Building the Mesh for a Model Geometry in COMSOL Multiphysics®
After creating the geometry and assigning the physics to your model, the next significant step is to build the mesh. The mesh used for a model geometry plays an instrumental role in how the model is solved, as it determines factors such as:
- How the geometry is divided
- With what shape or element type the geometry is divided
- The size, density, and number of elements in the geometry
- The element quality
These factors directly affect the computation of a problem, including how long it takes a model to solve, the amount of memory required to compute a problem, how the solution is interpolated between nodes, and the accuracy of the solution.
In the COMSOL Multiphysics® software, you can streamline the process of meshing your model geometry by having the software do it automatically or you can choose to build a custom mesh manually. This is done through a physics-controlled or user-controlled mesh sequence type, respectively. Regardless of which mesh sequence type you choose, there are many meshing options, settings, tools, and generators that you can use to create an optimal mesh for your geometry and analysis.
In this video, we provide an overview of the meshing workflow, fundamentals, and best practices while demonstrating how to build the mesh for three examples: an arbitrary geometry, a simple 2D geometry, and a real-world 3D geometry. Additionally, as we create the mesh for each of these model components, we discuss:
- The importance of the order of operations in a meshing sequence
- The different types of elements available depending on the spatial dimension of the model
- Implementing predefined and custom sizes of elements
- How the geometry finalization method affects the mesh
- Using a structured mesh on certain parts of the geometry
- Experimenting with multiple meshes for the same geometry
- The importance of the discretization order when dealing with multiphysics models
- How you can refine and improve the quality of a mesh