SIMPLEC (SIMPLE-consistent) is selected by setting "consistent" option true/yes:
SIMPLE
{
nNonOrthogonalCorrectors 0;
consistent yes;
}
which relaxes the pressure in a "consistent" manner and additional
relaxation of the pressure is not generally necessary. In addition
convergence of the p-U system is better and reliable with less
aggressive relaxation of the momentum equation, e.g. for the motorbike
tutorial:
relaxationFactors
{
equations
{
U 0.9;
k 0.7;
omega 0.7;
}
}
The cost per iteration is marginally higher but the convergence rate is
better so the number of iterations can be reduced.
The SIMPLEC algorithm also provides benefit for cases with large
body-forces, e.g. SRF, see tutorials/incompressible/SRFSimpleFoam/mixer
and feature request http://www.openfoam.org/mantisbt/view.php?id=1714
Command-line option handling:
+ If -all specified or no refineMeshDict exists or, refine all cells
+ If -dict <file> specified refine according to <file>
+ If refineMeshDict exists refine according to refineMeshDict
When the refinement or all cells is selected apply 3D refinement for 3D
cases and 2D refinement for 2D cases.
Rather than forcing the dispersed-phase velocity -> the continuous-phase
velocity as the phase-fraction -> 0 the velocity is now calculated from
a balance of pressure, buoyancy and drag forces. The advantage is now
liquid or particles are not carried out of bubble-column of
fluidised-beds by the fictitious drag caused by forcing the
phase-velocities becoming equal in the limit.
nLimiterIter: Number of iterations during limiter construction
3 (default) is sufficient for 3D simulations with a Courant number 0.5 or so
For larger Courant numbers larger values may be needed but this is
only relevant for IMULES and CMULES
smoothLimiter: Coefficient to smooth the limiter to avoid "diamond"
staggering patters seen in regions of low particle phase-fraction in
fluidised-bed simulations.
The default is 0 as it is not needed for all simulations.
A value of 0.1 is appropriate for fluidised-bed simulations.
The useful range is 0 -> 0.5.
Values larger than 0.5 may cause excessive smearing of the solution.
This formulation provides C-grid like pressure-flux staggering on an
unstructured mesh which is hugely beneficial for Euler-Euler multiphase
equations as it allows for all forces to be treated in a consistent
manner on the cell-faces which provides better balance, stability and
accuracy. However, to achieve face-force consistency the momentum
transport terms must be interpolated to the faces reducing accuracy of
this part of the system but this is offset by the increase in accuracy
of the force-balance.
Currently it is not clear if this face-based momentum equation
formulation is preferable for all Euler-Euler simulations so I have
included it on a switch to allow evaluation and comparison with the
previous cell-based formulation. To try the new algorithm simply switch
it on, e.g.:
PIMPLE
{
nOuterCorrectors 3;
nCorrectors 1;
nNonOrthogonalCorrectors 0;
faceMomentum yes;
}
It is proving particularly good for bubbly flows, eliminating the
staggering patterns often seen in the air velocity field with the
previous algorithm, removing other spurious numerical artifacts in the
velocity fields and improving stability and allowing larger time-steps
For particle-gas flows the advantage is noticeable but not nearly as
pronounced as in the bubbly flow cases.
Please test the new algorithm on your cases and provide feedback.
Henry G. Weller
CFD Direct
For multi-region cases the default location of blockMeshDict is now system/<region name>
If the blockMeshDict is not found in system then the constant directory
is also checked providing backward-compatibility
Improves stability and convergence of systems in which drag dominates
e.g. small particles in high-speed gas flow.
Additionally a new ddtPhiCorr strategy is included in which correction
is applied only where the phases are nearly pure. This reduces
staggering patters near the free-surface of bubble-column simulations.
