Mesh aggregation is a feature that is incorporated into the Cool analysis solvers and is recommended to be used in all circumstances. The method works by aggregating similar elements with their immediate neighbors to form larger master elements, reducing the overall number of the elements of the model internal to the solver, and therefore, analysis time.
During the boundary element integration, the elements are all treated individually, as if aggregation was not used, with these integrals aggregated to the master element in the building of the system matrices.
The mesh aggregation scheme principles include:
- Mesh aggregation is only applied to triangular or shell elements in both part and mold models.
- For 3D analysis, the outer facets of the boundary of the tetrahedral mesh are separated from the part mesh. This mesh is used for performing the boundary element calculation on, and acts as the interface between the part model and mold model. Mesh aggregation is performed on these facets or the triangular mesh.
- The mesh aggregation routine will only aggregate neighboring elements that have the same element orientation. (Midplane)
- The aggregation routine will only aggregate neighboring elements that are approximately planar. Little mesh aggregation will occur if the model has high curvature.
- An element can only be aggregated into a master element once.
- It is assumed that the elements aggregated into the master element all have the same temperature.