bheEASyMesh 0.2.3

Tool for creating FE-meshes for bhe simulations

bheEASyMesh

Tool for creating simple VTK unstructured grid meshes (3D prism elements) with BHEs (line elements) for use in OpenGeoSys 6 HeatTransportBHE simulations. Besides, the extraction of surface meshes and the application of temperature ICs is possible. The meshing is based on the Bhe_Meshing tool by Philip Hein (Shao et al., 2016) and uses GMSH (Geuzaine et al., 2009).
Meshes contain:
 - 3D prism mesh with horizontal element layers
 - A selected number of BHEs, which are represented as line elements
 - Diersch's ideal node distance around BHE-elements (Diersch et al., 2011)
 - A chosen number of optional horizontal refinement boxes in the mesh
 - Extraction of surfacemeshes to define BC's or IC's in OpenGeoSys
 - An optional temperature IC as depth dependent profile or fixed temperature which can be applied to the mesh and if needed to surfacemeshes

There are two modes in the Software:
=>"simple" Meshes:
 - Simple meshes with two different material groups to be used for geological homogeneous models with an area with groundwater flow
 - the software automatically adjusts the vertical layers over the user-defined default element height
 - refined layers in the transition zones (BHE top/bottom, aquifer top/bottom) by user-defined number of refined layers and a separate element height for refined areas

=>"layered" Meshes:
 - manual definition of any number of layers
 - number of elements, height of the elements and material ID can be freely selected for each layer

For more instructions, see Meshing_example.ipynb, where there are tutorials for both meshing modes.

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Diersch et al. (2011): Finite element modeling of borehole heat exchanger systems Part 2.Numerical simulation. In: Computers & Geosciences 37, pages 1136-1147.

Geuzaine C et al. (2009) Gmsh: A 3-D finite element mesh generator with built-in pre- and post-processing facilities. International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering 79, pages 1309-1331.

Shao et al. (2016): Geoenergy Modeling II Shallow Geothermal Systems. Springer.