Can a tetrahedral mesh be created using geometry with only shells/faces?

Hey SimScale users!

Some of our users have this problem and may need an answer to this question. Can you actually mesh a geometry containing only shells or faces with tetrahedralization algorithm? The answer is NO, you can’t.

The reason behind this is that tetrahedralization algorithm on our platform which includes; Fully automatic tetrahedralization, Parametrized tetrahedralization, Tetrahedralization with refinements and Tetrahedral meshing with prismatic viscous layers (only for CFD) needs solids to mesh the geometry since it creates the mesh inside a solid domain. Furthermore, in structural analysis we need a solid to analyze the case e.g. stress, strain etc. which also requires a geometry which should contain solid/s.

The figure below shows the problem with one of the geometry:

One can easily see in the Geometry Event Log that there are missing solids. If one tries to mesh it, he/she will come across the following error in Mesh Operation Event Log:

In order to avoid this, try to re-upload the geometry containing solid/s in preferably .step format. Hope this will help many users in their current and future projects.

Happy Simulating!

-Ahmed

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