The Enable High-Fidelity Feature check box provides a way to effectively ignore the applicable complex blade end feature when generating a mesh. You might want to do this to save computational time in some situations.

When this check box is selected, the applicable complex blade end can affect the mesh and will affect the mesh provided that the global control (in the Display menu and in the toolbar) for geometric fidelity is set to enable high-fidelity geometry.

When this check box is cleared, the applicable complex blade end is ignored during mesh generation, regardless of the global control setting.

Mesh Size Factor controls the overall number of mesh elements used in the mesh near the applicable complex blade end.

Growth Rate controls how quickly the element size changes with respect to distance from a nearby wall in the mesh near the applicable complex blade end. This setting affects boundary layer discretization and indirectly affects the number of mesh elements used in the mesh near the applicable complex blade end.

The Span Location setting specifies the normalized span location that approximately bounds the mesh for the complex blade end. The actual boundary is the nearest constant-K surface in the structured mesh, with an integer value of variable K.

The Elements Per Gap setting applies to the portion of the mesh associated with the complex blade end. This setting controls the number of elements used in close proximity to gaps.

The Edge Length Refinement Factor setting controls mesh refinement at feature edges. This setting can vary from 0 to 1, with 0 tending towards a coarse mesh and 1 tending towards a fine mesh.

A target mesh element edge length is calculated from the specified value of Edge Length Refinement Factor as detailed below. The mesh element size at any given location is influenced by this target element edge length, along with:

Note that the Edge Length Refinement Factor setting might have little effect for elements already constrained due to other factors. As an example, a blade with a squealer tip has close proximity between part of the blade tip and the shroud, causing some elements in the tip gap to have an edge length near the aforementioned minimum allowable element edge length. In this case, increasing the Edge Length Refinement Factor setting has little effect for those elements in the tip gap.

The target element edge length is calculated using the aforementioned minimum and maximum allowable element edge lengths, and the specified value of Edge Length Refinement Factor. Using the terms "", "", "", and "":

To provide immediate feedback on how the complex blade end Mesh Data settings are likely to affect the mesh, Estimated Max. Edge Length shows the predicted maximum edge length of elements in the vicinity of feature edges in the unstructured mesh block for the complex blade end.

The Inflation Layer Count Factors settings control, within the unstructured mesh block for the complex blade end, the number of inflation layers off the blade or wall as per the setting name: Blade, Hub, or Shroud. The allowed values range from 0 to 1, with the default value being 0.5. Larger values produce a greater number of inflation layers and a greater thickness of the inflation region.

The Named Selections to Join in Mesh settings create named selections that might be required, depending on the case, to generate the unstructured mesh block for the complex blade end.

The tip shell, which is the interface between the structured hex mesh of the passage and the unstructured mesh block for the complex blade end, is required to contact a single 2D region on the blade. If there is no such single region around the blade then you must specify, beside For Blade, a list of named selections (CAD families and/or primitives) that can be joined to produce the required single region on the blade.

Similarly, the tip shell is required to contact a single 2D region on the hub/shroud. If there is no such single region on the hub/shroud then you must specify, beside For Hub or For Shroud, a list of named selections that can be joined to produce the required single region on the hub/shroud.

The resulting 3D Mesh includes regions that represent the joined named selections (trimmed to just the portion in contact with the unstructured mesh).

The Tip Shell Selection Options settings affect the extent of the tip shell, which is the interface between the structured hex mesh of the passage and the unstructured mesh block for the complex blade end. If necessary, you can extend the tip shell so that it fully encompasses the high-fidelity geometric features of the complex blade end.

Select Use Full Passage Topology to maximize the size of the tip shell, or select a combination of the following four settings: Extend to Inlet, Extend to Outlet, Extend to Low Periodic, Extend to High Periodic.

Select Remesh Extended Surfaces If Possible to remesh the faces of any and all sides of the tip shell that are relocated due to the extension settings mentioned above, unless there is an inlet and/or outlet block in which case the inlet and/or outlet sides of the tip shell, respectively, are not remeshed. Remeshing is done using triangular faces in an attempt to improve the mesh quality on, and near, the applicable tip shell sides.

TOPOLOGY SET:
   ATM Periodic Start Vertex = LERoundedSymmetricStar, 11
END

The Trim Surfaces Before Meshing check box, which is selected by default, reduces mesh generation time by ignoring parts of the high-fidelity geometry that are deemed to be well outside of the blade passage. Typically this option has a subtle effect on the resulting mesh because the effective geometry differs in extent. This option is not compatible with some geometry, particularly when the geometry protrudes outside of a bounding box placed around the tip shell. If the geometry is incompatible, using this option results in failure to generate a mesh.