The reconstructPar utility now reconstructs the mesh if and when it is
necessary to do so. The reconstructParMesh utility is therefore no
longer necessary and has been removed.
It was necessary/advantagous to consolidate these utilities into one
because in the case of mesh changes it becomes increasingly less clear
which of the separate utilities is responsible for reconstructing data
that is neither clearly physical field nor mesh topology; e.g., moving
points, sets, refinement data, and so on.
This major development provides coupling of patches which are
non-conformal, i.e. where the faces of one patch do not match the faces
of the other. The coupling is fully conservative and second order
accurate in space, unlike the Arbitrary Mesh Interface (AMI) and
associated ACMI and Repeat AMI methods which NCC replaces.
Description:
A non-conformal couple is a connection between a pair of boundary
patches formed by projecting one patch onto the other in a way that
fills the space between them. The intersection between the projected
surface and patch forms new faces that are incorporated into the finite
volume mesh. These new faces are created identically on both sides of
the couple, and therefore become equivalent to internal faces within the
mesh. The affected cells remain closed, meaning that the area vectors
sum to zero for all the faces of each cell. Consequently, the main
benefits of the finite volume method, i.e. conservation and accuracy,
are not undermined by the coupling.
A couple connects parts of mesh that are otherwise disconnected and can
be used in the following ways:
+ to simulate rotating geometries, e.g. a propeller or stirrer, in which
a part of the mesh rotates with the geometry and connects to a
surrounding mesh which is not moving;
+ to connect meshes that are generated separately, which do not conform
at their boundaries;
+ to connect patches which only partially overlap, in which the
non-overlapped section forms another boundary, e.g. a wall;
+ to simulate a case with a geometry which is periodically repeating by
creating multiple couples with different transformations between
patches.
The capability for simulating partial overlaps replaces the ACMI
functionality, currently provided by the 'cyclicACMI' patch type, and
which is unreliable unless the couple is perfectly flat. The capability
for simulating periodically repeating geometry replaces the Repeat AMI
functionality currently provided by the 'cyclicRepeatAMI' patch type.
Usage:
The process of meshing for NCC is very similar to existing processes for
meshing for AMI. Typically, a mesh is generated with an identifiable set
of internal faces which coincide with the surface through which the mesh
will be coupled. These faces are then duplicated by running the
'createBaffles' utility to create two boundary patches. The points are
then split using 'splitBaffles' in order to permit independent motion of
the patches.
In AMI, these patches are assigned the 'cyclicAMI' patch type, which
couples them using AMI interpolation methods.
With NCC, the patches remain non-coupled, e.g. a 'wall' type. Coupling
is instead achieved by running the new 'createNonConformalCouples'
utility, which creates additional coupled patches of type
'nonConformalCyclic'. These appear in the 'constant/polyMesh/boundary'
file with zero faces; they are populated with faces in the finite volume
mesh during the connection process in NCC.
For a single couple, such as that which separates the rotating and
stationary sections of a mesh, the utility can be called using the
non-coupled patch names as arguments, e.g.
createNonConformalCouples -overwrite rotatingZoneInner rotatingZoneOuter
where 'rotatingZoneInner' and 'rotatingZoneOuter' are the names of the
patches.
For multiple couples, and/or couples with transformations,
'createNonConformalCouples' should be run without arguments. Settings
will then be read from a configuration file named
'system/createNonConformalCouplesDict'. See
'$FOAM_ETC/caseDicts/annotated/createNonConformalCouplesDict' for
examples.
Boundary conditions must be specified for the non-coupled patches. For a
couple where the patches fully overlap, boundary conditions
corresponding to a slip wall are typically applied to fields, i.e
'movingWallSlipVelocity' (or 'slip' if the mesh is stationary) for
velocity U, 'zeroGradient' or 'fixedFluxPressure' for pressure p, and
'zeroGradient' for other fields. For a couple with
partially-overlapping patches, boundary conditions are applied which
physically represent the non-overlapped region, e.g. a no-slip wall.
Boundary conditions also need to be specified for the
'nonConformalCyclic' patches created by 'createNonConformalCouples'. It
is generally recommended that this is done by including the
'$FOAM_ETC/caseDicts/setConstraintTypes' file in the 'boundaryField'
section of each of the field files, e.g.
boundaryField
{
#includeEtc "caseDicts/setConstraintTypes"
inlet
{
...
}
...
}
For moving mesh cases, it may be necessary to correct the mesh fluxes
that are changed as a result of the connection procedure. If the
connected patches do not conform perfectly to the mesh motion, then
failure to correct the fluxes can result in noise in the pressure
solution.
Correction for the mesh fluxes is enabled by the 'correctMeshPhi' switch
in the 'PIMPLE' (or equivalent) section of 'system/fvSolution'. When it
is enabled, solver settings are required for 'MeshPhi'. The solution
just needs to distribute the error enough to dissipate the noise. A
smooth solver with a loose tolerance is typically sufficient, e.g. the
settings in 'system/fvSolution' shown below:
solvers
{
MeshPhi
{
solver smoothSolver;
smoother symGaussSeidel;
tolerance 1e-2;
relTol 0;
}
...
}
PIMPLE
{
correctMeshPhi yes;
...
}
The solution of 'MeshPhi' is an inexpensive computation since it is
applied only to a small subset of the mesh adjacent to the
couple. Conservation is maintained whether or not the mesh flux
correction is enabled, and regardless of the solution tolerance for
'MeshPhi'.
Advantages of NCC:
+ NCC maintains conservation which is required for many numerical
schemes and algorithms to operate effectively, in particular those
designed to maintain boundedness of a solution.
+ Closed-volume systems no longer suffer from accumulation or loss of
mass, poor convergence of the pressure equation, and/or concentration
of error in the reference cell.
+ Partially overlapped simulations are now possible on surfaces that are
not perfectly flat. The projection fills space so no overlaps or
spaces are generated inside contiguously overlapping sections, even if
those sections have sharp angles.
+ The finite volume faces created by NCC have geometrically accurate
centres. This makes the method second order accurate in space.
+ The polyhedral mesh no longer requires duplicate boundary faces to be
generated in order to run a partially overlapped simulation.
+ Lagrangian elements can now transfer across non-conformal couplings in
parallel.
+ Once the intersection has been computed and applied to the finite
volume mesh, it can use standard cyclic or processor cyclic finite
volume boundary conditions, with no need for additional patch types or
matrix interfaces.
+ Parallel communication is done using the standard
processor-patch-field system. This is more efficient than alternative
systems since it has been carefully optimised for use within the
linear solvers.
+ Coupled patches are disconnected prior to mesh motion and topology
change and reconnected afterwards. This simplifies the boundary
condition specification for mesh motion fields.
Resolved Bug Reports:
+ https://bugs.openfoam.org/view.php?id=663
+ https://bugs.openfoam.org/view.php?id=883
+ https://bugs.openfoam.org/view.php?id=887
+ https://bugs.openfoam.org/view.php?id=1337
+ https://bugs.openfoam.org/view.php?id=1388
+ https://bugs.openfoam.org/view.php?id=1422
+ https://bugs.openfoam.org/view.php?id=1829
+ https://bugs.openfoam.org/view.php?id=1841
+ https://bugs.openfoam.org/view.php?id=2274
+ https://bugs.openfoam.org/view.php?id=2561
+ https://bugs.openfoam.org/view.php?id=3817
Deprecation:
NCC replaces the functionality provided by AMI, ACMI and Repeat AMI.
ACMI and Repeat AMI are insufficiently reliable to warrant further
maintenance so are removed in an accompanying commit to OpenFOAM-dev.
AMI is more widely used so will be retained alongside NCC for the next
version release of OpenFOAM and then subsequently removed from
OpenFOAM-dev.
topoSet is a more flexible and extensible replacement for setSet using standard
OpenFOAM dictionary input format rather than the limited command-line input
format developed specifically for setSet. This replacement allows for the
removal of a significant amount of code simplifying maintenance and the addition
of more topoSet sources.
A number of file name patterns have been removed from the list of things
that cleanCase deletes. Some patterns related to obsolete files that
OpenFOAM no longer generates, and some were deemed too generic to
delete as they might contain important persistent information.
The initial set of cases in the test directory are aimed at testing the
reactingEulerFoam populationBalance functionality.
Patch contributed by Institute of Fluid Dynamics, Helmholtz-Zentrum
Dresden - Rossendorf (HZDR) and VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd.
Integrated with the "tutorials" functionality by CFD Direct Ltd.
Now if a <field> file does not exist first the compressed <field>.gz file is
searched for and if that also does not exist the <field>.orig file is searched
for.
This simplifies case setup and run scripts as now setField for example can read
the <field>.orig file directly and generate the <field> file from it which is
then read by the solver. Additionally the cleanCase function used by
foamCleanCase and the Allclean scripts automatically removed <field> files if
there is a corresponding <field>.orig file. So now there is no need for the
Allrun scripts to copy <field>.orig files into <field> or for the Allclean
scripts to explicitly remove them.
With the writeJobInfo option in OpenFOAM-dev/etc/controlDict::InfoSwitches set
to 1 each OpenFOAM executable writes a <executable>.<pid> file containing the
job summary into the <case>/jobInfo directory, e.g. after running the
tutorials/incompressible/pisoFoam/RAS/cavity tutorials
tutorials/incompressible/pisoFoam/RAS/cavity/jobInfo contains
blockMesh.20169 pisoFoam.20170
Provides efficient integration of complex laminar reaction chemistry,
combining the advantages of automatic dynamic specie and reaction
reduction with ISAT (in situ adaptive tabulation). The advantages grow
as the complexity of the chemistry increases.
References:
Contino, F., Jeanmart, H., Lucchini, T., & D’Errico, G. (2011).
Coupling of in situ adaptive tabulation and dynamic adaptive chemistry:
An effective method for solving combustion in engine simulations.
Proceedings of the Combustion Institute, 33(2), 3057-3064.
Contino, F., Lucchini, T., D'Errico, G., Duynslaegher, C.,
Dias, V., & Jeanmart, H. (2012).
Simulations of advanced combustion modes using detailed chemistry
combined with tabulation and mechanism reduction techniques.
SAE International Journal of Engines,
5(2012-01-0145), 185-196.
Contino, F., Foucher, F., Dagaut, P., Lucchini, T., D’Errico, G., &
Mounaïm-Rousselle, C. (2013).
Experimental and numerical analysis of nitric oxide effect on the
ignition of iso-octane in a single cylinder HCCI engine.
Combustion and Flame, 160(8), 1476-1483.
Contino, F., Masurier, J. B., Foucher, F., Lucchini, T., D’Errico, G., &
Dagaut, P. (2014).
CFD simulations using the TDAC method to model iso-octane combustion
for a large range of ozone seeding and temperature conditions
in a single cylinder HCCI engine.
Fuel, 137, 179-184.
Two tutorial cases are currently provided:
+ tutorials/combustion/chemFoam/ic8h18_TDAC
+ tutorials/combustion/reactingFoam/laminar/counterFlowFlame2D_GRI_TDAC
the first of which clearly demonstrates the advantage of dynamic
adaptive chemistry providing ~10x speedup,
the second demonstrates ISAT on the modest complex GRI mechanisms for
methane combustion, providing a speedup of ~4x.
More tutorials demonstrating TDAC on more complex mechanisms and cases
will be provided soon in addition to documentation for the operation and
settings of TDAC. Also further updates to the TDAC code to improve
consistency and integration with the rest of OpenFOAM and further
optimize operation can be expected.
Original code providing all algorithms for chemistry reduction and
tabulation contributed by Francesco Contino, Tommaso Lucchini, Gianluca
D’Errico, Hervé Jeanmart, Nicolas Bourgeois and Stéphane Backaert.
Implementation updated, optimized and integrated into OpenFOAM-dev by
Henry G. Weller, CFD Direct Ltd with the help of Francesco Contino.
