These are introduced patches which do not correspond to any existing patches and
instead "cut" the internal mesh, thus requiring mapping from the internal mesh
fields rather than the patch fields. Cutting patches are specified using the
optional 'cuttingPatches' keyword, e.g. in dynamicMeshDict:
topoChanger
{
type meshToMesh;
libs ("libmeshToMeshTopoChanger.so");
cuttingPatches (splitter);
times (0.5 1.0);
timeDelta 1e-6;
}
This utility now always creates two patches, and only creates duplicate
faces when they connect to different cells and point in opposite
directions. Now that ACMI has been removed, there is no need to create
duplicate faces on the same cell and with similar orientations. This is
unituitive and is now considered an invalid mesh topology.
The preferred syntax for createBaffles is now as follows:
internalFacesOnly true;
baffles
{
cyclics
{
type faceZone;
zoneName cyclicFaces;
owner
{
name cyclicLeft;
type cyclic;
neighbourPatch cyclicRight;
}
neighbour
{
name cyclicRight;
type cyclic;
neighbourPatch cyclicLeft;
}
}
}
Note that the 'patches' sub-dictionary is not needed any more; the
'owner' and 'neighbour' sub-dictionaries can be in the same dictionary
as the parameters with which faces are selected. For backwards
compatibility, however, a 'patches' sub-dictionary is still permitted,
as are keywords 'master' and 'slave' (in place of 'owner' and
'neighbour', respectively).
The 'patchPairs' syntax has been removed. Whilst consise, this syntax
made a number of assumptions and decisions regarding naming conventions
that were not sufficiently intuitive for the user to understand without
extensive reference to the code. If identical boundaries are desired on
both sides of the patch, dictionary substitution provides a more
intuitive way of minimising the amount of specifiection required. For
example, to create two back-to-back walls, the following specification
could be used:
internalFacesOnly true;
fields true;
baffles
{
walls
{
type faceZone;
zoneName wallFaces;
owner
{
name baffleWallLeft;
type wall;
patchFields
{
p
{
type zeroGradient;
}
U
{
type noSlip;
}
}
}
neighbour
{
name baffleWallRight;
$owner; // <-- Use the same settings as for the owner
}
}
}
This boundary condition no longer stores its own mapping. It now has to
be applied to a mapped wall (or equivalent) patch, which does the
mapping for it. This ensures that mapping information is shared between
multiple fields, and that redundant copies are not generated.
For a single particle phase the divDevTau term in fvSchemes is now specified
thus:
divDevTau(U.particles) Gauss linear;
previously:
div((((thermo:rho.particles*nut.particles)*dev2(T(grad(U.particles))))+(((thermo:rho.particles*lambda.particles)*div(phi.particles))*I))) Gauss linear;
The sub mesh on which mesh fluxes are corrected potentially only exists
on a small subset of the processors. This was causing issues when
processor boundaries were evaluated as this triggered the construction
of weights and delta coefficients on only some of the processors,
causing a communications missmatch. This has been resolved by a
pre-emptive call to construct the surface interpolation coefficients.
to ensure complex BCs are selected and initialised correctly.
All mixture fields are now constructed and read as required in the construction
of the liquid (phase 1) mixtureKEpsilon model to ensure they are read before
time-increment and possible mesh topology change.
The 'pointSync' setting in createPatchDict is now optional and defaults
to false. This setting is very rarely used. A number of unused
'createPatchDict' files have also been removed and obsolete information
has been removed from the annotated example dictionaries.
The mesh will now be written only for the write time following mesh-motion or
topology change (refinement/unrefinement, mesh-to-mesh mapping, load-balancing
etc.) and not for all subsequent time-steps as it did previously. This reduces
storage and reconstruction effort of changing mesh cases.
When cloning a case, users can copy the field data from the
from the latest time directory in the source case, using
the -latestTime option.
The -startFrom option enables the copied time directory to be
renamed, often as the '0' (zero) directory in the new case, e.g.
foamCloneCase -latestTime -startFrom 0 sourceCase newCase
When the time directories in the source and new cases are
different, the uniform directory and flux field "phi" are
deleted from the copied time directory to avoid incorrect
initial state.
This utility can now add boundary conditions to fields which correspond
to the non-conformal patches that it adds to the mesh. This action is
enabled by means of a 'fields true;' flag which can be added to the
'system/createNonConformalCouplesDict'. No additional control is needed,
because all patches created by this utility are of constraint type.
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.
The following examples in the tutorials ($FOAM_TUTORIALS) directory have
been converted from using AMI to the new NCC system:
+ compressible/rhoPimpleFoam/RAS/annularThermalMixer
+ incompressible/pimpleFoam/RAS/propeller
+ lagrangian/particleFoam/mixerVessel2D (formerly mixerVesselAMI2D)
+ multiphase/interFoam/RAS/mixerVessel
+ multiphase/interFoam/RAS/propeller
+ multiphase/multiphaseEulerFoam/laminar/mixerVessel2D (formerly mixerVesselAMI2D)
The following tutorial has been converted from using ACMI:
+ incompressible/pimpleFoam/RAS/oscillatingInlet
The following tutorial has been converted from using Repeat AMI:
+ incompressible/pimpleFoam/RAS/impeller
The following tutorial has been added to demonstrate NCC's ability to
create a sufficiently conservative solution in a closed domain to
maintain phase fraction boundedness:
+ multiphase/interFoam/laminar/mixerVessel2D
The following tutorials have been added to demonstrate NCC's ability to
simulate partially overlapping couples on curved surfaces:
+ incompressible/pimpleFoam/RAS/ballValve
+ multiphase/compressibleInterFoam/RAS/ballValve
The following tutorial has been added to provide a simple comparison of
the conservation behaviour of AMI and NCC:
+ incompressible/pimpleFoam/laminar/nonConformalChannel
The following tutorial has been removed, as there were sufficiently many
examples involving this geometry:
+ incompressible/pimpleFoam/laminar/mixerVesselAMI2D
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.
// Dispersed phase velocity
// const volVectorField Ud(mixture_.U() + Udm_);
// Use the mixture rather than the dispersed-phase velocity to approximate
// the dispersed-phase acceleration to improve stability as only the mixture
// momentum equation is coupled to continuity and pressure
//
// This approximation is valid only in the limit of small drift-velocity.
// For large drift-velocity an Euler-Euler approach should be used in
// which both the continuous and dispersed-phase momentum equations are
// solved and coupled to the pressure.
const volVectorField& Ud = mixture_.U();
return g_ - (Ud & fvc::grad(Ud));
This control forces writing of surfaces, even when they have no faces.
This can be useful for smoothly animating isoSurfaces that do not exist
at all write times.
It can be used to force writing of an isoSurface in the following way,
in system/controlDict:
functions
{
#includeFunc isoSurface
(
isoField=alpha.water,
isoValue=0.5,
writeEmpty=yes
)
}
