six key points on
valve 2 to create its profile. Note that the panel button will also convert it to a spline and plot
it so that it can be visually checked. Remember to clear the spline when finished.
The work accomplished to the beginning of this chapter can be resumed from the file:
save_es-ice.1-valves
The tutorial example files used in this chapter are:
vlift01.dat (valve lift file for valve 1)
vlift02.dat (valve lift file for valve 2)
The work accomplished in this chapter has been intermittently saved to the files:
save_es-ice.2-beforetrim
save_es-ice.3-final
The mesh can be generated using the new “trimming” method or the original “mapping”
method. This chapter will cover the trimming method while the next chapter will cover the
mapping method.
A new method for creating the mesh using trim cell technology, as incorporated in pro-STAR
with auto mesh generation, will be covered in this chapter. This new method cuts the tem-
plate to the surface of the geometry, thus reducing the time and skill required to use the origi-
nal mapping method.
The meshing process using the trimming method can be divided into five major steps:
1. Modifying special cell sets of the geometry
2. Creating splines on geometry features
3. Creating the 2D base template
4. Creating the 3D template
5. Trimming the 3D template to the geometry
Under the “Set” column is the ID number of the cell set with Cset 0 being the currently active
cell set. An “L” to the left of the ID number denotes a locked cell set which helps prevent acci-
dental modifications and overwrites. Under the “Count” column is the number of cells that are
in each cell set and to the right of this is a text label to help with identification (for Cset 0, the
text label is the minimum and maximum cell ID numbers).
The geometry shells of the cylinder wall need to be saved into Geometry Cset 1. For symmet-
ric models such as the current tutorial example, the shells of the symmetry plane should also
be saved into Geometry Cset 1. First, isolate these shells by cell type as was previously done
for the valves (the shells of the cylinder wall and symmetry plane are the same cell type).
Since Geometry Cset 1 is locked by default, it must be unlocked before saving and then
locked again afterwards. Click the “G: cylinder shells 1” button of the provided user panel or
use the pull-down menus to choose “Sets” > “Cset” > “Unlock” > “1 Cylinder shells” (same
as the cset,unlock,1 command) to unlock the cell set, choose “Sets” > “Cset” > “Save” > “1
Cylinder shells” (same as the cset,save,1 command) to save it and choose “Sets” > “Cset” >
“Lock” > “1 Cylinder shells” (same as the cset,lock,1 command) to lock the cell set again. The
same procedure must be repeated to save the shells of the piston into Geometry Cset 2 and the
entire trimming surface (all surfaces except for the valves) into Geometry Cset 3, which is not
a locked cell set.
Figure 3-1: Geometry: Shells of the Cylinder Wall with Symmetry Plane (top left), Piston (top
right) and Trimming Surface (bottom)
the “Crank angle start (deg)” to “350” and “Crank angle stop (deg)” to “720”. Check that the
“Engine RPM” is set to “2000”, the “Connecting rod length” is set to “145”, the “Piston pin
offset” is set to “0” and the “Valve lift periodicity (deg)” is set to “720” and click “Ok”.
Adjusts number of
circumferential cells
around valve
Adjusts
“Outer ring
radial cells”
The red dot in the center of the valve grid can also be used to change the number of circumfer-
ential cells around the valve. Notice the text on the bottom of the Template window when mov-
ing the cursor over this red dot. A left-click or middle-click will decrease or increase,
respectively, the value by 2; a right-click will reset the value to the default of 72; typing a
number followed by a left-click or right-click will decrease or increase, respectively, the value
by that typed number; typing u or r will successively undo or redo, respectively, the latest
adjustments; and clicking with any mouse button off the mesh in an empty part of the window
or typing q will quit the adjust mode.
The valve mesh is known as an O-grid, being made up of a 12x12 cartesian mesh with 1 layer
of polar mesh surrounding it. This polar mesh is called the “Bottom ring radial cells” and is
shown in the Valve 1 2D parameters panel. The red dot associated with this parameter is located
along the mesh line of the core cartesian grid. To improve the quality of the outer cells of this
core cartesian grid, we can add another layer of polar mesh. Place the cursor over this red dot
and middle-click to increase “Bottom ring radial cells” from the default of 1 to a value of 2.
We also want to coarsen the polar mesh around the valve region called the “Outer ring radial
cells”. Left-click with the cursor over this red dot to decrease this from the default of 5 to a
value of 4. The “Inner ring radial cells” can be left with the default of 1..
The next major areas of modification are the 3 triangular regions on the corners of the section.
There are 2 issues with these regions: one is the placement of the corner attachment points and
the other is the cell density within these regions. Move the cursor over the upper red dot of the
triangular region in the bottom right corner of the section and notice again the text on the bot-
tom of the window.
2. Left-click to
choose new
attachment point
1. Left-click
to choose
Left-click to choose this point to be adjusted. All other red dots will become clear and the text
will then change to the following:
We can now select a vertex up on the radial perimeter of the section to be the new attachment
point. Left-click the vertex that is 4 positions away in the counter-clockwise direction. Notice
the improvement in the interior angles connected to the new attachment point and the
improved orthogonality in the region outside the valve, especially the area closest to the cylin-
der wall.
Similar improvements can be made by using the same steps on the other three triangular
regions. The triangular region located on the lower-right can have the left attachment point
moved counter-clockwise by one position. The triangular region located on the lower-left can
have the right attachment point moved clockwise by one position and the top attachment point
moved counter-clockwise by one position. The triangular region located on the upper-left can
have the bottom attachment point moved clockwise by one position and the right attachment
point moved clockwise by two positions. This will result in more consistently sized cells in
the “Outer ring radial cells” region.
Since the spark plug is located in the triangular region on the lower-left of section 1, it would
be good to increase the cell density there. Move the cursor over the red dot located in the cen-
ter of this triangular region and notice the text on the bottom of the plotting window. Notice
the 3 red dots in the middle of each edge of the triangular region and the change in text.
2. Middle-click
to increase
1. Left-click
to choose
The cell density and distribution of the triangular region is controlled by increasing or
decreasing the number of cell layers from the center to each of the 3 edges. Middle-click the
red dot on the interior of the section twice to add two additional cell layers between the center
to that corresponding edge. Then quit the adjustment of the triangular region by clicking off
the mesh or typing q on the keyboard. The increase in cell density for that triangular region
can then be seen.
Section 1 now has acceptable cell size and cell quality. Type q with the cursor in the window
or click in an empty part of the window to quit the adjust mode. Section 2 can now be built in
a similar way. Starting with the valve region, the “Load” button can be clicked to load the
valve information, the number of circumferential cells should be reduced to 40 and the “Outer
ring radial cells” can be left at the default value of 5. Usually the exhaust valve is smaller than
the intake valve and thus the exhaust valve section should have less circumferential cells but
more “Outer ring radial cells” than the intake valve section to maintain a consistent cell spac-
ing. Similar to section 1, the “Bottom ring radial cells” should be increased to 2. These modi-
fications can be made with the GUI tools or the Valve 2 2D parameters panel can be modified
directly, “Ok” can be clicked and then the “Create” button in the Section 2 Tool panel can be
clicked to see the effect of these changes.
Next click on the “Cylinder” button in the Create Template panel to bring up the Cylinder param-
eters panel. Since the stroke for our tutorial example is 87 millimeters, fill in “87” for the “Pis-
ton stroke length”. All other parameters can be left at their default values. Click the “Ok”
button when finished.
Click the yellow “Trim” button in the Create Template panel to bring up the Trim parameters
panel. Change the “Template to trim” option to “Yes”. The “Piston DZ” parameter will auto-
matically move the piston by the amount specified before trimming. Recall that the piston
should currently be in the TDC position, but the trimming of the template should be done with
the piston moved a few millimeters lower to allow enough volume for several cylinder layers
to exist. This will allow es-ice to setup deletion layers in the cylinder between the dome and
piston. Enter a value of “-10” for “Piston DZ”, which is a good value to start with for most
cases. The next time the Geometry window is plotted, you will see that the piston has physi-
cally moved by that amount specified. Finally, select a value of “1” for the “Cell height” so
that the template cell layers are created with a height of approximately 1 millimeter, which
should be very close to the cell height in the valve curtain as previously defined. Leave all
other parameters unmodified and click “Ok” to continue.
After all the parameters have been set, click the “Make Template” button in the Create Tem-
plate panel to make the template and write its information to a file called save_ice by
default. Next click the “Read Template” button to read the 3D template into the current work-
ing session and plot it onto the screen. Notice that new local coordinate systems are created
which are re-oriented such that it is on the bottom of the closed valve and the xy-rotation is 0
(coordinate system ID numbers 13 and 14).
The user is recommended to save the work up to this point by saving the current working ses-
sion into a new save_es-ice filename using the Write Tool panel. The work to this point
has been saved to the save_es-ice.2-beforetrim file of the tutorial example files.
2 - Trim,Recover,Parent
So that es-ice can locate the cell layers, it asks samm to provide (for each cell in the trimmed
grid) the ID of the cell (the "Parent" cell) that it came from in the user grid. For most cells the
Parent cell has the same ID as the cell. If you add cells to the grid, you must tell es-ice what
their parents are, with "Trim,Recover,Parent,parent,child". There are two ways to find what
the parent cell should be:
a - "Trim,Recover,Parent,List" lists all the parent cells, if they are not the same as the cell.
Your new cell should have the same parent as the cell(s) it replaces.
b - The user grid is structured, so the parent cell will be at a consistent offset from the parent
cells of the cell's neighbors.
3 - Trim,Recover,Put
This command puts the repaired grid back into the database and continues the trimming. Be
sure to have all (and only) the cells you want in the grid in the current Cset.
mesh be changed by entering the dynamic mode and using the cursor, but the view of the
image of the shape in the panel can also be changed to make it easier to match the views.
When finished, click the “Put” button to automatically save the modified mesh to the correct
database ID number.
Figure 3-15: Template: Exhaust Port Before (left) and After (right) Creating Extrusion Layer
The modified port can now be automatically saved to the appropriate database ID number by
clicking the “Put” button. Repeat for the other port.
Optionally, an extrusion layer can be added to the piston for trimmed meshes. To add an
extrusion layer to the piston, first “Get” the “Cylinder” mesh using the Trim panel. Create an
edge around the perimeter of the piston and then create a patch on the piston surface. The edge
can then be cleared and the “Cylinder” can be “Put” so that the patch information is saved to
the internal database. Specify the “Extrusion” parameter at the bottom of the Trim panel for the
extrusion thickness. If the “Piston only” button is checked, it will create an extrusion layer
only on the piston. Else, it will create an extrusion layer on the entire model. The ‘full extru-
sion layer’ feature is not fully tested and thus it is not fully supported. As a result, the tutorial
example model does not include the full extrusion layer and an image of the result of its
implementation is not available.
Note that the piston extrusion layer will not be immediately visible, even after the trimmed
template is assembled because it is added during the “Star Setup” procedure described later. It
can be seen in a created result and in the mesh that is imported into pro-STAR.
The work accomplished to the beginning of this chapter can be resumed from the file:
save_es-ice.1-valves
The tutorial files used in this chapter are:
vlift01.dat (valve lift file for valve 1)
vlift02.dat (valve lift file for valve 2)
exhaust.dbs (exhaust port mesh from pro-STAR with auto mesh
generation)
The work accomplished in this chapter has been intermittently saved to the files:
save_es-ice.2-template
save_es-ice.3-flat
save_es-ice.4-final
The mesh can be generated using the new “trimming” method or the original “mapping”
method. This chapter will cover the mapping method while the previous chapter covered the
trimming method.
As an alternative to meshing with the trimming method, the original mapping method may be
used to create the mesh. This method involves the mapping of surface vertices to the shells of
the geometry through the use of edges, splines and patches.
The meshing process using the mapping method can be divided into five major steps:
1. Creating the 2D base template
2. Creating the 3D template
3. Creating edges, splines and patches based on geometry features
4. Mapping the 3D template surface to the geometry
5. Meshing the piston
We create a stub shell surface by first creating splines that define the corners of the shell sur-
face. We then create shells that span across the splines and define the surface. Usually, four
splines are needed to do this. Two of those splines will be created on the geometry and the
other two splines will be created inside the geometry.
First, turn on the “Show large cross with cursor” option
from the ‘Plot Options panel’ as described in section
A.1.3. This will help to create all splines accurately at the
same theta position. Then, isolate valve 2 and inspect the
valve stem. Find a vertex on a lower section of the valve
stem, above which is constant radius, and create a circular
spline there. This can be done by clicking the “Edge or
Spline” button in the Select panel and clicking the “Point
Circle” button in the Edge/Spline Tool panel. A left-click
with the mouse on a vertex will now create a circular
spline with the next highest available ID number using the
closest, cylindrical coordinate system which will be the
local valve coordinate system for valve 2. Type q with the
cursor in the window or click on an empty part of the win-
dow to quit the pick mode and accept the spline. Since there were no other existing splines,
the created spline has an ID of 1.
In anticipation of future events, renumber this first spline to have an ID of 51 with the follow-
ing command:
spline,1,renumber,51
Future splines that are created will then use ID numbers larger than this, thus leaving the
lower ID numbers free for default splines to be created later.
Next, isolate the valve seat and port arm areas for the exhaust side and inspect the geometry
shells between them. Find a vertex on the highest section of the valve seat shells that is as
close as possible to the circumferential position of the previously used vertex on the valve
stem. The large cross will be helpful in this process. This will reduce skew in the geometry
shells of the stub when they are created later. Similar to the way the previous spline was cre-
ated, click the “Point Circle” button in the Edge/Spline Tool panel, left-click on a vertex to cre-
ate another concentric spline and type q with the cursor in the window or click on an empty
part of the window to accept the spline.
Figure 4-2: Geometry: Circular Spline Around Valve Seat and Port
These two splines were created on the surface geometry. Two more splines need to be created
inside the model. View all the geometry shells in a section view through the exhaust valve
centerline. The section point should be defined as the origin of the local valve coordinate sys-
tem and the section normal defined as the global +y-direction with the following commands:
spoint,0,0,0,12
snorm,0,1,0
Then collect all the cells of the geometry by using the pull-down menus and choosing “Sets” >
“Cset” > “All” (same as the cset,all command). Also, use the Plot Tool panel to set the plot type
to be a section by clicking the “Section” button, set the view to be the same as the section nor-
mal by choosing “View Snormal” in the “Views” options and click “Cplot” to plot the result.
We can make measurements in the local valve coordinate system from the section plot using
the following command:
sxyz,12,relative
This command will give relative distances between successively selected points in the coordi-
nates of coordinate system 12. These relative distances are what will be used to create the final
two splines for the stub. One spline will be created radially outward from the first spline cre-
ated on the valve stem such that there is room for at least a few cells radially in both the stub
and the externally generated mesh. The other spline will be created below it and slightly radi-
ally outward such that it is not too close to the valve surface and that the two flat surfaces con-
nected to this spline are approximately parallel with the top surface of the valve and with the
lower portion of the valve stem. Click on approximately the three points shown in the follow-
ing figure and then type q with the cursor in the window to quit the command.
2 1
The text output in the es-ice window should be similar to the following:
The first line shows the relative distances from the origin of coordinate system 12 to the first
point which approximately represents a point on the spline created on valve stem. This can be
ignored. The second line shows the relative distances from the first point to the second point.
We will be using the approximate relative radial distance to create one spline. The third line
shows the relative distances from the second point to the third point. We will be using the
approximate relative radial and axial distances to create the other spline. Type the following
commands to create spline 53 radially outward from spline 51 and then create spline 54 radi-
ally outward and axially downward from spline 53:
spline,51,to,53,1.5,0,0,12
spline,53,to,54,2.5,0,-18,12
Figure 4-4: Geometry: All Four Splines Created for Stub Surface
Figure 4-5: Geometry: Correct Stub (Top left), Incorrect Stub (Top right) and Section
(Bottom) of Stub Surface
The necessary cells can now be exported to a database file so that pro-STAR with auto mesh
generation can be used to mesh them. Gather the stub, exhaust valve and port into the cur-
rently active cell set and remove all splines from the currently active spline set. Click the
“Read Data” button in the Select panel to open the Read Tool panel. Type the filename
exhaust-proam.dbs into the input field next to the “Dbase” button and deactivate the
“Exists” button since this will be a new file. Click the “Dbase” button to open a new database
file called exhaust-proam.dbs. Type the following commands to put the cells and verti-
ces in the currently active cell set into database ID 1 as a surface definition entitled “Exhaust
valve+port+stub” and close the database file:
dbase,put,1,surface
Exhaust valve+port+stub
dbase,close
Now this database file may be used in pro-STAR with auto mesh generation to generate the
necessary mesh. For the purposes of this tutorial example, the exhaust port mesh is assumed to
have already been created in the exhaust.dbs file along with the other tutorial example
files.
Adjusts number of
circumferential cells
around valve
Adjusts
“Outer ring
radial cells”
The red dot in the center of the valve grid can also be used to change the number of circumfer-
ential cells around the valve. Notice the text on the bottom of the Template window when mov-
ing the cursor over this red dot. A left-click or middle-click will decrease or increase,
respectively, the value by 2; a right-click will reset the value to the default of 72; typing a
number followed by a left-click or right-click will decrease or increase, respectively, the value
by that typed number; typing u or r will successively undo or redo, respectively, the latest
adjustments; and clicking with any mouse button off the mesh in an empty part of the window
or typing q will quit the adjust mode.
The valve mesh is known as an O-grid, being made up of a 12x12 cartesian mesh with 1 layer
of polar mesh surrounding it. This polar mesh is called the “Bottom ring radial cells” and is
shown in the Valve 1 2D parameters panel. The red dot associated with this parameter is located
along the mesh line of the core cartesian grid. To improve the quality of the outer cells of this
core cartesian grid, we can add another layer of polar mesh. Place the cursor over this red dot
and middle-click to increase “Bottom ring radial cells” from the default of 1 to a value of 2.
We also want to coarsen the polar mesh around the valve region called the “Outer ring radial
cells”. Left-click with the cursor over this red dot twice to decrease this from the default of 5
to a value of 3. The “Inner ring radial cells” can be left with the default of 1.
If there are ways to match some areas of the 2D base template with features of the cylinder
dome, this should be attempted. For this tutorial example, there is a feature between the flat
and angled portions of the combustion deck that can be matched with a mesh line in Section 1.
This mesh line can be obtained by adding a special triangular region to the section. From our
view of looking down from the +z axis, we notice that this geometry feature is to the right of
valve 1. Therefore we quit the adjust mode and in the Section 1 Tool panel, we change the
“Right triangle exists” option to “Yes” and click the “Create” button. Note that the new trian-
gular region can not be seen immediately as an adjustment needs to be made.
To match the section grid line from the new “Right triangle” to the appropriate geometry fea-
ture, the double-plotting feature will be used. The double-plotting feature overlays plots from
both the Geometry and Template windows and there are suggested plot settings. In the Geometry
window, isolate the cells of the cylinder dome and turn off the “Mesh” option while keeping
the “Fill” option on in the Plot Tool panel. Then activate the Template window and turn off the
“Fill” option while keeping the “Mesh” option on in the Plot Tool panel. Click the “Dplot” but-
ton in the Plot Tool panel and the currently active cell set of the Geometry window is plotted
first and then the Template window is plotted over it.
2. Left-click and
drag to feature
1. Left-click
to choose
From the difference in the shading of the colors on the cylinder dome, the feature between the
flat and angled portions of the deck can be seen as a vertical line. Click the “Adjust” button
again in the Section 1 Tool panel and left-click the red dot on the lower-right corner to change
the bottom position. Then left-click and drag the mouse until the cursor is at the previously
mentioned feature to move the vertical mesh line parallel along the bottom edge or the x-axis
in this case. The right-hand boundary of the section has now moved to match the feature and
the “Right triangle” region is now visible to the right of it.
With this mesh line in the correct place, return the plot of the Template window back to the
previous settings by turning on the “Fill” option and clicking “Cplot” in the Plot Tool panel.
The next major areas of modification are the 3 triangular regions on the corners of the section
and the “Right triangle”. There are 2 issues with these regions: one is the placement of the cor-
ner attachment points and the other is the cell density within these regions. Move the cursor
over the upper red dot of the “Right triangle” region and notice the text on the bottom of the
window.
1. Left-click
to choose
2. Left-click to
choose new
attachment point
Left-click to choose this point to be adjusted. All other red dots will become clear and the text
will then change to the following:
We can now select a vertex down along the perimeter of the “Outer ring radial cells” to be the
new attachment point. Left-click the vertex that is 1 position away in the clockwise direction.
Notice the improvement in the interior angles connected to the new attachment point and the
improved orthogonality in the region outside the valve at the area closest to the cylinder wall.
Similar improvements can be made by using the same steps on the other three triangular
regions. The triangular region located on the lower-right can have the left attachment point
moved counter-clockwise by one position. The triangular region located on the lower-left can
have the right attachment point moved clockwise by one position and the top attachment point
moved counter-clockwise by one position. The triangular region located on the upper-left can
have the bottom attachment point moved clockwise by one position and the right attachment
point moved clockwise by two positions. This will result in a more consistently sized cells in
the “Outer ring radial cells” region.
Since the spark plug is located in the triangular region on the lower-left of section 1, it would
be good to increase the cell density there. Move the cursor over the red dot located in the cen-
ter of this triangular region and notice the text on the bottom of the plotting window. Notice
the 3 red dots in the middle of each edge of the triangular region and the change in text.
2. Middle-click
to increase
1. Left-click
to choose
The cell density and distribution of the triangular region is controlled by increasing or
decreasing the number of cell layers from the center to each of the 3 edges. Middle-click the
red dot on the interior of the section to add another cell layer between the center to that corre-
sponding edge. Then quit the adjustment of the triangular region by clicking off the mesh or
typing q on the keyboard. The increase in cell density for that triangular region can then be
seen and we are still in adjust mode.
The cell count in the “Right triangle” region should also be reduced in a similar way. Left-
click the red dot in the center of this region to choose it and then middle-click the bottom red
dot three times to increase the number of cells from that edge to the center. This will decrease
the cell count in that region. Then quit the adjustment of this region by clicking off the mesh
or typing q on the keyboard.
Section 1 now has acceptable cell size and cell quality. Type q with the cursor in the window
or click in an empty part of the window to quit the adjust mode. The Section 1 Tool panel is no
longer needed so click the “Close” button to close it.
Section 2 can now be built in a similar way. Starting with the valve region, the “Load” button
can be clicked to load the valve information and the number of circumferential cells should be
reduced to 40. The “Outer ring radial cells” should be decreased to 4. Usually the exhaust
valve is smaller than the intake valve and thus the exhaust valve section should have less cir-
cumferential cells but more “Outer ring radial cells” than the intake valve section to maintain
a consistent cell spacing. Similar to section 1, the “Bottom ring radial cells” should be
increased to 2. These modifications can be made with the GUI tools and the red dots for the
adjustment. Alternatively, the Valve 2 2D parameters panel can be modified directly, “Ok” can
be clicked and then the “Create” button in the Section 2 Tool panel can be clicked to see the
effect of these changes.
For section 2, a “Left triangle” will be needed and the left boundary of the section can be
moved to match the geometry feature between the flat and angled portions on the exhaust side
of the cylinder dome. The attachment points of the triangular regions can be moved similarly
to those of section 1. Then the cell density of the triangular regions and “Left triangle” can
also be modified.
With every modification that is made, the es-ice window will update the number of cells on
each side of the shared interface. Only when they are equal is the user able to continue. Click
the “Store” button in the Create Template panel to connect and smooth the mesh of the 2 sec-
tions together.
axial cells” is the number of axial cells throughout that chamber height and should be set to
“25” to obtain a reasonable but coarse cell spacing. The “Chamber radial cells” is the number
of radial cells in the chamber and this can be left at a value of “0” to accept whatever default
value es-ice calculates later to obtain well-proportioned cells in that region. By looking at the
valve lift files, it can be seen that the maximum valve lift for valve 1 is close to 9.4 millime-
ters. Enter a value of “9.4” for “Reference lift”. es-ice will try to keep the vertical cell spacing
in the valve curtain to be the “Reference lift” divided by the “Reference cells”. For this tuto-
rial example, we will accept a cell spacing of around 1 millimeter so edit the “Reference cells”
parameter to be a value of “9”. At the bottom of the panel, change the “Exclude on close”
parameter to “Yes”. This will exclude the port above valve 1 from the solution when the valve
closes for the last time during the analysis range. This provides increased stability and a small
speed-up. Leave the other parameters at their default values and click the “Ok” button
r1
Chamber
height Stub down
height r2
Next Click on the “Valves ...” button in the Create Template panel and choose “Valve 2” to
bring up the Valve 2 parameters panel. Since the port associated with this valve will be modeled
externally from es-ice and a stub surface was created above this valve, change the “Style” to
be “Stub”. Similar to valve 1, leave the “Edge triangle” option to “Yes”. The “Chamber
height” parameter is now the height of the area above the valve up to the top of the stub. Set
this value to “25”. Enter a value of “16” for the “Chamber axial cells” parameter. The “Cham-
ber radial cells” should be specified as “8” to maintain a well-proportioned spacing. The “Stub
down height” will be the approximate height of the step of the stub and a value of “20” can be
entered. The “Stub trim fraction” should be the ratio of the radial distance of the step of the
stub to the radial distance of the entire stub. Enter a value of “0.65” for the “Stub trim frac-
tion” parameter. Upon close inspection of the geometry, valve 2 is noticed to be recessed. This
is shown in a step-like feature around the outside of the valve seat area. To improve the qual-
ity of the eventual mapping process, a similar step-like feature can be applied to the template.
With the size of this step in the geometry, we can improve the 3D template by adding 1 radial
cell layer around the valve seat cells that is 1 cell layer in height. This is done by entering a
value of “1” for “Layers above dome” and “Rings above dome”. The other values are either
similar to the other valve or can be left to their default values. When finished entering the
parameters, click the “Ok” button to apply the values and close the panel.
Next click on the “Arms ...” button in the Create Template panel to bring up the Arm 1 parame-
ters panel. Enter “0.75” for the “Height fraction” and “58” for the “Length”. The “Width lay-
ers” and “Length layers” should be left at “0” so that es-ice can calculate default values for
these parameters. The intake arm should extend out in the global +x-direction from the intake
valve so enter values of “1”, “0” and “0” for the “Axis X”, “Axis Y” and “Axis Z” parameters,
respectively. The intake arm is a siamese type arm so choose “Siamese” for the “Type”
parameter. By measurement of the geometry, we can enter values of “0.55”, “0.8” and “1” for
“Siamese start fraction”, “Siamese stop fraction” and “Siamese layers”, respectively. Click
the “Ok” button when finished. Since the exhaust arm will not be modeled in es-ice, the
parameters for arm 2 will not be used.
Click on the “Cylinder” button in the Create Template panel to bring up the Cylinder parameters
panel. Since the stroke for our tutorial example is 87 millimeters, fill in “87” for the “Piston
stroke length”. The “Piston Z at TDC” parameter is only used when a flat piston is modeled.
Although this is not the case for our tutorial example, usually it is a good idea to check the
combustion dome mapping results before proceeding to model the piston. One method to do
this is to assume a flat piston for the model after the combustion dome mapping is complete.
Enter a value of “-1.5” for “Piston Z at TDC” to assume a flat piston with a 1.5 millimeter
TDC clearance if the real piston geometry is ignored. Note that this parameter will be ignored
once the real piston geometry is modeled. All other parameters can be left at their default val-
ues. Click the “Ok” button when finished.
After all the parameters have been set, click the “Make Template” button in the Create Tem-
plate panel to make the template and write its information to a file called save_ice by
default. It is a required file for the “Star Setup” procedure to come later. We have already cre-
ated some splines for the stub and es-ice will create a few more splines by default. Since the
existing splines start at ID 51, we can leave the reading option to the default of “Replace
curves”. Click the “Read Template” button to read the 3D template into the current working
session and plot it onto the screen. Notice that new local coordinate systems are created which
are re-oriented such that it is on the bottom of the closed valve and the xy-rotation is 0 (coor-
dinate system ID numbers 13 and 14). A number of default edges and splines have also been
automatically created.
Next we need to remove a region of the template to conform more closely to the spark plug
geometry. Because of the relative coarse cell size in the template and the relative small size of
the spark plug geometry, a few cells from the template in that area will be deleted.
After inspecting the spark plug geometry and measuring some vertical distances along the
global z-axis, some cells can be deleted and taken out of the currently active cell set. Because
of the simple spark plug geometry, this can be done with cursor picks using the pull-down
menus and choosing “Sets” > “Cset” > “Delete” > “Cursor”.
Figure 4-22: Template: Template After Spark Plug Cells are Deleted
Taking cells out of the currently active cell set is not enough to tell es-ice that we wish to
remove these cells from the CFD calculations. Cells in Template Cset 1 is considered to be the
cells used during the CFD calculations so it must be modified as well. Use the pull-down
menus and choose “Sets” > “Cset” > “List”. A listing of the Template Csets are shown where
Cset 0 is the currently active cell set.
The “L” on the left-hand side indicates a locked cell set which prevents accidental modifica-
tions. When the 3D template was first read in and plotted to the screen, Template Cset 1 was
made the currently active cell set. Now that we have deleted several cells from the currently
active cell set, there are less cells in Template Cset 0 as there are in Template Cset 1. We now
need to update Template Cset 1 with the cells that we have in the currently active cell set.
Using the pull-down menus, choose “Sets” > “Cset” > “Unlock” > “1 Active cells”. Then use
the pull-down menus again and choose “Sets” > “Cset” > “Save” > “1 Active cells”. Then it is
recommended to lock this important cell set again using the pull-down menus and choosing
“Sets” > “Cset” > “Lock” > “1 Active cells”. es-ice will now exclude the cells of the spark
plug cut-out and after the mapping, the mesh will conform to the geometry with less distortion
than it would have if we had not removed those cells from the template.
The user is recommended to save the work up to this point by saving the current working ses-
sion into a new save_es-ice filename using the Write Tool panel. The work to this point
has been saved to the save_es-ice.2-template file of the tutorial example files.
3. Because splines are defined by their knots and knots exist independent of geometry,
there is a variety of pick modes for splines in the Edge/Spline Tool panel. Edges, by contrast,
are always placed on vertices of the template and therefore have only one pick mode.
4. To insure that splines connect to each other, the pick mode for the first knot of a new
spline should be “Knot” so that the spline truly begins at the last knot of the previous spline.
This will avoid connectivity problems later when checks are performed. Toggling with the
right-mouse button, the user can change the pick mode for subsequent knots.
Click the “Hidden” button in the Plot Tool to go back to the hidden plot type. We want to create
another spline on the surface above the outer, automatically-generated valve spline in the local
z-direction. View the geometry looking down from the +z-axis of the local valve coordinate
system (ID number 11) with the following command:
view,0,0,1,11
We will use the “Surface” option for the “Pick Knot”
mode but before we do, since the valve is very close to the
surface in that area, the valve should be deleted from the
currently active cell set so that the incorrect surface is not
used due to tolerance issues. Then zoom into the area
closer to the other valve. Choose the “Surface” option for
the “Pick Knot” mode in the Edge/Spline Tool panel and
then click the “Point Circle” button. Using the existing
spline as a visual guide, try to left-click as close to the
already existing knot as possible. Then type q to quit the
pick mode and accept the created circular spline.
Left-click here
The same thing should be done with the other automatically-generated valve spline. View the
geometry looking down from the +z-axis of the global coordinate system by choosing “View
0 0 1” from the “Views” options in the Plot Tool panel. Zoom into the same area as before, use
the “Surface” option for the “Pick Knot” mode, click the “Point Circle” button, left-click as
close to the already existing knot of the appropriate spline as possible and type q to quit and
accept the newly created circular spline.
If we return to our former section view, put all the cells into the currently active cell set and
plot it, we can visually check our new splines to see if they were created correctly.
Once we verify that everything is correct, the automatically-generated splines are no longer
needed. Also, since the edge numbers correspond to these automatically-generated splines on
the valve, we would like to renumber the newly created splines on the surface to be the same
as the numbers of their corresponding automatically-generated splines. Type the following
command:
spline,55,renumber,5
The output in the es-ice window between the input and output text boxes will appear as the fol-
lowing:
We may click on the “Yes” text with the mouse or type y. This will not only renumber spline
55 to be spline 5, but also overwrite and destroy the previously numbered spline 5 in the pro-
cess. The same thing may be done for the other spline pair.
The next step is to add two more concentric splines to precisely designate the valve seat
region. These circular splines should be located at the ends of the shells that define the surface
of revolution of the valve seat, in other words the borders of the contact area.
Figure 4-25: Geometry: Additional Splines Needed on Each End of Valve Seat
We return to a zoomed hidden view of the previous valve seat area that is closer to the other
valve without the shells for valve 1. A mesh line that is parallel to the global x-axis is visible
in the shells that define the valve curtain region. Note that most of the other circular splines
around both valve seat regions have their starting/ending knots along this circumferential ref-
erence position. When creating new circular splines, it is strongly recommended to keep this
circumferential reference position whenever possible to minimize the possibility of skewing
the mesh during the mapping process. Keeping this in mind, we can see two vertices that
intersect the reference mesh line parallel to the x-axis and the border of the valve seat shells.
Figure 4-26: Geometry: Two Vertices to be Used to Create Additional Valve Splines
Click the “Vertex” button for the “Pick Knot” option in the
Edge/Spline Tool panel and then click the “Point Circle”
button to create a circular spline by picking a vertex as the
starting/ending knot. Click on one of the two vertices pre-
viously mentioned and type q to accept the new spline.
Then click the “Point Circle” button again, choose the
other vertex and type q again to create the other circular
spline. A section view through valve 1 will now show the
four splines to be used in defining the valve seat region.
Figure 4-27: Geometry: Four Concentric Circular Splines for Valve Seat
Now visualize the four radial cells that will span across this region. In the template there are
five edges covering each radial mesh line for these four radial cells. Since we only need the
four splines for this region, one of the edges will need to be cleared and destroyed. This means
that out of the three radial regions defined between the splines, one of them will include two
radial cell layers and the others will include one radial cell layer. We look at the radial dis-
tances shown between the four splines and see that it is best to put two radial cell layers
between splines 3 and 55 which have the largest space. Then by looking at the five edges for
the valve seat region that were automatically-generated, we can determine that edge 7 can be
cleared and destroyed. To do this, we click the “Clear edge” button and pick a knot on edge 7.
Then we can type q to quit the pick mode.
edge to clear
Figure 4-28: Geometry (left) and Template (right): Radial Cell Distribution of Valve Seat
Comparison now of the corresponding spline and edge numbers in this region will reveal that
the two latter splines created need to have their ID numbers changed to correctly correspond
with their analogous edges. The spline,#,renum,# command may be used again, but another
method is to use the “Associate” button in the Edge/Spline Tool panel. This is a renumbering
feature that involves clicking the appropriate splines and edges with the mouse.
Click the “Associate” button. The Template window will become active and the text on the
bottom of the window indicates that we should click on an edge to be associated. Left-click on
a knot of edge 8. es-ice will then make the Geometry window active and the text on the bottom
will indicate that we should click on a spline to be associated with the edge that we just
picked. Left-click on the knot spline 55. This will renumber spline 55 to spline 8 so that the ID
numbers match between the picked edge and spline. The active window will then be switched
to the Template again and the process is repeated until a q is typed to quit. If the new spline ID
number during the association is the same as the ID number of another spline, the other
spline’s ID number will be changed to the next available spline ID number. Note that the
dynamic mode is also available and may be useful.
The process outlined in this section should be repeated for valve 2. Notice, however, that this
valve is recessed and contains a sharp, step-like feature. In addition to the process outlined in
this section, two additional splines should be created for the feature. Two edges, however,
have been automatically generated for that feature. The two analogous splines need to be cre-
ated, which will be circular and concentric to the other valve splines for valve 2. Recall that
the “Point Circle” option can be used, the circumferential reference position of the starting/
ending point should be taken into account and the ID numbers as well as the directions of the
analogous splines and edges should match.
Figure 4-29: Geometry: 10 Circular Splines Generated for Both Valve Seat Regions
Edges, unlike splines, are defined strictly in terms of vertices that belong to existing cells.
Therefore, there is no variety of pick modes that we have for splines. By default, however,
edges are created in chain mode, meaning that when two vertices are selected that are not
neighbors, the intervening vertices will be automatically included in the edges. As a result,
every vertex along the arc does not need to be picked to define the edges.
Figure 4-30: Template: Arc-like Edge on Top Corner of Intake Valve Chamber
Several edges need to be created to border the region where we’ve removed cells for the spark
plug cutout. We zoom in on this region of interest and see that there is an edge that conforms
to the way the template was before the cell removal. This edge can easily be fixed by using the
“Split” function. Click the “Split” button in the Edge/Spline Tool panel. Left-click the two edge
knots at the ends of the spark plug cut-outs to split the edge into three edges. The middle one
does not follow a mesh line and so it should be cleared and destroyed with the “Clear edge”
button. Several other edges need to be defined along mesh lines that represent sharp features
and large angles between adjacent template cell faces. While creating these edges, recall that
edges cannot intersect or cross each other and that they must be joined end-to-end. It is usually
helpful to keep similarly aligned edges in a consistent direction.
On both ends of the cylinder head, there are triangular regions that are flat in the geometry.
We captured the intersection between that flat surface and the angled region of the cylinder
dome with a mesh line in the template through the use of “Left/Right Triangles” during the 2D
base template generation. That mesh line is a feature that should have an edge on it. Remem-
ber again that edges cannot intersect or cross each other and that they must be joined end-to-
end. Where those edges meet the automatically-generated edges at the cylinder wall and sym-
metry plane perimeters of the cylinder head, the “Split” function should be used so that the
edges are joined end-to-end. Conversely, a few of the automatically-generated edges at the
cylinder radius can be joined with the “Join” function into one edge. As a default, es-ice splits
edges at the cylinder radius at points where they come the closest to each of the valves. These
automatically-generated control points are usually useful, but the geometry of our tutorial
example is simple enough that they are not needed.
After all the edges have been created, we can proceed to creating the additional splines that
are needed. The location, starting/ending knots, ID numbering and direction of the splines
should be consistent with that of its analogous edges. To aid with the ID numbering, the user
can manually renumber edges and splines with the edge/spline,#,renumber,# command, use
the “Associate” button in the Edge/Spline Tool panel or use the “Pick ID” function located on
the left-side of the Edge/Spline Tool. Activating this “Pick ID” button and clicking the “Create”
button to create splines will allow the user to first pick an existing edge and then the spline
created will have the same ID number as that previously picked edge. Note that the reverse is
true if the “Create” button for creation of edges is clicked.
One important edge/spline pair that should be explained in further detail is the pair that
extends for most of the cylinder radius. In the template, this edge helps to divide the horizon-
tal cell faces of the top of the cylinder head from the vertical cell faces of the cylinder wall.
With this in mind, the analogous spline needs to be created in the geometry. The strategy is to
create a spline that also will help divide approximately horizontal geometry surfaces from
approximately vertical geometry surfaces. Across a filleted curve, an appropriate transition
line should be used such that there is a compromise and balance between horizontal and verti-
cal template faces that will eventually map to various sections of the curved surface.
es-ice assumes that template surface vertices of the cylinder wall will be at the cylinder radius.
With the spline that was previously created, it is necessary for some template vertices of the
cylinder wall to be projected to geometry shells that are less than the cylinder radius. Geome-
try Cset 1 is labelled “Cylinder shells” and is reserved for shells that are not at the cylinder
radius and to which template vertices of the cylinder wall will be mapped. These shells pro-
vide a surface to which the corresponding template surface of the cylinder wall, composed of
vertical faces, can be projected. Isolate the geometry shells for the cylinder dome and notice
that the lower boundary has vertices on the cylinder radius and at the z=0 height. Using a
combination of zone deletes and cursor deletes, remove cells above the previously created
spline. We can be somewhat approximate in this procedure since we need to include all neces-
sary shells below the spline but can tolerate some extra shells above them. Once this is done,
the currently active cell set needs to be saved to Geometry Cset 1.
Once all the appropriate splines are created, click the “Check” button in the Edge/Spline Tool to
see if there are any connectivity and orientation problems with the edges and splines.
Click the “Patch or Vshell” button in the Select panel to open the
Patch/Vshell Tool panel. The “Patch Type” option should be set to
“Shell” since we intend for all our patches to be projected to geom-
etry shells. Click the “Auto Bound” button and click on any cell
face except those that represent the valve stem. The picked cell
face acts as a seed face and patches are created while growing out-
ward until it hits an edge in the currently active edge set. Thus, the
entire region is patched. The ID number and size of the patches that
are formed depend on the space between the created edges, not just
those in the currently active edge set. All the patches created are
automatically put into the currently active patch set. Turning on the “Patch” button and in the
Plot Tool and replotting displays the patches in the currently active patch set and produces a
legend for them. Notice that there is one patch on the symmetry plane and cylinder wall. This
should be cleared and destroyed since the symmetry plane and cylinder wall are special
regions that es-ice understands and will deal with automatically in its own way. Click the
“Clear” button in the Patch/Vshell Tool, left-click any face in the template representing the sym-
metry plane or cylinder wall and type q or click on a blank part of the Template window to
quit.
The currently active cell set of the geometry should also be modified to have only the shells
associated with the “cmark” result from the template to serve as a target for the mapping. This
will be the geometry shells for only the cylinder head, intake port and exhaust stub.
Figure 4-37: Geometry: Geometry Shells that are the Target for Mapping
We will next work with the surface. In the “Surface” section, set the top pop-up menu again to
“All”. Keep the defaults of the next two pop-up menus as “Map” and “Full elliptic”. Change
the last pop-up menu to “Target Cset”. Click the “Map patches” button to map all the patches.
Then click the “Project patches” button to project the patches to the shells in the current
geometry cell set and perform surface smoothing on the vertices of the patches using the “Full
elliptic” smoothing method. By isolating the geometry shells that are the target of our map-
ping and projection, es-ice will not be confused by extraneous geometry surfaces and toler-
ance issues. The window will automatically be replotted after each patch that is projected and
smoothed. Note that some patches were neither mapped nor projected as indicated in the out-
put of the es-ice window. This is because those patches are small and do not contain vertices
not already defined through edges. In other words, all the vertices of those patches that did not
get mapped nor projected are already included by edges that were already mapped.
At this point, the mapped template should be visually checked. The user should zoom in to
several areas from a variety of perspectives to insure that no faces are too badly distorted or
skewed. Areas of particular concern are the regions of closest approach between the valve seat
and the cylinder circumference. Also any corners that might exist on the valve chambers and
arms should be carefully inspected. The “Project patches” process is an iterative process so
repeated projections can result in successive improvements of the surface mesh. Also, a dif-
ferent surface smoothing method could be used with the “Project patches” process. The most
common alternative to the default “Full elliptic” method is the “Elliptic” method. For more
involved modifications, splines can be redefined, edges remapped and patches redefined and
re-projected on an individual basis. The spacing of edges and patches can also be changed
individually. The default spacing for both edges and patches is “Original”, but sometimes the
“Linear” option can be used to improve the surface mapping result.
The valve surface is next and to see the effect of this mapping, look at a section plot through
the valves. The effects of the “cmark” should now be turned off by turning off the “Marked”
button in the Plot Tool panel. We now want to look at our cell set to be used for our CFD calcu-
lation so use the pull-down menu and click “Sets” > “Cset” > “Recall” > “1 Active cells”
(same as the cset,recall,1 command). The “Fill” button in the Plot Tool panel should be turned
off for improved visualization. Then click the “Map valves” button to map the top of the valve
surface. Replot the window and zoom in to see the effect of this mapping.
We will finally work with the part of the interior. We only wish to map the interior vertices of
the static part of the mesh since the moving vertices will be handled later during the analysis
run. The current cell set of the template needs to be changed to have only the non-moving sec-
tion composed of the cells above the valves. This is automatically done by clicking the
“Gather cells” button. Plot the result and notice that only the intake port and exhaust stub are
in the currently active cell set of the template.
Keep the defaults of all the pop-up menus in this section as “Elliptic”, “Original spacing” and
“Negative volume”. Click the “Map interior” button to map the interior vertices of the cur-
rently active cell set on the screen. Then click the “Smooth interior” button to perform volume
smoothing on those vertices using the elliptic method and trying to maintain the original spac-
ing of the vertices. As with the “Project patches” process, the “Smooth interior” process is an
iterative process so repeated smoothings can result in successive improvements. Click the
“Smooth interior” button again to perform another iteration of the volume smoothing. Replot
the window to see the effect of this mapping.
Figure 4-43: Template: Result after “Map Interior” and “Smooth Interior”
Finally, click the “Check cells” button to check the currently active cell set for negative vol-
umes. Since the currently active cell set contains cells that are static and will not move, if
there are no negative volumes now for these cells then we can be confident that there will not
be negative volumes in this region during the analysis.
Recall that only the surface vertices contained in patches and internal vertices of the static
region of the mesh have been moved. Since there are vertices that have not been moved yet,
the mesh may look distorted in some places but it can be ignored at this point.
During the mapping process, the user will have created patches on the stub surfaces so that the
stubs in the template could be mapped to the shells in the geometry. The three patches for the
exhaust stub should be gathered into the currently active patch set using cursor picks. Then
save these three patches into one of the numbered patch sets such as Pset 1. The user should
now create a corresponding patch on the surfaces of the arms where the interface lies with the
stub surfaces. First, create two edges to bound the region and then create a patch using the
Patch/VShell Tool panel. Isolate only this one patch into the currently active patch set and save
it into another of the numbered patch sets such as Pset 2. Since the two recently created edges
are not needed anymore, they should be cleared and destroyed.
Figure 4-46: Template: Patches on Stub (left) and Port (right) for Cpmatching
Couples can now be generated to connect the two regions across the stub interface. To visual-
ize the cpmatching process, look at an isometric view of the mesh with the “Fill” button
turned off in the Plot Tool panel. Before the cpmatching process occurs, we can see the exhaust
stub template surface through the mesh.
Generate the cpmatches using the command:
cpmatch,pset,1,2
This will generate the cpmatches using the faces in the patches of Pset 1 as master faces and
the faces in the patch of Pset 2 as slave faces. In general, we either choose the stub faces to be
the master faces of the couples or the faces of the coarser mesh to be the master. Plotting the
window will visually reveal that the cpmatching process is complete. Since the recently cre-
ated patch on the port is not needed anymore, it should be destroyed and cleared from the
model.
Figure 4-47: Template: “Fill” Off Plot Before (left) and After (right) Cpmatching
An extrusion layer at the exhaust port face should also be created since this was not created
when meshing the exhaust port in pro-STAR with auto mesh generation. This will allow
boundaries to be defined there since creating an extrusion layer on a trimmed mesh will elim-
inate the possibility of faces 7 or 8 of a trimmed cell existing on the surface (recall that bound-
aries cannot be defined on faces 7 or 8 of a trimmed cell). This can be done by first creating an
edge around the exhaust port face and then a patch on the exhaust port face. Then type the fol-
lowing command:
pextrude,cursor,1,.5
Left-click the created patch to create 1 layer of 0.5mm thick cells outwardly normal to the
picked patch. Recall that a left-click on an empty part of the plotting window or a keyboard
input of q will quit the pick mode. Note that these newly created cells are automatically added
to Template Cset 1 so that they are included in our CFD calculations. Clear and destroy the
edge and patch afterwards since they are no longer needed.
Figure 4-48: Template: Exhaust Port Before (left) and After (right) Creating Extrusion Layer
The user is recommended to save the work up to this point by saving the current working ses-
sion into a new save_es-ice filename. The work to this point has been saved to the
save_es-ice.3-flat file of the tutorial example files. Note that this model can be used
to assume a flat piston geometry by skipping the rest of this chapter and proceeding to the
next.
Before we can begin creating edges, splines and patches, we need to create shells that approx-
imately represent the piston surface. These shells are called “dummy target shells” and they
will serve as a target for layers of vertices. These layers will consist of a user-specified key
grid plane from the original template. Since this grid plane represents the surface of a continu-
ous layer of cells, it must be relatively smooth. Therefore, the dummy target shells must be
relatively smooth. As a result, piston features such as bowls and crowns should not be
included when creating the dummy target shells.
We will first create splines and then create the dummy target shells between those splines. Iso-
late the piston shells in the currently active cell set and make sure that it is in the correct TDC
position. Using “Vertex” for the “Pick mode”, create a spline starting from one corner of the
intersection between the cylinder wall and symmetry plane to another. Choose as few vertices
as possible, clicking only on vertices where there is a change in angle between the flat sur-
faces and stay along the symmetry plane line of y=0 whenever possible. The curved shape of
the spline should also be ignored since flat shells will be created between the knots later.
6 total knots
Next create two other splines on both sides in the y-directions so that they extend beyond the
piston shells. To do this, we will create new splines by a translation of their knots in the global
cartesian y-direction with the following commands (assuming the created spline ID is 47):
spline,48,from,47,0,-20,0,1
spline,49,from,47,0,50,0,1
These new splines should extend beyond the piston geometry shells, especially from a view
from the global +z-axis (view,0,0,1).
Now the dummy target shells can be created between the two outer splines by typing the fol-
lowing command:
sshell,cursor
The cursor is now in pick mode and the two outer splines (splines 48 and 49) should be left-
clicked with the mouse. Flat shells will then be created between the picked splines with the
next available cell type which will be our dummy target shells. The three created splines can
then be cleared since they are no longer needed.
Isolate the newly created dummy target shells in the currently active cell set and save them to
Geometry Cset 2 by unlocking, saving and locking. For the shape piston method, es-ice will
assume that the shells in Geometry Cset 2 are to be used as the dummy target shells.
Isolate the piston shells again in the currently active cell set. The shape piston method is the
only piston method that requires the piston shells to be at its BDC position since the mapping
process will eventually be done in the BDC position. With only the piston shells in the cur-
rently active cell set, we will gather all the vertices of the piston shells and move them down
by the piston stroke length in the global cartesian system. Use the pull-down menus and
choose “Sets” > “Vset” > “Newset” > “Cset, 0” (same as the vset,newset,cset command).
Then type the following commands:
csys,1
vmod,vset,0,0,-87,relative
Now click the “Piston” button in the Select panel to open the
Piston panel. From the pop-up menu at the top of the panel,
select the “Shape piston” option. Since it is critical to mini-
mize skew at TDC when the piston is closest to the cylinder
head, the default value for “Crank angle (deg)” can be left at
“360”. Click the “Map piston XYZ” button. This invokes es-
ice to calculate and store the position of the bottom layer of
template vertices at a crank angle of 360 degrees and assum-
ing the piston was shaped like the dummy target shells in
Geometry Cset 2. After this finishes, this vertex spacing
information can be applied to a number of cell layers starting
from the bottom template cell layer and the distance between
these layers can also be specified. Judging by our 1 millime-
ter approximate valve curtain height and the geometric
height of the piston bowl, we will use ten cell layers to model
the piston. Another cell layer must be added to account for
the “key grid plane” so enter a value of “11” for the “Layers
to read” parameter, activating the “Layer DZ” button and
entering a value of “1”. Click the “Read piston XYZ” button.
The bottom eleven layers of the template will now be spaced
1 millimeter apart in the global z-direction, have the vertex
spacing from the “Map piston XYZ” function and have the
shape of the dummy target shells. This results in a piston
mesh that will match most closely to the combustion dome
mesh when the piston is close to the dome, thus minimizing
mesh distortion.
Key Grid
Plane
Piston Mesh
Similar to what was previously done with the spark plug, the appropriate template cells need
to be deleted so that the piston bowl and crescent conform to the geometry better. The double-
plotting feature and other similar techniques should be used as before. An additional tech-
nique that will be explained here is the use of the “Plaster” button in the Edge/Spline Tool panel
to create non-hexahedral cells in order to improve mapping to curved geometry surfaces.
After gathering the cells to be mapped to the piston bowl,
we can improve the stair-stepped nature of the mesh result-
ing from this cell deletion by filling in columns of prism
cells. This is accomplished by bounding each set of stair-
steps by an edge that runs diagonally across some cell
faces. Turning on the “Diagonal” button in the Edge/Spline
Tool allows edges to run diagonally across a cell face. This
rectangular cell face will eventually be cut into two trian-
gular faces, resulting in a trim cell type 1 which avoids the
use of partial boundary cpmatches. Note that a single edge
can be used for multiple, adjacent stair-steps. The “Plas-
ter” button can then be clicked and then left-clicking on
the knot of an edge will create the necessary cells, in this
case prisms. As with most other cursor-pick functions, a q can be typed or an empty part of the
screen can be clicked to quit the function. After the plastered cells are created, the edges are
no longer useful so they should be cleared with the “Clear edge” button.
Figure 4-53: Template: Piston Bowl Cells Before (left) and After (right) Plastering Columns
We also wish to put a crown of plastered cells around the piston bowl so that we do not have
to map adjoining side and bottom faces to the smoothly-contoured piston bowl, which could
result in cells with excessively large interior angles. This is accomplished by first deleting
some cells to obtain a stair-step feature and then plastering it. The plastering function will
automatically create prisms, pyramids, tetrahedrals and trimmed cells to correctly fill the
stair-step.
Figure 4-54: Template: Piston Bowl Cells Before (left) and After (right) Plastering Crown
Similar things can be done for the crescent cells on the other end of the piston. Edges, splines
and patches can then be created and the “Edge” and “Surface” mapping procedures that were
previously done can be repeated here to map the piston surface.
Figure 4-55: Template: Result Before (left) and After (right) Plastering Crescent Cells
Figure 4-56: Template (left) and Geometry (right): Edges/Patches and Splines for Shape Piston
Since the spark plug is deep enough to penetrate the piston bowl at TDC, the discontinuous
deletion layer feature of es-ice should be used. The deletion layer normally occurs at some
fixed number of layers above the highest bottom face in the template. By creating attachment
boundaries under specified edges, we can create distinct regions. In each region, the deletion
layer is a fixed number of cell layers above the highest bottom face. The deletion layer can
thus be made discontinuous, allowing the penetration of a cylinder head component into the
piston or a piston component into the cylinder head.
The attachment boundaries are created by making edges on the surface of the template and
saving them into Eset 11. Eset 11 has been reserved for edges that unmerge their vertices and
all the underlying vertices in the z-direction within the template. This unmerging process
occurs during the “Star Setup” operation if the “Add cuts to template” option is activated.
Isolate the bottom-most edge of the spark plug and save it into
Eset 11. Then activate the “Add cuts to template” button in
the Star Setup panel.
Figure 5-1: Created Result at TDC for Mapped (left) and Trimmed (right) Mesh
Figure 5-2: Created Result at Max. Valve Lift for Mapped (left) and Trimmed (right) Mesh
Figure 5-3: Created Result at BDC for Mapped (left) and Trimmed (right) Mesh
Note that the exhaust port does not appear after the exhaust valve closes because the “Exclude
on close” parameter has been activated. Also note that some lines running through the mesh
are not actual mesh lines but rather a result of plotting a section that awkwardly cuts through
cells at some places.
If we are satisfied with the mesh, then we are ready to exit es-ice and begin the necessary steps
within pro-STAR. We should exit without saving.
If we are not satisfied with the mesh, then we should resume the save_es-ice session and
make modifications that will produce more suitable results.
6.1 Preliminaries
If the user wants to work in a different directory to setup the model in pro-STAR, the follow-
ing files from the es-ice working directory will initially be needed:
es-ice.PNL
GRID_MOVE.NULL
MAKE_EV.BAT
READ_TMP.BAT
template.bnd
template.cel
template.cpl
template.vrt
Here is a list of the model settings that have automatically been set in pro-STAR at this point:
1. The “Time Domain” has been set to the “Transient” option in Select Analysis Features
2. The “Density” has been set to the “Ideal-f(T,P)” option for all material types in Molec-
ular Properties
3. The “Turbulence model” has been set to the “K-E/High Reynolds Number” option for
all material types in Turbulence Models
4. The “Temperature Calculation On” has been set with “Static Enthalpy” for “Conserva-
tion” and “Thermal” for “Enthalpy” for all material types in Thermal Models
5. The “Monitoring cell number” and default “Reference Data” (“Pressure” of 1.e+05 Pa,
“Temperature” of 273 K and “Reference Pressure Cell Number” same as “Monitoring cell
number”) have been set for all material types in Monitoring and Reference Data
6. All wall boundaries have been divided into various different boundary regions
7. For each port that was mapped in es-ice, a “Pressure” type boundary region has been
defined for those port faces; otherwise a “Wall” type boundary region is defined for those port
faces which needs to be changed
8. Switch 79 has been activated which uses an alternative communication mode for mov-
ing mesh analyses, reducing the I/O between STAR and Ice
9. The “Time Step Size” has been set to 0.1 degree crank angle
10. The reverse background/foreground and Phong light shading has been set for plotting
1. Use the pull-down menus at the top of the plotting window and choose “File” ->
“Write Geometry File” to open the Geometry File Write panel
2. Change the “Scale Factor” to 0.001 (our model was built using millimeters) and click
the “Apply” button to write the geometry file
3. Use the pull-down menus at the top of the plotting window and choose “File” ->
“Write Problem File” to open the Problem File Write panel
4. Click the “Apply” button to write the problem file
5. Use the pull-down menus at the top of the plotting window and choose “File” ->
“Quit” to open the Quit pro-STAR panel
6. Click the “Save & Quit” button to save the model and quit the pro-STAR session
Oftentimes the Fortran compiler is installed only on the head node of the cluster. If running
with subroutines, the analysis has to be started interactively on the head node to compile the
subroutines, and killed as soon as they are compiled. Now the batch job can be submitted to
the queuing system.
Additional command line options for ‘star’ can be found by typing ‘star -h’ on the command
line.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The above script creates 2 meshes at every event starting at event 63 and ending at 80. It is
assumed that the machine has 2 (or more) cpus, hence the number of processes for calculating
events ahead is specified as 2. The file in which the meshes will be stored is ahead63-80.read.
The filename as well as extension can be arbitrary. Finally, as the files are big, there is a com-
mand to gzip the file. This step is optional.
The starting event (at time zero) can be obtained from the make_ev.tab file, for which the time
is zero. Here’s a section of the make_ev.tab file:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
59 -5 350 >15 8 7
60 -4 350 >14 8 7
61 -3 350 >13 8 7
62 -2 350 >12 8 7
63 0 350 12 8 7
64 0.000166666 352 12 8 7
65 0.000722707 358.672 >13 >7 7
66 0.000803606 359.643 13 7 >8
0.000833333 360 Geometric extreme.
67 0.0017007 370.408 >14 >6 8
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In this case, it is event #63. The meshes have to be created until the last event. Hence, it is
advisable to perform a StarSetup with an ending angle slightly beyond the desired end of the
calculation. As seen from the above script, it is necessary that the script files, the
save_ice_after_map and the Ice executable are in the same directory. Alternatively, they can
be in any location, but it has to be correctly specified in the script file.
The output of the Ice command should be directed to a .log file :
./create-ahead-script-63-80.sh > create-ahead-63-80.log
After Ice completes creating the meshes, one can check the log file for errors due to negative
(or non-positive volumes). If there are no errors, the ahead files should be copied (and
unzipped) into the directory where one needs to run the analysis. The mvmesh.sh file needs to
be appended with additional flags to read the meshes from the ‘.read files’:
# FLAGS = -read-events-ahead-later = ahead63-80.read
Each ‘.read’ file needs a separate flag. If running in parallel, the flag should be:
# FLAGS = -read-events-ahead-later = ../ahead63-80.read
Please note that if running on a cluster, the above path for ahead63-80.read should be speci-
fied as an absolute path.
With these modifications, one can start running the analysis as given in Chapter 7. Please note
that one can add flags for reading the ahead file in the mvmesh.sh file even though the ahead
file is not in the working directory, and start running the analysis. The ahead files can be cre-
ated on a differenct machine/processor while the analysis is running and copied in the direc-
tory during run-time.
Figure 9-1: Velocity Vectors After 1200 Time Steps (470 DCA)
Figure 9-2: Relative Pressure After 1200 Time Steps (470 DCA)
APPENDICES
The es-ice User Manual
The es-ice User Manual Appendix A
The upper-left section of the Plot Tool panel has a rotation cube to set the plotting view. When
rotating large models with the mouse, it may be faster to use this rotation cube rather than the
plotting window. Similar to plot rotation functions, left-click and drag to rotate the rotation
cube (double left-click and drag to rotate in the plane of the screen). Alternatively, the slider
to the right and the two sliders below the cube can be used. Left-click the “A” button or mid-
dle-click on the cube to apply the view and replot the active plotting window. Left-click the
“R” button to revert the cube back to the current view in the active plotting window.
There are two rows of view memory buttons in the middle-right section of the Plot Tool panel.
These allow the user to save and recall multiple plotting views. Each of the numbered memory
buttons, 1 through 9, are memory locations. Clicking on a deactive memory button activates it
and saves the current view to memory. Clicking on an active memory button recalls the plot-
ting view and replots. To delete a saved view from memory, click the “D” button to activate it
and then click the memory button with the saved view that is to be deleted. That memory but-
ton will be cleared and deactivated (the “D” button will also be automatically deactivated).
The following table documents the Plot Tool panel:
OPTION DESCRIPTION
Angle 0 Set the viewing angle to zero and replot
View -1/0/1 -1/0/1 Set the plotting view by defining the
-1/0/1 vector from which the mesh is viewed,
set the viewing angle to zero and replot
View Face Click on a cell face, set the view to be
normal to that picked face and replot
View Snormal Set the view to be the same as the sec-
tion normal and replot
View Reverse Set the view to be the reverse of the current plotting view and replot
View Keep The next time an es-ice model file is resumed, keep the current plot-
ting view and currently saved views
View Write/Read Write/read the commands to set the current plotting view to/from a file
Show large cross Change the cursor for pick mode so that the crosshairs extend out to
with cursor the edge of the plotting window (on) or keep the default (off)
Shape Zoom box When the user draws a zoom box, force it to have the shape and
like window aspect ratio of the plotting window (on) or not (off)
Dynamically zoom Activate (on) or deactivate (off) the ability to dynamically move the
section point section point without changing the plotting view by zooming in and
out with the mouse (middle-click and drag)
Show Spline/Edge Show (on) or hide (off) the ID numbers and arrows for splines/edges
numbers
Plot Spline/Edge Show (on) or not (off) the ID numbers of splines/edges on a white
numbers in boxes background box which may improve visualization of those numbers
Plot Spline breaks Plot broken spline knots differently than other knots (on) or not (off)
differently
Show hidden Edge Show (on) or hide (off) the hidden segments of edges
segments
Show Patch num- Show (on) or hide (off) the legend for patches when they are dis-
bers played
Plot Template ver- Show (on) or not (off) a line between the original (tshow,old) and
tex displacements mapped (tshow,new) locations of vertices in the current vertex set
Add date to plot Show (on) or not (off) the current date above the title
title
Color unfilled Sec- Plot mesh lines in an unfilled section plot using a color based on the
tion lines cell type of one of the cells (on) or using just one color (off)
The bottom section of the main es-ice window echoes the commands that have been executed.
These echoed commands are also written to a file called es-ice.echo. Note that the excep-
tions are commands that affect the plotting view when it is changed using the mouse.
questions
command inputs
The Help window usually opens when the help command is executed to output the requested
information. It can also be opened by using the “Tools” pull-down menu from the main es-ice
window and choosing “Help”. The bottom of this window offers searching features to locate
information easier. Type the text to search in the available input section and press “Enter”. By
default, the current text in the main text area above will be used to search but the user can
change the search location to be all of the help text. Up and down arrows are also available to
search forwards or backwards, respectively. The “Function:” input area on the bottom-left
section of the window shows the current command on display in the main text area above.
Type a new command and press “Enter” to display the help for another command.
Text output may also appear in a Child output window. This window usually provides status
information for child processes, which are processes started by es-ice that runs in the back-
ground such as the ammbatch or Ice executable. The contents of this window may be
cleared or copied to a file using the child command.
The current “sections” method for creating the 2D template replaces the previous “base”
method. To be compatible with older models that use the “base” method, this functionality
continues to exist but will be removed in the future. The “Base” and “Make Base” buttons as
well as some parameters are associated with the old “base” method and will not be discussed.
The following table documents the Create Template panel:
2 Ri Le 1
Bo Bo 2 Ri Le 1
Bo Bo
Bo Bo
3 4
Ri Le
view,0,0,1 2 / 4 Valve
angle,0
4 Valve # = section number
Bo = bottom
Le = left
Ri = right
2 Ri 2
Le Ri
Bo Bo 1
Bo
Bo 1 Bo
Le
Bo
Le
3 3
view,0,0,1
3 Valve angle,0 1 + 2 Valve
# = section number
Bo = bottom
Le = left
Ri = right
2
Ri L
Bo e 1
Ri
Bo
1 3
Bo
Bo
2 Bo
Bo
Bo
5
Ri
Le
4
2 Valve 5 Valve
The “Use diagonals” option appears at the bottom of the General parameters panel. Similar to
the “base” method for creating 2D templates, this is an old feature that has been replaced with
newer functions. It still exists to accommodate old models, but it will be removed in the future
and should therefore not be used (keep the default “No” option).
The following table documents the parameters in the General parameters panel:
PARAMETER DESCRIPTION
Cylinder radius Radius of the cylinder (in model units)
Cylinder wrap layers Number of radial cell layers wrapped around the entire cylinder
Cylinder wrap width Radial width of the wrap layers (in model units)
Port wrap cells Number of cell layers extruded from the ports and arms [default: 1]
Port wrap thickness Total thickness of the port wrap cells (in model units) [default:
thickness of the unextruded cells at the valve seat]
Figure A-2: Example of Cylinder Wrap Layer (left) and Port Wrap Cells (right)
PARAMETER DESCRIPTION
Piston DZ Global z-coordinate offset from TDC of the piston to be used for
trimming (negative number to move the piston down)
Layers below/ Number of cell layers in the template below/above the bottom of
above each valve
Cell height Average height of the cells of the template [default: calculated based
on valve geometry]
Collapsing layers Number of cell layers in the cylinder that the cell activation/deacti-
vation feature will be applied to
Radial expansion Radial distance the template should be expanded beyond the cylinder
radius between “Expanded radius Z” and “Piston maximum Z”
PARAMETER DESCRIPTION
Expanded radius Z/ Approximate z-coordinate at which the expansion from “Radial
Piston maximum Z expansion” parameter is at its maximum (“Expanded radius Z”) and
minimum (“Piston maximum Z”)
Radial extrusion/ The radial distance (“Radial extrusion”) and number of radial cell
Radial extrusion layers (“Radial extrusion cells”) the template should be radially
cells extruded above “Piston maximum Z”
Valve n lift The lift of valve n when the cylinder is trimmed. Section n of the 2D
base template should be created again after this parameter is changed
as the valve circle will be shifted.
Valve n layer The number of cell layers the bottom of valve n will be above the
bottoms of the valves that have this parameter set to a value of “0”
Port n radial/axial The length in the radial/axial directions of the cells of the template
cell length for port n. If it is set to a value of “0”, the length in the azimuthal
direction will be used.
Expanded radius Z
Piston maximum Z
Radial expansion
Radial extrusion
PARAMETER DESCRIPTION
Dome type/Cut Outdated feature to be removed
width (right)/Cut in the future - do not use
width (left)
Roof axis (X/Y/Z) The approximate x-, y- and z-
coordinates of a ridge between
angled valves (in model units)
BDC/TDC cylinder Number of cell layers in the cylinder at BDC/TDC, including “Lay-
layers ers above dome” and if an arbitrary or match piston is used,
“Replaced layers”
Piston stroke length Specifies the piston stroke (in model units) [default: 2 times the
cylinder radius]
Piston sweep area 2 Used in conjunction with “Piston sweep area 2 layers” to influence
length/layers the cylinder cell layer spacing near the TDC position. The spacing
will be related to the ratio of “Piston sweep area 2 length” to “Pis-
ton sweep area 2 layers” (analogous to “Early reference lift” and
“Early reference cells” for valves)
Piston bottom layers Number of cell layers immediately above the piston that may be
used to model piston geometry [default: 2]. It must be 1 greater
than the number of layers being replaced by piston cells for serial
runs and 2 greater than the number of layers being replaced for par-
allel runs.
Bottom/Top small Number of cell layers immediately above the piston (“Bottom
layers small layers”) or below the lowest region of valve travel (“Top
small layers”) having the same small, thin spacing as the mesh near
the valves [default: 2]
Steps from small to Number of cell layers transitioning from the small, thinly spaced
large regions to the coarser, larger regions in the middle of the cylinder
Piston Z at TDC Z-coordinate of the piston at TDC (in model units). This is only
used in two cases when meshing with the mapping method: if the
flat piston is used and during “Map piston XYZ” when Geometry
Cset 2 is empty.
Valve lift DZ Height of the cells in the valve curtain if it can’t be calculated from
the valve lifts. This is usually deactivated unless the “Style” of all
the valves are “Closed” or “None”.
PARAMETER DESCRIPTION
Circumferential Number of cells distributed around the valve in each concentric layer
cells (section) (selecting a value that is divisible by 4 yields a symmetric distribu-
tion of cells around the valve)
Bottom/Inner/Outer Number of radial cell layers between the square pattern in the valve
ring radial cells face and the bottom ring (“Bottom ring radial cells”), between the
bottom ring and the outer valve ring (“Inner ring radial cells”) or
between the outer ring and the end of the region of concentric cells
(“Outer ring radial cells”)
PARAMETER DESCRIPTION
Circumferential Outdated feature to be removed in the future - do not use
cells (base)
Lead inner/outer Outdated feature to be removed in the future - do not use
offset
Wall lead/trail off- Outdated feature to be removed in the future - do not use
set
Trail outer/inner Outdated feature to be removed in the future - do not use
offset
Circumferential cells
Bottom ring radial cells
PARAMETER DESCRIPTION
Style Valve styling to be chosen from 4 options if using the mapping
method and 1 option if using the trimming method
Solid cells Number of axial cell layers in the valve solid area
Edge triangle Choose whether the bottom edge of the valve at the chamfer will be
filled with prism cells all the way around (yes) or not (no)
PARAMETER DESCRIPTION
Straight fill layers Indirectly specifies a distance over which layers will be filled in the
direction of valve motion rather than along the cylinder axis (not
useful with the shape piston option)
Chamber height Axial height of the valve chamber (in model units)
Chamber axial/ Number of axial/radial cell layers within the valve chamber
radial cells
Layers/Rings above Number of vertical (“Layers above dome”) and radial (“Ring above
dome dome”) cell layers that the valve seat is recessed into the cylinder
Guide outer radius/ Radial dimension (“Guide outer radius”), number of radial cell lay-
Guide radial cells/ ers (“Guide radial cells”) and axial dimension (“Guide depressed
Guide depressed height”) of the depressed valve guide (in model units)
height
Arm down height Distance between the top of the valve chamber and the top of the
port arm, measured parallel to the valve axis (in model units)
Guide trim fraction Fraction of radial cell layers that will be removed above the valve
chamber
Stub down height Distance between the top of the stub and a step increase in its radius,
measured parallel to the valve axis (in model units)
Stub trim fraction Fraction of radial cell layers that will be removed to yield the step
reduction in the radius of the cylindrical stub
Reference lift/cells Expected maximum travel of the valve in model units (“Reference
lift”) [default: taken from maximum in valve lift file] and maximum
number of cell layers through the valve curtain (“Reference cells”)
[default: scaled from “Circumferential cells” parameter]. The ratio of
“Reference lift” to “Reference cells” determines the cell spacing
through the valve curtain.
Early reference lift/ A second ratio used to modify the cell spacing through the valve cur-
cells tain near TDC. The cell spacing is approximately the ratio of “Early
reference lift” to “Early reference cells”, thus providing a way to
increase the number of cells in the valve curtain early in its lift with-
out increasing the number of cells at maximum lift.
Closed lift/cells The valve lift in model units (“Closed lift”) [default: 0.05] and num-
ber of cell layers through the valve curtain (“Closed cells”) [default:
1] corresponding to a closed valve
Exclude on close Choose whether the cells above the valve will be excluded (yes) or
not (no) from the calculations when the valve closes for the last time
during the analysis range
Stub
Normal
None
Closed
Figure A-5: The Four Available Valve Styles (Mapping Method Only)
reference
Cell Layers Through Valve Curtain
cells
early
reference
cells
Figure A-6: Effect of Lift Parameters on Valve Curtain Mesh During Valve Motion
Guide
outer Guide trim fraction
Guide radius
depressed Arm
height down
height
Chamber
Guide height
radial Chamber
cells Chamber axial
radial cells
cells
Layers above
dome
Rings above
dome
Seat
radial
cells
Edge
triangle
Solid
cells
PARAMETER DESCRIPTION
Width layers Number of cell layers in the width of the arm
Height fraction Fraction that is multiplied with the “Chamber axial cells” parameter
in the Valve parameters panel to give the number of cell layers in the
height of the arm (the fraction of the valve chamber that will be
extended as the arm)
Length layers/ Number of cell layers in the length of the arm (“Length layers”) and
Length the length of the arm in model units (“Length”)
Axis X/Y/Z X/Y/Z-coordinate of a vector defining the axis of the arm (pointing
away from the valve)
Siamese start/stop Fraction of the arm length at which the joining of “Siamese” type
fraction arms begins/ends [default: 0.5/0.65]
Siamese layers Half the number of cell layers extruded between arms to join them
Height fraction
Length layers/
Length
Siamese
layers
Width
layers
Siamese
start
fraction
Siamese
stop
fraction
Figure A-8: Selected Arm Parameters and Siamese Arms Example (top-right inset)
PARAMETER DESCRIPTION
Crank angle start/ The starting/stopping crank angle for the transient analysis
stop (deg)
Engine RPM The engine speed
PARAMETER DESCRIPTION
Connecting rod The length of the connecting rod (in model units)
length
Piston pin offset The offset of the piston pin (in model units). The convention used for
its sign is: let the axis of the crankshaft be the z-axis; let the direction
of rotation of the crankshaft be (X x Y); let the piston move parallel
to the positive x-axis; the piston pin offset is the negative of the y-
coordinate of the axis of the piston pin.
Valve lift periodic- Relates the engine cycle and the valve cycle. When a valve lift is
ity (deg) required, the crank angles in the valve lift file are used with this
parameter.
A.2.9 The Section Tool Panel and the Section Adjustment Points
Clicking on the “Sections” pull-down menu and choosing a
numbered section will open the Section Tool panel for that
section. This panel is used to create the 2D template using
the “sections” method.
Most of the parameters in this panel are deactivated since it
is recommended to make section modifications interac-
tively using the available adjustment points. The “Edit sec-
tion parameters” toggle option, however, can be activated
to allow all the parameters to be modified. The “Show all
section parameters” toggle option can be activated to
expand the panel and provide access to more parameters.
The valve0n.dat file is created with valve profile infor-
mation when the valve command is executed while the
valve,image command stores this information internally.
The “Load” and “Read valve” buttons next to that filename
near the middle of the panel are actions performed on valve
profile information. Remember that “Load” refers to load-
ing information from an internal source whereas “Read”
refers to reading information from an external file.
The valve0n.base file can be written with the “Write”
button near the bottom of the panel. This file contains 2D
section information. There are “Load” and “Read” buttons
next to this filename also to load or read 2D section infor-
mation, but they should not be confused with the valve pro-
file information.
The following table documents the Section Tool panel in its default size:
The following images document the adjustment points when modifying a 2D template interac-
tively with the “sections” method (notice the text on the bottom of each window):
Valve - Circumferential
left-click
10 times
middle-click
3 times
middle-click
2 times
middle-click
3 times
Valve Rotation
left-click
left-click + drag
Valve Border
middle-click
middle-click + drag
right-click
middle-click
2 times
Attachment Vertex
= analogous points
left-click
left-click
Triangle Region
= analogous points
left-click
= analogous points
left-click
3 times
middle-click
middle-click + drag
right-click
middle-click
2 times
Bottom Positions
= analogous points
left-click
left-click + drag
Bottom Angle
left-click
right-click + drag
Side Angle
left-click
left-click + drag
procedure. The resulting template will have the key grid plane at BDC. A default thin cell
layer spacing is applied unless the “Layer DZ” parameter is activated and a value is specified.
Note: It is useful to specify the template parameter “Bottom small layers” in the Cylinder
parameters panel to be at least one larger than “Layers to read”. This will yield a desirable
layer thickness to the cell layers in the piston mesh. It may also be useful to increase the tem-
plate parameter “BDC cylinder layers”.
3. The piston can now be modeled with the same mapping methods used for the combus-
tion dome: create edges, splines and patches; map the edges; map and project the patches.
mesh that accurately captures the piston geometry. The vertices and cells of this mesh can
have any numbers as long as they are greater than those of the original bottom layer. This
mesh can include arbitrary and integral cpmatches. Also, the hexahedral cells of the original
bottom layer can be replaced by prism pairs with the three-sided faces in the plane of the
layer. When the piston mesh is read into es-ice, the cpmatches of these faces to the cylinder
mesh will be generated automatically.
Finally in pro-STAR, translate the entire piston mesh in the z-direction to its TDC position.
Note that during mesh motion, the vertices of the projection layer and below will translate
with the piston motion. The vertices in the replacement layers (above the projection layer) will
be positioned by es-ice. This means that the user need not be concerned with the vertical spac-
ing of the cell layers above the projection layer. es-ice handles this spacing automatically. It is
the vertices of the projection layer and below whose positioning by the user is important.
To implement the match piston option, the user builds an appropriate piston mesh externally
as described above, selects the “Match piston” pull-down option, fills out the text boxes as
required and clicks the “Read piston” button. Note that the “Match file” is for couples internal
to the piston mesh. The vertices of the piston are automatically saved into Template Vset 1.
“Vertex offset” and can be positive or negative). All vertices not within the replacement layers
must have numbers greater than or less than all vertices in the replacement layers.
Note that an easy way to obtain the proper vertex numbering scheme in the piston cells is first
to create the mesh below the projection layer, second to apply shells to the projection layer
and third to create the replacement layers using the vcextrude command in pro-STAR.
The vertices of the piston should be located in their TDC positions prior to reading them into
es-ice. Note that during mesh motion, the vertices of the projection layer and below will trans-
late according to the piston motion. The vertices in the replacement layers (above the projec-
tion layer) will be positioned by es-ice. This means that the user does not need to be concerned
with the vertical spacing of the cell layers above the projection layer. es-ice handles this spac-
ing automatically. It is the vertices of the projection layer and below whose positioning by the
user is crucial.
To implement the arbitrary piston option, the user simply builds an appropriate piston mesh
externally, selects the “Arbitrary piston” option in the pull-down menu, fills out the text boxes
as required, and clicks the “Read piston” button. Note that the “Match file” is reserved for cp-
matches that are internal to the piston mesh and has nothing to do with the interface between
the template and the piston. If no cpmatches exist within the piston mesh, then this file must
be omitted. The vertices of the piston are automatically saved into Template Vset 1.
If the analysis is to be run in parallel, make sure that the “ASI” option in the Decompose panel
is set to “One” before decomposing the mesh. This will insure that both cell layers on either
side of the ASI are on one processor, which STAR requires. Also, the piston bottom layers
need to be greater by one than the ‘Replaced layers’. For eg. if number of Replaced layers is 2,
your piston bottom layers must be at a minimum of 4.
In the pro-STAR setup, RCON 12 should be set to a value “0.2”. This is the tolerance for the
ASI matching process which STAR executes at every time step.
Deletion layers
Figure B-4: Detail of Created Result at TDC Showing Discontinuous Deletion Layer
Cylinder bottom Z Z-coordinate, in the global cartesian coordinate system, of the bottom
of the static grid (usually a negative value)
Small layers Number of small, thin cell layers below the lowest valve
below valves
Cell layers [Above the Flat Layer] Number of cell layers above the “Flat Layer”
Growth layers/ [Above the Flat Layer] Number of cell layers (“Growth layers”) and
Maximum growth largest ratio used (“Maximum growth”) through which the static grid
will transition from “Small layers below valves” to the larger cell lay-
ers near the “Flat Layer”
Length [Below the Flat Layer] Distance from the “Cylinder bottom Z” to the
“Flat Layer” (in model units)
Constant layers [Below the Flat Layer] Number of cell layers below the “Flat Layer”
to have a constant height of the layer just above the “Flat Layer”
Growth layers/ [Below the Flat Layer] Number of cell layers (“Growth layers”) and
Growth ratio used (“Growth”) through which the static grid will transition
from “Constant layers” to the larger cell layers near the “Cylinder bot-
tom Z”
Lift of Valve n Valve lift for valve n (in model units). Note that a value of 0 will
denote a closed valve, which are excluded from the static mesh.
Lift of Valve n
Growth
layers
Cell layers
Growth layers
Length
Cylinder bottom Z
To generate the static mesh, the user adjusts the various parameters, provides a case name and
clicks the “Make Static” button. pro-STAR cell (.cel), vertex (.vrt), boundary (.bnd), couples
(.cpl), input (.inp) and panel (.PNL) files are created. In pro-STAR, the panel can be opened
and used to import the mesh, similar to the transient analysis.
The static mesh can also be read into es-ice using the “Read Static” button. This is similar to
reading in a created result and so the user should not save the save_es-ice file afterwards.
The parameters used are automatically stored internally and can be saved within the
save_es-ice file by saving the save_es-ice file after creating the static mesh. They
can be loaded with the “Load” button. If the user wishes to have parameters saved to an exter-
nal file (<casename>.param), the “Write” button can be clicked and the file can be read
with the “Read” button.
Below is an example of a static mesh generated using the tutorial example and the parameters
used to create it:
Clicking on the “Sector” button in the Create Template panel will open the Sector panel. In the
upper-left corner of the panel, there are 4 options from which to choose the type of the sector
mesh. The “Trimmed, no spray” option will use a uniform 2D custom mesh (without a spray
region) and trim it using $STARDIR/bin/ammbatch to create the axisymmetric mesh (the
bamm,exec command can be used to use a different ammbatch from a different path. The
“Trimmed, spray” option will use a 2D custom mesh with a spray region and also trim it to
create the axisymmetric mesh. The mesh in this spray region will be fixed at all times and can
be modified such that it is aligned with the spray. The “Block A, spray” option will use a 2D
mesh with a spray region to create the axisymmetric mesh. This 2D mesh is created by picking
knots of the piston spline and is not trimmed. The “Block B, spray” option is similar to the
previously mentioned option but uses a different block structure for the 2D mesh which works
well for piston bowls with narrow throats. It may be helpful to click the “Create TDC spline”
button to look at how the fixed spray mesh will interact with the piston bowl at TDC.
Below are examples of each of the 2D sector mesh types, using the same spline:
bowl edge
bowl jog
bowl edge
bowl
bowl corner bottom
PARAMETER DESCRIPTION
Piston spline ID ID number of the spline that defines the two-dimensional profile of
the axisymmetric piston
Create TDC spline Button to create spline (using the ID number specified to the right) at
TDC from the existing spline at BDC
Azimuthal cone Angle of the spray cone in the XY-plane (in degrees)
angle
Number of holes Number of holes of the injector
Azimuthal cells Number of cells in the azimuthal direction for the three azimuthal
regions starting at the outer: outer, spray and outer
Azimuthal angle Angle of the spray axis of the first hole in the XY-plane (in degrees)
Compression ratio Compression ratio of the model - if it is greater than 1.0, the Z-coor-
dinate of the axis of the crankshaft will be changed to obtain the
specified compression ratio
PARAMETER DESCRIPTION
Minimum TDC Minimum number of cell layers at TDC
layers
Extrusion ratio Ratio of the piston extrusion layer thickness to the thickness of the
neighboring cells (a value of “0” will use the default “0.5” value
while a value of “-1” will not create an extrusion layer)
Dome Z, cells Z-coordinate and number of cells to add to the template above z=0 to
trim non-axisymmetric dome features
Source R, Z, diam- R- and z-coordinates of the center of the spray and the spray’s diam-
eter eter - note that the z-coordinate of the top is 0 (in model units)
Spray extent Radial extent of the spray region (in model units)
Axis angle Angle that the spray axis is below the horizontal (in degrees)
Planar cone angle Angle of the spray cone in the XZ-plane (in degrees)
Radial cells Number of cells in the radial direction for the three radial regions
starting at the center: nozzle, spray and outer
Radial block cells For “Block” meshes: the number of cells in the radial direction for
the first two sub-regions of the outer region
Protrusion cells For “Block B, spray” meshes: the number of cells in the radial direc-
tion for the bowl protrusion
Axial cells Number of cells in the axial direction for the three axial regions start-
ing at the bottom: bottom, spray and top
Axial block cells For “Block A, spray” meshes: the number of cells in the axial direc-
tion for the second sub-region of the bottom region (the first sub-
region has the same number of cells as the second radial sub-region).
For “Block B, spray” meshes: the number of cells in the axial direc-
tion for the first three sub-regions of the bottom region.
Bowl knots Spline knot numbers for the bowl bottom, bowl corner, bowl jog and
bowl edge
Piston extrusion Length to be extruded from the bottom of the piston outside of the
length bowl (the piston bowl will always be axisymmetric) for “Block A,
spray” and “Block B, spray” types to trim non-axisymmetric piston
features
nozzle
radial
region
outer radial region spray radial region
azimuthal angle
outer azimuthal region
types of meshes will use the Sector panel to only create the template. As a result, trimming and
fixing of the mesh with the Trim panel and “Star Setup” with the Star Setup panel will be neces-
sary.
With the piston spline defined and the appropriate parameters modified in the Cylinder parame-
ters and Events parameters panels, click the “Sector” button in the Create Template panel to
open the Sector panel. Here is the recommended order of steps to follow:
1. Choose the type of non-axisymmetric mesh to be created from the options in the
upper-left corner of the panel and deactivate the “Axisymmetric” button at the bottom of the
panel
2a. For “Trimmed” meshes: click the “Create 2D” button
2b. For “Block” meshes: click the “Pick knots” button, follow the text instructions on the
bottom of the Geometry window to pick the appropriate spline knots and then click the
“Create 2D” button
3. Click the “Adjust” button and adjust the 2D mesh using the adjustment points (similar
to creating the 2D base template with the “Sections” method). Optionally, click the “Edit”
button, edit the parameters directly and click the “Create 2D” button to see the result).
4. Edit the parameters that affect the third dimension (azimuthal or theta direction) and
other parameters
5. Modify the “Extrusion ratio” parameter for the piston extrusion layer
6. For “Block” meshes with non-axisymmetric piston features, enter a length for the
“Piston extrusion length” parameter
7. Click the “Make Template” button and when that is finished, click the “Read Tem-
plate” button to look at the 3D template
Optionally, the parameters of the Sector panel can also be written out to a default filename of
sector.ice by clicking the “Write” button.
From this point, the procedure is the same as for creating a mesh with the trimming method.
The Sector panel is no longer used and the modeling procedure should continue: modify spe-
cial Geometry Csets, create splines on geometry features, trim and fix the mesh with the Trim
panel, execute the “Star Setup” procedure and continue as usual.
The “Star Setup” procedure can then be executed and results can be created to check the mesh.
Continue as usual by setting up the model in pro-STAR.
Note that the Template window will not show the multiple cylinders. To see them in es-ice, a
result using the “Multiple cylinders” button of the Create Result panel must be created and
read. The mesh imported into pro-STAR will be the complete multiple-cylinder model. The
manifold can then be added into pro-STAR and cpmatched. However, STAR-CD versions
after v3.150A should be used if meshes are added into pro-STAR for multiple-cylinder mod-
els.
The following table documents the parameters in the Multiple cylinders panel:
PARAMETER DESCRIPTION
Angle offset The crank angle offset for a cylinder to replace or add after the
selected cylinder (a positive or negative value represents an offset
ahead of or behind, respectively, Cylinder 1)
Coordinate system The ID number of the coordinate system to create
Delta Y The global y-coordinate (y0) of the cylinder or the from Cylinder 1
Z Rotation The rotation of the cylinder about its local z-axis (rotxy)
Z Center The global z-coordinate (z0) of the crankshaft from which the “Y
Rotation” parameter will be applied
Y Rotation The rotation of the cylinder in the global xz-plane (rotzx) using the
“Z Center” parameter as the rotation point
Connected ports A section to specify which ports are connected to others
Cylinder 1
Port 3 Port 2
Port 4 Port 1
Delta Y
Cylinder 2
Z Rotation
Top View
Side View
Ports 1 + 4
Ports 2 + 3
Y Rotation
Cylinder 2 Cylinder 1
Angle offset at 90 degrees at TDC
Z Center
BTDC
-unwarp=cutoff_angle,target_angle,layers,iterations,relaxation
Unwarps cylinder cells by gathering cells with a face warped more than cutoff_angle
degrees, growing them layers times, moving the vertices that are on faces warped more than
target_angle degrees, iterating iterations times and relaxing the vertex movement by relax-
ation. Suggested to use 1 for layers, 50 for iterations and .02 for relaxation in combination
with the -unwarp-maximum-180 flag described above.
-machine-id
Shows the machine ID needed for a node-locked lockfile license and stops. Can be
used with the es-ice or Ice executable in unix.
p4 p4
p3 p3
p2
p1 p2
p1
Figure C-1: Placement of Key Points on Valves With and Without Chamfer
C.3 Creating a Custom Mesh for Ports in pro-STAR with auto mesh generation
The user is strongly recommended to use a custom mesh to trim the ports in pro-STAR with
auto mesh generation. It is desired to have a custom mesh that incorporates both a polar
mesh (for the region above the valves) and a cartesian mesh (for the arms).
This section will outline recommended steps for building such a custom mesh with using the
databases from the trimmed method approach.
1) Open the mapped model save_es-ice file.
2) Modify the geometry csets as given in Section 3.1 of this user manual
3) Change the Valve style as ‘Trimmed’ from the ‘Valve (id) Parameters’ panel for the ports
that need to be trimmed
4) Change the ‘Template to Trim’ paameter to ‘Yes’ from the ‘Trim parameters’ panel.
5) Click on ‘Make Template’ in the ‘Create Template’ panel.
6) Execute the command “Trim, dbase, cull, no” in the es-ice command window. This will
keep all temporary databases. We are interested mainly in the custom meshes which will be
built for the ports.
7) Trim the mesh by hitting the ‘Cut’ button in the Trim Panel. The trimming process will take
a while.
8) After es-ice finishes cutting the template, you will see a temporary directory starting with
‘x’ (For eg xes-igxLCyc) in the main working directory. There will be a database by the name
‘child_ice.dbs’ in the directory.
9) Open the database using the command “Dbase, open, xes-igxLCyc/child_ice.dbs, exists”.
The dbase listing (dbase, list) will show the various database entries. We are interested in
databases 117, 217 upto n17 where ‘n’ is the valve id.
10) Open the database for port 2 for example, using the command “Dbase, get, 217”. Now
save it in a separate database for eg ‘port2.dbs’ with database id 12.
Dbase, open, port2.dbs
Dbase, put, 12
11) You may import the surface database for the respective port into dbase id 1 of this data-
base and proceed with the trimming in pro-STAR with automatic meshing.
Figure C-2: Result: Section plots showing extrusion layer on the valve, dome, and piston
C.6.3