{"id":199046,"date":"2026-06-19T03:06:19","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T03:06:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/innovationspace.ansys.com\/knowledge\/?post_type=topic&#038;p=199046"},"modified":"2026-06-19T03:14:01","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T03:14:01","slug":"what-happens-to-sph-elements-during-sph-adaptive-refinement-in-ansys-freeflow","status":"publish","type":"topic","link":"https:\/\/innovationspace.ansys.com\/knowledge\/forums\/topic\/what-happens-to-sph-elements-during-sph-adaptive-refinement-in-ansys-freeflow\/","title":{"rendered":"What happens to SPH elements during SPH Adaptive refinement in Ansys FreeFlow?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1  id=\"\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-198650 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/innovationspace.ansys.com\/knowledge\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/05\/Freeflow-FAQ-banner-v2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1600\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/innovationspace.ansys.com\/knowledge\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/05\/Freeflow-FAQ-banner-v2.png 1600w, https:\/\/innovationspace.ansys.com\/knowledge\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/05\/Freeflow-FAQ-banner-v2-300x38.png 300w, https:\/\/innovationspace.ansys.com\/knowledge\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/05\/Freeflow-FAQ-banner-v2-1024x128.png 1024w, https:\/\/innovationspace.ansys.com\/knowledge\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/05\/Freeflow-FAQ-banner-v2-768x96.png 768w, https:\/\/innovationspace.ansys.com\/knowledge\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/05\/Freeflow-FAQ-banner-v2-1536x192.png 1536w, https:\/\/innovationspace.ansys.com\/knowledge\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/05\/Freeflow-FAQ-banner-v2-24x3.png 24w, https:\/\/innovationspace.ansys.com\/knowledge\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/05\/Freeflow-FAQ-banner-v2-36x5.png 36w, https:\/\/innovationspace.ansys.com\/knowledge\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/05\/Freeflow-FAQ-banner-v2-48x6.png 48w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\" \/><\/h1>\n<h1  id=\"WHAT-HAPPENS-TO-SPH-ELEMENTS-DURING-SPH-ADAPTIVE-REFINEMENT-IN-ANSYS-FREEFLOW\"><strong>What happens to SPH elements during SPH Adaptive refinement in Ansys FreeFlow?<\/strong><\/h1>\n<p>When an SPH element is refined:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>It is replaced by smaller elements according to the selected refinement level<\/li>\n<li>The original element is replaced by multiple smaller elements<\/li>\n<li>The<strong> total volume (in 3D) remains unchanged<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Example (3D case)<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Consider an SPH element whose size is equal to the <em>SPH size<\/em>.<\/li>\n<li>With refinement level 1:\n<ul>\n<li>The new SPH size becomes <em>SPH Size \/ 2<\/em><\/li>\n<li>The original element is replaced by <strong>8 smaller elements<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Each new SPH element occupies one eighth of the original volume<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>With refinement level 2:\n<ul>\n<li>The original element is first subdivided into 8 smaller elements. Each resulting element is then further subdivided into 8 elements. After two levels of refinement, one SPH element is transformed into <strong>64 elements<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>Spacing between elements is reduced accordingly.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>This structured refinement ensures numerical stability and consistent element spacing.<\/p>\n<div class=\"packages-rocky\">\n<div class=\"additional-package-rocky col-md-5\">\n<p>Access more FAQs and Tips in the page:<\/p>\n<div><a class=\"download\" href=\"https:\/\/innovationspace.ansys.com\/knowledge\/forums\/topic\/ansys-freeflow-faqs-and-tips\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">FreeFlow FAQs and Tips<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<h6 class=\"paragraph\" style=\"text-align: center\" align=\"right\" class=\"paragraph\" style=\"text-align: center\" align=\"right\"  id=\"ANSYS-FREEFLOW-SMOOTHED-PARTICLE-HYDRODYNAMICS-SPH-SIMULATION-SOFTWARE\"><span class=\"eop\"><span style=\"font-size: 16.0pt\"><em>Ansys FreeFlow\u2122 smoothed-particle hydrodynamics (SPH) simulation software<\/em> <\/span><\/span><\/h6>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"template":"","class_list":["post-199046","topic","type-topic","status-publish","hentry","topic-tag-ansys-freeflow-faqs","topic-tag-ansys-freeflow-sph","topic-tag-freeflow-sph","topic-tag-sph-adaptive-size","topic-tag-sph-faqs","topic-tag-sph-simulations","filter-by-application-ansys-freeflow","application-products-ansys-freeflow"],"aioseo_notices":[],"acf":[],"custom_fields":[{"0":{"_edit_lock":["1781838755:17114"],"_edit_last":["17114"],"_aioseo_title":[null],"_aioseo_description":[null],"_aioseo_keywords":["a:0:{}"],"_aioseo_og_title":[null],"_aioseo_og_description":[null],"_aioseo_og_article_section":[""],"_aioseo_og_article_tags":["a:0:{}"],"_aioseo_twitter_title":[null],"_aioseo_twitter_description":[null],"application_name":[""],"_application_name":["field_64a80903c8e15"],"filter_by_optics_product":["Lumerical"],"_filter_by_optics_product":["field_64fb192ba3121"],"family":[""],"_family":["field_64a809229a857"],"siebel_km_number":[""],"_siebel_km_number":["field_63ecbffce60db"],"salesforce_km_number":[""],"_salesforce_km_number":["field_63ecc018e60dc"],"km_published_date":[""],"_km_published_date":["field_64c77704499dd"],"product_version":[""],"_product_version":["field_64c776cb4fd2e"],"_bbp_forum_id":["27796"],"_bbp_topic_id":["199046"],"_bbp_author_ip":["200.247.205.68"],"_bbp_last_reply_id":["0"],"_bbp_last_active_id":["199047"],"_bbp_last_active_time":["2026-06-19 03:06:19"],"_bbp_reply_count":["0"],"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":["0"],"_bbp_voice_count":["0"],"_btv_view_count":["73"],"_bbp_likes_count":["1"]},"test":"articlesansys-com"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/innovationspace.ansys.com\/knowledge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topics\/199046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/innovationspace.ansys.com\/knowledge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topics"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/innovationspace.ansys.com\/knowledge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/topic"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/innovationspace.ansys.com\/knowledge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topics\/199046\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":199049,"href":"https:\/\/innovationspace.ansys.com\/knowledge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topics\/199046\/revisions\/199049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/innovationspace.ansys.com\/knowledge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}