CFD with OpenSource Software, 2015
How to implement a new boundary condition
©Håkan Nilsson, Chalmers / Applied Mechanics / Fluid Dynamics 1
CFD with OpenSource Software, 2015
How to implement a new boundary condition
• The implementations of the boundary conditions are located in
$FOAM_SRC/finiteVolume/fields/fvPatchFields/
• To add a new boundary condition, start by finding one that does almost what you want. Copy
that to your user directories under the same directory structure as the original installation.
• We will now check out the parabolicVelocityFvPatchVectorField boundary condition
from the OpenFOAM-extend project at SourceForge, and compile and use it as a dynamic
library.
©Håkan Nilsson, Chalmers / Applied Mechanics / Fluid Dynamics 2
CFD with OpenSource Software, 2015
Compile your boundary condition as a new dynamic library
• Copy the boundary condition to $WM_PROJECT_USER_DIR (from the OpenFOAM-extend
project at SourceForge):
mkdir -p $WM_PROJECT_USER_DIR/src/finiteVolume/fields/fvPatchFields/derived
cd $WM_PROJECT_USER_DIR/src/finiteVolume/fields/fvPatchFields/derived
svn checkout svn://svn.code.sf.net/p/openfoam-extend/svn/trunk/\
Core/OpenFOAM-1.5-dev/src/finiteVolume/fields/fvPatchFields/\
derived/parabolicVelocity
cd $WM_PROJECT_USER_DIR/src/finiteVolume
• We need a Make/files file (c.f. $FOAM_SRC/finiteVolume/Make):
fvPatchFields = fields/fvPatchFields
derivedFvPatchFields = $(fvPatchFields)/derived
$(derivedFvPatchFields)/parabolicVelocity/parabolicVelocityFvPatchVectorField.C
LIB = $(FOAM_USER_LIBBIN)/libmyFiniteVolume
• We need a Make/options file:
EXE_INC = \
-I$(LIB_SRC)/finiteVolume/lnInclude
EXE_LIBS =
• Compile the dynamic library:
wmake libso
©Håkan Nilsson, Chalmers / Applied Mechanics / Fluid Dynamics 3
CFD with OpenSource Software, 2015
Use your boundary condition from the dynamic library
• Set up a new case:
run
cp -r $FOAM_TUTORIALS/incompressible/simpleFoam/pitzDaily \
pitzDailyParabolicInlet
cd pitzDailyParabolicInlet
blockMesh
• Modify the entry for the inlet boundary condition in 0/U to:
type parabolicVelocity;
n (1 0 0);
y (0 1 0);
maxValue 1;
value uniform (0 0 0); // Dummy for paraFoam
The contents of this entry must be in accordance with the constructor in the
parabolicVelocityFvPatchVectorField class. n is the direction of the flow, y is the
coordinate direction of the profile, and maxvalue is the centerline velocity.
©Håkan Nilsson, Chalmers / Applied Mechanics / Fluid Dynamics 4
CFD with OpenSource Software, 2015
Use your boundary condition from the dynamic library
• The boundary condition will not be recognized by any of the original OpenFOAM solvers
unless we tell OpenFOAM that the library exists.
Add a line in the system/controlDict file:
libs ("libmyFiniteVolume.so");
i.e. the library must be added for each case that will use it, but no re-compilation is needed
for any solver. libmyFiniteVolume.so is found using the LD_LIBRARY_PATH environ-
ment variable, and if you followed the instructions on how to set up OpenFOAM and compile
the boundary condition this should work automatically.
• You can now run the case using the original simpleFoam solver. Note that we never re-
compiled the original simpleFoam solver, and if you do ldd `which simpleFoam` your
new library will NOT show up since it is linked at run-time (using dlopen).
©Håkan Nilsson, Chalmers / Applied Mechanics / Fluid Dynamics 5
CFD with OpenSource Software, 2015
A look at the boundary condition
• The parabolicVelocityFvPatchVectorField boundary condition consists of two files:
parabolicVelocityFvPatchVectorField.C
parabolicVelocityFvPatchVectorField.H
• The .H-file is the header file, and it is included in the header of the .C-file.
• We can see (.H) that we create a sub class to the fixedValueFvPatchVectorField:
class parabolicVelocityFvPatchVectorField:
public fixedValueFvPatchVectorField
i.e. this is for Dirichlet (fixed) boundary conditions for vector fields.
• The class has the private data
//- Peak velocity magnitude
scalar maxValue_;
//- Flow direction
vector n_;
//- Direction of the y-coordinate
vector y_;
©Håkan Nilsson, Chalmers / Applied Mechanics / Fluid Dynamics 6
CFD with OpenSource Software, 2015
A look at the boundary condition
• The TypeName("parabolicVelocity"), used when specifying the boundary condition, is
defined.
• There are some public constructors and member functions that are defined in detail in the
.C-file.
• We used the third constructor when we tested the boundary condition, i.e. we read the
member data from a dictionary.
• The actual implementation of the boundary condition can be found in the updateCoeffs()
member function:
boundBox bb(patch().patch().localPoints(), true);
vector ctr = 0.5*(bb.max() + bb.min());
const vectorField& c = patch().Cf();
scalarField coord = 2*((c - ctr) & y_)/((bb.max() - bb.min()) & y_);
vectorField::operator=(n_*maxValue_*(1.0 - sqr(coord)));
©Håkan Nilsson, Chalmers / Applied Mechanics / Fluid Dynamics 7
CFD with OpenSource Software, 2015
A look at the boundary condition
• The member function write defines how to write out the boundary values in the time direc-
tory. The final line, writeEntry("value", os); writes out all the values, which is only
needed for post-processing.
• Find out more about all the variables by including the following in the end of the updateCoeffs
member function:
Info <<
"c" << c << endl;
Info <<
"ctr" << ctr << endl;
Info <<
"y_" << y_ << endl;
Info <<
"bb.max()" << bb.max() << endl;
Info <<
"bb.min()" << bb.min() << endl;
Info <<
"(c - ctr)" << c - ctr << endl;
Info <<
"((c - ctr) & y_)" << ((c - ctr) & y_) << endl;
Info <<
"((bb.max() - bb.min()) & y_)" <<
((bb.max() - bb.min()) & y_) << endl;
Info << "coord" << coord << endl;
©Håkan Nilsson, Chalmers / Applied Mechanics / Fluid Dynamics 8
