Mesh+Refinement+Study

A mesh refinement study (also known as a grid refinement study or grid convergence study) refers to a series of tests applied to meshes of different sizes. "Size" here refers to the fineness or coarseness of the meshes only; their underlying geometries and dimensions remain the same. The goal of the studies is often to observe the trend of a property (such as lift, drag, or iterations to convergence) as a function of the number of nodes of the grid on which the calculations are performed.

The data extracted from such studies may help determine the relative accuracy of different numerical methods, and the relative merit of using each size of grid.

A good description of mesh refinement studies can be found on NASA's website here.