How to Handle Fluent Meshing Errors Caused by Point Contact?

[Max]

Problem Overview

In CFD modeling, geometry processing sometimes encounters cases where two surfaces are only in point contact.

For example, as shown in the figure below, inside a spherical computational domain, there are suspended internal surfaces marked in yellow and pink, with their contact area limited to a single point rather than a line.

The above geometry can be successfully imported into Fluent Meshing and surface meshing can be completed.

However, the following error appears during volume meshing:

This error prevents the generation of a volume mesh.

Solution

Method 1: Tetrahedral Filling

Fluent Meshing uses polyhedral cells by default, which cannot handle geometries with point contact. Tetrahedral cells, however, allow for such point contact configurations.

Pure tetrahedral filling.

Tetrahedral-hexahedral core filling.

Method 2: Locate the Point Contact and Modify the Geometry

1. Activate Fluent Meshing’s Diagnostic Tool
   

   

2. Select Point Contact Diagnostics
   

   

3. Click the “Mark” ButtonThis will display the regions with point contact, highlighted in magenta on the related cells diagram.
   

   

4. Click the “Summary” ButtonThis displays a summary of all identified issues in the command line.