Previously the coordinate system functionality was split between
coordinateSystem and coordinateRotation. The coordinateRotation stored
the rotation tensor and handled all tensor transformations.
The functionality has now been revised and consolidated into the
coordinateSystem classes. The sole purpose of coordinateRotation
is now just to provide a selectable mechanism of how to define the
rotation tensor (eg, axis-angle, euler angles, local axes) for user
input, but after providing the appropriate rotation tensor it has
no further influence on the transformations.
--
The coordinateSystem class now contains an origin and a base rotation
tensor directly and various transformation methods.
- The origin represents the "shift" for a local coordinate system.
- The base rotation tensor represents the "tilt" or orientation
of the local coordinate system in general (eg, for mapping
positions), but may require position-dependent tensors when
transforming vectors and tensors.
For some coordinate systems (currently the cylindrical coordinate system),
the rotation tensor required for rotating a vector or tensor is
position-dependent.
The new coordinateSystem and its derivates (cartesian, cylindrical,
indirect) now provide a uniform() method to define if the rotation
tensor is position dependent/independent.
The coordinateSystem transform and invTransform methods are now
available in two-parameter forms for obtaining position-dependent
rotation tensors. Eg,
... = cs.transform(globalPt, someVector);
In some cases it can be useful to use query uniform() to avoid
storage of redundant values.
if (cs.uniform())
{
vector xx = cs.transform(someVector);
}
else
{
List<vector> xx = cs.transform(manyPoints, someVector);
}
Support transform/invTransform for common data types:
(scalar, vector, sphericalTensor, symmTensor, tensor).
====================
Breaking Changes
====================
- These changes to coordinate systems and rotations may represent
a breaking change for existing user coding.
- Relocating the rotation tensor into coordinateSystem itself means
that the coordinate system 'R()' method now returns the rotation
directly instead of the coordinateRotation. The method name 'R()'
was chosen for consistency with other low-level entities (eg,
quaternion).
The following changes will be needed in coding:
Old: tensor rot = cs.R().R();
New: tensor rot = cs.R();
Old: cs.R().transform(...);
New: cs.transform(...);
Accessing the runTime selectable coordinateRotation
has moved to the rotation() method:
Old: Info<< "Rotation input: " << cs.R() << nl;
New: Info<< "Rotation input: " << cs.rotation() << nl;
- Naming consistency changes may also cause code to break.
Old: transformVector()
New: transformPrincipal()
The old method name transformTensor() now simply becomes transform().
====================
New methods
====================
For operations requiring caching of the coordinate rotations, the
'R()' method can be used with multiple input points:
tensorField rots(cs.R(somePoints));
and later
Foam::transformList(rots, someVectors);
The rotation() method can also be used to change the rotation tensor
via a new coordinateRotation definition (issue #879).
The new methods transformPoint/invTransformPoint provide
transformations with an origin offset using Cartesian for both local
and global points. These can be used to determine the local position
based on the origin/rotation without interpreting it as a r-theta-z
value, for example.
================
Input format
================
- Streamline dictionary input requirements
* The default type is cartesian.
* The default rotation type is the commonly used axes rotation
specification (with e1/e2/3), which is assumed if the 'rotation'
sub-dictionary does not exist.
Example,
Compact specification:
coordinateSystem
{
origin (0 0 0);
e2 (0 1 0);
e3 (0.5 0 0.866025);
}
Full specification (also accepts the longer 'coordinateRotation'
sub-dictionary name):
coordinateSystem
{
type cartesian;
origin (0 0 0);
rotation
{
type axes;
e2 (0 1 0);
e3 (0.5 0 0.866025);
}
}
This simplifies the input for many cases.
- Additional rotation specification 'none' (an identity rotation):
coordinateSystem
{
origin (0 0 0);
rotation { type none; }
}
- Additional rotation specification 'axisAngle', which is similar
to the -rotate-angle option for transforming points (issue #660).
For some cases this can be more intuitive.
For example,
rotation
{
type axisAngle;
axis (0 1 0);
angle 30;
}
vs.
rotation
{
type axes;
e2 (0 1 0);
e3 (0.5 0 0.866025);
}
- shorter names (or older longer names) for the coordinate rotation
specification.
euler EulerRotation
starcd STARCDRotation
axes axesRotation
================
Coding Style
================
- use Foam::coordSystem namespace for categories of coordinate systems
(cartesian, cylindrical, indirect). This reduces potential name
clashes and makes a clearer declaration. Eg,
coordSystem::cartesian csys_;
The older names (eg, cartesianCS, etc) remain available via typedefs.
- added coordinateRotations namespace for better organization and
reduce potential name clashes.
Replaced the 'postProcess' argument to the 'write' and 'execute'
functions with the single static member 'postProcess' in the
functionObject base-class.
with the more general and flexible 'postProcess' utility and '-postProcess' solver option
Rationale
---------
Both the 'postProcess' utility and '-postProcess' solver option use the
same extensive set of functionObjects available for data-processing
during the run avoiding the substantial code duplication necessary for
the 'foamCalc' and 'postCalc' utilities and simplifying maintenance.
Additionally consistency is guaranteed between solver data processing
and post-processing.
The functionObjects have been substantially re-written and generalized
to simplify development and encourage contribution.
Configuration
-------------
An extensive set of simple functionObject configuration files are
provided in
OpenFOAM-dev/etc/caseDicts/postProcessing
and more will be added in the future. These can either be copied into
'<case>/system' directory and included into the 'controlDict.functions'
sub-dictionary or included directly from 'etc/caseDicts/postProcessing'
using the '#includeEtc' directive or the new and more convenient
'#includeFunc' directive which searches the
'<etc>/caseDicts/postProcessing' directories for the selected
functionObject, e.g.
functions
{
#includeFunc Q
#includeFunc Lambda2
}
'#includeFunc' first searches the '<case>/system' directory in case
there is a local configuration.
Description of #includeFunc
---------------------------
Specify a functionObject dictionary file to include, expects the
functionObject name to follow (without quotes).
Search for functionObject dictionary file in
user/group/shipped directories.
The search scheme allows for version-specific and
version-independent files using the following hierarchy:
- \b user settings:
- ~/.OpenFOAM/\<VERSION\>/caseDicts/postProcessing
- ~/.OpenFOAM/caseDicts/postProcessing
- \b group (site) settings (when $WM_PROJECT_SITE is set):
- $WM_PROJECT_SITE/\<VERSION\>/caseDicts/postProcessing
- $WM_PROJECT_SITE/caseDicts/postProcessing
- \b group (site) settings (when $WM_PROJECT_SITE is not set):
- $WM_PROJECT_INST_DIR/site/\<VERSION\>/caseDicts/postProcessing
- $WM_PROJECT_INST_DIR/site/caseDicts/postProcessing
- \b other (shipped) settings:
- $WM_PROJECT_DIR/etc/caseDicts/postProcessing
An example of the \c \#includeFunc directive:
\verbatim
#includeFunc <funcName>
\endverbatim
postProcess
-----------
The 'postProcess' utility and '-postProcess' solver option provide the
same set of controls to execute functionObjects after the run either by
reading a specified set of fields to process in the case of
'postProcess' or by reading all fields and models required to start the
run in the case of '-postProcess' for each selected time:
postProcess -help
Usage: postProcess [OPTIONS]
options:
-case <dir> specify alternate case directory, default is the cwd
-constant include the 'constant/' dir in the times list
-dict <file> read control dictionary from specified location
-field <name> specify the name of the field to be processed, e.g. U
-fields <list> specify a list of fields to be processed, e.g. '(U T p)' -
regular expressions not currently supported
-func <name> specify the name of the functionObject to execute, e.g. Q
-funcs <list> specify the names of the functionObjects to execute, e.g.
'(Q div(U))'
-latestTime select the latest time
-newTimes select the new times
-noFunctionObjects
do not execute functionObjects
-noZero exclude the '0/' dir from the times list, has precedence
over the -withZero option
-parallel run in parallel
-region <name> specify alternative mesh region
-roots <(dir1 .. dirN)>
slave root directories for distributed running
-time <ranges> comma-separated time ranges - eg, ':10,20,40:70,1000:'
-srcDoc display source code in browser
-doc display application documentation in browser
-help print the usage
pimpleFoam -postProcess -help
Usage: pimpleFoam [OPTIONS]
options:
-case <dir> specify alternate case directory, default is the cwd
-constant include the 'constant/' dir in the times list
-dict <file> read control dictionary from specified location
-field <name> specify the name of the field to be processed, e.g. U
-fields <list> specify a list of fields to be processed, e.g. '(U T p)' -
regular expressions not currently supported
-func <name> specify the name of the functionObject to execute, e.g. Q
-funcs <list> specify the names of the functionObjects to execute, e.g.
'(Q div(U))'
-latestTime select the latest time
-newTimes select the new times
-noFunctionObjects
do not execute functionObjects
-noZero exclude the '0/' dir from the times list, has precedence
over the -withZero option
-parallel run in parallel
-postProcess Execute functionObjects only
-region <name> specify alternative mesh region
-roots <(dir1 .. dirN)>
slave root directories for distributed running
-time <ranges> comma-separated time ranges - eg, ':10,20,40:70,1000:'
-srcDoc display source code in browser
-doc display application documentation in browser
-help print the usage
The functionObjects to execute may be specified on the command-line
using the '-func' option for a single functionObject or '-funcs' for a
list, e.g.
postProcess -func Q
postProcess -funcs '(div(U) div(phi))'
In the case of 'Q' the default field to process is 'U' which is
specified in and read from the configuration file but this may be
overridden thus:
postProcess -func 'Q(Ua)'
as is done in the example above to calculate the two forms of the divergence of
the velocity field. Additional fields which the functionObjects may depend on
can be specified using the '-field' or '-fields' options.
The 'postProcess' utility can only be used to execute functionObjects which
process fields present in the time directories. However, functionObjects which
depend on fields obtained from models, e.g. properties derived from turbulence
models can be executed using the '-postProcess' of the appropriate solver, e.g.
pisoFoam -postProcess -func PecletNo
or
sonicFoam -postProcess -func MachNo
In this case all required fields will have already been read so the '-field' or
'-fields' options are not be needed.
Henry G. Weller
CFD Direct Ltd.
