The new fvModels is a general interface to optional physical models in the
finite volume framework, providing sources to the governing conservation
equations, thus ensuring consistency and conservation. This structure is used
not only for simple sources and forces but also provides a general run-time
selection interface for more complex models such as radiation and film, in the
future this will be extended to Lagrangian, reaction, combustion etc. For such
complex models the 'correct()' function is provided to update the state of these
models at the beginning of the PIMPLE loop.
fvModels are specified in the optional constant/fvModels dictionary and
backward-compatibility with fvOption is provided by reading the
constant/fvOptions or system/fvOptions dictionary if present.
The new fvConstraints is a general interface to optional numerical constraints
applied to the matrices of the governing equations after construction and/or to
the resulting field after solution. This system allows arbitrary changes to
either the matrix or solution to ensure numerical or other constraints and hence
violates consistency with the governing equations and conservation but it often
useful to ensure numerical stability, particularly during the initial start-up
period of a run. Complex manipulations can be achieved with fvConstraints, for
example 'meanVelocityForce' used to maintain a specified mean velocity in a
cyclic channel by manipulating the momentum matrix and the velocity solution.
fvConstraints are specified in the optional system/fvConstraints dictionary and
backward-compatibility with fvOption is provided by reading the
constant/fvOptions or system/fvOptions dictionary if present.
The separation of fvOptions into fvModels and fvConstraints provides a rational
and consistent separation between physical and numerical models which is easier
to understand and reason about, avoids the confusing issue of location of the
controlling dictionary file, improves maintainability and easier to extend to
handle current and future requirements for optional complex physical models and
numerical constraints.
Originally the only supported geometry specification were triangulated surfaces,
hence the name of the directory: constant/triSurface, however now that other
surface specifications are supported and provided it is much more logical that
the directory is named accordingly: constant/geometry. All tutorial and
template cases have been updated.
Note that backward compatibility is provided such that if the constant/geometry
directory does not exist but constant/triSurface does then the geometry files
are read from there.
This simplifies and standardises the handling of radiation in all solvers which
include an energy equation, all of which now support radiation via the
'radiation' fvOption which is selected in the constant/fvOption or
constant/<region>/fvOption file:
radiation
{
type radiation;
libs ("libradiationModels.so");
}
The radiation model, parameters, settings and sub-models are specified in the
'radiationProperties' file as before.
and renamed defaultSpecie as its mass fraction is derived from the sum of the
mass fractions of all other species and it need not be inert but must be present
everywhere, e.g. N2 in air/fuel combustion which can be involved in the
production of NOx.
The previous name inertSpecie in thermophysicalProperties is supported for
backward compatibility.
The standard set of Lagrangian clouds are now selectable at run-time.
This means that a solver that supports Lagrangian modelling can now use
any type of cloud (with some restrictions). Previously, solvers were
hard-coded to use specific cloud modelling. In addition, a cloud-list
structure has been added so that solvers may select multiple clouds,
rather than just one.
The new system is controlled as follows:
- If only a single cloud is required, then the settings for the
Lagrangian modelling should be placed in a constant/cloudProperties
file.
- If multiple clouds are required, then a constant/clouds file should be
created containing a list of cloud names defined by the user. Each
named cloud then reads settings from a corresponding
constant/<cloudName>Properties file. Clouds are evolved sequentially
in the order in which they are listed in the constant/clouds file.
- If no clouds are required, then the constant/cloudProperties file and
constant/clouds file should be omitted.
The constant/cloudProperties or constant/<cloudName>Properties files are
the same as previous cloud properties files; e.g.,
constant/kinematicCloudProperties or constant/reactingCloud1Properties,
except that they now also require an additional top-level "type" entry
to select which type of cloud is to be used. The available options for
this entry are:
type cloud; // A basic cloud of solid
// particles. Includes forces,
// patch interaction, injection,
// dispersion and stochastic
// collisions. Same as the cloud
// previously used by
// rhoParticleFoam
// (uncoupledKinematicParticleFoam)
type collidingCloud; // As "cloud" but with resolved
// collision modelling. Same as the
// cloud previously used by DPMFoam
// and particleFoam
// (icoUncoupledKinematicParticleFoam)
type MPPICCloud; // As "cloud" but with MPPIC
// collision modelling. Same as the
// cloud previously used by
// MPPICFoam.
type thermoCloud; // As "cloud" but with
// thermodynamic modelling and heat
// transfer with the carrier phase.
// Same as the limestone cloud
// previously used by
// coalChemistryFoam.
type reactingCloud; // As "thermoCloud" but with phase
// change and mass transfer
// coupling with the carrier
// phase. Same as the cloud
// previously used in fireFoam.
type reactingMultiphaseCloud; // As "reactingCloud" but with
// particles that contain multiple
// phases. Same as the clouds
// previously used in
// reactingParcelFoam and
// simpleReactingParcelFoam and the
// coal cloud used in
// coalChemistryFoam.
type sprayCloud; // As "reactingCloud" but with
// additional spray-specific
// collision and breakup modelling.
// Same as the cloud previously
// used in sprayFoam and
// engineFoam.
The first three clouds are not thermally coupled, so are available in
all Lagrangian solvers. The last four are thermally coupled and require
access to the carrier thermodynamic model, so are only available in
compressible Lagrangian solvers.
This change has reduced the number of solvers necessary to provide the
same functionality; solvers that previously differed only in their
Lagrangian modelling can now be combined. The Lagrangian solvers have
therefore been consolidated with consistent naming as follows.
denseParticleFoam: Replaces DPMFoam and MPPICFoam
reactingParticleFoam: Replaces sprayFoam and coalChemistryFoam
simpleReactingParticleFoam: Replaces simpleReactingParcelFoam
buoyantReactingParticleFoam: Replaces reactingParcelFoam
fireFoam and engineFoam remain, although fireFoam is likely to be merged
into buoyantReactingParticleFoam in the future once the additional
functionality it provides is generalised.
Some additional minor functionality has also been added to certain
solvers:
- denseParticleFoam has a "cloudForceSplit" control which can be set in
system/fvOptions.PIMPLE. This provides three methods for handling the
cloud momentum coupling, each of which have different trade-off-s
regarding numerical artefacts in the velocity field. See
denseParticleFoam.C for more information, and also bug report #3385.
- reactingParticleFoam and buoyantReactingParticleFoam now support
moving mesh in order to permit sharing parts of their implementation
with engineFoam.
foamDictionary executions are now wrapped by runApplication like any
other execution so that they do not print during a test loop.
foamDictionary does not produce a conforming log, however, so
log.foamDictionary has been filtered out of the formation of the test
loop report so that false failures are not reported.
The new optional 'slash' scoping syntax is now the default and provides a more
intuitive and flexible syntax than the previous 'dot' syntax, corresponding to
the common directory/file access syntax used in UNIX, providing support for
reading entries from other dictionary files.
In the 'slash' syntax
'/' is the scope operator
'../' is the parent dictionary scope operator
'!' is the top-level dictionary scope operator
Examples:
internalField 3.4;
active
{
type fixedValue;
value.air $internalField;
}
inactive
{
type anotherFixedValue;
value $../active/value.air;
anotherValue $!active/value.air;
sub
{
value $../../active/value.air;
anotherValue $!active/value.air;
}
}
"U.*"
{
solver GAMG;
}
e.air
{
$U.air;
}
external
{
value $testSlashDict2!active/value.air;
}
active2
{
$testSlashDict2!active;
}
If there is a part of the keyword before the '!' then this is taken to be the
file name of the dictionary from which the entry will be looked-up using the
part of the keyword after the '!'. For example given a file testSlashDict containing
internalField 5.6;
active
{
type fixedValue;
value.air $internalField;
}
entries from it can be read directly from another file, e.g.
external
{
value $testSlashDict2!active/value.air;
}
active2
{
$testSlashDict2!active;
}
which expands to
external
{
value 5.6;
}
active2
{
type fixedValue;
value.air 5.6;
}
These examples are provided in applications/test/dictionary.
The the default syntax can be changed from 'slash' to 'dot' in etc/controlDict
to revert to the previous behaviour:
OptimisationSwitches
{
.
.
.
// Default dictionary scoping syntax
inputSyntax slash; // Change to dot for previous behaviour
}
or within a specific dictionary by adding the entry
See applications/test/dictionary/testDotDict.
All models that require templating on the thermodynamic model, including
the thermodynamic models themselves, are now instantiated using a
centralised set of variadic macros. Seven macros exist to instantiate
models for different classes of thermodynamics model. These are:
forGases: All model combinations valid for gases
forCommonGases: The most commonly used gas models
forAbsoluteGases: A limited selection of gas models with absolute
forms of energy, for use with Xi-combustion models
forLiquids: All model combinations valid for liquids
forCommonLiquids: The most commonly used liquid models
forPolynomials: Model combinations with properties fitted to
polynomials
forSolids: All model combinations valid for solids
All the *ThermoPhysics typedefs have been removed, as this system was
fundamentally not extensible. The enormous lists of thermodynamic
instantiations that existed for reaction thermos, chemistry models,
tabulation methods, etc..., were extremely difficult to read and reason
about what combinations are valid under what circumstances. This change
centralises those decisions, makes them concise and readable, and makes
them consistent across the entire codebase.
Soot model selection has now been brought up to date in line with
chemistry, combustion, and others. The angle-bracketed part of the name
is no longer necessary; this information is determined directly from the
existing thermo model. So, now to select a mixture-fraction soot model,
the entry is simply:
sootModel mixtureFraction;
Rather than:
sootModel mixtureFraction<rhoReactionThermo,gasHThermoPhysics>;
The only place in which *ThermoPhysics typedefs are still required in
the selection name is in the thermalBaffle1D boundary condition. Here
there is no thermo model from which to determine a name. This eventually
needs resolving either by adding a selection mechanism similar to that
of the thermo packages themselves, or by removing this boundary
condition in favour of the (non-1D) thermal baffle boundary condition
and region model.
Following the generalisation of the TurbulenceModels library to support
non-Newtonian laminar flow including visco-elasticity and extensible to other
form of non-Newtonian behaviour the name TurbulenceModels is misleading and does
not properly represent how general the OpenFOAM solvers now are. The
TurbulenceModels now provides an interface to momentum transport modelling in
general and the plan is to rename it MomentumTransportModels and in preparation
for this the turbulenceProperties dictionary has been renamed momentumTransport
to properly reflect its new more general purpose.
The old turbulenceProperties name is supported for backward-compatibility.
renaming the legacy keywords
RASModel -> model
LESModel -> model
laminarModel -> model
which is simpler and clear within the context in which they are specified, e.g.
RAS
{
model kOmegaSST;
turbulence on;
printCoeffs on;
}
rather than
RAS
{
RASModel kOmegaSST;
turbulence on;
printCoeffs on;
}
The old keywords are supported for backward compatibility.
The calculation and input/output of transformations has been rewritten
for all coupled patches. This replaces multiple duplicated, inconsistent
and incomplete implementations of transformation handling which were
spread across the different coupled patch types.
Transformations are now calculated or specified once, typically during
mesh construction or manipulation, and are written out with the boundary
data. They are never re-calculated. Mesh changes should not change the
transformation across a coupled interface; to do so would violate the
transformation.
Transformations are now calculated using integral properties of the
patches. This is more numerically stable that the previous methods which
functioned in terms of individual faces. The new routines are also able
to automatically calculate non-zero centres of rotation.
The user input of transformations is backwards compatible, and permits
the user to manually specify varying amounts of the transformation
geometry. Anything left unspecified gets automatically computed from the
patch geometry. Supported specifications are:
1) No specification. Transformations on cyclics are automatically
generated, and cyclicAMI-type patches assume no transformation. For
example (in system/blockMeshDict):
cyclicLeft
{
type cyclic;
neighbourPatch cyclicRight;
faces ((0 1 2 3));
}
cyclicRight
{
type cyclic;
neighbourPatch cyclicLeft;
faces ((4 5 6 7));
}
2) Partial specification. The type of transformation is specified
by the user, as well as the coordinate system if the transform is
rotational. The rotation angle or separation vector is still
automatically generated. This form is useful as the signs of the
angle and separation are opposite on different sides of an interface
and can be difficult to specify correctly. For example:
cyclicLeft
{
type cyclic;
neighbourPatch cyclicRight;
transformType translational;
faces ((0 1 2 3));
}
cyclicRight
{
type cyclic;
neighbourPatch cyclicLeft;
transformType translational;
faces ((4 5 6 7));
}
cyclicAMILeft
{
type cyclicAMI;
neighbourPatch cyclicAMIRight;
transformType rotational;
rotationAxis (0 0 1);
rotationCentre (0.05 -0.01 0);
faces ((8 9 10 11));
}
cyclicAMIRight
{
type cyclicAMI;
neighbourPatch cyclicAMILeft;
transformType rotational;
rotationAxis (0 0 1);
rotationCentre (0.05 -0.01 0);
faces ((12 13 14 15));
}
3) Full specification. All parameters of the transformation are
given. For example:
cyclicLeft
{
type cyclic;
neighbourPatch cyclicRight;
transformType translational;
separaion (-0.01 0 0);
faces ((0 1 2 3));
}
cyclicRight
{
type cyclic;
neighbourPatch cyclicLeft;
transformType translational;
separaion (0.01 0 0);
faces ((4 5 6 7));
}
cyclicAMILeft
{
type cyclicAMI;
neighbourPatch cyclicAMIRight;
transformType rotational;
rotationAxis (0 0 1);
rotationCentre (0.05 -0.01 0);
rotationAngle 60;
faces ((8 9 10 11));
}
cyclicAMIRight
{
type cyclicAMI;
neighbourPatch cyclicAMILeft;
transformType rotational;
rotationAxis (0 0 1);
rotationCentre (0.05 -0.01 0);
rotationAngle 60;
faces ((12 13 14 15));
}
Automatic ordering of faces and points across coupled patches has also
been rewritten, again replacing multiple unsatisfactory implementations.
The new ordering method is more robust on poor meshes as it
geometrically matches only a single face (per contiguous region of the
patch) in order to perform the ordering, and this face is chosen to be
the one with the highest quality. A failure in ordering now only occurs
if the best face in the patch cannot be geometrically matched, whether
as previously the worst face could cause the algorithm to fail.
The oldCyclicPolyPatch has been removed, and the mesh converters which
previously used it now all generate ordered cyclic and baffle patches
directly. This removes the need to run foamUpgradeCyclics after
conversion. In addition the fluent3DMeshToFoam converter now supports
conversion of periodic/shadow pairs to OpenFOAM cyclic patches.
A surface geometry file should be stored in
$FOAM_TUTORIALS/resources/geometry if it is used in multiple cases,
otherwise it should be stored locally to the case. This change enforces
that across all tutorials.
An adsorption condition has been added for species mass fraction. This
models a surface on which one or more species deposit at a rate
proportional to the quantity of that specie present. The property that
the rate is assumed proportional to can be chosen to be mass fraction,
mole fraction, molar concentration, or partial pressure.
Example specification in 0/CH4, 0/O2, etc...:
<patchName>
{
type adsorptionMassFraction;
property molarConcentration;
c 1e-3; // <-- Transfer coefficient
value $internalField;
}
"c" is the constant of proportionality between the property value and
the mass transfer rate. If a specie does not adsorb, this should be set
to zero, or be omitted entirely.
This condition must be supplied for all species, and corresponding
specie transfer boundary conditions must also be applied to velocity and
temperature.
Example specification in 0/U and 0/T:
<patchName>
{
type specieTransferVelocity;
value $internalField;
}
<patchName>
{
type specieTransferTemperature;
value $internalField;
}
In addition, the semi-permeable baffle conditions have been refactored
to share functionality with the new adsorption conditions. They can now
also be used with the species-transfer temperature condition, which
corrects an energy error that was present previously. The parameter
"input" has been renamed "property", consistently with the adsorption
entries listed above. Molar concentration has also been added as an
option for the property driving the transfer, so the available controls
are the same as for adsorption.
Example specification in 0/CH4, 0/O2, etc...:
<patchName>
{
type semiPermeableBaffleMassFraction;
samplePatch <neighbourPatchName>;
property molarConcentration;
c 1e-3; // <-- Transfer coefficient
value $internalField;
}
<neighbourPatchName>
{
type semiPermeableBaffleMassFraction;
samplePatch <patchName>;
property molarConcentration;
c 1e-3; // <-- Transfer coefficient
value $internalField;
}
Velocity and temperature conditions should be set in the same way as for
adsorption.
In order for the temperature condition to function satisfactorily and
not introduce unphysical variations in temperature as a result of the
linearisation to an energy boundary condition, two new base classes for
temperature conditions which explicitly set the parameters of either
gradient or mixed energy conditions have been added. The mixed condition
forms the base of the specieTransferTemperature condition.
As a result of its generalisation, the library has been renamed from
"libsemiPermeableBaffle.so" to "libspecieTransfer.so".
This part of the name is unnecessary, as it is clear from context that
the name refers to a reaction. The selector has been made backwards
compatible so that old names will still read successfuly.
Reaction names are now consistently camel-cased for readability. Most
names have not been affected because the reaction rate name is a proper
noun and is therefore already capitalised (e.g., Arrhenius, Janev,
Landau, etc ...). Reactions that have been affected are as follows.
Old name New name
irreversibleinfiniteReaction irreversibleInfiniteReaction
irreversiblepowerSeriesReaction irreversiblePowerSeriesReaction
irreversiblethirdBodyArrheniusReaction irreversibleThirdBodyArrheniusReaction
nonEquilibriumReversibleinfiniteReaction nonEquilibriumReversibleInfiniteReaction
nonEquilibriumReversiblethirdBodyArrheniusReaction nonEquilibriumReversibleThirdBodyArrheniusReaction
reversibleinfiniteReaction reversibleInfiniteReaction
reversiblepowerSeriesReaction reversiblePowerSeriesReaction
reversiblethirdBodyArrheniusReaction reversibleThirdBodyArrheniusReaction
irreversiblefluxLimitedLangmuirHinshelwoodReaction irreversibleFluxLimitedLangmuirHinshelwoodReaction
irreversiblesurfaceArrheniusReaction irreversibleSurfaceArrheniusReaction
reversiblesurfaceArrheniusReaction reversibleSurfaceArrheniusReaction
solidChemistryModel is not implemented in a general way but specialised to form
the basis of the highly specific pyrolysis mode. The handling of reactions is
hard-coded for forward reactions only, the Jacobian was present but incomplete
so any ODE solvers requiring the Jacobian would either fail, diverge or produce
incorrect results. It is not clear if many or any parts of the
solidChemistryModel are correct, in particular there is no handling for the
solid surface area per unit volume. After a lot of refactoring work it has
become clear that solidChemistryModel needs a complete rewrite and can benefit
from all the recent development work done on the now more general
StandardChemistryModel.
kappa is now obtained from the fluidThermo for laminar regions, the turbulence
model for turbulent regions and the solidThermo for solid regions. The "lookup"
option previously supported allowed for energy-temperature inconsistent and
incorrect specification of kappa and was not used. Without this incorrect
option there is now no need to specify a kappaMethod thus significantly
simplifying the use boundary conditions derived from temperatureCoupledBase.
Now that the reaction system is separated from the mixture thermodynamics it is
possible to rationalise singleStepCombustion so that it instantiates a single
reaction as it should. This simplifies the code, maintenance and the user
interface not that the combustionProperties file contains a single reaction
rather than a list.
This allows much greater flexibility in the instantiation of reaction system
which may in general depend on fields other than the thermodynamic state. This
also simplifies mixture thermodynamics removing the need for the reactingMixture
and the instantiation of all the thermodynamic package combinations depending on
it.
which are now read directly from the thermophysicalProperties dictionary for
consistency with non-reacting mixture thermodynamics. The species thermo and
reactions lists can still be in separate files if convenient and included into
the thermophysicalProperties file using the standard dictionary #include.
This formalises the flexible and extensible OpenFOAM thermodynamics and reaction
format as the direct input to OpenFOAM solvers. The CHEMKIN format is still
supported by first converting to the OpenFOAM format using the chemkinToFoam
utility.
For example in the combustion/coldEngineFoam/freePiston/0/p field the
internalField entry may be obtained from the include/caseSettings dictionary
using either a relative path:
internalField uniform $include/caseSettings!internalField/p;
or an absolute path:
internalField uniform ${$FOAM_CASE/0/include/caseSettings!internalField/p};
in which recursive substitution using ${...} is applied to expand the $FOAM_CASE
environment variable.
The radiation modelling library has been moved out of
thermophysicalProperties into the top-level source directory. Radiation
is a process, not a property, and belongs alongside turbulence,
combustion, etc...
The namespaces used within the radiation library have been made
consistent with the rest of the code. Selectable sub-models are in
namespaces named after their base classes. Some models have been
renamed remove the base type from the suffix, as this is unnecessary.
These renames are:
Old name: New name:
binaryAbsorptionEmission binary
cloudAbsorptionEmission cloud
constantAbsorptionEmission constant
greyMeanAbsorptionEmission greyMean/greyMeanCombustion
greyMeanSolidAbsorptionEmission greyMeanSolid
wideBandAbsorptionEmission wideBand/wideBandCombustion
cloudScatter cloud
constantScatter constant
mixtureFractionSoot mixtureFraction
Some absorption-emission models have been split into versions which do
and don't use the heat release rate. The version that does has been
given the post-fix "Combustion" and has been moved into the
combustionModels library. This removes the dependence on a registered
Qdot field, and makes the models compatible with the recent removal of
that field from the combustion solvers.
This allows coefficients of the constantAbsorptionEmission and
constantScatter to be entered as pure numbers, with the name and
dimensions set automatically, rather than having to specify them
manually.
The Qdot field has been removed from all reacting solvers, in favour of
computing on the fly whenever it is needed. It can still be generated
for post-processing purposes by means of the Qdot function object. This
change reduces code duplication and storage for all modified solvers.
The Qdot function object has been applied to a number of tutorials in
order to retain the existing output.
A fix to Qdot has also been applied for multi-phase cases.
Added headers to all reactions files to prevent warnings in paraview.
Added references for known mechanisms. Removed unused reaction and
thermophysical property files.
Now for transient simulations "Final" solver settings are required for ALL
equations providing consistency between the solution of velocity, energy,
composition and radiation properties.
However "Final" relaxation factors are no longer required for fields or
equations and if not present the standard value for the variable will be
applied. Given that relaxation factors other than 1 are rarely required for
transient runs and hence the same for all iterations including the final one
this approach provide simpler input while still providing the flexibility to
specify a different value for the final iteration if required. For steady cases
it is usual to execute just 1 outer iteration per time-step for which the
standard relaxation factors are appropriate, and if more than one iteration is
executed it is common to use the same factors for both. In the unlikely event
of requiring different relaxation factors for the final iteration this is still
possible to specify via the now optional "Final" specification.
to simplify reacting case setup.
Tutorials
tutorials/combustion/chemFoam/ic8h18_TDAC
tutorials/combustion/reactingFoam/RAS/SandiaD_LTS
tutorials/combustion/reactingFoam/laminar/counterFlowFlame2DLTS_GRI_TDAC
tutorials/combustion/reactingFoam/laminar/counterFlowFlame2D_GRI_TDAC
updated to benefit from the new configuration files.
Patch contributed by Francesco Contino
The semiPermeableBaffleMassFraction boundary condition can now calculate
the mass flux as proportional to the difference in mole fraction or
partial pressure. A mass fraction difference driven transfer is also
still possible. An additional keyword, "input" has been added which is
used to select the variable used to calculate the transfer. An example
specification is as follows:
baffle
{
type semiPermeableBaffleMassFraction;
samplePatch membranePipe;
c 0.1;
input massFraction;
value uniform 0;
}
In order to facilitate this, a "W" method to get the molar mass on a
patch has been added to the thermodynamics. To avoid name-clashes,
methods that generate per-species molar masses have been renamed "Wi".
This work was supported by Georg Skillas, at Evonik