The functionality provided by 'cyclicACMI' and 'cyclicRepeatAMI' has
been entirely superseded by non-conformal coupled (NCC). All references
to 'cyclicACMI' and 'cyclicRepeatAMI' have therefore been removed.
See previous commits 569fa31d and 420866cf for more explanation,
instructions on updating, and relevant tutorial cases.
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.
This new constraint type is preferable to the 'empty' type used previously as it
support patch field values for post-processing and other purposes.
The internalFvPatchField operates as a 'zeroGradient' type so that the adjacent
cell values are displayed on the faces exposed by the sub-setting.
The internalFvsPatchField operates as a 'calculated' type so that the internal
face values are displayed on the faces exposed by the sub-setting.
The immediate benefit of this change can be seen when using 'subsetMesh' without
the '-noFields' option to create and write a sub-set of an 'fvMesh' with field
values, now the face values of the 'exposed' internal faces can be visualised.
All of the film transport equations are now formulated with respect to the film
volume fraction in the region cell layer rather than the film thickness which
ensures mass conservation of the film even as it flows over curved surfaces and
around corners. (In the previous formulation the conservation error could be as
large as 15% for a film flowing around a corner.)
The film Courant number is now formulated in terms of the film cell volumetric
flux which avoids the stabilised division by the film thickness and provides a
more reliable estimate for time-step evaluation. As a consequence the film
solution is substantially more robust even though the time-step is now
significantly higher. For film flow dominated problem the simulations now runs
10-30x faster.
The inconsistent extended PISO controls have been replaced by the standard
PIMPLE control system used in all other flow solvers, providing consistent
input, a flexible structure and easier maintenance.
The momentum corrector has been re-formulated to be consistent with the momentum
predictor so the optional PIMPLE outer-corrector loop converges which it did not
previously.
nonuniformTransformCyclic patches and corresponding fields are no longer needed
and have been removed which paves the way for a future rationalisation of the
handling of cyclic transformations in OpenFOAM to improve robustness, usability
and maintainability.
Film sources have been simplified to avoid the need for fictitious boundary
conditions, in particular mappedFixedPushedInternalValueFvPatchField which has
been removed.
Film variables previously appended with an "f" for "film" rather than "face"
have been renamed without the unnecessary and confusing "f" as they are
localised to the film region and hence already directly associated with it.
All film tutorials have been updated to test and demonstrate the developments
and improvements listed above.
Henry G. Weller
CFD Direct Ltd.
The writeEntry form is now defined and used consistently throughout OpenFOAM
making it easier to use and extend, particularly to support binary IO of complex
dictionary entries.
A new constraint patch has been added which permits AMI coupling in
cyclic geometries. The coupling is repeated with different multiples of
the cyclic transformation in order to achieve a full correspondence.
This allows, for example, a cylindrical AMI interface to be used in a
sector of a rotational geometry.
The patch is used in a similar manner to cyclicAMI, except that it has
an additional entry, "transformPatch". This entry must name a coupled
patch. The transformation used to repeat the AMI coupling is taken from
this patch. For example, in system/blockMeshDict:
boundary
(
cyclic1
{
type cyclic;
neighbourPatch cyclic2;
faces ( ... );
}
cyclic2
{
type cyclic;
neighbourPatch cyclic1;
faces ( ... );
}
cyclicRepeatAMI1
{
type cyclicRepeatAMI;
neighbourPatch cyclicRepeatAM2;
transformPatch cyclic1;
faces ( ... );
}
cyclicRepeatAMI2
{
type cyclicRepeatAMI;
neighbourPatch cyclicRepeatAMI1;
transformPatch cyclic1;
faces ( ... );
}
// other patches ...
);
In this example, the transformation between cyclic1 and cyclic2 is used
to define the repetition used by the two cyclicRepeatAMI patches.
Whether cyclic1 or cyclic2 is listed as the transform patch is not
important.
A tutorial, incompressible/pimpleFoam/RAS/impeller, has been added to
demonstrate the functionality. This contains two repeating AMI pairs;
one cylindrical and one planar.
A significant amount of maintenance has been carried out on the AMI and
ACMI patches as part of this work. The AMI methods now return
dimensionless weights by default, which prevents ambiguity over the
units of the weight field during construction. Large amounts of
duplicate code have also been removed by deriving ACMI classes from
their AMI equivalents. The reporting and writing of AMI weights has also
been unified.
This work was supported by Dr Victoria Suponitsky, at General Fusion
