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OpenFOAM step by step tutorial

Technical Report · April 2015

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Victor Pozzobon
Ecole Centrale Paris
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 OpenFOAM tutorial

OpenFOAM tutorial
Discover it, tame it, use it

by Victor Pozzobon
([email protected])

14th March 2016 Version 1.02

 Disclaimer

“This offering is not approved or endorsed by

OpenCFD Limited, the producer of the
OpenFOAM software and owner of the
OPENFOAM® and OpenCFD® trade marks.”

14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 2

 Introduction

● This tutorial is a brief introduction to

OpenFOAM
● This document is a step by step guide
● It was done to be used on its own, there should
be no need for a presenter (myself)
● It was designed for OpenFOAM 3.0.1 (changes
may appear in superior versions)

14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 3

 OpenFOAM

● OpenFOAM (Open Field Operation And

Manipulation) is a versatile equations solver
● Why do I use OpenFOAM ?
- free
- powerful
- opensource
- allows a lot of freedom
- no GUI (helps to focus on the equations)

14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 4

 How to use this tutorial

● Almost every command will passed through the

temrinal. For example, when you see:
gedit system/controlDict
you type it in the terminal
● As OpenFOAM has no GUI, we will modify files.
For example, when you see this kind of picture:
modify the file so that
its content is the same
before you save it

14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 5

 Battle plan

● Ex. 1: Cavity ● Ex. 6: Tubular reactor

- getting started - solver modifying (1/2)
● Ex. 2: Square tube ● Ex. 7: Tubular reactor
- mesh manipulation - solver modifying (2/2)
- steady state
● Ex. 8: Heating pipe
● Ex. 3: 1D beam - custom boundary
- 1D problem condition
- transient
● Ex. 9: Cake backing
● Ex. 4: 2D flat plate - field affectation
- 2D problem
● Ex. 10: Tank filling
● Ex. 5: 2D pipe - importing a mesh
- axisymmetric problem - run in parallel
14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 6
 Ex. 1: Cavity - Objectives

● Accessing your work directory

● Accessing OpenFOAM tutorials
● Understanding case architecture
● Running your first OpenFOAM case
● Postprocessing with ParaFoam: data modifying,
line date / point data extraction

14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 7

 Ex. 1: Cavity - Run

● To access your directory type in a terminal:

run
● To get the full path type:
pwd
● You will see:
/home/YourName/OpenFOAM/YourName-OpenFOAMVersion/run

14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 8

 Ex. 1: Cavity - Tutorials

● To copy official tutorials to your run:

cp -r $FOAM_TUTORIALS Tutorials
● Go to the case directory:
cd Tutorials/incompressible/icoFoam/cavity

14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 9

 Ex. 1: Cavity - Architecture
Case directory
Initial conditions directory
Pressure / Velocity initial conditions

Mesh directory
Mesh instructions

Physical properties values

Solving parameters directory

Parameters file
14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 10
 Ex. 1: Cavity – Run the case

● Once in 'cavity' directory, create the mesh:

blockMesh
● Call the solver:
icoFoam
(you can note that the solver created several
directories e.g. '0.1'. These directories contain
data for a given time)
● Watch the results:
paraFoam

14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 11

 Ex. 1: Cavity – Postprocessing

Data analysis pipeline

Load the case

Load geometric fields

Load the fields

14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 12
 Ex. 1: Cavity – Postprocessing
Current
time
step

Plotted Observation tools

data
Plot Rescale
legend legend Time
step
tool
Legend

Scene

14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 13

 Ex. 1: Cavity – Postprocessing

● Make it look shinier:

Filters / Alphabetical / Cell data to point data
● Calculate something:
Filters / Common / Calculator OR
● Extract profiles:
Filters / Data Analysis / Plot Over Line
● Extract histories:
Filters / Data Analysis / Plot Selection Over Time

14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 14

 Battle plan

● From Ex. 2 to Ex. 5, we are going to learn how

to use existing solvers in different
configurations.
● We are going to set 3D, 2D planar, 2D
axisymmetrical and 1D cases
● We are going to explore postprocessor basic
functions

14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 15

 Ex. 2: Square tube - Objectives

● Creating your own case

● Creating a mesh
● Specifying initial / boundary conditions
● Specifying physical properties values
● Solving a steady state problem
● Postprocessing with ParaFoam: integrating
variable / checking mass conservation

14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 16

 Ex. 2: Square tube – Case setup

● Solving steady state incompressible

Navier-Stokes equation, in a fourth of a square
pipe
⃗
dU p 2
⃗ ⃗
+ U ∇ . U =−∇ ρ +η ∇ U⃗
dt

2 cm 20 cm

14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 17

 Ex. 2: Square tube – A new case

● Go to your 'run' directory:

run
● Copy an existing case:
cp -r
$FOAM_TUTORIALS/incompressible/simpleFoam/pitzDaily/ Ex2
● Move to the case directory:
cd Ex2
● Open the mesh file:
gedit system/blockMeshDict

14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 18

 Ex. 2: Square tube – A new mesh

● A fourth of a square tube with symmetry plane

● Points have to be prescribed in order to bluid a
mesh (consider doing a sketch) 5 6 x

Wall 2
7 1
4
Inlet Outlet
y
Symmetry
0 3
14th March 2016 plane Pozzobon Victor 19
 Ex. 2: Square tube – A new mesh

● Beware, the
points are to be Scaling
prescribed in factor
order not to
back cross a line Block division
● Do (0 4 7 3) along axis
Points
locations Division grading
4 7

0 3 Points needed to
14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor build a block 20
 Ex. 2: Square tube – A new mesh
Face
● Avoid (0 3 4 7) name
4 7

Face
type

0 3 Point sequence
delimiting the
face
Wall
Inlet Outlet

14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 21

 Ex. 2: Square tube – A new mesh

● Compile your mesh:

blockMesh
● Check its quality:
checkMesh

14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 22

 Ex. 2: Square tube – Turbulence
model and parameters
● Choose the turbulence
model. In this case, there
is no turbulence:
gedit constant/turbulenceProperties
● Because we disabled the
turbulence, there will
be no need to specify:
epsilon, k, nut and nuTilda
fields:
rm 0/epsilon 0/k 0/nut 0/nuTilda
0/f 0/omega 0/v2

14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 23

 Ex. 2: Square tube – IC / BC

● Open initial / boundary conditions files in the

'0' directory:
gedit 0/p
gedit 0/U
Physical field

Physical field unit

[ kg m s K mol A Cd]
Initial condition

Boundary condition
on 'inlet' patch
14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 24
 Ex. 2: Square tube – IC / BC, p

● Open initial / boundary

conditions for the pressure
field

Field type, here

scalar

14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 25

 Ex. 2: Square tube – IC / BC, U

● Open initial / boundary

conditions for the velocity
field

Field type, here

vector

14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 26

 Ex. 2: Square tube – Setting values

● Open transportProperties
file, this is where physical
properties value (e.g.
viscosity) are specified:
gedit constant/transportProperties

Property name
Property dimension
[ kg m s K mol A Cd]
Property value
Subdictionaries for some viscosity laws,
can be removed in our case
14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 27
 Ex. 2: Square tube – Control values

● Open case control file:

gedit system/controlDict
● Erase the “functions” and
below

End time = maximum

number of iteration

Constant “time step”

equals to 1

14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 28

 Ex. 2: Square tube – Control values

● In steady state, the maximum number of

iteration is prescribed using “endTime”. Yet, there
is no variation in time. It is a “trick”, nothing
more

Data are extracted every

50 iterations

14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 29

 Ex. 2: Square tube – Run the case

● The mesh has already been built, so let's run

the case:
simpleFoam
(it should converge in about 20 iterations)
● Have a look at the results:
paraFoam

14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 30

 Ex. 2: Square tube – Postprocessing

● Check mass conservation:

Filters / Common / Slice
Filters / Data Analysis / Integrate Variables
● Check velocity profile:
Filters / Data Analysis / Plot Over Line

14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 31

 Ex. 3: 1D beam - Objectives

● Setting a 1D case
● Solving a transient problem
● Postprocessing with ParaFOAM: importing
variables (other than p and U)

14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 32

 Ex. 3: 1D beam – Case setup

● Solving transient heat conduction a 1D beam

dT 2
=α ∇ T
dt Symmetry
planes

Hot side Cold side

20 cm

14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 33

 Ex. 3: 1D beam – Case creation

● Reach 'run' directory:

run
● Copy an existing heat transfer case:
cp -r $FOAM_TUTORIALS/basic/laplacianFoam/flange Ex3
cd Ex3
● Clean the case directory:
rm Allclean Allrun flange.ans
● Copy Ex2 mesh:
cp ../Ex2/system/blockMeshDict system/.

14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 34

 Ex. 3: 1D beam – Modifying mesh

● Modify file:
gedit system/blockMeshDict
● Build mesh:
blockMesh

14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 35

 Ex. 3: 1D beam – IC / BC

● Modify temperature file:

gedit 0/T

14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 36

 Ex. 3: 1D beam – Diffusivity

● Modify transport property

file:
gedit constant/transportProperties

14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 37

 Ex. 3: 1D beam – Control value

● Modify control dictionary:

gedit system/controlDict
● Run the case:
laplacianFoam
● Postprocess the case:
paraFoam

14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 38

 Ex. 3: 1D beam – Postprocessing

● Check T, as a 'Volume field' when loading data

14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 39

 Ex. 4: 2D flat plate - Objectives

● Setting a 2D case
● Building a 2 block mesh
● Changing convergence criterion
● Postprocessing with ParaFoam: plotting
streamlines

14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 40

 Ex. 4: 2D flat plate – Case setup

● Solving incompressible air flow above a flat

plate, in steady state
⃗
dU p 2 ⃗
⃗ ⃗
+ U ∇ . U =−∇ ρ +η∇ U
dt
3m

2m

2m
14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 41
 Ex. 4: 2D flat plate – Case creation

● Reach 'run' directory:

run
● Copy an existing case:
cp -r Ex2 Ex4
cd Ex4
● Clean the case directory:
rm -r 0.* 1* 2* 3* 4* 5* 6* 7* 8* 9*
(consider creating an alias)

14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 42

 Ex. 4: 2D flat plate – Mesh

● We will create a mesh made of two blocks.

●
Modify file: gedit system/blockMeshDict
Top

Inlet Outlet

Symmetry
wall
Block 1
Down Plate
Block 2
14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 43
 Ex. 4: 2D flat plate – Creating mesh

● Create the two blocks

●
blockMesh will
merge them

14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 44

 Ex. 4: 2D flat plate – Creating mesh

● Set the faces

● Build mesh:
blockMesh

14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 45

 Ex. 4: 2D flat plate – IC / BC

● Modify velocity file:

gedit 0/U

14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 46

 Ex. 4: 2D flat plate – IC / BC

● Modify pressure file:

gedit 0/p

14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 47

 Ex. 4: 2D flat plate – Viscosity

● Modify the kinematic viscosity:

gedit constant/transportProperties

14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 48

 Ex. 4: 2D flat plate – Convergence

● Modify pressure / velocity convergence criteria:

gedit system/fvSolution
● In this case, there are a
lot of options. Some
solvers are much
simpler

Solver
Solved type and
field options
14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 49
 Ex. 4: 2D flat plate – Convergence

● Simulations can be stopped automatically once

residues values have been reached
● For 2D cases, the unsolved
component of the velocity
vector prevents the solver from
reaching the tolerance most of
time. Therefore, a number of
iterations has to be
prescribed

Residues values
set for convergence
14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 50
 Ex. 4: 2D flat plate – Run the case

● The mesh has already been built

● The controlDict has not changed from Ex2. The solver
will run for 100 iterations. It is enough to get the
residues below 10-6
gedit system/controlDict
● Run the case:
simpleFoam
● Have a look at the results:
paraFoam

14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 51

 Ex. 4: 2D flat plate – Postprocessing

● Lower the first scene opacity:

'Click on the filter' / Display / Styling / Opacity
● Plot the streamline from the inlet:
Filters / Common / Stream Tracer
● Set streamlines' sources as a line, not a point:
'Click on stream tracer' / Properties / Seeds / Seed type =>
High resolution line source
● Set the line you want using the coordinates

14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 52

 Ex. 4: 2D flat plate – Postprocessing

14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 53

 Ex. 5: 2D pipe - Objectives

● Creating a 2D axisymmetrical mesh

● Nothing fancy ...

14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 54

 Ex. 5: 2D pipe – Case setup

● Solving incompressible flow in a 2D

axisymmetrical pipe, in steady state
⃗
dU p 2 ⃗
⃗ ⃗
+ U ∇ . U =−∇ ρ +η∇ U
dt 10 cm

1 cm

14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 55

 Ex. 5: 2D pipe – Case creation

● Reach 'run' directory:

run
● Copy an existing heat transfer case:
cp -r Ex2 Ex5
● Go to the new case directory:
cd Ex5
● Clean the case directory:
rm -r 0.* 1* 2* 3* 4* 5* 6* 7* 8* 9*

14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 56

 Ex. 5: 2D pipe – Mesh

● Modify file: gedit system/blockMeshDict

Axis
Outlet

Inlet
5°
Front and
Back
Wall
14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 57
 Ex. 5: 2D pipe – Block creation

● Draw a wegde,
with a 5° angle
(twice 2.5°)
● Points 1, 2 and 3 are
not used to build the cos(2.5°)
geometry. OpenFOAM
uses them to define sin(2.5°)
x, y and z directions :
- point 0 to point 1 = x
- point 1 to point 2 = y
- point 0 to point 4 = z
14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 58
 Ex. 5: 2D pipe – Patches creation

● In order to do things
by the book, create
two 'wedge' patches
(here, 'front' and
'back')
● It would have worked
with only one, but
checkMesh would have
returned an error

14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 59

 Ex. 5: 2D pipe – IC / BC p

● Set pressure boundary /

initial conditions:
gedit 0/p

14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 60

 Ex. 5: 2D pipe – IC / BC U

● Set veolicty boundary /

initial conditions:
gedit 0/U

14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 61

 Ex. 5: 2D pipe – Run the case

● (As usual now) The mesh has already been built,

the controlDict has not changed from Ex2. As for
Ex4, we have to set the desired number of
iterations:
gedit system/controlDict
● So let's run the case:
simpleFoam
● Have a look at the results:
paraFoam

14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 62

 Ex. 5: 2D pipe – Postprocessing

● E.g. check velocity profile

14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 63

 Battle plan

● We have used two different builtin solvers

(icoFoam, simpleFoam and laplacianFoam)
● We have set cases in 3D, 2D planar, 2D
axisymmetrical and 1D configurations
● We have learnt how to process data with
Paraview (paraFoam)
● We are going to learn how to solve our own
equations and set fancy cases

14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 64

 Ex. 6: Tubular reactor – Objectives

● Create our own solver

● Use basic operators
● Create the associated case

14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 65

 Ex. 6: Tubular reactor – Case setup

● 1D tubular reactor with heterogeneous catalysis

on porous media without chemical reaction in
steady state / hydrodynamics only

⃗ =0
∇ .U ⃗ = −κ
U μ ∇p ∇ 2 p=0

Symmetry
planes
Inlet Outlet

100 cm
14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 66
 Ex. 6: Tubular reactor – Solver
directory creation
● Reach 'run' directory:
run
● Create a solver directory:
mkdir solvers
● Copy an existing solver:
cp -r $FOAM_APP/solvers/basic/laplacianFoam solvers/.
● Rename the solver directory:
mv solvers/laplacianFoam solvers/tubeFoam

14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 67

 Ex. 6: Tubular reactor – Solver
cleaning up
● Move to solver directory:
cd solvers/tubeFoam
● Clean the directory:
wclean
rm write.H
● Rename the file:
mv laplacianFoam.C tubeFoam.C

14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 68

 Ex. 6: Tubular reactor – Solver
modification
● Modify compilation file:
gedit Make/files
● You can specify compilation options:
gedit Make/options
(None need to be applied here)

14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 69

 Ex. 6: Tubular reactor – Solver
modification / createFields.H
● Modify createFields.H to
create the new fields:
gedit createFields.H

Pressure field
(scalar field)

Velocity field
(vector field)

14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 70

 Ex. 6: Tubular reactor – Solver
modification / createFields.H
● Modify createFields.H to
read the physical
properties:
gedit createFields.H

Physical property
called 'Mu'

14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 71

 Ex. 6: Tubular reactor – Solver
modification / tubeFoam.C
● Modify tubeFoam.C
to specify the
equations that will
be solved:
gedit tubeFoam.C
Time loop
Correction loop
(not mandatory)

Solved equations
(implicit '=0')

14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 72

 Ex. 6: Tubular reactor – Solver
compilation
● Clean the directory and compile:
wclean; wmake
● If you get an error, here is what to do:
1. Read the expection message
2. Get error file and line number

Error file
and line number

3. Take care of it

14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 73

 Ex. 6: Tubular reactor – Case
creation
● Now that the solver has been compiled, let's create
the case we are going to solve. Since it is a 1D
case, copy Ex3 (1D thermal beam) case directory:
run
cp -r Ex3 Ex6
● Go to the case directory, clean it:
cd Ex6
rm -r 0.* 1* 2* 3* 4* 5* 6* 7* 8* 9*
(consider creating an alias)

14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 74

 Ex. 6: Tubular reactor – Mesh
creation
● Create the mesh:
gedit system
/blockMeshDict

14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 75

 Ex. 6: Tubular reactor – IC / BC

● Build the mesh:

blockMesh
● Create IC / BC files:
mv 0/T 0/p
cp 0/p 0/U
gedit 0/p 0/U

14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 76

 Ex. 6: Tubular reactor – IC / BC
Pressure field Velocity field
(scalar field) (vector field)

14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 77

 Ex. 6: Tubular reactor – Physical
properties
● Modify physical properties file:
gedit contant/transportProperties

14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 78

 Ex. 6: Tubular reactor – Numerical
schemes
● Modify numerical schemes in order to specify a
steady state resolution:
gedit system/fvSchemes

14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 79

 Ex. 6: Tubular reactor – Solver
parameters
● Modify solver parameters:
gedit system/fvSolution
Specify tolerance on pressure equation
as single iteration stopping criterion

Number of correction
iteration (used for non
orthogonal meshes)

Specify tolerance on pressure equation

as simulation stopping criterion

14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 80

 Ex. 6: Tubular reactor – Control
parameters
● Modify solver parameters:
gedit system/controlDict
● In this case, the solver is
only calculating a Laplacian
operator, Thus, a 10-6 residue
is reached quite fast
(2 iterations)

Changing it is not
mandatory

14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 81

 Ex. 6: Tubular reactor – Run it

● Let's run the case:

tubeFoam
● Process it:
paraFoam

14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 82

 Ex. 7: Tubular reactor – Objectives

● Create our own solver with more complex

equations
● Use common operators
● Evolving a case

14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 83

 Ex. 7: Tubular reactor – Case setup

● 1D tubular reactor with chemical reaction, in

transient state A +B=C
dA ⃗ 2
ω=v AB
+ ∇ .( U A)= D ∇ A−ω
dt
dB ⃗ 2
⃗ =0 2
+∇ .( U B)=D ∇ B−ω ∇ .U ∇ p=0
dt
dC ⃗ = −κ
U μ ∇p
2
⃗
+ ∇ .( U C)=D ∇ C +ω Symmetry
dt planes
Inlet Outlet

100 cm
14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 84
 Ex. 7: Tubular reactor – Solver
directory creation
● Reach 'run' directory:
run
● Move to solver directory:
cd solvers
● Copy the existing solver:
cp -r tubeFoam tubeChemFoam
● Move to and clean the directory:
cd tubeChemFoam
wclean

14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 85

 Ex. 7: Tubular reactor – Solver
modification
● Rename the file:
mv tubeFoam.C tubeChemFoam.C
● Modify compilation file:
gedit Make/files

14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 86

 Ex. 7: Tubular reactor – Solver
modification / createFields.H
● Modify createFields.H to create the species fields:
gedit createFields.H

Defined in
the source
14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor code 87
 Ex. 7: Tubular reactor – Solver
modification / createFields.H
● Modify createFields.H to
read the physical
properties:
gedit createFields.H

14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 88

 Ex. 7: Tubular reactor – Solver
modification / tubeChemFoam.C
● Modify
tubeChemFoam.C
to add species fields:
gedit tubeChemFoam.C

Interpolates the
velocity field on the
mesh in order to
later calculate the
divergence operator

14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 89

 Ex. 7: Tubular reactor – Solver
compilation / Case creation
● Clean the directory and compile:
wclean; wmake
● Move to cases directory:
run
● Copy Ex6 directory:
cp -r Ex6 Ex7
● Move to the case directory:
cd Ex7

14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 90

 Ex. 7: Tubular reactor – Case
creation
● Clean the directory:
rm -r 0.* 1* 2* 3* 4* 5* 6* 7* 8* 9*
● Build the mesh:
blockMesh

● Modify physical
properties:
gedit constant/transportPropeties

14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 91

 Ex. 7: Tubular reactor – IC / BC

● Create file for the species fields: A field

cp 0/p 0/A
cp 0/p 0/B
cp 0/p 0/C
● Keep the existing files
for pressure and velocity
● Modify species files:
gedit 0/A
gedit 0/B
gedit 0/C
14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 92
 Ex. 7: Tubular reactor – IC / BC
B field C field

14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 93

 Ex. 7: Tubular reactor – Numerical
schemes
● Set numerical schemes:
gedit system/fvSchemes

14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 94

 Ex. 7: Tubular reactor – Solver
parameters
● Add solvers:
gedit system/fvSolution
● Due to the use of the
divergence, we need to
use asymmetric solvers
for the species fields

14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 95

 Ex. 7: Tubular reactor – Control
parameters
● Add solvers:
gedit system/controlDict
● Run the case:
tubeChemFoam
● Process it:
paraFoam

14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 96

 Ex. 7: Tubular reactor – Nice pics

14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 97

 Ex. 8: Heating pipe – Objectives

● Modify an existing solver

● Create a variating boundary condition
● Evolve a case

14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 98

 Ex. 8: Heating pipe – Case setup

● Solving incompressible flow in a 2D

axisymmetrical pipe with heat transfer , in
steady state
10 cm

1 cm
⃗
dU p 2 ⃗
⃗ ⃗
+ U ∇ . U =−∇ ρ +η∇ U
dt
14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 99
 Ex. 8: Heating pipe – Case setup

● Solving incompressible flow in a 2D

axisymmetrical pipe with heat transfer, in
steady state
dT ⃗ T =−∇ .(−k ∇ T )
ρ Cp +ρ Cp ∇ . U
dt

T inlet = 20 °C

T surrounding = 80 °C
−k ∇ T . ⃗n =−h(T −T sur )
14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 100
 Ex. 8: Heating pipe – Solver
creation
● Reach 'run' directory:
run
● Move to solver directory:
cd solvers
●
Copy simpleFoam:
cp -r $FOAM_APP/solvers/incompressible/simpleFoam .
mv simpleFoam simpleThermFoam
● Move to the new solver directory:
cd simpleThermFoam

14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 101

 Ex. 8: Heating pipe – Solver
creation / modification
● Clean the directory:
rm -r porousSimpleFoam/ SRFSimpleFoam/ simpleFoam.dep
● Clean the directory:
wclean
● Rename icoFoam:
mv simpleFoam.C simpleThermFoam.C
● Change compilation file:
gedit Make/files

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 Ex. 8: Heating pipe – Solver
modification / createFields.H
● Add temperature field
and related physical
properties to createFields.H:
gedit createFields.H

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 Ex. 8: Heating pipe – Solver
modification / createFields.H
● Carry on ...

Loading turbulence
model (we do not
use it in this case)

Add temperature
field

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 Ex. 8: Heating pipe – Solver
modification / createFields.H
● Carry on ...

Loading
transportProperties
dictionary

Loading physical values

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 Ex. 8: Heating pipe – Solver
modification / simpleThermFoam.C
● Modify solver to add temperature equation:
gedit simpleThermFoam.C

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 Ex. 8: Heating pipe – Solver
compilation / boundary condition
● Clean the directory and compile:
wclean; wmake
● Move to cases directory:
run
● Create a directory to store boundary condition:
mkdir boundaryConditions
● Move to this directory:
cd boundaryConditions

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 Ex. 8: Heating pipe – Create
boundary condition
● Copy an existing boundary condition:
cp -r
$FOAM_SRC/finiteVolume/fields/fvPatchFields/derived/tot
alTemperature convectiveHeatFlux
● Move to the convectiveHeatFlux directory and
clean it (if need be):
cd convectiveHeatFlux
rm totalTemperatureFvPatchScalarField.dep

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 Ex. 8: Heating pipe – Modify
boundary condition
● Renane the boundary condition files:
mv totalTemperatureFvPatchScalarField.C
convectiveHeatFluxFvPatchScalarField.C
mv totalTemperatureFvPatchScalarField.H
convectiveHeatFluxFvPatchScalarField.H

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 Ex. 8: Heating pipe – Compilation
rules
● Create Make folder:
mkdir Make
● Create rule files:
gedit Make/files Make/options

files

options

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 Ex. 8: Heating pipe – Modify
boundary condition .H file
● Modify convectiveHeatFluxFvPatchScalarField.H:
gedit convectiveHeatFluxFvPatchScalarField.H
● Replace all “totalTemperature” occurences by
“convectiveHeatFlux” (consider using ctrl + H)

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 Ex. 8: Heating pipe – Modify
boundary condition .H file

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 Ex. 8: Heating pipe – Modify
boundary condition .H file

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 Ex. 8: Heating pipe – Modify
boundary condition .C file
● Modify convectiveHeatFluxFvPatchScalarField.C:
gedit convectiveHeatFluxFvPatchScalarField.C
● Replace all “totalTemperature” occurences by
“convectiveHeatFlux” (consider using ctrl + H)
● Change scalar affection to a gradient
affectation
● Set thermal gradient equation

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 Ex. 8: Heating pipe – Modify
boundary condition .C file

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 Ex. 8: Heating pipe – Modify
boundary condition .C file

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 Ex. 8: Heating pipe – Modify
boundary condition .C file

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 Ex. 8: Heating pipe – Modify
boundary condition .C file

● Compile the boundary condition:

wclean; wmake OR wclean; wmake libso

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 Ex. 8: Heating pipe – Create case
directory
● Move to cases directory:
run
● Copy Ex5 directory:
cp -r Ex5 Ex8
● Move to the case directory:
cd Ex8

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 Ex. 8: Heating pipe – Create case
directory
● Clean the cases directory:
rm -r 0.* 1* 2* 3* 4* 5* 6* 7* 8* 9*
● Modify physical properties:
gedit constant/transportPropeties

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 Ex. 8: Heating pipe – IC / BC

● Create temperature field:

cp 0/p 0/T
● Edit the field:
gedit 0/T

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 Ex. 8: Heating pipe – Solver

● Pick a solver for the temperature field:

gedit system/fvSolution
Deliberately high to
prevent the problem
with the unsolved
component of the
velocity field (cf. Ex 4)

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 Ex. 8: Heating pipe – Schemes

● Choose numerical scheme for temperature

divergence:
gedit system/fvSchemes
● Keep the default
Laplacian scheme

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 Ex. 8: Heating pipe – Specify library
use
● Modify controlDict to specify
the use of convectiveHeatFlux
boundary condition:
gedit system/controlDict
● 1000 iterations maximum
should be enough
(mine converged after
402 iterations)

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 Ex. 8: Heating pipe – Run the case

● Create the mesh:

blockMesh
● Run the case:
simpleThermFoam
● Open paraFoam:
paraFoam

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 Ex. 8: Heating pipe – Process the
case
● Have a look at the temperature field:

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 Ex. 9: Cake baking – Objectives

● Modify an existing solver

● Set a field that depend on another field
● Set custom field
● Use an existing case as initial condition
● We are going to simulate the backing of a cake:
- heating up with chocolate melting (20 min, 180°C)
- cooling down with chocolate solidification (1 hour)

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 Ex. 9: Cake baking – Case setup

● 2D cake backing, with chocolate phase change

dT 1 dC dLC
ρ Cp =−∇ .(−k ∇ T )+Q Q= ( − )Δ H
dt 2 dt dt
−Ea 1
dC RT −Ea T T surrounding = 180 °C
=− A 1 e C + A2 e LC
2

dt −k ∇ T . ⃗n =−h(T −T sur )
−Ea
d LC
1
−Ea T
=−A 2 e LC + A 1 e RT C
2

dt

Chocolate
14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 128
 Ex. 9: Cake baking – Solver
directory creation
● Reach 'run' directory:
run
● Move to solver directory:
cd solvers
● Copy the existing solver:
cp -r tubeFoam cakeFoam
● Move to and clean the directory:
cd cakeFoam
wclean

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 Ex. 9: Cake baking – Set
compilation rules
● Rename tubeFoam:
mv tubeFoam.C cakeFoam.C
● Change compilation file:
gedit Make/files

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 Ex. 9: Cake baking – Modiy
createFields.H
● Modify fields and physical properties:
gedit createFields.H

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 Ex. 9: Cake baking – Modiy
createFields.H

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 Ex. 9: Cake baking – Modify the
solver
● Rename tubeFoam:
gedit cakeFoam.C

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 Ex. 9: Cake baking – Compile the
solver / create case
● Compile the solver:
wclean; wmake
● Move to 'run':
run
● Create the case directory:
cp -r Ex4 Ex9
● Move to the case directory:
cd Ex9

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 Ex. 9: Cake baking – Prepare case

● Clean the case:

rm -r 0.* 1* 2* 3* 4* 5* 6* 7* 8* 9* (I hope you created
that alias)
rm 0/U
● Create fields files:
cp 0/p 0/C
cp 0/p 0/LC
mv 0/p 0/T

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 Ex. 9: Cake baking – Create mesh

● Boundary name and location:

Top

Left

Down Right
SymmetryWall

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 Ex. 9: Cake baking – Create mesh

● Modify the mesh:

gedit system/blochMeshDict

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 Ex. 9: Cake baking – IC / BC

● Modify the mesh:

gedit 0/T

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 Ex. 9: Cake baking – IC / BC

● Modify the mesh:

gedit 0/C

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 Ex. 9: Cake baking – IC / BC

● Modify the mesh:

gedit 0/LC

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 Ex. 9: Cake baking – Chocolate

● We have to specify the position of every

chocolate chip. In this case, only three pieces
will be set. First, copy an existing dictionary:
cp
$FOAM_TUTORIALS/multiphase/interFoam/ras/damBrea
k/system/setFieldsDict system/.

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 Ex. 9: Cake baking – Chocolate

● Set the chips location

and shape:
gedit system/setFieldsDict

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 Ex. 9: Cake baking – Set properties
for the heating phase
● Set the physical properties for the heating
phase
● Chocolate solidification parameter are set to 0:
gedit constant/transportProperties

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 Ex. 9: Cake baking – Set properties
for the heating phase
● Set the case to transient
and specify solver features:
gedit system/fvSchemes
gedit system/fvSolution

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 Ex. 9: Cake baking – Set control
parameters
● The heating phase
lasts 20 min (1800 s):
gedit system/controlDict

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 Ex. 9: Cake baking – Run the case

● Create the mesh:

blockMesh
● Set chocolate field:
setFields
● Solve the case:
cakeFoam

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 Ex. 9: Cake baking – Modify the
case
● Now that the heating phase has been run,
modify physical properties value:
gedit constant/transportProperties
● This time, chocolate melting is disabled and
chocolate solidification is enabled

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 Ex. 9: Cake baking – Reset control
parameters
● The cooling phase
lasts 60 min (3600 s):
gedit system/controlDict

The last iteration will be

used as initialization

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 Ex. 9: Cake baking – Rerun the
case
● Solve the last part of the case:
cakeFoam
● Process the case:
paraFoam

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 Ex. 9: Cake baking – Process the
case

Temperature during the

Chocolate chips cooldown
location

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 Ex. 10: Tank filling - Objectives

● This case is really basic. Its purpose is only to

discuss topics that were left uncovered
● Import a mesh created with an external tool
● Run a case in parallel
● Exporting an animation

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 Ex. 10: Tank filling – Case setup

● Transient filling of a tank. Initially, it is full of air,

then, we are going to fill it using the two phases
flow solver interFoam
Air outlet

Water inlet

Tank walls

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 Ex. 10: Tank filling – A new case

● Go to your 'run' directory:

run
● Copy 'damBreak':
cp -r
$FOAM_TUTORIALS/multiphase/interFoam/laminar/dam
Break/ Ex10
● Move to the case directory:
cd Ex10

14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 153

 Ex. 10: Tank filling – Importing the
mesh
●
The mesh is called 'Tank.unv'. It was drawn using
salome. It should have already been provided to
you, if this is not the case, you can find it here:
http://perso.mines-albi.fr/~vpozzobo/dl/Tank.unv
● Move the mesh file to the case directory:
mv 'somewhere'/Tank.unv Ex10/.
● Import the mesh:
ideasUnvToFoam Tank.unv

14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 154

 Ex. 10: Tank filling – Importing the
mesh
● There is no need to build the mesh using
blockMesh, is has already been done when
importing it. Yet, it has to be resized: atmosphere
transformPoints -scale '(0.001 0.001 0.001)'
● You can check the
mesh using paraFoam: inlet
paraFoam
fixedWalls

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 Ex. 10: Tank filling – IC / BC

● Modify velocity
boundary conditions
according to the case
setup:
gedit 0/U

Negative because of
axis orientation

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 Ex. 10: Tank filling – IC / BC

● Modify the pressure

boundary conditions:
gedit 0/p_rgh

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 Ex. 10: Tank filling – IC / BC

● Copy the water phase file:

cp 0/alpha.water.org 0/alpha.water
● Keep the '.org' file. It is used as a backup in
case you would have modified the initial
condition using setFields
●
To prevent any problem, move the '.org' file to
the case root
mv 0/alpha.water.org .

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 Ex. 10: Tank filling – IC / BC

● Modify the water

boundary conditions:
gedit 0/alpha.water

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 Ex. 10: Tank filling – Setting gravity

● Modify gravity orientation, so that the tank will

be vertical:
gedit constant/g

Negative because of
axis orientation

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 Ex. 10: Tank filling – Running
parallel
● OpenFOAM runs in parallel using a decomposition of
mesh and fields. You can specify the cut yourself or ask
scotch to do it for you (our call here). As a good rule of
thumb, each processor should at least have 30000 cells
to compute, if you want to see an increase in
computational speed.
● Copy the decomposition dictionary from an existing case:
cp
$FOAM_TUTORIALS/multiphase/interDyMFoam/ras/damBreakWithO
bstacle/system/decomposeParDict system/.

14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 161

 Ex. 10: Tank filling – Running
parallel
● Modify the decomposition dictionary:
gedit system/decomposeParDict
● Once it is done, decompose the case:
decomposePar

Number of processors
that are going to be
used

14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 162

 Ex. 10: Tank filling – Control values

● Open case control file:

gedit system/controlDict
● The tank takes about 40s to
fill up, which represented a
cpu time of 2 days for me.
So set endTime according to
your liking. I would advice
0.30s. It still requires
30 minutes to run

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 Ex. 10: Tank filling – Control values

● Note that interFoam uses an

adaptive time step

Maximum Courant
number

Maximum time step

(in second)

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 Ex. 10: Tank filling – Run the case

● The mesh has already been built. The case has

been split between processors, so let's run the
case:
mpirun -np 2 interFoam

Number of processors
you want to use (has to
be in agreement with
decomposeParDict)

14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 165

 Ex. 10: Tank filling – Post
processing the case
● The case can then be processed. First, create a
new directory to store the pictures that we will
use to build the animation:
mkdir Extraction
● Then launch the post processor:
paraFoam

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 Ex. 10: Tank filling – Postprocessing

● Load all the fields, then set opacity of the base

filter to 0.1:
Ex10.OpenFOAM / Style / Opacity
● Add a contour filter, on alpha.water field, with a
threshold of 0.1:
Filters / Common / Contour
● Change the background color to white:
Edit / View Settings ... / Choose color

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 Ex. 10: Tank filling – Postprocessing

● Set the camera angle to your liking by using the

mouse or the 'Adjust Camera' tool:

Adjust Camera
button

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 Ex. 10: Tank filling – Postprocessing

● Save the individual picture:

File / Save Animation ...
● Click 'Save Animation' on the prompted form
(the settings do not matter here)
● Pick 'Extraction' folder and choose a name for
the pictures (I chose 'Water')
●
Now paraFoam is filling 'Extraction' directory with
frames of the animation

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 Ex. 10: Tank filling – Postprocessing

● Close paraFoam and go 'Extraction' folder:

cd Extraction
● Create your .gif file:
convert -delay 10 -loop 0 Water.*.png Your.gif

Time between two

frames in milliseconds

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 It's over

● This tutorial is over, thank you for your attention

● I hope you enjoyed it
● It was just a brief and partial overview of
OpenFOAM possibilities
● Please feel free to contact me:
[email protected]

14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 171

 The extra mile

● The open source software, I use to draw and

mesh complex geometries:
SALOME: www.salome-platform.org
● Another open source software which can be
used to process high volume results:
VisIt: https://visit.llnl.gov
● Where I ask for help:
CFD Online: www.cfd-online.com/Forums/openfoam

14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 172

 It's over

Again, thank you for your attention.

14th March 2016 Pozzobon Victor 173