- While a rectilinear mesh can be created with blockMesh, not every mesh
created with blockMesh will satisfy the requirements for being a
rectilinear mesh.
This alternative to blockMesh uses a single block that is aligned
with the xy-z directions and specifications of the control points,
mesh divisions and expansion ratios. For example,
x
{
points ( -13.28 -0.10 6.0 19.19 );
nCells ( 10 12 10 );
ratios ( 0.2 1 5 );
}
y { ... }
z { ... }
With only one block, the boundary patch definition is simple and the
canonical face number is used directly. For example,
inlet
{
type patch;
faces ( 0 );
}
outlet
{
type patch;
faces ( 1 );
}
sides
{
type patch;
faces ( 2 3 );
}
...
- After a mesh is defined, it is trivial to retrieve mesh-related
information such as cell-volume, cell-centres for any i-j-k location
without an actual polyMesh.
STYLE: remove -noFunctionObjects from blockMesh
- no time loop, so function objects cannot be triggered anyhow.
- changed the sectorCoeffs keyword to 'point' from 'axisPt'
for more similarity with other dictionaries.
Continue to accept 'axisPt' for compatibility.
- helps reduce clutter in the topoSetDict files.
Caveats when using this.
The older specification styles using "name" will conflict with the
set name. Eg,
{
name f0
type faceSet;
action add;
source patchToFace;
sourceInfo
{
name inlet;
}
}
would flattened to the following
{
name f0
type faceSet;
action add;
source patchToFace;
name inlet;
}
which overwrites the "name" used for the faceSet.
The solution is to use the updated syntax:
{
name f0
type faceSet;
action add;
source patchToFace;
patch inlet;
}
- old 'DELETE' enum was easily confused with 'REMOVE', which removes
the set, not the elements from the set.
- provide corresponding subtractSet() method
STYLE: HashSet set/unset instead of insert/erase methods in topoSetSource
- simplifies switching to/from bitSet storage
Previously the coordinate system functionality was split between
coordinateSystem and coordinateRotation. The coordinateRotation stored
the rotation tensor and handled all tensor transformations.
The functionality has now been revised and consolidated into the
coordinateSystem classes. The sole purpose of coordinateRotation
is now just to provide a selectable mechanism of how to define the
rotation tensor (eg, axis-angle, euler angles, local axes) for user
input, but after providing the appropriate rotation tensor it has
no further influence on the transformations.
--
The coordinateSystem class now contains an origin and a base rotation
tensor directly and various transformation methods.
- The origin represents the "shift" for a local coordinate system.
- The base rotation tensor represents the "tilt" or orientation
of the local coordinate system in general (eg, for mapping
positions), but may require position-dependent tensors when
transforming vectors and tensors.
For some coordinate systems (currently the cylindrical coordinate system),
the rotation tensor required for rotating a vector or tensor is
position-dependent.
The new coordinateSystem and its derivates (cartesian, cylindrical,
indirect) now provide a uniform() method to define if the rotation
tensor is position dependent/independent.
The coordinateSystem transform and invTransform methods are now
available in two-parameter forms for obtaining position-dependent
rotation tensors. Eg,
... = cs.transform(globalPt, someVector);
In some cases it can be useful to use query uniform() to avoid
storage of redundant values.
if (cs.uniform())
{
vector xx = cs.transform(someVector);
}
else
{
List<vector> xx = cs.transform(manyPoints, someVector);
}
Support transform/invTransform for common data types:
(scalar, vector, sphericalTensor, symmTensor, tensor).
====================
Breaking Changes
====================
- These changes to coordinate systems and rotations may represent
a breaking change for existing user coding.
- Relocating the rotation tensor into coordinateSystem itself means
that the coordinate system 'R()' method now returns the rotation
directly instead of the coordinateRotation. The method name 'R()'
was chosen for consistency with other low-level entities (eg,
quaternion).
The following changes will be needed in coding:
Old: tensor rot = cs.R().R();
New: tensor rot = cs.R();
Old: cs.R().transform(...);
New: cs.transform(...);
Accessing the runTime selectable coordinateRotation
has moved to the rotation() method:
Old: Info<< "Rotation input: " << cs.R() << nl;
New: Info<< "Rotation input: " << cs.rotation() << nl;
- Naming consistency changes may also cause code to break.
Old: transformVector()
New: transformPrincipal()
The old method name transformTensor() now simply becomes transform().
====================
New methods
====================
For operations requiring caching of the coordinate rotations, the
'R()' method can be used with multiple input points:
tensorField rots(cs.R(somePoints));
and later
Foam::transformList(rots, someVectors);
The rotation() method can also be used to change the rotation tensor
via a new coordinateRotation definition (issue #879).
The new methods transformPoint/invTransformPoint provide
transformations with an origin offset using Cartesian for both local
and global points. These can be used to determine the local position
based on the origin/rotation without interpreting it as a r-theta-z
value, for example.
================
Input format
================
- Streamline dictionary input requirements
* The default type is cartesian.
* The default rotation type is the commonly used axes rotation
specification (with e1/e2/3), which is assumed if the 'rotation'
sub-dictionary does not exist.
Example,
Compact specification:
coordinateSystem
{
origin (0 0 0);
e2 (0 1 0);
e3 (0.5 0 0.866025);
}
Full specification (also accepts the longer 'coordinateRotation'
sub-dictionary name):
coordinateSystem
{
type cartesian;
origin (0 0 0);
rotation
{
type axes;
e2 (0 1 0);
e3 (0.5 0 0.866025);
}
}
This simplifies the input for many cases.
- Additional rotation specification 'none' (an identity rotation):
coordinateSystem
{
origin (0 0 0);
rotation { type none; }
}
- Additional rotation specification 'axisAngle', which is similar
to the -rotate-angle option for transforming points (issue #660).
For some cases this can be more intuitive.
For example,
rotation
{
type axisAngle;
axis (0 1 0);
angle 30;
}
vs.
rotation
{
type axes;
e2 (0 1 0);
e3 (0.5 0 0.866025);
}
- shorter names (or older longer names) for the coordinate rotation
specification.
euler EulerRotation
starcd STARCDRotation
axes axesRotation
================
Coding Style
================
- use Foam::coordSystem namespace for categories of coordinate systems
(cartesian, cylindrical, indirect). This reduces potential name
clashes and makes a clearer declaration. Eg,
coordSystem::cartesian csys_;
The older names (eg, cartesianCS, etc) remain available via typedefs.
- added coordinateRotations namespace for better organization and
reduce potential name clashes.
- improve doxygen entries for searchable surfaces.
- support selection of searchable surfaces with shorter names.
Eg,
type box | cylinder | ...;
vs type searchableBox | searchableCylinder | ...;
- functionObjectLibs -> libs
- redirectType -> name
- change deprecated writeCompression flags types to Switch.
- cleanup some trailing ';;' from some dictionaries
Within decomposeParDict, it is now possible to specify a different
decomposition method, methods coefficients or number of subdomains
for each region individually.
The top-level numberOfSubdomains remains mandatory, since this
specifies the number of domains for the entire simulation.
The individual regions may use the same number or fewer domains.
Any optional method coefficients can be specified in a general
"coeffs" entry or a method-specific one, eg "metisCoeffs".
For multiLevel, only the method-specific "multiLevelCoeffs" dictionary
is used, and is also mandatory.
----
ENH: shortcut specification for multiLevel.
In addition to the longer dictionary form, it is also possible to
use a shorter notation for multiLevel decomposition when the same
decomposition method applies to each level.
- the dictionary-driven variant of stitchMesh allows sequential
application of 'stitch' operation with requiring intermediate
writing to disk.
- Without arguments:
* stitchMesh uses a system/stitchMeshDict or -dict dict
- With arguments:
* master/slave patches specified on the command-line as in previous
versions.
Basic directional refinement:
- only for coordinate aligned meshes
- only for refinementRegions
See the mesh/snappyHexMesh/aerofoilNACA0012_directionalRefinement
tutorial.
Support the following expansions when they occur at the start of a
string:
Short-form Equivalent
========= ===========
<etc>/ ~OpenFOAM/ (as per foamEtcFile)
<case>/ $FOAM_CASE/
<constant>/ $FOAM_CASE/constant/
<system>/ $FOAM_CASE/system/
These can be used in fileName expansions to improve clarity and reduce
some typing
"<constant>/reactions" vs "$FOAM_CASE/constant/reactions"
- use succincter method names that more closely resemble dictionary
and HashTable method names. This improves method name consistency
between classes and also requires less typing effort:
args.found(optName) vs. args.optionFound(optName)
args.readIfPresent(..) vs. args.optionReadIfPresent(..)
...
args.opt<scalar>(optName) vs. args.optionRead<scalar>(optName)
args.read<scalar>(index) vs. args.argRead<scalar>(index)
- the older method names forms have been retained for code compatibility,
but are now deprecated
and replaced interDyMFoam with a script which reports this change.
The interDyMFoam tutorials have been moved into the interFoam directory.
This change is one of a set of developments to merge dynamic mesh functionality
into the standard solvers to improve consistency, usability, flexibility and
maintainability of these solvers.
Henry G. Weller
CFD Direct Ltd.
interMixingFoam, multiphaseInterFoam: Updated for changes to interFoam
- although this has been supported for many years, the tutorials
continued to use "convertToMeters" entry, which is specific to blockMesh.
The "scale" is more consistent with other dictionaries.
ENH:
- ignore "scale 0;" (treat as no scaling) for blockMeshDict,
consistent with use elsewhere.
- Use on/off vs longer compressed/uncompressed.
For consistency, replaced yes/no with on/off.
- Avoid the combination of binary/compressed,
which is disallowed and provokes a warning anyhow
except turbulence and lagrangian which will also be updated shortly.
For example in the nonNewtonianIcoFoam offsetCylinder tutorial the viscosity
model coefficients may be specified in the corresponding "<type>Coeffs"
sub-dictionary:
transportModel CrossPowerLaw;
CrossPowerLawCoeffs
{
nu0 [0 2 -1 0 0 0 0] 0.01;
nuInf [0 2 -1 0 0 0 0] 10;
m [0 0 1 0 0 0 0] 0.4;
n [0 0 0 0 0 0 0] 3;
}
BirdCarreauCoeffs
{
nu0 [0 2 -1 0 0 0 0] 1e-06;
nuInf [0 2 -1 0 0 0 0] 1e-06;
k [0 0 1 0 0 0 0] 0;
n [0 0 0 0 0 0 0] 1;
}
which allows a quick change between models, or using the simpler
transportModel CrossPowerLaw;
nu0 [0 2 -1 0 0 0 0] 0.01;
nuInf [0 2 -1 0 0 0 0] 10;
m [0 0 1 0 0 0 0] 0.4;
n [0 0 0 0 0 0 0] 3;
if quick switching between models is not required.
To support this more convenient parameter specification the inconsistent
specification of seedSampleSet in the streamLine and wallBoundedStreamLine
functionObjects had to be corrected from
// Seeding method.
seedSampleSet uniform; //cloud; //triSurfaceMeshPointSet;
uniformCoeffs
{
type uniform;
axis x; //distance;
// Note: tracks slightly offset so as not to be on a face
start (-1.001 -0.05 0.0011);
end (-1.001 -0.05 1.0011);
nPoints 20;
}
to the simpler
// Seeding method.
seedSampleSet
{
type uniform;
axis x; //distance;
// Note: tracks slightly offset so as not to be on a face
start (-1.001 -0.05 0.0011);
end (-1.001 -0.05 1.0011);
nPoints 20;
}
which also support the "<type>Coeffs" form
// Seeding method.
seedSampleSet
{
type uniform;
uniformCoeffs
{
axis x; //distance;
// Note: tracks slightly offset so as not to be on a face
start (-1.001 -0.05 0.0011);
end (-1.001 -0.05 1.0011);
nPoints 20;
}
}
The fundamental properties provided by the specie class hierarchy were
mole-based, i.e. provide the properties per mole whereas the fundamental
properties provided by the liquidProperties and solidProperties classes are
mass-based, i.e. per unit mass. This inconsistency made it impossible to
instantiate the thermodynamics packages (rhoThermo, psiThermo) used by the FV
transport solvers on liquidProperties. In order to combine VoF with film and/or
Lagrangian models it is essential that the physical propertied of the three
representations of the liquid are consistent which means that it is necessary to
instantiate the thermodynamics packages on liquidProperties. This requires
either liquidProperties to be rewritten mole-based or the specie classes to be
rewritten mass-based. Given that most of OpenFOAM solvers operate
mass-based (solve for mass-fractions and provide mass-fractions to sub-models it
is more consistent and efficient if the low-level thermodynamics is also
mass-based.
This commit includes all of the changes necessary for all of the thermodynamics
in OpenFOAM to operate mass-based and supports the instantiation of
thermodynamics packages on liquidProperties.
Note that most users, developers and contributors to OpenFOAM will not notice
any difference in the operation of the code except that the confusing
nMoles 1;
entries in the thermophysicalProperties files are no longer needed or used and
have been removed in this commet. The only substantial change to the internals
is that species thermodynamics are now "mixed" with mass rather than mole
fractions. This is more convenient except for defining reaction equilibrium
thermodynamics for which the molar rather than mass composition is usually know.
The consequence of this can be seen in the adiabaticFlameT, equilibriumCO and
equilibriumFlameT utilities in which the species thermodynamics are
pre-multiplied by their molecular mass to effectively convert them to mole-basis
to simplify the definition of the reaction equilibrium thermodynamics, e.g. in
equilibriumCO
// Reactants (mole-based)
thermo FUEL(thermoData.subDict(fuelName)); FUEL *= FUEL.W();
// Oxidant (mole-based)
thermo O2(thermoData.subDict("O2")); O2 *= O2.W();
thermo N2(thermoData.subDict("N2")); N2 *= N2.W();
// Intermediates (mole-based)
thermo H2(thermoData.subDict("H2")); H2 *= H2.W();
// Products (mole-based)
thermo CO2(thermoData.subDict("CO2")); CO2 *= CO2.W();
thermo H2O(thermoData.subDict("H2O")); H2O *= H2O.W();
thermo CO(thermoData.subDict("CO")); CO *= CO.W();
// Product dissociation reactions
thermo CO2BreakUp
(
CO2 == CO + 0.5*O2
);
thermo H2OBreakUp
(
H2O == H2 + 0.5*O2
);
Please report any problems with this substantial but necessary rewrite of the
thermodynamic at https://bugs.openfoam.org
Henry G. Weller
CFD Direct Ltd.
e.g. the motion of two counter-rotating AMI regions could be defined:
dynamicFvMesh dynamicMotionSolverListFvMesh;
solvers
(
rotor1
{
solver solidBody;
cellZone rotor1;
solidBodyMotionFunction rotatingMotion;
rotatingMotionCoeffs
{
origin (0 0 0);
axis (0 0 1);
omega 6.2832; // rad/s
}
}
rotor2
{
solver solidBody;
cellZone rotor2;
solidBodyMotionFunction rotatingMotion;
rotatingMotionCoeffs
{
origin (0 0 0);
axis (0 0 1);
omega -6.2832; // rad/s
}
}
);
Any combination of motion solvers may be selected but there is no special
handling of motion interaction; the motions are applied sequentially and
potentially cumulatively.
To support this new general framework the solidBodyMotionFvMesh and
multiSolidBodyMotionFvMesh dynamicFvMeshes have been converted into the
corresponding motionSolvers solidBody and multiSolidBody and the tutorials
updated to reflect this change e.g. the motion in the mixerVesselAMI2D tutorial
is now defined thus:
dynamicFvMesh dynamicMotionSolverFvMesh;
solver solidBody;
solidBodyCoeffs
{
cellZone rotor;
solidBodyMotionFunction rotatingMotion;
rotatingMotionCoeffs
{
origin (0 0 0);
axis (0 0 1);
omega 6.2832; // rad/s
}
}
New functionality contributed by Mattijs Janssens:
- new edge projection: projectCurve for use with new geometry
'searchableCurve'
- new tutorial 'pipe'
- naming of vertices and blocks (see pipe tutorial). Including back
substitution for error messages.
Patch contributed by Mattijs Janssens
- Added projected vertices
- Added projected edges
- Change of blockEdges API (operate on list lambdas)
- Change of blockFaces API (pass in blockDescriptor and blockFacei)
- Added sphere7ProjectedEdges tutorial to demonstrate vertex and edge projection
For example, to mesh a sphere with a single block the geometry is defined in the
blockMeshDict as a searchableSurface:
geometry
{
sphere
{
type searchableSphere;
centre (0 0 0);
radius 1;
}
}
The vertices, block topology and curved edges are defined in the usual
way, for example
v 0.5773502;
mv -0.5773502;
a 0.7071067;
ma -0.7071067;
vertices
(
($mv $mv $mv)
( $v $mv $mv)
( $v $v $mv)
($mv $v $mv)
($mv $mv $v)
( $v $mv $v)
( $v $v $v)
($mv $v $v)
);
blocks
(
hex (0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7) (10 10 10) simpleGrading (1 1 1)
);
edges
(
arc 0 1 (0 $ma $ma)
arc 2 3 (0 $a $ma)
arc 6 7 (0 $a $a)
arc 4 5 (0 $ma $a)
arc 0 3 ($ma 0 $ma)
arc 1 2 ($a 0 $ma)
arc 5 6 ($a 0 $a)
arc 4 7 ($ma 0 $a)
arc 0 4 ($ma $ma 0)
arc 1 5 ($a $ma 0)
arc 2 6 ($a $a 0)
arc 3 7 ($ma $a 0)
);
which will produce a mesh in which the block edges conform to the sphere
but the faces of the block lie somewhere between the original cube and
the spherical surface which is a consequence of the edge-based
transfinite interpolation.
Now the projection of the block faces to the geometry specified above
can also be specified:
faces
(
project (0 4 7 3) sphere
project (2 6 5 1) sphere
project (1 5 4 0) sphere
project (3 7 6 2) sphere
project (0 3 2 1) sphere
project (4 5 6 7) sphere
);
which produces a mesh that actually conforms to the sphere.
See OpenFOAM-dev/tutorials/mesh/blockMesh/sphere
This functionality is experimental and will undergo further development
and generalization in the future to support more complex surfaces,
feature edge specification and extraction etc. Please get involved if
you would like to see blockMesh become a more flexible block-structured
mesher.
Henry G. Weller, CFD Direct.
using a run-time selectable preconditioner
References:
Van der Vorst, H. A. (1992).
Bi-CGSTAB: A fast and smoothly converging variant of Bi-CG
for the solution of nonsymmetric linear systems.
SIAM Journal on scientific and Statistical Computing, 13(2), 631-644.
Barrett, R., Berry, M. W., Chan, T. F., Demmel, J., Donato, J.,
Dongarra, J., Eijkhout, V., Pozo, R., Romine, C. & Van der Vorst, H.
(1994).
Templates for the solution of linear systems:
building blocks for iterative methods
(Vol. 43). Siam.
See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biconjugate_gradient_stabilized_method
Tests have shown that PBiCGStab with the DILU preconditioner is more
robust, reliable and shows faster convergence (~2x) than PBiCG with
DILU, in particular in parallel where PBiCG occasionally diverges.
This remarkable improvement over PBiCG prompted the update of all
tutorial cases currently using PBiCG to use PBiCGStab instead. If any
issues arise with this update please report on Mantis: http://bugs.openfoam.org
In most boundary conditions, fvOptions etc. required and optional fields
to be looked-up from the objectRegistry are selected by setting the
keyword corresponding to the standard field name in the BC etc. to the
appropriate name in the objectRegistry. Usually a default is provided
with sets the field name to the keyword name, e.g. in the
totalPressureFvPatchScalarField the velocity is selected by setting the
keyword 'U' to the appropriate name which defaults to 'U':
Property | Description | Required | Default value
U | velocity field name | no | U
phi | flux field name | no | phi
.
.
.
However, in some BCs and functionObjects and many fvOptions another
convention is used in which the field name keyword is appended by 'Name'
e.g.
Property | Description | Required | Default value
pName | pressure field name | no | p
UName | velocity field name | no | U
This difference in convention is unnecessary and confusing, hinders code
and dictionary reuse and complicates code maintenance. In this commit
the appended 'Name' is removed from the field selection keywords
standardizing OpenFOAM on the first convention above.
to have the prefix 'write' rather than 'output'
So outputTime() -> writeTime()
but 'outputTime()' is still supported for backward-compatibility.
Also removed the redundant secondary-writing functionality from Time
which has been superseded by the 'writeRegisteredObject' functionObject.
See http://www.openfoam.org/mantisbt/view.php?id=2076
- .org is the file extension for emacs org-mode as well
- .orig is more to the point (.org isn't always recognized as "original")
- .original is too long, although more consistent with the convention
of source code file naming
Update script contributed by Bruno Santos
RunFunctions: Added "isTest()" argument parsing function
tutorials: Updated Allrun scripts to propagate the "-test" option
tutorials: Removed the lower Alltest scripts and updated the Allrun to
use the "isTest()" function to handle test-specific operation
in decomposeParDict.
This default number of processors may be overridden by the new "-np"
option to runParallel which must be specified before the application
name e.g.:
runParallel -np 4 pisoFoam
- redistributePar to have almost (complete) functionality of decomposePar+reconstructPar
- low-level distributed Field mapping
- support for mapping surfaceFields (including flipping faces)
- support for decomposing/reconstructing refinement data
Refinement:
-----------
// Optionally avoid patch merging - keeps hexahedral cells
// (to be used with automatic refinement/unrefinement)
//mergePatchFaces off;
// Optional multiple locationsInMesh with corresponding optional cellZone
// (automatically generates faceZones inbetween)
locationsInMesh
(
((-0.09 -0.039 -0.049) bottomAir) // cellZone bottomAir
((-0.09 0.009 -0.049) topAir) // cellZone topAir
);
// Optional faceType and patchType specification for these faceZones
faceZoneControls
{
bottomAir_to_topAir
{
faceType baffle;
}
}
/ Optional checking of 'bleeding' of mesh through a specifying a locations
// outside the mesh
locationsOutsideMesh ((0 0 0)(12.3 101.17 3.98));
// Improved refinement: refine all cells with all (or all but one) sides refined
// Improved refinement: refine all cells with opposing faces with different
// refinement level. These cells can happen on multiply curved surfaces.
// Default on, can be switched off with
//interfaceRefine false;
Snapping
--------
// Optional smoothing of points at refinement interfaces. This will reduce
// the non-orthogonality at refinement interfaces.
//nSmoothInternal $nSmoothPatch;
Layering
--------
// Layers can be added to patches or to any side of a faceZone.
// (Any faceZone internally gets represented as two patches)
// The angle to merge patch faces can be set independently of the
// featureAngle. This is especially useful for large feature angles
// Default is the same as the featureAngle.
//mergePatchFacesAngle 45;
// Optional mesh shrinking type 'displacementMotionSolver'. It uses any
// displacementMotionSolver, e.g. displacementSBRStress
// (default is the medial-axis algorithm, 'displacementMedialAxis')
//meshShrinker displacementMotionSolver;
