openfoam/ReleaseNotes-1.6

#                            -*- mode: org; -*-
#
#+TITLE:           OpenFOAM release notes for version 1.6
#+AUTHOR:                      OpenCFD Ltd.
#+DATE:                         July 2009
#+LINK:                  http://www.opencfd.co.uk
#+OPTIONS: author:nil ^:{}

* Overview
  OpenFOAM-1.6 is a significant upgrade to version 1.5 in ways that are
  outlined below.  This release passes all our standard tests and the
  tutorials have been broadly checked.  If there are any bugs, please report
  them using the instructions set out here:
  http://www.OpenFOAM.org/bugs.html

* GNU/Linux version
  The 32bit and 64bit binary packs of the OpenFOAM release were compiled on
  a machine running openSUSE GNU/Linux version 11.1 and also tested on
  Ubuntu 9.  We recommend that users run OpenFOAM on one of these, or on a
  similarly recent version of GNU/Linux.  This release has also been
  successfully compiled and tested on older GNU/Linux releases, but this
  requires the installation of Qt 4.3.? (the sources for which are supplied
  with OpenFOAM-1.6, see README) for ParaView-3 to run.

* C++ Compiler version + Release compiled with GCC 4.3.3.
  + Built-in support for the Intel C++ 10.? compiler (untested).
  + The choice of the compiler is controlled by the setting of the ~$WM_COMPILER~ and ~$WM_COMPILER_ARCH~ environment variables in the
    /OpenFOAM-1.6/etc/bashrc/ (or /cshrc/) file. + The location of the compiler installation is controlled by the
    ~$compilerInstall~ environment variable in the
    /OpenFOAM-1.6/etc/settings.sh/ (or /settings.csh/) file.

* Library developments

** Core library

*** Regular Expressions
    The addition of regular expressions marks a major improvement in usability.
    + *New* =regExp= class provides support for accessing POSIX extended regular
      expresssions from within OpenFOAM.  See the manpages on your system (/man
      7 regex/) for more information about the extended regular expression
      syntax. Since entire strings are matched, the =^= and =$= anchors are not
      required. + *New* =wordRe= class can contain a =word= or a =regExp= .  The match()
      method matches appropriately (as a =word= or as a =regExp=).
    + *New* =stringListOps= to search string lists based on regular expressions, =wordRe= or =wordReList= . + =Istream= and =Ostream= now retain backslashes when reading/writing
      strings.  The backslash continues to be used as an escape character for
      double-quote and newline, but otherwise get passed through "as-is" without
      any other special meaning (ie, they are /not/ C-style strings). This
      especially helps with input/output of regular expressions.

*** Dictionary improvements/changes
    + Dictionaries can use words (unquoted) or regular expressions (quoted) for
      their keywords. When searching, an exact match has priority over a regular
      expression match.  Multiple regular expressions are matched in reverse
      order. + The *new* =#includeIfPresent= directive is similar to the =#include=
      directive, but does not generate an error if the file does not exist.
    + The default =#inputMode= is now '=merge=', which corresponds to the most
      general usage. The =#inputMode warn= corresponds to the previous default
      behaviour. + The *new* =#inputMode protect= can be used to conditionally merge default
      values into existing dictionaries.
    + *New* =digest()= method to calculate and return the SHA1 message digest

*** Improved list containers + It is now possible to append a =UList= to an existing =List= or
      =DynamicList= .
    + =DynamicList= is now much more flexible. It can be used with the =append()= method, or with the =setSize()= method and =operator[]=, as per =List= . =DynamicList= also has more methods for adjusting the space
      allocated. + =SortableList= now uses stable sort and allows =reverseSort()= as well.
      =SortableList= is also more versatile - the indices mostly remain
      unallocated until they are required in the =sort()= method.  The sort
      indices can be deallocated with the =shrink()= method.  Works as expected
      with =transfer()= and assignment from other lists.
    + Specialization for =UList<bool>::operator[](..) const= to return =false=
      for out-of-range elements. This allows lazy evaluation with no noticeable
      change in performance. + =PackedList= has much better performance, *new* lazy evaluation and *new*
      auto-vivify of elements on assignment. Any auto-vivified elements will
      also flood-fill the gaps with zero.  The =append()= method can be used
      like in =DynamicList= to append a single element. The =set()= method can
      be used like in =labelHashSet= .  A =PackedBoolList= can thus replace
      =labelHashSet= in many places.
    + *New* =UIndirectList= for an indirect list without storing the addressing.

*** New hashing algorithms + Bob Jenkins' hash routine for performance improvement (5-10% faster for
      string hashing than the previous algorithm) and fewer collisions.
    + SHA1 hashing and SHA1 message digests (NIST specification FIPS-180-1)
      added. The SHA1 digest provides a compact (20 bytes) means of determining
      if the contents of an object have changed. The *new* =OSHA1stream= class
      can be used to calculate SHA1 digests for anything that can write to an
      output stream.

*** HashTable/HashSet improvements + Performance improvements for querying on empty tables
   + The =erase()= method can take a list of keys or the keys from any another =HashTable=/=HashSet= . + =HashSet= has an =operator[]() const= that allows the same syntax to be
     used for =boolList=, =PackedBoolList= and =labelHashSet= .
   + =HashSet has additional operators '+=', '-=', '&=' to add, remove or
     intersect keys, respectively.

*** Improved bool/Switch + The =Switch= class has reduced the storage to be on par with =bool= .  It
     is now more flexible and behaves much more like a =bool= .
   + The IO for =bool= uses =Switch= internally for reading, so the end-user
     doesn't need to know if a particular class used =bool= or =Switch= .

*** Miscellaneous container class improvments + *New* Boost-style =StaticAssert= added.  Which is useful to catch invalid
      template sizes, for example.
    + Various containers now have C++0x-style =cbegin()=, =cend()= iterator
      methods.
    + Various containers now have STL-style =empty()= method, which may be more
      readable and universal than =!size()= or =!valid()= conditions. + various containers now have an =xfer()= method for yielding their contents
      to a corresponding =Xfer= class.

*** *New* Xfer class
    Provides finer grained control over copying or transferring objects with
    very little overhead. It can be used for any object that has a =transfer()=
    method and a =operator=()= copy method.  Since it is decided upon
    construction of the =Xfer= object whether the parameter is to be copied or
    transferred, the contents of the resulting Xfer object can be transferred
    unconditionally. This greatly simplifies defining constructors or methods in
    other classes with mixed transfer/copy semantics without requiring 2^N
    different versions.
    + =xferCopy()=, =xferMove()= and =xferCopyTo()=, =xferMoveTo()= functions to
      ease the use of the =Xfer= class.

*** Convenience changes + =IOobject= has a *new* constructor for creating an =IOobject= from a
      single-path specification (eg, see =blockMesh -dict= option).
    + =argList= has *new* convenience methods for accessing options more
      directly: =option()=, =optionFound()=, =optionLookup()=, =optionRead()=, =optionReadIfPresent()= . + The *new* =readList(Istream&)= can read a bracket-delimited list or handle
      a single value as a list of size 1. This can be a useful convenience when
      processing command-line options.

*** Misc. improvements
    + Improved consistency and interoperability between =face= and =triFace= classes. + =face::triangles()= can split and append to a =DynamicList=
    + =coordinateSystems= can access global systems (similar to =MeshObject=)

** Turbulence modelling + Major development of turbulence model libraries to give extra flexibility
     at the solver level.  For solvers that can support either RAS/LES
     computations, the selection is made in the /constant/turbulenceProperties/,
     by setting the =simulationType= keyword to:
     - =laminar=
     - =RASModel=
     - =LESModel=
   + Depending on the selection, the model is the instantiated from /constant//
     - /RASProperties/
     - /LESProperties/

**** RAS wall functions
     Wall functions are now run-time selectable per patch for RAS. + Velocity:
       - Apply to turbulent viscosities =nut= or =mut=
       - Apply to =k=, =Q=, =R=
       - Apply to =epsilon=, =omega=
     + Temperature:
       - Apply to turbulent thermal diffusivity, =alphat= (compressible only) + To apply wall functions:
       - To recapture the functionality of previous OpenFOAM versions (v1.5 and
         earlier) assign:
         - for velocity:
           - =nut=: =nutWallFunction=
           - =mut=: =muWallFunction=
           - =epsilon=: =epsilonWallFunction=
           - =omega=: =omegaWallFunction=
           - =k=, =q=, =R=: =kqRWallFunction=
         - for temperature:
           - =alphat=: =alphatWallFunction=
       - New =alphaSgsJayatillekeWallFunction= thermal wall function for
         compressible LES

**** *New* LES turbulence models
     + Spalart-Allmaras DDES + Spalart-Allmaras IDDES

**** Upgrading:
     + *New* utility - =applyWallFunctionBoundaryConditions= + Solvers will automatically update existing cases
       - New fields created based on the presence of the =nut/mut= field
       - Boundary conditions include scoping, i.e compressibility:: for
         compressible solvers
       - Modified fields will be backed-up to /<field>.old/
     + NOTE:
       - Fields are only updated for those fields associated with the current
         turbulence model selection, i.e. if fields exist for use with other
         models, they will not be updated
       - The new specification is not backwards compatible

** Thermo-physical Models + Old compressibility-based thermo package renamed
     =basicThermo= \rightarrow =basicPsiThermo=
   + *New* =basicRhoThermo= thermo package
     - Additional density field stored
     - General form - can be used for other types of media, e.g. liquids
     - Additional polynomial-based thermodynamics
       - Equation of state: =icoPolynomial=
       - Transport: =polynomialTransport=
       - Thermo: =hPolynomialThermo= + Removed earlier hard-coding of gas thermophysics for chemistry modelling:
     - =reactingMixture= now templated on thermo package
     - =chemistryModel= now templated on thermo package
     - =chemistrySolver= now templated on thermo package
   + *New* =fvDOM= radition model
     - finite volume, discrete ordinates method + *New* (reinstated) =eThermo= thermodynamics package
     - internal energy-based thermodynamics

** Lagrangian

**** Intermediate
     + Overhaul of the underlying framework + Reacting now split into reacting and reacting multiphase
     + New structure for variable composition + Many new sub-models, including:
       - Injection
         - =PatchInjection= - injection local to patch face cells
         - =FieldActivatedInjection= - injection based on satisfying external
           criterion
         - LookupTableInjection - explicity define injection locations and all
           parcel properties
       - Post-processing
         - patch post-processing - collect data for parcels impacting user
           defined patches
       - Patch interaction
         - generalised behaviour for parcel interaction with patch
       - Phase change
         - liquid evaporation

**** Coal combustion
     + *New* library - extension of reacting-multiphase functionality
       - Surface reaction/combustion models

** Discrete methods + *New* library offering DSMC simulation functionality - see =dsmcFoam=
      below
    + *New* libraries offering molecular dynamics simulation functionality - see =mdFoam= and =mdEquilibrationFoam=: below.

** *New* surfMesh library
   Provides a more efficient storage mechanism than possible with =triSurface=
   without restrictions on the shape of the face (templated parameter).  It will
   however take quite some time before it can fully replace =triSurface= . + =MeshedSurface= class - with zero or more contiguous =surfZones= .
   + =UnsortedMeshedSurface= class - unordered surface zones (as per =triSurface=) + =surfMesh= class - for reading/writing in native OpenFOAM format

* Solver restructuring
  The upgrade to the turbulence models means that the simulation type, i.e.
  laminar, RAS or LES can be selected at run time. This has allowed a reduction
  in the number of solvers, simplifying the overall code structure
  + Solvers which support laminar, RAS and LES:
    - =turbFoam=, =oodles= \rightarrow =pisoFoam=
    - =turbDyMFoam= \rightarrow =pimpleDyMFoam=
    - =rhoTurbFoam=, =coodles= \rightarrow =rhoPisoFoam=
    - =xoodles= \rightarrow absorbed into =XiFoam=
    - =buoyantFoam=, =lesBuoyantFoam= \rightarrow =buoyantPisoFoam=
    - =interFoam=, =rasInterFoam=, =lesInterFoam= \rightarrow =interFoam=
    - =lesCavitatingFoam=, =rasCavitatingFoam= \rightarrow =cavitatingFoam= + Solvers which support LES only:
    - =channelOodles= \rightarrow =channelFoam= (LES)

* General changes
  + pd to p ------------------------------------------------------------ [HENRY] + gravity ------------------------------------------------------------ [HENRY]

** Solver control improvements
   Use dictionary entries instead of an =Istream= for the solver controls.
   + This Allows dictionary substitutions and regular expressions in
     /system/fvSolution/ + The old solver control syntax is still supported (warning emitted), but
     the *new* =foamUpgradeFvSolution= utility can be used to convert
     /system/fvSolution/ to the new format.

* Tutorial restructuring
  to reflect solver application structure

* Post-processing
  * sampling on iso-surfaces, interpolated or non-interpolated
  * sampling on surface defined by distance to surface (distanceSurface)
  * cutting planes on non-convex cells
  * Output to any surface geometry format supported by the =surfMesh= library.
* *New* Solvers
  + =buoyantBoussinesqSimpleFoam= Steady state heat transfer solver using a
    Boussinesq approximation for buoyancy, with laminar, RAS or LES turbulence
    modelling + =buoyantBoussinesqPisoFoam= Transient heat transfer solver using a
    Boussinesq approximation for buoyancy, with laminar, RAS or LES turbulence
    modelling
  + =coalChemistryFoam= Transient, reacting lagrangian solver, employing a coal
    cloud and a thermo cloud, with chemistry, and laminar, RAS or LES turbulence
    modelling + =porousExplicitSourceReactingParcelFoam= Transient, reacting lagrangian
    solver, employing a single phase reacting cloud, with porous media, explicit
    mass sources, and laminar, RAS or LES turbulence modelling
  + =rhoReactingFoam= Density-based thermodynamics variant of the reactingFoam
    solver, i.e. now applicable to liquid systems + =dsmcFoam= DSMC (Direct Simulation Monte-Carlo) solver for rarefied gas
    dynamics simulations, able to simulate mixtures of an arbitrary number of
    gas species.  The variable hard sphere collision model with Larsen-Borgnakke
    internal energy redistribution (see "Molecular Gas Dynamics and the Direct
    Simulation of Gas Flows" G.A. Bird, 1994) is available; other run-time
    selectable collision models can be easily added.

* Updated solvers
  + =mdFoam= Molecular Dynamics (MD) solver able to simulate a mixture of an
    arbitrary number of mono-atomic and small, rigid polyatomic (i.e. H2O, N2)
    molecular species, with 6 degree of freedom motion, in complex geometries. A
    molecule of any species can be built by specifying its sites of mass and
    charge. All molecules interact with short-range dispersion forces and
    pairwise electrostatic interactions using methods described in: Fennell and
    Gezelter, J. Chem. Phys. 124, 234104 (2006) + =mdEquilibrationFoam= Similar to mdFoam, but employs velocity scaling to
    adjust the simulation temperature to a target value. Useful to equilibrate a
    case before simulation.
  + =chtMultiRegionFoam= New boundary condition allows independent decomposition
    of coupled regions without any constraint on the decomposition.

* Function objects

** Improvements for function objects and time-looping + The =functionObjectList= retains the order of the =functionObject= order,
     which allows a chaining of operations. It is thus internally more
     efficient when /system/controlDict/ uses =functions {..}= instead of
     =functions (..)=, but both forms are supported.
   + The =functionObject= now has an additional =end()= method that is called
     when =Time::loop()= or =Time::run()= determine that the time-loop exits.
     Accordingly, one of these two idioms should be used in solver code:
     1. =while (runTime.loop() { ... }=
     2. =while (runTime.run()) { runTime++; ... }= + *New* - =functionObjectList= now tracks the SHA1 message digest of the
     sub-directories. This avoids reloading a =functionObject= when
     something unrelated in /system/controlDict/ changed.

** *New* function objects:
    + =systemCall= - executes a list of system instructions + =fieldMinMax= - computes the min/max of a <field>
    + =staticPressure= - converts kinematic pressure to static pressure + =dsmcFields= - calculates intensive fields (velocity and temperature) from
      averaged extensive fields (i.e. momentum and energy)

** Usage
    + Improved output control: =timeStep= or =outputTime=

* Boundary conditions + Improved set of direct mapped boundary conditions
  + Buoyancy boundary condition ---------------------------------------- [HENRY]

* Utilities

** Improvements + =blockMesh= has a *new* =-dict= option for specifying an alternative
    dictionary for the block mesh description. The '=convertToMeters=' entry
    is now optional, and the alternative '=scale=' entry can be used for
    less typing.

  + =foamToEnsight= has a *new* =-noPatches= option to suppress generation
    of patches. + =foamToEnsightParts= has *new* =-noMesh= and =-index= options that can
    be useful when post-processing results incrementally.

  + =snappyHexMesh= has lower memory footprint. New distributed triangulated
    surface type for meshing surfaces with extremely large triangle count.
    Now supports multi-region meshing of arbitrarily complex regions.

** *New* utilities + =particleTracks= - generate particle tracks for lagrangian calculations
  + =dsmcInitialise= - preprocessing utility to create initial configurations of
    DSMC particles in a geometry + =surfaceRedistributePar= - preprocessing utility to create distributed
    triangulated surface.

*** *New* foamCalc functions
    + =interpolate= - performs fvc::interpolate(<field>) + =randomise= - randomises a <field> by a given perturbation
    + =addSubtract= - simple add/subtract field functionality

** Usage + =timeSelector= can now combine =-time ranges= and =-latestTime= options
    (e.g. -time '0.01:0.09', -time '0.01:').  More reliable behaviour for cases
    missing /constant// or /0// directories. When the =-noZero= option is
    enabled, =-latestTime= will not select the =0/= directory unless the
    =-zeroTime= option is given.  This helps avoid ill effects caused by
    accidentally using the /0// directory in certain utilities (eg,
    =reconstructPar=).
  + =-region= option added to more utilities.

** Improvements to Paraview reader module + =PV3FoamReader= added mesh region handling. The region name is parsed
    from the filename. Eg, /case{region}.OpenFOAM/
  + =paraFoam= with a *new* =-region= option for specifying an alternative
    region. A *new* =-touch= option to generate the /.OpenFOAM/ file only.
    Only creates (and removes) /.OpenFOAM/ files if they didn't already
    exist, which is useful in connection with the =-touch= option.