OpenFOAM

A little User-Manual
Gerhard Holzinger∗ †
25th February 2022

Abstract
This document is a collection of my own experience on learning and using OpenFOAM. Herein, knowledge
and background information is assembled which may be useful to others when learning to use OpenFOAM.

WARNING:
During the assembly of this manual OpenFOAM and other tools, e.g. pyFoam, have been continuously
updated. This manual was started with OpenFOAM-2.0.x installed and over the time the author has
worked with all major point releases of OpenFOAM and the development versions. Consequently it is
possible that some parts may be outdated by the time you read this. Furthermore, functionalities may have
been extended, modified or superseded. Nevertheless, this manual is intended to cast some light on the inner
workings of OpenFOAM and explain the usage in a rather practical way.
Furthermore, this document is, and will always be, work in progress. As it is extended whenever something
interesting is encountered or learned, parts of the document will always be fragmentary. All errors and
omissions are the sole product of the author.

All information contained in this manual can be found in the internet (http://www.openfoam.org, http:
//www.cfd-online.com/Forums/openfoam/); in the source code of OpenFOAM, or it was gathered by trial
and error (What happens if ...? Why did that happen?!). All errors in this manual are the solely the
product of the author. The interested reader is invited to contact the author to point out any discovered
errors.

This offering is not approved or endorsed by ESI® Group, ESI-OpenCFD® or the OpenFOAM®
Foundation, the producer of the OpenFOAM® software and owner of the OpenFOAM® trademark.

∗ currently K1MET GmbH, Linz, Austria, http://www.k1-met.com

† formerly Particulate Flow Modelling, Johannes Kepler University, Linz, Austria, http://www.jku.at/pfm/

1
Contents

1 Getting help 16

2 Lessons learned 17
2.1 Philosophy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2.2 Learning by using OpenFOAM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2.3 Learning by tinkering with OpenFOAM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

I Installation 20
3 Install OpenFOAM 20
3.1 Prerequistes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
3.2 Download the sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
3.3 Compile the sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
3.4 Install paraView . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
3.5 Remove OpenFOAM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
3.6 Install several versions of OpenFOAM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

4 Updating the repository release of OpenFOAM 23

4.1 Version management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
4.2 Check for updates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
4.3 Check for updates only . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
4.4 Install updates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
4.5 Problems with updates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

5 Updating OpenFOAM-6 source installation 27

5.1 Motivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
5.2 Make the OpenFOAM-6 source pack able to being updated . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
5.3 Recompile the source pack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

6 Maintaining your OpenFOAM installation 30

6.1 Dealing with OS updates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
6.2 Dealing with OS upgrades . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

7 Install third-party software 31

7.1 Install pyFoam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
7.2 Install swak4foam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
7.3 Compile external libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

8 Setting up the environment 32

8.1 Sourcing OpenFOAM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
8.2 Working with Environment Modules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

II General Remarks about OpenFOAM 35

9 Units and dimensions 35
9.1 Unit inspection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
9.2 Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
9.3 Kinematic viscosity vs. dynamic viscosity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
9.4 Pitfall: pressure vs. pressure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

10 Files and directories 40

10.1 Required directories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
10.2 Supplemental directories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
10.3 Files in system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

This offering is not approved or endorsed by ESI® Group, ESI-OpenCFD® or the OpenFOAM®
2
Foundation, the producer of the OpenFOAM® software and owner of the OpenFOAM® trademark.
11 Controlling OpenFOAM 42
11.1 The means of exerting control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
11.2 Syntax of the dictionaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
11.3 The controlDict . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
11.4 Run-time modifcations of dictionaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
11.5 The fvSolution dictionary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
11.6 Command line arguments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

12 Usage of OpenFOAM 52
12.1 Use OpenFOAM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
12.2 Abort an OpenFOAM simulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
12.3 Terminate an OpenFOAM simulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
12.4 Continue a simulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
12.5 Do parallel simulations with OpenFOAM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
12.6 Using tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
12.7 Using OpenFOAM on a local machine and a cluster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
12.8 Using scripts to run OpenFOAM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

III Pre-processing 65
13 Mesh basics 66
13.1 Basics of the mesh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
13.2 General advice on meshing and mesh/case manipulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
13.3 General mesh-related topics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

14 Geometry creation & other pre-processing software 70

14.1 blockMesh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
14.2 CAD software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
14.3 Salome . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
14.4 GMSH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

15 blockMesh 72
15.1 The block . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
15.2 The blockMeshDict . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
15.3 Create multiple blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
15.4 Grading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
15.5 Parametric meshes by the help of m4 and blockMesh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
15.6 Trouble-shooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

16 snappyHexMesh 95
16.1 Documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
16.2 Work flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
16.3 Example: Bath Tub . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

17 foamyHexMesh 99
17.1 Crude comparison between a snappy and a foamy bath tub . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

18 cfMesh 101
18.1 Usage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

19 checkMesh 104
19.1 Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
19.2 Pitfalls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
19.3 Useful output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

20 extrudeMesh 116
20.1 Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
20.2 Extruding 2-D meshes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

21 polyDualMesh 123

22 combinePatchFaces 126

This offering is not approved or endorsed by ESI® Group, ESI-OpenCFD® or the OpenFOAM®
3
Foundation, the producer of the OpenFOAM® software and owner of the OpenFOAM® trademark.
23 Salome 127
23.1 Export & Conversion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
23.2 Combined operations: blockMesh & salome . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
23.3 Meshing tips for Salome . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

24 Gmsh 136

25 enGrid 137

26 Mesh converters 138

26.1 fluentMeshToFoam and fluent3DMeshToFoam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
26.2 ideasUnvToFoam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
26.3 Pitfall: length units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

27 Other mesh manipulation tools 142

27.1 transformPoints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
27.2 topoSet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
27.3 setsToZones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
27.4 refineMesh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
27.5 refineWallLayer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
27.6 renumberMesh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
27.7 subsetMesh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
27.8 createPatch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
27.9 stitchMesh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
27.10tetDecomposition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
27.11decomposePar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
27.12mirrorMesh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154

28 Surface mesh manipulation tools 156

28.1 surfaceAdd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
28.2 surfaceSubset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
28.3 surfaceFeatureExtract . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
28.4 surfaceFeatureConvert . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
28.5 surfaceTransformPoints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
28.6 Third party surface manipulation tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
28.7 The Linux command line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157

29 Initialize Fields 159

29.1 Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
29.2 setFields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
29.3 mapFields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

30 Case manipulation 167

30.1 changeDictionary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
30.2 The allmighty Linux Terminal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

IV Modelling 172
31 Solution dimensions 172
31.1 Basic rules for simulations with reduced solution dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172

32 Turbulence-Models 175
32.1 Organisation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
32.2 Reynolds averaged models (RAS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
32.3 Categories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
32.4 RAS-Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
32.5 LES-Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
32.6 Pitfalls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183

This offering is not approved or endorsed by ESI® Group, ESI-OpenCFD® or the OpenFOAM®
4
Foundation, the producer of the OpenFOAM® software and owner of the OpenFOAM® trademark.
33 Thermophysical modelling 187
33.1 The modelling framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
33.2 Model selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
33.3 transport models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
33.4 thermo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
33.5 equationOfState . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
33.6 Energy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
33.7 Thermophysical properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
33.8 Mixture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
33.9 Model combination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
33.10Solids : Thermophysical modelling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
33.11Density: modelling degrees of (in-)compressibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
33.12Under pressure: setting a reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204

34 Radiation modelling 207

34.1 Discrete ordinates - fvDOM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
34.2 P1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
34.3 View factor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208

35 Eulerian multiphase modelling 213

35.1 Phase model class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
35.2 Phase system classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
35.3 Turbulence modelling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
35.4 Interfacial momentum exchange . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
35.5 Diameter models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
35.6 Thermophysical models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223

36 Boundary conditions 225

36.1 Base types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
36.2 Primitive types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
36.3 Derived types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
36.4 Pitfalls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
36.5 Time-variant boundary conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227

37 Mesh interfaces: AMI and ACMI 228

37.1 AMI and ACMI in brevity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
37.2 Arbitrary Mesh Interface - AMI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
37.3 Arbitrary Coupled Mesh Interface - ACMI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
37.4 Avoiding errors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231

38 The MRF method 232

38.1 Usage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
38.2 Avoiding errors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233

39 The fvOption framework 234

39.1 Controlling space & time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235
39.2 Types of options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235
39.3 Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236

40 The Lagrangian world 239

40.1 Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
40.2 Libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240
40.3 Cloudy, with a chance of particles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
40.4 Cloudy Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
40.5 The evolution of clouds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
40.6 Run-time post-processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246
40.7 Times of Use . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
40.8 Sub models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247

V Solver 250

This offering is not approved or endorsed by ESI® Group, ESI-OpenCFD® or the OpenFOAM®
5
Foundation, the producer of the OpenFOAM® software and owner of the OpenFOAM® trademark.
41 Solution Algorithms 250
41.1 SIMPLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250
41.2 PISO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252
41.3 PIMPLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252
41.4 Block-coupled solution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252

42 pimpleFoam 253
42.1 Governing equations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
42.2 The PIMPLE Algorithm – or, what’s under the hood? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255

43 rhoPimpleFoam 261
43.1 General remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261
43.2 Solution algorithm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261
43.3 Governing equations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261

44 twoPhaseEulerFoam 262
44.1 General remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262
44.2 Solver algorithm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262
44.3 Momentum exchange between the phases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
44.4 Kinetic Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267

45 twoPhaseEulerFoam-2.3 268
45.1 Physics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268
45.2 Naming scheme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268
45.3 Solver capabilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
45.4 Turbulence models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
45.5 Energy equation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276
45.6 Momentum equation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
45.7 Interfacial interaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278
45.8 Interfacial momentum exchange . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282
45.9 MRF method - avoiding errors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288

46 reactingTwoPhaseEulerFoam 289
46.1 Solver basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
46.2 Phase modelling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
46.3 Turbulence modelling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
46.4 Interfacial momentum exchange . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291

47 multiphaseEulerFoam 291
47.1 Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
47.2 Momentum exchange . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292

48 driftFluxFoam 293
48.1 Governing equations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293
48.2 incompressibleTwoPhaseInteractingMixture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295
48.3 Mixture viscosity models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295
48.4 Relative velocity models - hindered settling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297
48.5 settlingFoam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299

VI Postprocessing 301
49 functions 302
49.1 Stay up to date . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302
49.2 Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302
49.3 Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303
49.4 probes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304
49.5 fieldAverage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306
49.6 faceSource . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307
49.7 cellSource . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309
49.8 readFields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309
49.9 writeObjects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310
49.10Execute C++ code as functionObject . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310
49.11wallHeatFlux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311

This offering is not approved or endorsed by ESI® Group, ESI-OpenCFD® or the OpenFOAM®
6
Foundation, the producer of the OpenFOAM® software and owner of the OpenFOAM® trademark.
 49.12Execute functions after a simulation has finished . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312

50 sample 313
50.1 Usage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313
50.2 sampleDict . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313
50.3 Update OpenFOAM-4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316

51 ParaView 317
51.1 Reader’s choice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317
51.2 View the mesh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319
51.3 Saving animations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322
51.4 Case manipulation using ParaView . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323

52 postProcess 326
52.1 Usage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326

VII External Tools 327

53 pyFoam 328
53.1 Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328
53.2 pyFoamPlotRunner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328
53.3 pyFoamPlotWatcher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328
53.4 pyFoamClearCase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333
53.5 pyFoamCloneCase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333
53.6 pyFoamDecompose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333
53.7 pyFoamDisplayBlockMesh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334
53.8 pyFoamCaseReport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334

54 swak4foam 336
54.1 Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336
54.2 simpleSwakFunctionObjects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336

55 blockMeshDG 338
55.1 Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338
55.2 Usage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338
55.3 Pitfalls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338

VIII Source Code & Programming 340

56 Understanding some C and C++ 340
56.1 Definition vs. Declaration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340
56.2 Namespaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340
56.3 const correctness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341
56.4 Function inlining . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342
56.5 Constructor (de)construction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343
56.6 Object orientation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345
56.7 Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345

57 Under the hood of OpenFOAM 347

57.1 Solver algorithms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347
57.2 Namespaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347
57.3 Keyword lookup from dictionary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348
57.4 OpenFOAM specific datatypes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350
57.5 OpenFOAM specific macros for convenient programming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 358
57.6 Time management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359
57.7 The registry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368
57.8 I/O - input & output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372
57.9 Making an argument – passing arguments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376
57.10Turbulence models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377
57.11Debugging mechanism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380
57.12A glance behind the run-time selection and debugging magic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381
57.13Notes on running OpenFOAM in parallel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385

This offering is not approved or endorsed by ESI® Group, ESI-OpenCFD® or the OpenFOAM®
7
Foundation, the producer of the OpenFOAM® software and owner of the OpenFOAM® trademark.
 57.14Math-like syntax in OpenFOAM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387

58 General remarks on OpenFOAM programming 389

58.1 Preparatory tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389
58.2 Start from existing code . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389
58.3 Create the source code from scratch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391
58.4 Using a user-created libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391
58.5 Pitfalls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391
58.6 Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 392

59 wmake - the build system of OpenFOAM 394

59.1 Supporting multiple versions of OpenFOAM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 394

IX Theory 396
60 Discretization 397
60.1 Temporal discretization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397
60.2 Spatial discretization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397
60.3 Continuity error correction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397

61 Momentum diffusion in an incompressible fluid 400

61.1 Governing equations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400
61.2 Implementation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400

62 The incompressible k- turbulence model 402

62.1 The k- turbulence model in literature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 402
62.2 The k- turbulence model in OpenFOAM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 402
62.3 The k- turbulence model in bubbleFoam and twoPhaseEulerFoam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 404
62.4 Modelling the production of turbulent kinetic energy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 406

63 Some theory behind the scenes of LES 411

63.1 LES model hierarchy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411
63.2 Eddy viscosity models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411

64 The use of phi 416

64.1 The question . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 416
64.2 Implementation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 416
64.3 The math . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 417
64.4 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 418

65 Derivation of the IATE diameter model 420

65.1 Number density transport equation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 420
65.2 Interfacial area transport equation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 420
65.3 Interfacial curvature transport equation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 422
65.4 Interaction models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 424
65.5 Appendix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 428

66 Derivation of the MRF approach 430

66.1 Preliminary observations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 430
66.2 Mass conservation equation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 430
66.3 Momentum conservation equation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 431
66.4 Notes on the implementation of the MRF Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 432

X Appendix 435
67 Useful Linux commands 435
67.1 Getting help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435
67.2 Finding files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435
67.3 Find files and scan them . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 436
67.4 Scan a log file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 436
67.5 Running in scripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 437
67.6 diff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 438

This offering is not approved or endorsed by ESI® Group, ESI-OpenCFD® or the OpenFOAM®
8
Foundation, the producer of the OpenFOAM® software and owner of the OpenFOAM® trademark.
 67.7 Case setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439
67.8 Miscellaneous . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439

68 Archive data 441

Bibliography 443

List of Abbreviations 446

This offering is not approved or endorsed by ESI® Group, ESI-OpenCFD® or the OpenFOAM®
9
Foundation, the producer of the OpenFOAM® software and owner of the OpenFOAM® trademark.
List of Figures
1 Initializing a new git repository. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
2 Pointing the new git repository to the proper remote repository. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
3 Updating the new git repository by pulling from the remote repository. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
4 Updating the local files of our OpenFOAM-6 installation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
5 The top face of the generic block of Figure 8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
6 The same axi-symmetric two-dimensional viewed with three different installations of ParaView. . 69
7 The STL mesh of a circular area generated by OpenSCAD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
8 The generic block . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
9 Creating a wedge geometry for 2D, axisymmetric domains. Reproduced after [52]. . . . . . . . . 75
10 A block with a poly-line at the left side. The red line indicates the poly-line. This figure makes
it obvious that edges defines in the blockMeshDict serve to compute the locations of the block’s
internal nodes. The block itself however, does not obey the poly-line. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
11 The initial velocity field depending on the order of the wall and banana. Left: Setting as in
Listing 108. Right: wall and banana have changed places. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
12 The mesh of two merged blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
13 The mesh of two merged blocks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
14 Two connected blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
15 Two unconnected blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
16 The mesh of a stirred tank with a Rushton impeller, stator baffles and an aeration device. . . . . 91
17 The blocks of a parametric mesh consisting of nine blocks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
18 A bath tub. The outlet patch is marked grey at the very bottom of the drain tube. . . . . . . . . 96
19 A badly chosen featureAngle causes snappy to add incomplete boundary layers. . . . . . . . . . 96
20 The boundary layers added by snappy. On the left, layer addition went as we intended it to do; on
the right, we see the effect of the (missing) keyword slipFeatureAngle of the addLayersControls
dictionary of snappyHexMeshDict. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
21 A collapsing boundary layer. Maybe we did not want the mesh that way, however, we told snappy
to create it exactly that way. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
22 A bath tub with a background mesh enclosing the STL-surface of the bath tub. . . . . . . . . . . 99
23 SnappyBathTub . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
24 FoamyBathTub . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
25 Poor feature edge resolution caused by not providing information on feature edges. Note, the
whole geometry is bounded by a single patch. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
26 Resolved feature edge of the bath tub. In this case, the boundary consists of two patches: the
top surface and the rest. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
27 Definition of non-orthogonality for internal faces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
28 Definition of non-orthogonality for boundary faces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
29 Definition of skewness of internal faces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
30 Definition of skewness of boundary faces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
31 Face warpage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
32 A distorted mesh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
33 The cells with two internal faces in an all-tet, 3D-mesh. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
34 The under-determined cells, which were found by checkMesh in the mesh of an axi-symmetric
simulation. These cells are on a far corner of the 2-D domain, and grading towards the more
interesting regions led them to have a high aspect ratio. In fact, these cells have the highest
aspect ratio of the whole mesh. The proximity to the lower wall results in these cells to be
quite fine in the y-direction. Since, these cells are furthest from the axis of symmetry, they are
relatively large in radial and tangential direction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
35 Sets created by checkMesh in the sets directory. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
36 Extrude the wall patch from a cylinder mesh. left: constructFrom mesh. right: constructFrom
patch. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
37 The mesh for a 2D study generated from an STL surface. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
38 A cheap 90° pipe bend. The outlet patch of the original mesh was extruded along the sector of
a circle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
39 Subsequent mesh extrusions: sector, linearNormal and linearDirection. . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
40 Grow a wall! The walls patch of the pipe mesh was extruded using the linearNormal model. . . 119

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41 Snappy two-dimensional meshing. The side patch of a snappy mesh was extruded using the
linearNormal model, with the base mesh being discarded. Thus, we remain with a snappy-like
mesh for the two-dimensional flow around a cylinder. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
42 Extruding a slice. Left: a 1 degree sector extrusion, Right: a 5 degrees sector extrusion. . . . . 120
43 Extruding the mesh for a 2-D slice of a hollow sphere. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
44 Creating an axi-symmetric mesh by extruding a patch (the patch front shown in blue). . . . . . . 122
45 Connecting the centers of the circumcircles produces the Voronoi diagram (in red). Source https:
//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Delaunay_Voronoi.svg. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
46 The mesh of the elbow tutorial case; before and after the application of polyDualMesh. . . . . . . 124
47 The mesh of the bubble column tutorial case; before and after the application of polyDualMesh. . 124
48 The dual mesh of a single tetrahedron: the original tet-cell is outlined in blue, the face-decomposition
is outlined in black, and one of the resulting cells is shown in grey. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
49 The dual mesh of a single hexahedron: the original hex-cell is outlined in blue, the face-decomposition
is outlined in black, and one of the resulting cells is shown in grey. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
50 The dual mesh of the elbow tutorial case; before and after the application of combinePatchFaces.126
51 Mesh export issue in Salome with the UNV format. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
52 A big simulation domain with a quite small geometric feature: the geometry. . . . . . . . . . . . 129
53 A big simulation domain with a quite small geometric feature: the blockMesh-only mesh. . . . . . 129
54 The mesh of the cut-out block in salome. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
55 Meshing of a block in salome. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
56 Combining blockMesh and salome: the meshed block was re-combined with the initial mesh. . . . 131
57 A complex geometry warranting a complex meshing work-flow. Two pipe coils respresent a heat-
exchanger in a box-shaped vessel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
58 The geometry of a pipe, both ends of a single coil are visible. The geometry was created by
extruding a face along a path. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
59 Left: insufficiently guided extrusion. Right: extrusion with proper guidance. . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
60 Extrusion gone bad: the inner and outer surface of the pipe, shown in grey and red. Cells with
negative volume are shown in green. Note the vertices on the inner and the outer surfaces. . . . . 133
61 An extruded 2D mesh of quad elements created with Gmsh. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
62 Meshes by enGrid: left: tet-mesh with prismatic boundary layer, right: polyhedral mesh with
boundary layer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
63 The entry for groups of edges in the object browser of Salome. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
64 The extruded mesh of a heat-exchanger coil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
65 A faulty cell set definition. The red cells are part of the cell set. All other cells are blue. . . . . . 143
66 An example of a refined mesh. The refined region is marked in red. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
67 The base mesh for the wall layer refinement. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
68 Applying the wall layer refinement once. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
69 Applying the wall layer refinement a second time. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
70 Applying the wall layer refinement twice on the horizontal patch at a concave edge. . . . . . . . . 146
71 Applying the wall layer refinement twice on both patches of a convex edge. . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
72 Applying the wall layer refinement twice on one patch of a convex edge. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
73 Applying the wall layer refinement successively on two patches of a convex edge. This approach
leads to a different outcome than the one shown in Figure 71. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
74 A simple mesh with 8 cells and different cell labelling schemes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
75 The connectivity graph of our mesh. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
76 The matrix structure of the connectivity graph of Figure 75 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
77 Scrambled cell sets caused by mesh renumbering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
78 Renumbering the solution of the cavity case: the case was run, and all time steps prior to 0.3
were deleted. Then renumberMesh -overwrite was run. As 0.3 was the first time step, the fields
in the time step 0.3 were renumbered along with the mesh. The later time steps, however, were
left untouched. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
79 A tet-decomposed tetrahedron: the original tet-cell is outlined in blue, the face-decomposition is
outlined in black, and one of the resulting sub-tets is shown in grey. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
80 A tet-decomposed hexahedron: the original hex-cell is outlined in blue, the face-decomposition
is outlined in black, and one of the resulting sub-tets is shown in grey. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

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81 The cell distribution of a multi-region case, with 2 regions and 4 sub-domains for parallel pro-
cessing. The small region outlined in white is the solid region, the surrounding larger region is
the fluid region of this case. Each sub-domain (colour-coded from 0 to 3) is assigned a chunk of
each region. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
82 A cellSet after running mirrorMesh to mirror the mesh using the x − y plane. . . . . . . . . . . . 155
83 The mapped field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
84 The unmapped fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
85 Established flow and modified boundary condition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
86 The class hierarchy of the basis of the old turbulence model framework. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
87 The class hierarchy of the basis of the new turbulence model framework. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
88 The (templated) class hierarchy of the new turbulence model framework. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
89 The class hierarchy of the elementary turbulence models of the new turbulence model framework. 179
90 The class hierarchy of a selection of turbulence models of the new turbulence model framework. . 180
91 The class hierarchy of the basis of the thermophysical modelling framework in OpenFOAM-7. . . 188
92 The class hierarchy of the templated classes of the thermophysical modelling framework in
OpenFOAM-7. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
93 The dynamic viscosity of nitrogen: the model coefficients were fitted to data reporded in [16],
the model is compared to values reported in [2]. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
94 The thermal conductivity of nitrogen: the model is using a modified Eucken correlation with the
viscosity model, which was fitted to viscosity data reporded in [16], the model is compared to
values of thermal conductivity reported in [2, 16]. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
95 The viscosity of a fluid and the viscosity computed by the WLF and Andrade models fitted to
the data. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
96 Specific heat capacity Cp of air computed with the JANAF model compared to data from [64]. . 196
97 The thermal conductivity of nickel: data from literature [29], and the available, fitted models of
OpenFOAM. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
98 Two rows of warm pipes in a fluid domain. The mesh is a hybrid mesh consisting of hexahedral
and prismatic cells, which was created by extruding a mixed tet-quad mesh. . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
99 Onset of natural convection: both cases feature a quite similar velocity field. . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
100 On-going development of natural convection: the flow field on the right shows developing errors
in the flow caused by the pressure boundary condition. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
101 Further development of natural convection: in the flow field on the right, the errors in the flow
field now outweigh the proper flow. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
102 The result of faceAgglomerate and viewFactorGen applied to a slightly refined cavity case.
The patches movingWall and fixedWalls have both been agglomerated, i.e. for the purposes of
computing the view factor, several faces of a patch form a coarsened face. This is evident from
the visualisation of the rays created by viewFactorGen, each bundle of rays starts from the center
of such a coarsened face. The colour of the rays is a mere ID, not the actual view factor. . . . . . 209
103 One of the aggressively agglomerated faces: On the right boundary the temperature is 300 K,
yet the radiative heat-flux computed by the mean temperature cools the solid down to 165 K,
which is very unphysical for a case that computes a heated solid interacting with a body of gas.
No cooling should occur at all. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
104 Modelling approach on the example of a gas-liquid two-phase system. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
105 Modelling approach on the example of a gas-liquid two-phase system. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
106 Our simulation domain. The block structure of outer domain, in blue, does not match the block
structure of the inner domain, in red. However, by keeping the two regions separate, we cen mesh
each region individually, which is fairly easy, and use AMI to essentially connect the two regions.
After meshing, we can rotate the inner domain with respect to the outer domain to change the
orientation of the triangle in the center of the inner domain. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
107 Varying the orientation of the investigated body. Since the body-fitting mesh of the inner domain
is in an over-all cylindrical shape, we simply can rotate the inner domain with respect to the outer
domain, to change the orientation of the investigated body with respect to the incident flow. After
creating the mesh, we can use moveMesh to rotate the inner domain. With appropriate settings
for the angular velocity and the write interval, we can get a mesh for any orientation of the
triangular prism. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
108 A 2D simulation of the triangular, prismatic body in laminar cross-flow using AMI to connect
the body fitted mesh of the inner region with the mesh of the outer domain. . . . . . . . . . . . . 229

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109 A simulation domain with two unconnected regions. Note that the inner region only partially
fills the void of the outer region. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
110 The inner domain in more detail. The block-structure of the inner domain is clearly recognizable.
The remaining void is the body under investigation, in this case a semi-cylinder. . . . . . . . . . 230
111 A 2D simulation of the semi-cylinder in laminar cross-flow using ACMI to connect the mesh of
the inner region with the mesh of the outer domain. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
112 A baffled stirred tank with a Rushton impeller. The stator patch is shown in grey and the rotor
patch is shown in red. The white wireframe shows the boundary of the rotor zone. For all cells
of the rotor zone the MRF method is applied. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
113 Half a baffled stirred tank with a Rushton impeller. The cyclic-type patches are shown as
coloured wireframes, and all other patches are shown as coloured surfaces. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
114 Schematic diagrams of doubly-linked lists. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242
115 The class hierarchy needed for intrusive lists of objects of type T; . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
116 The class hierarchy of the class basicKinematicCloud. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244
117 A simplified sequence diagram of a call to evolve() from DPMFoam. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246
118 A set of polygons has been defined to count and remove traversing particles. In this case of a
cylinder in laminar cross-flow, particles are inserted through the inlet patch. The ParticleCollector
cloud function object was set to remove all counted particles, which is clearly visible in this snapshot.249
119 Flow chart of the SIMPLE algorithm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
120 Flow chart of the PISO algorithm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252
121 Flow chart of the PIMPLE algorithm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256
122 Flow chart of the main loop of twoPhaseEulerFoam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
123 Flow chart of the operations in alphaEqn.H . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265
124 Air volume fraction of the bubble column. Initial field (left) and solution at t = 10 s (right). . . . 275
125 Linear blending: f1 over α . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
126 Hyperbolic blending: f1 over α . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282
127 Velocity vectors of the gaseous phase at the inlet boundary (red vectors) in an aerated stirred
tank. That the gas inlet boundary lies within the MRF zone. On the left, we see the initial
condition and on the right we see the boundary condition after the constraints by the MRF
method have been applied. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288
128 A part of the directory tree after the simulation ended . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305
129 The content of the postProcessing folder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309
130 Directory tree after compilation of a coded functionObject . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311
131 Launching ParaView with OpenFOAM’s reader for OpenFOAM cases. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317
132 Launching ParaView with its native reader for OpenFOAM cases. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318
133 Using ParaView with its native reader to read a multi-region OpenFOAM case. . . . . . . . . . . 318
134 The case directories of a decomposed, multi-region case with the initial mesh still present. This
directory tree was generated by calling the following command from the case directory: tree -L
3 -d . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319
135 Select the proper representation to view the mesh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320
136 Viewing a polyhedral mesh with ParaView’s standard settings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320
137 Viewing a polyhedral mesh with adjusted settings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321
138 Viewing a polyhedral mesh with ParaView’s native OpenFOAM reader. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321
139 Selecting the file name for the animation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322
140 The Tetrahedralize filter of ParaView takes no user input. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323
141 Left: an extruded mesh created from an STL surface mesh. Right: the mesh after tetrahedralisation.324
142 Exporting data from ParaView using the Save Data command from the File menu. . . . . . . . . 324
143 Export data from ParaView in the Legacy VTK format. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325
144 The Courant number plotted with pyFoamPlotWatcher. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
145 The Courant number based on the relative velocity plotted with pyFoamPlotWatcher . . . . . . . 330
146 The average volume fraction plotted with pyFoamPlotWatcher and a custom regular expression . 332
147 The execution time plotted over time with pyFoamPlotWatcher. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332
148 Screenshot of pyFoamDisplayBlockMesh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334
149 Double grading problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339
150 Class hierarchy of some injection models for Lagrangian particles. An intermediate base class is
used to reduce code duplication from closely related, yet different injection models. . . . . . . . . 350
151 The three arguments of Eq. (167) plotted over x . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362

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152 A partial view of the class hierarchy involving regIOobject; . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368
153 The base classes of the class objectRegistry; . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369
154 Graphic representation of inheritance of the turbulence model classes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 378
155 Inheritance of RAS turbulence models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379
156 First layer of the class hierarchy of the LES models of OpenFOAM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411
157 Class hierarchy of the eddy viscosity models in OpenFOAM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 412
158 A screenshot of Meld . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439

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List of Tables
1 Run-time cavity test case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
2 Comparison of hard disk space consumption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
3 Valid and invalid face definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
4 The different settings for pressure in the two compared cases. Case 1 follows the settings of the
hotRoomBoussinesq tutorial, which is a natural convection case with an enclosed domain. Case
2 is based on the comfortHotRoom tutorial, which is an open domain case using the Boussinesq
equation of state. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
5 Overview of diameter modelling in Eulerian multiphase solvers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
6 Levels of coupling between Lagrangian particles and (Eulerian) flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
7 Turbulence model combinations for phase-inversion cases. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275
8 Comparison of the eddy viscosity models of OpenFOAM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 412
9 Comparison of disk space reduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 441
10 Comparison of disk space reduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 441
11 Comparing the resulting file size of the mesh archive file for various conditions/treatments. All file
or folder sizes were determined with the Linux command du -sh FILE. The mesh was compressed
using the LZMA algorithm at maximum compression: tar -cv constant/polyMesh | lzma -9
> polyMesh.tar.xz. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 442

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1 Getting help
Apart from this manual, there are lots of resources on the internet to find help on OpenFOAM.
• The OpenFOAM User Guide
http://www.openfoam.org/docs/user/

• The CFD Online Forum

http://www.cfd-online.com/Forums/openfoam/
• The OpenFOAM Wiki
http://openfoamwiki.net/index.php/Main_Page
The OpenFOAM Wiki is maintained by a community of developers behind the OpenFOAM-extend project.
This wiki covers not only the OpenFOAM but also tools that developed for OpenFOAM, e.g. pyFoam or
swak4foam.
• The OpenFOAM tutorial collection
https://wiki.openfoam.com
This is a community driven effort to collect all the various sources of information, which are all over the
internets. This tutorial collection is more of a register of tutorials from various sources. There are two
curated lists of tutorials, the first glimpse series and the more in-depth three-weeks series which span a
range of topics from the general introduction to quite specific topics. Furthermore, there are also lists of
tutorials sorted by topic or by contributor.
• The CoCoons Project
http://www.cocoons-project.org/
This is a community driven effort to create a documentation on solvers, utilities and modelling.
• The materials of the course CFD with open source software of Chalmers University
http://www.tfd.chalmers.se/~hani/kurser/OS_CFD/

• The CAELinux Wiki

http://caelinux.org/wiki/index.php/Doc:OpenFOAM
CAELinux is a collection of open source CAE software including several CFD codes (OpenFOAM,
Code_Saturne, Gerris, Elmer).
• Q&A on the internets
You can find questions – and hopefully answers – on the various Q&A sites on the internets, such as
StackExchange (http://stackexchange.com/), which is a collection of Q&A site specific to a topic or
region of interest.
Currently, OpenFOAM questions tend to get posted on the Computational Science Q&A site.
http://scicomp.stackexchange.com/

• Word of mouth
https://github.com/ParticulateFlow/OSCCAR-doc/blob/master/openFoamUserManual_PFM.pdf
This is where this manual is hosted.

This offering is not approved or endorsed by ESI® Group, ESI-OpenCFD® or the OpenFOAM®
16
Foundation, the producer of the OpenFOAM® software and owner of the OpenFOAM® trademark.
2 Lessons learned
• For production-use we strongly recommend to use the point-releases of OpenFOAM. As the development
versions of OpenFOAM continuously get updated, OpenFOAM’s behaviour might change. Thus, users are
advised to base their work entirely on point-releases of OpenFOAM. That way, once your simulation cases
run, they will run indefinitely, or as long as you are able to install the respective version of OpenFOAM
on a computer.
• Keep an eye on developments in OpenFOAM. A more recent version might provide some functionality or
feature you desperately need. Even if you added this feature yourself to e.g. your custom solver or model,
the developers of OpenFOAM might provide a cleaner or more powerful implementation of that feature.
As it is easily possible to install several versions of OpenFOAM side by side on a computer, play around
with the latest version.
• Build the source-code documentation of your local installation. It is located e.g. in $HOME/OpenFOAM/
OpenFOAM-2.3.x/doc/Doxygen if you installed OpenFOAM in your home directory. This makes you
independent of being online and the doxygen gives you e.g. a very well-structured overwiew of a classes
methods and members.

• Study the code. Even as “the documentation is in the code” does not sound helpful at all, the code in
fact tells you what is going on provided you are able to make sense of the C++ syntax. Become familiar
with basic concepts of object-oriented (OO) software design.
• The more I used and tinkered with OpenFOAM, the more I am convinced that its design is really ingenious.
However, it takes time and effort to come to this conclusion. It is also probably a matter of taste.
• Document your own work and stuff you tried. There is no need to create hundreds of pages, but paper or
dead electrons have a longer memory as mere mortal humans. Furthermore, the fact “I have already tried
X at some point in the past, and I wrote it down at Y” is more likely to be remembered than “I tried X,
and that’s how it went in all detail”.

2.1 Philosophy
OpenFOAM is largely following the general rules of the UNIX philosophy – see e.g. Eric S. Raymond [22] or
http://www.catb.org/esr/writings/taoup/html/ch01s06.html – by accident, by design or by law.

1. Rule of Modularity: Write simple parts connected by clean interfaces.

We see this rule in action, when we take a look at all the small pre- and post-processing
2. Rule of Clarity: Clarity is better than cleverness.
3. Rule of Composition: Design programs to be connected to other programs.
OpenFOAM’s extensive use of text files can be interpreted as a consequence of the Rule of Composition.
The structured, textual formal makes it easy to define and interpret OpenFOAM’s in- and output.
4. Rule of Separation: Separate policy from mechanism; separate interfaces from engines.
5. Rule of Simplicity: Design for simplicity; add complexity only where you must.

6. Rule of Parsimony: Write a big program only when it is clear by demonstration that nothing else will do.
Again, OpenFOAM is a large collection of specialized tools, rather than a big monolithic – one size fits
nobody – monster.
7. Rule of Transparency: Design for visibility to make inspection and debugging easier.
Here, we quote Eric S. Raymond1 : “A software system is transparent when you can look at it and
immediately understand what it is doing and how.” CFD is admittedly very complex, however, the close-
to-mathematical notation of OpenFOAM’s high-level code, can be seen as an example of OpenFOAM’s
obedience to the Rule of Transparency.
8. Rule of Robustness: Robustness is the child of transparency and simplicity.
1 http://www.catb.org/esr/writings/taoup/html/ch01s06.html

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17
Foundation, the producer of the OpenFOAM® software and owner of the OpenFOAM® trademark.
 9. Rule of Representation: Fold knowledge into data so program logic can be stupid and robust.
Although this rule was stated without object-orientation in mind, we can observe, that OpenFOAM’s data
structures and classes absorb much of the complexity. Thus, the top level solver source code looks quite
unspectacular.
10. Rule of Least Surprise: In interface design, always do the least surprising thing.
We see this rule in action, when we look at all the shared command line options. All tools that support
time selection offer common options, such as latestTime or noZero.

11. Rule of Silence: When a program has nothing surprising to say, it should say nothing.
This rule is obeyed by most function objects, which provide the user with the choice of deactivating
writing to the Terminal. This output may be useful during testing. As soon as the case is properly set up,
however, it is sufficient for the function object to write its output to the corresponging file in the folder
postProcessing.

12. Rule of Repair: When you must fail, fail noisily and as soon as possible.
Ever noticed the FOAM FATAL ERROR messages?
13. Rule of Economy: Programmer time is expensive; conserve it in preference to machine time.
If we allow ourselves a very broad view of this rule, we might postulate, that OpenFOAM’s mechanism to
specify default values for keywords2 is one example for following this rule from a user’s perspective, i.e.
it is the user’s time which is conserved.
14. Rule of Generation: Avoid hand-hacking; write programs to write programs when you can.
We can see the heavy use of templates as an example of OpenFOAM following the Rule of Generation.
The TurbulenceModels framework3 is an example of a modelling framework, which is coded once and
applied in several different incarnations.
However, this applies only in a wider sense, since this rule was stated not with C++’s templates in mind.
15. Rule of Optimization: Prototype before polishing. Get it working before you optimize it.
16. Rule of Diversity: Distrust all claims for “one true way”.
OpenFOAM offers the user plenty of choice such as the solvers to use, the solution algorithms, and
discretisation and interpolation schemes.

17. Rule of Extensibility: Design for the future, because it will be here sooner than you think.
OpenFOAM sometimes exhibits a different behaviour based on its version, or the format of the input files.
See Section 36.4.1 for an example on differences in the input syntax of fixedValue boundary conditions.
The important lesson in this case is to allow for evolution of the code without breaking compatibility.

2.2 Learning by using OpenFOAM

• Numerical errors can ruin your day in CFD. Not every simulation crash is the fault of some bug in
OpenFOAM. The numerics of CFD is also keen to crash simulations.

• Never deactivate the unit checking of OpenFOAM. FYI: It can be done in the global controlDict in the
etc directory of your OpenFOAM installation.
• Many classes provide optional debug information. Debug flags can be controlled via a global controlDict
as well as the case’s controlDict.
• Play around! A great part of learning is trial and error. Although many of us regard themselves as
scientists or aspire to become scientists, never disregard the value of plain trail and error.
2 See Section 57.3.2
3 See Section 32.

This offering is not approved or endorsed by ESI® Group, ESI-OpenCFD® or the OpenFOAM®
18
Foundation, the producer of the OpenFOAM® software and owner of the OpenFOAM® trademark.
2.3 Learning by tinkering with OpenFOAM
2.3.1 I learned something today.
• Have a look at the test directory in the applications folder of your installation, e.g. in $HOME/OpenFOAM/
OpenFOAM-2.3.x/applications/test. There, you find examples of how to use certain data structures,
which may be exactly what you need when implementing something.
• Create your own test application, if you are about to implement something new. With a test application,
you can keep the problem nearly primitive, thus, allowing yourself more mental freedom to explore and
to learn. Later, you might be more likely to implement your solver / library with less bugs and errors.
• OpenFOAM makes heavy use of C++’s language features and other smart moves in OO software design.
Thus, make sure you understand the basics of the following concepts / language features before you try
to study / modify the code of OpenFOAM. Your life gets easier if you do.

inheritance virtually everything of OpenFOAM is described and implemented using the concept of classes.
Classes can be derived from other classes to implement an is a relationship, i.e. every cat is an animal
but not vice versa.
Note: C++ support multiple inheritance, i.e. a class can be derived from a number of classes, not just
one. Other programming languages are (slightly) different in this aspect, e.g. Java allows you to derive
only from one class, however, you can implement interfaces.
poly-morphism is a wider concept, however it applies also to inheritance and classes.

templates allow the user to write code for as-of-yet unspecified data types. Container classes are the prime
example for the use of templates (or generics as this concept is called in Java).

Examples of the excellent use of the aforementioned concepts is the turbulence modelling framework discussed
in Section 32.1.2, or the Lagrangian modelling framework discussed in Section 40.2.

2.3.2 Trouble with the code?

it does not compile
• Due to the heavy use of templates the syntax and the compiler error messages are quite lengthy and often
hard to read. However, the compiler error message might contain exactly the information you need to
track down the error, e.g. a data-type mismatch. Familiarize yourself with C++’s syntax if you haven’t
already.
If you are baffled by the very lengthy error messages, take special care to the top and the bottom of the
error message, as it is there where you might find the most useful clues.

it does not run

• Spurious crashes (e.g. caused by floating point errors) may be an indication of class members being
un-initialized.

• No offence, but it’s most probably your fault.

This offering is not approved or endorsed by ESI® Group, ESI-OpenCFD® or the OpenFOAM®
19
Foundation, the producer of the OpenFOAM® software and owner of the OpenFOAM® trademark.
Part I
Installation
3 Install OpenFOAM
3.1 Prerequistes
OpenFOAM is easily installed by following the instructions from this website: http://www.openfoam.org/
download/git.php.
First of all, you need to make sure all required packages are installed on your system. This is easily done
via the package management software. OpenFOAM is a software made primarily for Linux systems. It can also
be installed on Mac or Windows plattforms. However, the authors uses a Ubuntu-Linux system, therefore this
manual will be based on the assumption that a Linux system is used.

sudo apt - get install git - core

sudo apt - get install build - essential flex bison cmake zlib1g - dev qt4 - dev - tools libqt4 - dev
gnuplot libreadline - dev libxt - dev
sudo apt - get install libscotch - dev libopenmpi - dev

Listing 1: Installation of required packages

If OpenFOAM is to be used by a single user, then the User Manual suggests to install OpenFOAM in the
$HOME/OpenFOAM directory.

3.2 Download the sources

First of all the source files need to be downloaded. This is done with the version control software Git. After-
wards we change into the new directory and check for updates. All steps to perform the described operations
are listed in Listing 2.

cd $HOME
mkdir OpenFOAM
cd OpenFOAM
git clone git :// github . com / OpenFOAM / OpenFOAM -2.1. x . git
cd OpenFOAM -2.1. x
git pull

Listing 2: Installation von openFOAM

Prior to compiling the sources some environment variables have to be defined. In order to do that a line (see
Listing 3) has to added to the file $HOME/.bashrc.

source $HOME / OpenFOAM / OpenFOAM -2.1. x / etc / bashrc

Listing 3: Addition to .bashrc

When the command source $HOME/.bashrc is issued or when a new Terminal is opened this change is
effective. Now with the defined environment variables OpenFOAM can be installed on the system. Before
compiling a system check can be made by running foamSystemCheck.

user@host :∼/ OpenFOAM / OpenFOAM -2.1. x$ f oa mS y st em Ch e ck

Checking basic system ... - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Shell : / bin / bash
Host : host
OS : Linux version 2.6.32 -39 - generic
User : user

System check : PASS

==================

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Foundation, the producer of the OpenFOAM® software and owner of the OpenFOAM® trademark.
Continue OpenFOAM installation .

Listing 4: foamSystemCheck

3.3 Compile the sources

If the system check produced to error messages then OpenFOAM can be compiled. This is done by executing
./Allwmake. This is an installation script that takes care of all required operations. Compiling OpenFOAM
can be done by using more than one processor to save time. In order to do this, an environment variable needs
to be set before invoking ./Allwmake. Listing 5 shows how to compile OpenFOAM using 4 processors.

export WM_NCOMPPROCS =4
./ Allwmake

Listing 5: Parallel compilation using 4 processes.

For working with OpenFOAM a user directory needs to be created. The name of this directory consists of
the username and the version number of OpenFOAM. With version 2.1.x this folder needs to be named like
this: user-2.1.x

3.4 Install paraView

paraView is a post processing tool, see http://www.paraview.org/. The OpenFOAM Foundation distributes
paraView from its homepage and recommends to use this version. The source code can be downloaded from
http://www.openfoam.org/ in an archive, e.g. ThirdParty-2.1.0.tgz. This archive has to be unpacked into
a folder named correspondingly to the OpenFOAM directory, e.g. ThirdParty-2.1.x when OpenFOAM-2.1.x
is used. This naming scheme is mandatory because there is an environment variable that points to the location
of paraView. As there is no development of paraView by the OpenFOAM developers, there is no repository
release of third-party tools.
Subsequently paraView can be compiled by the use of an installation script. Afterwards some plug-ins for
paraView need to be compiled.

cd $ W M _ T H I R D _ P A R T Y _ D I R
./ makeParaView

cd $ FO AM _U T IL IT IE S / postPr ocessing / graphics / PV3Readers

wmSET
./ Allwclean
./ Allwmake

Listing 6: Installation of paraView

3.5 Remove OpenFOAM

If OpenFOAM is to be removed from the system, then a few simple operations do the job4 , provided the
installation was done following the installation guidelines of OpenFOAM5 .
Listing 7 shows how OpenFOAM can be removed from the system. We assume, we want to remove an
installation of OpenFOAM-2.0.1. The first line changes the working directory to the installation directory of
OpenFOAM. This folder contains all files of the OpenFOAM installation. Listing 8 shows the content of the
~/OpenFOAM. In this example, two versions of OpenFOAM are installed.
The second line removes all files of OpenFOAM and the third line removes the files of the user related to
OpenFOAM. The last line of Listing 7 removes a hidden folder. If there are several versions of OpenFOAM
installed, then this folder should not be removed.

4 http://www.cfd-online.com/Forums/openfoam-installation/57512-completely-remove-openfoam-start-fresh.html
5 http://www.openfoam.org/download/git.php

This offering is not approved or endorsed by ESI® Group, ESI-OpenCFD® or the OpenFOAM®
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Foundation, the producer of the OpenFOAM® software and owner of the OpenFOAM® trademark.
cd ∼/ OpenFOAM
rm - rf OpenFOAM -2.0.1
rm - rf user -2.0.1
cd
rm - rf ∼/. OpenFOAM

Listing 7: Removing OpenFOAM

cd ∼/ OpenFOAM
ls -1
user -2.0. x
user -2.1. x
OpenFOAM -2.0. x
OpenFOAM -2.1. x
ThirdParty -2.0. x
ThirdParty -2.1. x

Listing 8: Content of ~/OpenFOAM

Another thing to remove is the entry in the .bashrc file in the home directory. Delete the line shown in
Listing 3.

3.6 Install several versions of OpenFOAM

It is possible to install several versions of OpenFOAM on the same machine. However due to the fact that Open-
FOAM relies on some environment variables some precaution is needed. See http://www.cfd-online.com/
Forums/blogs/wyldckat/931-advanced-tips-working-openfoam-shell-environment.html for detailed in-
formation about OpenFOAM and the Linux shell.
The most important fact about installing several versions of OpenFOAM is to keep the seperated.

This offering is not approved or endorsed by ESI® Group, ESI-OpenCFD® or the OpenFOAM®
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Foundation, the producer of the OpenFOAM® software and owner of the OpenFOAM® trademark.
4 Updating the repository release of OpenFOAM
4.1 Version management
OpenFOAM is distributed in two different ways. There is the repository release that can be downloaded using
the Git repository. The version number of the repository release is marked by the appended x, e.g. OpenFOAM
2.1.x. This release is updated regularly and is in some ways a development release. Changes and updates are
released quickly, however, there is a larger possibility of bugs in this release. Because this release is updated
frequently an OpenFOAM installation of version 2.1.x on one system may or will be different to another instal-
lation of version 2.1.x on an other system. Therefore, each installation has an additional information to mark
different builds of OpenFOAM. The version number is accompanied by a hash code to uniquely identify the
various builds of the repository release, see Listing 9. Whenever OpenFOAM is updated and compiled anew,
this hash code gets changed. Two OpenFOAM installations are on an equal level, if the build is equal.

Build : 2.1. x -9 d344f6ac6af

Listing 9: Complete version identification of repository releases

Apart from the repository release there are also pack releases. These are upadated periodically in longer
intervals than the repository release. The version number of a pack release contains no x, e.g. OpenFOAM
2.1.1. In contrast to the repository release all installations of the same version number are equal. Due to the
longer release cycle the pack release is regarded to be less prone to software bugs.
There are several types of those releases. The are precompiled packages for widely used Linux distributions
(Ubuntu, SuSE and Fedora) and also a source pack. The source pack can be installed on any system on which
the source codes compile (usually all kinds of Linux running computers, e.g. high performance computing
clusters, or even computers running other operation systems, e.g. Mac OSX6 or even Windows7 ).

4.2 Check for updates

If OpenFOAM was installed from the repository release, updating is rather simple. To update OpenFOAM
simply use Git to check if there are newer source files available. Change in the Terminal to the root directory
of the OpenFOAM installation and execute git pull.
If there are newer files in the repository Git will download them and display a summary of the changed files.

user@host :∼$ cd $FOAM_I NST_DIR

user@host :∼/ OpenFOAM$ cd OpenFOAM -2.1. x
user@host :∼/ OpenFOAM / OpenFOAM -2.1. x$ git pull
remote : Counting objects : 67 , done .
remote : Compressing objects : 100% (13/13) , done .
remote : Total 44 ( delta 32) , reused 43 ( delta 31)
Unpacking objects : 100% (44/44) , done .
From git :// github . com / OpenFOAM / OpenFOAM -2.1. x
72 f00f7 ..21 ed37f master -> origin / master
Updating 72 f00f7 ..21 ed37f
Fast - forward
.../ extrude / e x t r u d e T o R e g i o n M e s h / c re a te Sh el lM e sh . C | 10 +-
.../ extrude / e x t r u d e T o R e g i o n M e s h / c re a te Sh el lM e sh . H | 7 +-
.../ e x t r u d e T o R e g i o n M e s h / e x t r u d e T o R e g i o n M e s h . C | 157 ++++++++ - - - - -
.../ Templates / Kine maticClo ud / Kin ematicCl oud . H | 6 +-
.../ Templates / Kine maticClo ud / Ki ne ma t ic Cl ou d I . H | 7 +
.../ baseClasses / kinemati cCloud / kinemati cCloud . H | 47 ++++++ -
6 files changed , 193 insertions (+) , 41 deletions ( -)

Listing 10: There are updates available

If OpenFOAM is up to date, then Git will output a corresponding message.

user@host :∼/ OpenFOAM / OpenFOAM -2.1. x$ git pull

Already up - to - date .
6 See http://openfoamwiki.net/index.php/Howto_install_OpenFOAM_v21_Mac
7 See http://openfoamwiki.net/index.php/Tip_Cross_Compiling_OpenFOAM_in_Linux_For_Windows_with_MinGW

This offering is not approved or endorsed by ESI® Group, ESI-OpenCFD® or the OpenFOAM®
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Foundation, the producer of the OpenFOAM® software and owner of the OpenFOAM® trademark.
 Listing 11: OpenFOAM is up to date

4.3 Check for updates only

If you want to check for updates only, without actually making an update, Git can be invoked using a special
option (see Listings 12 and 13). In this case Git only checks the repository and displays its findings without
actually making any changes. The option responsible for this is --dry-run. Notice, that git fetch is called
instead of git pull 8 .

user@host :∼$ cd OpenFOAM / OpenFOAM -2.0. x /

user@host :∼/ OpenFOAM / OpenFOAM -2.0. x$ git fetch -- dry - run -v
remote : Counting objects : 189 , done .
remote : Compressing objects : 100% (57/57) , done .
remote : Total 120 ( delta 89) , reused 93 ( delta 62)
Receiving objects : 100% (120/120) , 17.05 KiB , done .
Resolving deltas : 100% (89/89) , completed with 56 local objects .
From git :// github . com / OpenFOAM / OpenFOAM -2.0. x
5 ae2802 ..97 cf67d master -> origin / master
user@host :∼/ OpenFOAM / OpenFOAM -2.0. x$

Listing 12: Check for updates only – updates available

user@host :∼$ cd OpenFOAM / OpenFOAM -2.1. x /

user@host :∼/ OpenFOAM / OpenFOAM -2.1. x$ git fetch -- dry - run -v
From git :// github . com / OpenFOAM / OpenFOAM -2.1. x
= [ up to date ] master -> origin / master
user@host :∼/ OpenFOAM / OpenFOAM -2.1. x$

Listing 13: Check for updates only – up to date

4.4 Install updates

After updates have been downloaded by git pull the changed source files need to be compiled in order to
update the executables. This is done the same way as is it done when installing OpenFOAM. Simply call
./Allwmake to compile. This script recognises changes, so unchanged files will not be compiled again. So,
compiling after an update takes less time than compiling when installing OpenFOAM.

4.4.1 Workflow
Listing 14 shows the necessary commands to update an existing OpenFOAM installation. However this applies
only for repository releases (e.g. OpenFOAM-2.1.x). The point releases (every version of OpenFOAM without
an x in the version number) are not updated in the same sense as the repository releases. For simplicity an update
of a point release (OpenFOAM-2.1.0 → OpenFOAM-2.1.1) can be treated like a complete new installation, see
Section 3.6.
The first two commands in Listing 14 change to the directory of the OpenFOAM installation. Then the
latest source files are downloaded by invoking git pull.
The statement in red can be omitted. However if the compilation ends with some errors, this command
usually does the trick, see Section 4.5.2. The last statement causes the source files to be compiled. If wclean all
was not called before, then only the files that did change are compiled. If wclean all was invoked then
everything is compiled. This may or will take much longer.
If there is enough time for the update (e.g. overnight), then wclean all should be called before compiling.
This will in most cases make sure that compilation of the updated sources succeeds.

cd $F OAM_INST _DIR
cd OpenFOAM -2.1. x
git pull
8 git pull calls git fetch to download the remote files and then calls git merge to merge the retrieved files with the local files.

So checking for updates is actually done by git fetch.

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Foundation, the producer of the OpenFOAM® software and owner of the OpenFOAM® trademark.
wclean all
./ Allwmake

Listing 14: Update an existing OpenFOAM installation. The complete workflow

4.4.2 Trouble-shooting
If compilation reports some errors it is helpful to call ./Allwmake again. This reduces the output of the
successful operations considerably and the actual error messages of the compiler are easier to find.

4.5 Problems with updates

4.5.1 Missing packages
If there has been an upgrade of the operating system9 it can happen, that some relevant packages have been
removed in the course of the update (e.g. if these packages are only needed to compile OpenFOAM and the OS
’thinks’ that these packages aren’t in use). Consequently, if recompiling OpenFOAM fails after an OS upgrade,
missing packages can be the cause.

4.5.2 Updated Libraries

When libraries have been updated, they have to be recompiled. Otherwise solvers would call functions that are
not (yet) implemented. In order to avoid this problem the corresponding library has to be recompiled.

wclean all

Listing 15: Prepare recompilation with wclean

The brute force variant would be, to recompile OpenFOAM as a whole, instead of recompiling a updated
library.

4.5.3 Updated sources fail to compile

In some cases, e.g. when there were changes in the organisation of the source files, the sources fail to compile
right away. Or, if there is any other reason the sources won’t compile and the cause is not found, then a complete
recompilation of OpenFOAM may be the solution of choice. Although compiling OpenFOAM takes its time,
this may take less time than tracking down all errors.
To recompile OpenFOAM the sources need to be reset. Instead of deleting OpenFOAM and installing it
again, there is a simple command that takes care of this.

git clean - dfx

Listing 16: Reset the sources using git

The command listed in Listing 16 causes git to erase all files git does not track. That means all files that
are not part of the git-repository are deleted. In this case, this is the official git-repository of OpenFOAM. git
clean removes all files that are not under version control recursively starting from the current directory. The
option -d means that also untracked folders are removed.
After the command from Listing 16 is executed, the sources have to be compiled as described in Section 3.3.

4.5.4 Own code fails to run

Updating your repository release of OpenFOAM leads to interesting effects. When libraries of OpenFOAM are
updated, their implementation might change. Even if the updated code is fully compatible with the previous
one, the compiled libaries might look different after the update. Thus, even if the update maintains code-
compatibility10 , the update might break binary compatibility. Thus, a recompilation of your own code following
the update of the underlying OpenFOAM installation is required.
9 An upgrade of an OS is indicated by a higher version number of the same (Ubuntu 11.04 → Ubuntu 11.10). An update leaves

the version number unchanged.

10 This is the general behaviour of an update. In an ideal world only newer versions are allowed to introduce incompatibility.

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Foundation, the producer of the OpenFOAM® software and owner of the OpenFOAM® trademark.
 Lost binary compatibility after an update of OpenFOAM leads to segmentation faults when loading a library
with lost binary compatibility. This happens because our own solvers dynamically load the required libraries of
OpenFOAM at start-up and the memory layout of certain objects of the library has changed since the update.
See the following resources for further information on this topic:
• https://community.kde.org/Policies/Binary_Compatibility_Issues_With_C%2B%2B
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_code_compatibility

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Source_code_compatibility
Losing binary compatibility happens not after every update, and it also does not happen to every library.
Thus, you may encounter such problems long after the update, and after you successfully used other solvers
and libraries of your creation. Thus, the source of the issues described in this Section may not be immediately
clear to the user. Thus, if your code suddenly fails to run properly for no good reason, recomile and see what
happens.

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Foundation, the producer of the OpenFOAM® software and owner of the OpenFOAM® trademark.
 Figure 1: Initializing a new git repository.

5 Updating OpenFOAM-6 source installation

5.1 Motivation
OpenFOAM-6 is kind-of rolling point-release, i.e. the version number remains unchanged, yet there are occa-
sional patch-releases. According to the OpenFOAM Foundation11 :
Version 6 is a snapshot of the OpenFOAM development version which, through sustainable
development, is always-releasable. It provides new functionality and major improvements to existing
code, with strict demands on usability, robustness and extensibility.
The initial installation of OpenFOAM-6 follows the steps of any other installation from-source. However,
when a subsequent patch-release is released, we’re left with an OpenFOAM-6 installation that is not equal in
capabilities, features and bugs, than the current OpenFOAM-6 sources.
In ye olden days, we would have been gifted with an OpenFOAM-X.Y++. However, as OpenFOAM-
6 is OpenFOAM-6, which sort of isn’t OpenFOAM-612 , we need a way to properly update our source-pack
installation of OpenFOAM-6.

5.2 Make the OpenFOAM-6 source pack able to being updated

Since the OpenFOAM-6 source pack is a snapshot of the OpenFOAM-6 git repository13 , updating the source
pack is pretty easy. The basic steps are:
1. Initialize a new git repository within the source pack, using git init
2. Point the remote-URL of the newly created git repository to the remote repository of OpenFOAM-6, using
git remote
3. Download the updates, using git pull
4. And finally update the local state of your source pack, using git checkout
Alternatively, we could simply remove the current installation of OpenFOAM-6, download the latest source
pack and re-install afresh. Yet, this would be the less elegant brute-force method of updating our OpenFOAM-
6 installation. Connoisseurs, read on.

5.2.1 Initialization
With git init, we tell git to create a new git repository. If we run this command in a directory with files
being already present, this does not change anyone of them.

After running git init, we fill find that a new folder has been created: .git. The file .gitignore has
been part of the source pack.
11 https://openfoam.org/release/6/
12 The reader may apologize the rambling babble.
13 https://github.com/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-6

This offering is not approved or endorsed by ESI® Group, ESI-OpenCFD® or the OpenFOAM®
I 27
Foundation, the producer of the OpenFOAM® software and owner of the OpenFOAM® trademark.
 Figure 2: Pointing the new git repository to the proper remote repository.

Figure 3: Updating the new git repository by pulling from the remote repository.

5.2.2 Pointing to the remote repository

Next, we need to tell git where to find the updates. We do this, by calling git remote add origin git@github:OpenFOAM/Op

5.2.3 Pulling the updates

After, our repository has been made aware, where to get updates, it is time to download them. This is done
with git pull.

5.2.4 Updating the local repository

After, we have downloaded the updates to our repository, we need to update the local, working files of our
repository. Right now, the updates are present locally, yet the working files – the files we can open and read
with our text editor have not been updated yet. The local, working files are updated by applying the changes
we just downloaded by running git checkout -t -f -b master origin/master.

The checkout command now applies all the changes that have been made to the remote master branch to
our local master branch. Now, all the local files have been updated, and we can recompile the source files.
Note, that we need to update the third-party source-code directory in the same way as we updated the
OpenFOAM source-code directory.

Figure 4: Updating the local files of our OpenFOAM-6 installation.

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Foundation, the producer of the OpenFOAM® software and owner of the OpenFOAM® trademark.
5.3 Recompile the source pack
The last step to update any installation from source, is to recompile the sources. This can be conveniently done
by running

./ Allwmake - update

Listing 17: Recompile an updated source pack

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Foundation, the producer of the OpenFOAM® software and owner of the OpenFOAM® trademark.
6 Maintaining your OpenFOAM installation
Due to the ease of having multiple versions of OpenFOAM installed side-by-side on your system, there is the
issue of long-term maintaining of your OpenFOAM installations. Over the years OpenFOAM installations may
accumulate on your system. Furthermore, the operating system as well receives attention from its developers
in the form of updates and upgrades.

6.1 Dealing with OS updates

Over time, the operating system you are running will recieve lots of updates, unless you only work on machines
that are not connected to the internet. Usually, updates to the operating system do not affect your OpenFOAM
installation. If your OpenFOAM installation ceases to work properly following an OS update, a version conflict
is the most likely culprit. In such a case, a total rebuild from source, as outlined in Listing 18 should solve the
problem.

Trouble-shooting tip: reboot your machine and try again, this may actually help
OS updates can cause weird errors. Your trusted author encountered a situation in which mpirun ceased to
work, and the error message, contained a stack trace which featured words such as memory mapping and such.
This problem was most likely caused by OS updates which updated the MPI library and/or kernel updates.
However, the problems disappeared when the machine was rebooted.
Having a long uptime, i.e. is has been a very long time since the computer last rebooted, is only recommended
for computing server, which do not receive updates frequently, and are best not connected to the general internet.
A normal workstation, which is frequently updated, should be rebooted regularly. The author has experienced
multiple occasions, when the workstation after several kernel updates (these are ones that require a reboot to
take effect) with no reboot started to behave weirdly.

6.2 Dealing with OS upgrades

Upgrading the operating system nearly always required a total rebuild from source of your OpenFOAM instal-
lation. An upgrade to your OS is very likely to update many or even all libraries and packages OpenFOAM
depends on. Thus, trying to run OpenFOAM applications after an upgrade to the OS might result in odd
errors, e.g. OpenFOAM failing to launch due to its inability to load shared libraries such as libmpi.so.XX,
with XX being a version number.
In the case of the updated OS, libmpi.so.YY was present at the system, with YY being a different version
number than XX. This slight oddity of the error: OpenFOAM reporting a missing libmpi library, with a libmpi
library being present at the system; indicates a version conflict due to the OS upgrade. OpenFOAM tries to
load the version of the library when it was installed, yet due to the intervening OS update a newer version of
the library replaced the older one.
Hence, after an OS upgrade total rebuild from source is nearly in all cases warranted. Especially when the
underlying OS is some sort of long-term release, such as the LTS versions of Ubuntu, which are released every
two years. With a long OS release cycle, we are almost guaranteed to run into version problems after the OS
upgrade.
Thus, after upgrading the OS, we run a total rebuild from source as shown in Listing 18. First, we enter the
installation directory, clear the installation with wclean all and finally run Allwmake. Note, that this needs
to be done with all your OpenFOAM installations, that were installed prior to the upgrade.

cd $W M_ P RO JE CT_ DI R
wclean all
./ Allwmake

Listing 18: Performing a total rebuild from source

Running old versions of OpenFOAM is generally not recommended, as they might or will contain bugs which
have long been fixed since. However, for checking on old simulations or re-running them to compare them with
current runs, it is quite handy to have a functional installation at hand.

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Foundation, the producer of the OpenFOAM® software and owner of the OpenFOAM® trademark.
7 Install third-party software
The software presented in this section is optional. Without this software OpenFOAM is complete and perfectly
useable. However, the software mentioned in this section can be very useful for specific tasks.

7.1 Install pyFoam

See http://openfoamwiki.net/index.php/Contrib_PyFoam#Installation for the instructions on the instal-
lation of pyFoam.

7.2 Install swak4foam

See http://openfoamwiki.net/index.php/Contrib/swak4Foam for instructions on installing swak4foam.

7.3 Compile external libraries

There is the possibility to extend the functionality of OpenFOAM with additional external libraries, i.e. libraries
for OpenFOAM from other sources than the developers of OpenFOAM. One example of such an external library
is a large eddy turbulence model from https://github.com/AlbertoPa/dynamicSmagorinsky. The source
code is stored in OpenFOAM/AlbertoPa/.
Such a library is compiled with wmake libso. This is also the case when libraries of OpenFOAM have been
modified. The reason why typing wmake libso is sufficient is because all information wmake requieres is stored
in the files Make/files and Make/options. These files tell wmake – and therefore also the compiler – where to
find necessary libraries and where to put the executable. A more detailed description of this two files can be
found in Section 58.2.2.
To use an external library the solver needs to be told so. See Section 11.3.3.

cd OpenFOAM / AlbertoPa / d y n a m i c S m a g o r i n s k y
wmake libso

Listing 19: Compilation of a library

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Foundation, the producer of the OpenFOAM® software and owner of the OpenFOAM® trademark.
8 Setting up the environment
8.1 Sourcing OpenFOAM
OpenFOAM makes use of plenty of environment variables, see Section 11.1.1 for a brief discussion. In order
to use OpenFOAM, we need to assign values to the variables. Another task enabling the convenient use of
OpenFOAM is to add the directories in which OpenFOAM executables are located to the system’s $PATH
variable.
The name of this section stems from the Linux command source, which is used in setting up the proper
environment for using OpenFOAM. Setting up the environment for using OpenFOAM can be done in two ways,
which are discussed below. Each of these variants involves editing a .bashrc file14 . This .bashrc file can be
either a systemwide one for systemwide installations, or belonging to the user who installed OpenFOAM in
his/her home directory.
Once the OpenFOAM environment has been sourced in a Terminal, OpenFOAM is ready to use as long as
the Terminal is open.

8.1.1 Permanently sourcing OpenFOAM

If we only use one OpenFOAM installation, we could permanently source OpenFOAM. In this case, once this is
set up, OpenFOAM is ready for use without any further user action. To achieve this, we add the following line
to the appropriate .bashrc file. In the case of a single user’s installation, this would be the file $HOME/.bashrc.
The $HOME/.bashrc file is loaded every time a Terminal is opened. Thus, if we add the command of Listing 20
to the $HOME/.bashrc file, then OpenFOAM is ready to use, whenever the user opens a Terminal. This also
applies to login shells, thus remote connections via SSH or systems without any graphical desktop are covered
as well.

source $HOME / OpenFOAM / OpenFOAM -4.0/ etc / bashrc

Listing 20: Permanently sourcing OpenFOAM

8.1.2 Sourcing OpenFOAM on demand

Permanently sourcing OpenFOAM is impossible if we want to use several OpenFOAM versions alongside each
other. If we have OpenFOAM-3.0 and OpenFOAM-4.1 installed on our system, where should/does $FOAM_SRC
point to?
In this case, we need a solution to set up the OpenFOAM environment on demand for a specific version
of OpenFOAM. Again, we need to add instructions to the .bashrc file. However, now we add definitions for
aliases. An alias is a placeholder for a set of instructions, which are to executed only on demand. Since, we
add the alias definitions to the .bashrc file, the aliases we defined are available in every Terminal. However,
in contrast to sourcing OpenFOAM permanently, the OpenFOAM environment is set up only when we invoke
the alias. An alias is a conventient way to save on typing effort, since we can assign one or several commands
of arbitrary length15 to a rather short alias. We are free to choose the alias’ name, as long as this name does
not collide with an existing command16 .
In Listing 21 two aliases are shown for enabling OpenFOAM-3.0 and OpenFOAM-4.1. If we want to use
OpenFOAM-3.0, we simply type of30 into the Terminal, this will source the environment for OpenFOAM-3.0.
The use of these four letter aliases, which include the major and minor version number of OpenFOAM, saved
us from typing a 46 character command to enable the OpenFOAM environment.

alias of30 = ’ source $HOME / OpenFOAM / OpenFOAM -3.0/ etc / bashrc ’

alias of41 = ’ source $HOME / OpenFOAM / OpenFOAM -4.1/ etc / bashrc ’

Listing 21: Sourcing OpenFOAM on demand by using an alias

14 If you for some reason unthinkable to the author do not want to edit any .bashrc file, you can simply enter the instruction

shown in Listing 20 into the Terminal whenever you want to use OpenFOAM.
15 There is a limit on how long a single command can be. On the author’s Linux system, this is north of 2 million bytes.
16 We can, in fact, define an alias which has the same name as an existing command. In this case, the alias “shadows” the

corresponding command. This is used in Ubuntu Linux to add some eye candy, e.g. for ls, which is shadowed by alias ls=’ls
–color=auto’. In this case, the Terminal expands the alias, whenever a user types ls.

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Foundation, the producer of the OpenFOAM® software and owner of the OpenFOAM® trademark.
8.2 Working with Environment Modules
On a personal machine/workstation we can source our OpenFOAM environment as described in Section 8.1.2,
however, on computational clusters thinks may work differently. Especially on managed clusters, i.e. computa-
tional clusters not managed by ourselves, there are more sophisticated methods of dealing with the environment,
namely Environment Modules17 .
With Environment Modules we define a modulefile containing all relevant information regarding the software
in question. A modulefile is written using Tcl (Tool Command Language)18 .

8.2.1 Variables: set vs. setenv

In a modulefile, we can define variables and environment variables. In the context of this discussion, variables
are only visible within the modulefile, whereas environment variables are visible to the outside world. However,
we can not make use of environment variables within the modulefile. If we want to define a variable (within the
context of the modulefile) from an environment variable, we need to take special precaution. Line 1 of Listing
22 shows how an environment variable, e.g. $HOME, can be used within a modulefile.
This leads to a sort-of two-step workflow within the modulefile. First, we define all the relevant variables;
and then, we define the relevant environment variables. This two-step workflow is shown in Lines 4 and 7 of
Listing 22: first, a variable is created to be used within the modulefile; and then an environment variable is
created which will be available to the system once the corresponding module has been loaded.

set HOME " $env ( HOME ) "

set USER " $env ( USER ) "

set WM_PROJECT " OpenFOAM "

set W M _ P R O J E C T_ V E R S I O N "9"

setenv WM_PROJECT " $WM_PROJECT "

setenv W M _ P R O J E C T _ V E R S I O N " $ W M _ P R O J E C T _ V E R S I O N "

Listing 22: Snippets of a modulefile for OpenFOAM

8.2.2 Using a custom gcc installation

If we are using a custom installation of gcc, e.g. because of a gcc system installation which is too old, there
are some modifications required for the corresponding OpenFOAM modulefile. In the case discussed here,
OpenFOAM-9 failed to compile on a CentOS-7.8.2003 system with its gcc-4.8.5 due to the adoption of the
C++-14 standard19 . Thus, a newer version of gcc was necessary. This, however, is quite easily accomodated
by OpenFOAM.
Listing 23 shows the necessary changes respectively additions to the modulefile for our OpenFOAM version
which needs a custom gcc installation. First, in Line 2 of Listing 23, we change the compiler setting from
system to ThirdParty. Next, we need to provide the specific versions of the packages required for compiling
gcc, these entries are dependent on your exact version of OpenFOAM and gcc. These packages are listed in
the description of the ThirdParty repository20 , where the download links are provided. Subsequently, paths are
defined and the proper environment variables are created and the proper paths are made available.
Note, we need to make sure that $WM_THIRD_PARTY_DIR, $WM_ARCH and $WM_COMPILER_LIB_ARCH are avail-
able as a variables within the modulefile. If this is not the case, the instruction of Line 14 would cause an error.

# wmake
setenv W M _ CO M PI L E R _ T Y P E " ThirdParty "

# custom gcc environment variables

set gmp_version " gmp -5.1.2"
set mpfr_version " mpfr -3.1.2"
set mpc_version " mpc -1.0.1"
set gcc_version " gcc -7.5.0"
17 http://modules.sourceforge.net
18 https://www.tcl-lang.org
19 https://github.com/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-9/commit/0257ab14596f658708b4164963bcd5b5d654efc2
20 https://github.com/OpenFOAM/ThirdParty-9

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Foundation, the producer of the OpenFOAM® software and owner of the OpenFOAM® trademark.
setenv gmp_version " $gmp_version "
setenv mpfr_version " $mpfr_version "
setenv mpc_version " $mpc_version "
setenv gcc_version " $gcc_version "

set gccDir " $ W M _ T H I R D _ P A R T Y _ D I R / platforms / $WM_ARCH / $gcc_version "

set gmpDir " $ W M _ T H I R D _ P A R T Y _ D I R / platforms / $WM_ARCH / $gmp_version "
set mpfrDir " $ W M _ T H I R D _ P A R T Y _ D I R / platforms / $WM_ARCH / $mpfr_version "
set mpcDir " $ W M _ T H I R D _ P A R T Y _ D I R / platforms / $WM_ARCH / $mpc_version "
setenv gccDir " $gccDir "
setenv gmpDir " $gmpDir "
setenv mpfrDir " $mpfrDir "
setenv mpcDir " $mpcDir "
setenv MPFR_A RCH_PATH " $mpfrDir "
setenv GMP_ARCH_PATH " $gmpDir "

# custom gcc paths

prepend - path PATH " $gccDir / bin "
prepend - path LD _ LI BR AR Y _P AT H " $gccDir / l i b $ W M _ C O M P I L E R _ L I B _ A R C H "
prepend - path LD _ LI BR AR Y _P AT H $gmpDir / l i b $ W M _ C O M P I L E R _ L I B _ A R C H "
prepend - path LD _ LI BR AR Y _P AT H $mpfrDir / l i b $ W M _ C O M P I L E R _ L I B _ A R C H "
prepend - path LD _ LI BR AR Y _P AT H $mpcDir / l i b $ W M _ C O M P I L E R _ L I B _ A R C H "

Listing 23: Snippets of a modulefile for OpenFOAM using a custom gcc installation.

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Foundation, the producer of the OpenFOAM® software and owner of the OpenFOAM® trademark.
Part II
General Remarks about OpenFOAM
9 Units and dimensions
This section discusses the treatment of physical units (e.g. meter, second, etc.) and dimensions (scalar, vector,
etc.) in OpenFOAM. In OpenFOAM physical units are referred to as dimensions and they are covered by the
class dimensionSet. The dimensionality (a quantity being a scalar or a vector) is treated implicitely by the
data types. The data types scalar or vector do not need any further specification of their dimensionality.

9.1 Unit inspection

Basically, OpenFOAM uses the International System of Units, short: SI units. Nevertheless, also other units
can be used. In that case it is important to remember, that some physical constant, e.g. the universal gas
constant, are stored in SI units. Consequently the values need to be adapted if other units that SI should be
used.
OpenFOAM performs in addition to its calculations also a inspection of the physical units of all involved
variables and constants. For fields, like the velocity, or constants, like viscosity, the unit has to be specified.
The unit is defined in the dimension set. Units in the International System of Units are defined as products of
powers of the SI base units.

[Q] = kgα mβ sγ Kδ mol Aζ cdη (1)

A dimension set contains the exponents of (1) that define the desired unit. With the dimension set OpenFOAM
is able to perform unit checks.

dimensions [0 1 -2 0 0 0 0];

Listing 24: False dimensions for U

--> FOAM FATAL ERROR :

incompatible dimensions for operation
[ U [0 1 -3 0 0 0 0] ] + [ U [0 1 -4 0 0 0 0] ]

From function checkMethod ( const fvMatrix < Type >& , const fvMatrix < Type >&)
in file / home / user / OpenFOAM / OpenFOAM -2.1. x / src / finiteVolume / lnInclude / fvMatrix . C at line
1316.

FOAM aborting

Listing 25: Incompatible dimensions for summation

Listing 24 shows an incorrect definition of the dimension of the velocity, e.g. in the file 0/U. m/s2 has been
defined instead of m/s. OpenFOAM recognises this false definition, because mathematical operations do not
work out anymore. Listing 25 shows a corresponding error message produced by two summands having different
units. Therefore, OpenFOAM aborts and displays an error message.

9.1.1 An important note on the base units

The order in which the base units are specified differs between OpenFOAM and many publications dealing with
SI units, compare (2) and (3). The order of the base units as it is used by OpenFOAM swaps the first two base
units. As the list of base units in [4, 3] starts with the metre followed by the kilogram, OpenFOAM reverses this
order and begins with the kilogram followed by the metre. Also the fourth, fifth and sixth base units appear in
a different position.

[Q]OpenFOAM = kgα mβ sγ Kδ mol Aζ cdη (2)

α β γ δ  ζ η
[Q]SI = m kg s A K mol cd (3)

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Foundation, the producer of the OpenFOAM® software and owner of the OpenFOAM® trademark.
 Eq. (2) is based on the source code of OpenFOAM, see Listing 26. Eq. (3) is based on [4, 3].

1 // - Define an enumeration for the names of the dimension exponents

2 enum dimensionType
3 {
4 MASS , // kilogram kg
5 LENGTH , // metre m
6 TIME , // second s
7 TEMPERATURE , // Kelvin K
8 MOLES , // mole mol
9 CURRENT , // Ampere A
10 L U M I N O U S _ I N T E N S I T Y // Candela Cd
11 };

Listing 26: The definition of the order of the base units in the file dimensionSet.H

The reason for changing the order of the base units may be motivated from a CFD based point of view.
For fluid dynamics involving compressible flows as well as reactive flows and combustion the first five units of
OpenFOAM’s set of base units suffice.

9.1.2 Input syntax of units

Listing 27 shows the definition of a phase in a two-phase problem. Notice the difference between the first two
definitions and the third one. The unit of d is defined by the full set of seven exponents, whereas the other two
units (rho and nu) are defined only by five exponents. Apparently it is allowed to omit the last two exponents
(defining candela and ampere).
Defining units with five entries (for kilogram, metre, second, kelvin and mol) seems to be perfectly ap-
propiate. Neither the OpenFOAM User Guide [52] or the OpenFOAM Programmer’s Guide [51] mention this
behaviour. Defining a unit with an other number of values than five or seven leads to an error (see Listing 28).

phaseb
{
rho rho [ 1 -3 0 0 0 ] 1000;
nu nu [ 0 2 -1 0 0 ] 1e -06;
d d [ 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 ] 0.00048;
}

Listing 27: Definition of the unit

--> FOAM FATAL IO ERROR :

wrong token type - expected Scalar , found on line 22 the punctuation token ’] ’

file : / home / user / OpenFOAM / user -2.1. x / run / t w o P h a s e E u l e r F o a m / bed / constant / t r a n s p o r t P r o p e r t i e s ::

phaseb :: nu at line 22.

From function operator > >( Istream & , Scalar &)

in file lnInclude / Scalar . C at line 91.

FOAM exiting

Listing 28: Erroneous definition of units

9.1.3 Programming syntax of units

Single numbers or entire fields in OpenFOAM are not only read from file, they are also calculated from ex-
isting ones or they created completely new, independent of existing quantities. Let’s take a look on how to
create dimensioned quantities from the programming point of view. In OpenFOAM there are dimensioned
and undimensioned data types, e.g. there are the data types scalar and dimensionedScalar. The type
dimensionedScalar is basically a scalar with an additional dimensionSet.

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Foundation, the producer of the OpenFOAM® software and owner of the OpenFOAM® trademark.
 Calculating dimensioned quantities
Calculated fields inherit their dimension set from the involved operations and operands. Listing 29 shows the
creation of the kinetic energy field K from the square of the velocity fields21 . The newly created field, bears
the name K, as this is passed as an argument to the constructor. The dimension set of the field K is derived
from the constructor’s second argument. Since all mathematical operations on numeric types are mirrored for
dimensions, any mathematical operation on a dimensioned type not only yields a numerical result, it also yields
a resulting dimension. In this case the resulting dimension is square metre per square second.

1 Info < < " Creating field kinetic energy K \ n " << endl ;
2 volS calarFie ld K ( " K " , 0.5* magSqr ( U ) ) ;

Listing 29: Computing the kinetic energy fields

Creating dimensioned quantities

When creating a dimensioned quantity from scratch, the dimension set needs to be stated explicitely. In Listing
30 the dimension set is explicitely passed to the constructor of dimensionedScalar as the second argument.
Note the use of the five argument constructor of dimensionSet. As the last two SI units (for current and lu-
minous intensity) are scarcely needed in fluid dynamics, the five argument constructor is a convenience feature
of this data type.

1 d i m e n s i o n e d S c a l a r foo ( " foo " , dimensionSet (0 , 3 , 0 , 0 , 0) , scalar (1.0) )

Listing 30: Create a new variable of the dimensionedScalar datatype

Always explicitely stating the dimension set with its 5 or 7 exponents would seriously bloat the code for no
benefit. Thus, there are a number of global constants of the data type dimensionSet. These constants define
the most common dimension sets and offer a very convenient short-hand notation22 as seen in Listing 31.

1 d i m e n s i o n e d S c a l a r bar ( " bar " , dimless , scalar (0.0) )

Listing 31: Create a new variable of the dimensionedScalar datatype

Since all mathematical operations performed on the numeric part of a dimensioned quantity are also per-
formed on the dimension set, the class dimensionSet implements mathematical operations. We can use these
and the global short-hands to define the dimension set of our new dimensioned quantity. In Listing 32, we
needlessly compute the dimension set for a velocity, however, this Listing demonstrates the use of mathematical
operations on dimension sets.

1 d i m e n s i o n e d S c a l a r baz ( " baz " , dimLength / dimTime , 42.0)

Listing 32: Create a new variable of the dimensionedScalar datatype

9.2 Dimensions
Fields in fluid mechanics can be scalars, vectors or tensors. There are in OpenFOAM different data types to
distinguish between quantities of different dimensions.

volScalarField A scalar field throughout the whole computaional domain, e.g. pressure.
volScalarField p
volVectorField A vector field throughout the whole domain, e.g. velocity.
volVectorField U
21 The kinetic energy is defined in textbooks as k = 1/2ρu2 , which involves the fluid density ρ, which the definition in Listing
29 is lacking. However, the fluid density field rho enters the scene as second argument in the terms of the energy transport
equation, as can be seen in the temporal derivative and convective terms of rhoPimpleFoam’s energy equation: fvc::ddt(rho, K)
+ fvc::div(phi, K). Thus, OpenFOAM’s kinetic energy K is in fact a specific kinetic energy.
22 You can find these definitions in $FOAM_SRC/OpenFOAM/dimensionSet/dimensionSets.C

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volTensorField A tensor field throughtout the whole domain, e.g. Reynolds stresses.
volTensorField Rca
surfaceScalarField A scalar field, defined on surfaces (surfaces of the finiten volumes), e.g. flux.
surfaceScalarField phi
dimensionedScalar A scalar constant throughout the whole domain (i.e. no field quantity).
dimensionedScalar nu

9.2.1 Dimension check

The data type defines also, as described before, the dimension of a quantity. The dimension of a quantity defines
the syntax how quantities have to be entered.
Listing 34 shows the error message OpenFOAM displays when the value of a scalar quantity is entered as a
vector (Listing 33).

dimensions [ 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ];
internalField uniform ( 0 0 0 ) ;
boundaryField
{
inlet
{
type fixedValue ;
value uniform 0;
}

Listing 33: Erroneous definition of α

--> FOAM FATAL IO ERROR :

wrong token type - expected Scalar , found on line 19 the punctuation token ’( ’

file : / home / user / OpenFOAM / user -2.1. x / run / t w o P h a s e E u l e r F o a m / bed /0/ alpha :: internalField at line
19.

From function operator > >( Istream & , Scalar &)

in file lnInclude / Scalar . C at line 91.

FOAM exiting

Listing 34: Error message caused by invalid dimension

9.3 Kinematic viscosity vs. dynamic viscosity

To determine if OpenFOAM uses the kinematic viscosity [Ns/m2 = Pas] or the dynamic viscosity [m2 /s] one
has simply to take a look on the dimension.

nu nu [ 0 2 -1 0 0 0 0 ] 0.01;

Listing 35: dimensions of the viscosity

The type of viscosity is primarily determined by the used solver, e.g. compressible or incompressible.

9.4 Pitfall: pressure vs. pressure

The definition of pressure in OpenFOAM differs between the compressible and incompressible solvers. Com-
pressible solvers work with the pressure itself. Incompressible solvers use a modified pressure. The reason for
this is, because of ρ = const the incompressible equations are divided by the density and to eliminate density
entirely the modified pressure is introduced into the pressure term.

p
p̂ = (4)
ρ
For this reason the entries in the 0/p files differ depending on the solver in use. This is visible by the unit of
pressure.

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Foundation, the producer of the OpenFOAM® software and owner of the OpenFOAM® trademark.
9.4.1 Incompressible
The unit of the pressure in an incompressible solver is defined by (4)

N m3 m kgm m m2
[p̂] = 2
· =N = 2 · = 2 (5)
m kg kg s kg s

dimensions [0 2 -2 0 0 0 0];

Listing 36: Unit of pressure - incompressible

9.4.2 Compressible
The unit of the pressure in a compressible solver is the physical unit of pressure.

kgm
N 2 kg
[p] = = s2 = (6)
m2 m ms2

dimensions [ 1 -1 -2 0 0 0 0 ];

Listing 37: Unit of pressure - compressible

9.4.3 Pitfall: Pressure in incompressible multi-phase problems

When solving a multi-phase problem in an Eulerian-Eulerian fashion, for each phase a momentum equation is
solved. In most cases it is assumed that the pressure is equal in all phases. For this reason the incompressible
equations can not be divided by the density, because each phase has a different density and therefore, the
modified pressure would be differnt for each phase. To avoid this issue, incompressible Euler-Euler solvers, like
bubbleFoam, twoPhaseEulerFoam or multiPhaseEulerFoam, use the physical pressure like compressible solvers
do.

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10 Files and directories
OpenFOAM saves its data not in a single file, like Fluent does, it uses several different files. Depending on its
purpose a specific file is located in one of several folders.

10.1 Required directories

An OpenFOAM case has a minimal set of files and directories. The directory that contains those folders is
called the root directory of the case or case directory. Listing 38 shows the output of the commands pwd and
ls when they are invoked from a case directory. The first command returns the absolute path of the current
working directory. The second command prints the contents of the current folder. When ls is invoked without
any options it returns the names of all non-hidden files and folders. In this case there are three subdirectories
(0, constant and system). The fact that these three items are directories and not files is indicated by a different
color. If ls is called with the option -l are more detailed list is printed. This detailed list indicates if an entry
is a file or a directory.

user@host :∼/ OpenFOAM / user -2.1. x / run / icoFoam / cavity$ pwd

/ home / user / OpenFOAM / user -2.1. x / run / icoFoam / cavity
user@host :∼/ OpenFOAM / user -2.1. x / run / icoFoam / cavity$ ls
0 constant system
user@host :∼/ OpenFOAM / user -2.1. x / run / icoFoam / cavity$ ls -l
insgesamt 12
drwxrwxr - x 2 user group 4096 Okt 2 14:53 0
drwxrwxr - x 3 user group 4096 Okt 2 14:53 constant
drwxrwxr - x 2 user group 4096 Okt 2 14:53 system

Listing 38: Case directory

0 This is the first of the time-directories. It contains the initial and boundary conditions of all variable quan-
tities. A case does not have to start at time t = 0. However, if there is no specific reason for a case to
start at another time that t = 0, a case will always begin at time t = 0. The name of a time-directory is
simply the number of elapsed seconds.
constant This folder contains all files dealing with constant quantities as well as the mesh.
polymesh This is a subdirectory of constant. In this folder all files defining the mesh reside.
system In this folder all files that control the solver or other tools are located

In the course of computing the case two kinds of folders are created. First of all, at defined times all information
is written two the harddisk. A new time-directory is created with the number of elapsed seconds in its name. In
this folder all kinds of files are saved. The number of files is equal or larger than in the 0 -directory containing
the initial conditions.
The second category of directory subsumes all kinds of folders created for all kind of reasons or by all kind
of tools, see Section 10.2 for a brief introduction to some of the more common of them.

10.2 Supplemental directories

Directories described in this Section may be created in the course of a computation.

10.2.1 processor*
If a case is solved in parallel, i.e. the case is computed using more than one processor at the time. In this case
the computational domain has to be decomposed into several parts, to divide the problem between the involved
parallel processes. The tool that is used to decompose the case created the processor*-directories. The * stands
for a consecutive number starting with 0. So, if a case is to be solved using 4 parallel processes, then the domain
has to be split into 4 parts. Therefore, the folders processor0 to processor3 are created.
Every one of the parallel*-directories contains a 0 - and also a constant-directory containing only the mesh.
The system-directory remains in the case folder. See Section 12.5 for more information about conducting parallel
calculations.

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10.2.2 functions
functions or functionObjects perform all kind of operations during the computation. Each function creates a
folder of the same name to save its data in. See Section 49 for more information about functions.

10.2.3 sets
If the tool sample has been used, then all data generated by sample is stored in a folder named sets. See Section
50 for more information about sample.

10.3 Files in system

In the directory named system there are three files for controlling the solver. This files are necessary to run a
simulation. Besides them there may also be additional files controlling other tools.

10.3.1 The main files

This files have to be present in the system folder to be able to run a calculation
controlDict This file contains the controls related to time steps, output interval, etc.

fvSchemes In this file the finite volume discretisation schemes are defined
fvSolution This files contains controls related to the mathematical solver, solver algorithms and tolerances.

10.3.2 Additional files

This list contains a selection of the most common files to be found in the system-directory.

probesDict Alternative to the use of the file probesDict, probes can also be defined in the file controlDict.
decomposeParDict Used by decomposePar. In this file the number of subdomains and the method of decom-
position are defined.
setFieldsDict Necessary for the tool setFields to initialise field quantities.

sampleDict Definitions for the post-processing tool sample.

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11 Controlling OpenFOAM
11.1 The means of exerting control
Classical UNIX applications know several means of controlling their configuration [22]:
• System-wide run-control files
An example for these are files in /etc on Linux or UNIX systems. For OpenFOAM, such system-wide
run-control files are located in $FOAM_ETC, which might be home/user/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-3.0.0/etc.
There, we can find the global controlDict, controlling OpenFOAM’s behaviour installation-wide.
• System-wide environment variables
Such a system-wide variable on a Linux system is $HOSTNAME, which is the name associated to identify
the computer within a network. This name is the same for all users logged in at a certain machine, and
it can and should not be changed by a user. For OpenFOAM such system-wide environment variables are
$FOAM_ETC, $FOAM_INST_DIR or $WM_THIRD_PARTY_DIR. This variables are equal for all users of a certain
installation.
The distinction between system-wide and user-defined settings blurs, when we install OpenFOAM in our
home directory, then we are the administrator and the single user of our installation. This distinction was
made for clusters, which provide one installation to many users.
• User-defined run-control files
A perfect example of a user-defined run-controlled file is the file .bashrc in the user’s home directory.
This file contains user-specific settings. During the installation process of OpenFOAM, this file needs to
be edited to make the OpenFOAM installation available to the user.

• User-set environment variables

These aren’t quite common. On a Linux or UNIX system, a user might set the $EDITOR variable, then
applications, which might call an editor can simply query this variable to call the preferred editor of the
user.
• Switches and arguments passed on the command line
These are very common. A widely known example are the command line arguments -h, -help or --help
for displaying a summary of the application usage.
The order of the above listed means of control is descending from the system-level down to the per-execution
level. With the freedom to choose between five mechanisms to control the behaviour of an application comes
great responsibility to the software developer to choose wisely. Nobody wants to pass the same, never-changing
command line arguments every time an application in run. Otherwise, user often do not have the possibility to
edit system-wide run-control files, so these might be a bad location for settings which change on a daily basis.

11.1.1 Variables
Variables are the best place to store information, which is repeatedly needed. E.g. it would make no sense to
specify the installation directory of OpenFOAM in every run-control file which needs to know where OpenFOAM
is installed on the system, instead a variable $FOAM_INST_DIR is defined in one of OpenFOAM’s global run-
control files. In all other run-control files, which need to know the installation path, this variable is used. Thus,
information redundancy is avoided. Imagine the poor cluster administrators, if some information were stored
in multiple places, and this information were to change. Good luck finding and updating ALL occurances of
this data.
Variables offer the freedom to use the same name (i.e. the variable) regardless of what the actual information
is. OpenFOAM is always installed at $FOAM_INST_DIR, whether that is /home/user/OpenFOAM, /opt/OpenFOAM
or /home/user/Desktop/important_softWare.

11.1.2 Dictionaries
Dictionaries are the run-control files of OpenFOAM. Most of the controls of OpenFOAM are set in so called
dictionaries. An important dictionary is the file controlDict. Dictionaries offer a convenient way to store
structured information of arbitrary size, which would be rather impossible using variables or command line
arguments. Imagine typing all contents of controlDict every time you run a solver.

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Foundation, the producer of the OpenFOAM® software and owner of the OpenFOAM® trademark.
 The distinction between global and local dictionaries saves ourselves from messing up the OpenFOAM
installation when fiddling with a case’s set-up.

11.1.3 Command line arguments

Besides the dictionaries, there are also command-line arguments to control certain aspects of OpenFOAM’s
solvers and utilities. Command line arguments are the best way to pass information to an application that
might change from one run to the other, even when the case is the same.
An example is the -parallel command line switch. Regardless of whether we run a case with a single
process or in parallel, the case’s settings are unchanged. Thus, it would be inconsistent to tell the solver to run
in parallel via a case file.
Command line switches are command line arguments, which do not need any additional information. Adding
-help to a solver name is sufficient to make the solver display its usage summary. A command line argument,
on the other hand, needs additional information. An example is the -time argument used to tell post-processing
tools on which time steps to act upon. Passing -time alone without any further information leaves the tool
clueless and it will issue an error message.

11.2 Syntax of the dictionaries

The dictionaries need to comply a certain format. The OpenFOAM User Guide states, that the dictionaries
follow a syntax similar to the C++ syntax.

The file format follows some general principles of C++ source code.
The most basic format to enter data in a dictionary is the key-value pair. The value of a key-value pair can
be any sort of data, e.g. a number, a list or a dictionary.

11.2.1 Keywords - the banana test

As OpenFOAM offers no graphical menus, in some cases allowed entries are not visible at a glance. If a key
expects a value of a finite set of data, then the user can enter a value that is definitely not applicable, e.g.
banana. Then, OpenFOAM produces an error message with a list of allowed entries.

--> FOAM FATAL IO ERROR :

expected startTime , firstTime or latestTime found ’ banana ’

Listing 39: Wrong keyword, or the banana test

Listing 39 shows the error message that is displayed when the value banana is assigned to the key startFrom
that controls at which time a simulation should start. The error message contains a note that is formated in
this way: expected X, Y or Z found ABC.
If in a dictionary several key-value pairs are erroneous, only the first one produces an error, as OpenFOAM
aborts all further operations.

Pitfall: assumptions & default values

In some cases the banana test behaves differently than expected. Listing 40 shows the warning message Open-
FOAM returns, when the banana test is used with the control compression of controlDict. See Section 11.3.2
for a description of this control. In this case, OpenFOAM does not abort but continues to run the case. In-
stead of returning an error message and exiting, OpenFOAM simply assumes a value in place of the invalid entry.

--> FOAM Warning :

From function IOstream :: c om pr e ss io nE n um ( const word &)
in file db / IOstreams / IOstreams / IOstream . C at line 80
bad compression specifier ’ banana ’ , using ’ uncompressed ’

Listing 40: Failed banana test

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Foundation, the producer of the OpenFOAM® software and owner of the OpenFOAM® trademark.
11.2.2 Mandatory and optional settings
Some settings are expected by the solver to be made. If they are not present, OpenFOAM will return an error
message. Other settings have a default value, which is used if the user does not specify a value. In this sense,
settings can be divided into mandatory and optional ones.
As mandatory settings causes an error if they are not set, a simulation can be run only if all mandatory
settings were made.

About errors
• There will be an error when mandatory settings were not made.
• There is no error message if an optional setting (that is necessary) was omitted. All optional controls have
a default value and will be in place.

• There is no error message if a setting was made and that setting is not needed. The solver simply ignores
it. Consequently the definition of a variable time step in controlDict does not necessarily mean, that the
simulation is performed with variable time steps, e.g. if icoFoam (a fixed time step solver) is used.
• Sometimes an error message points to the setting of a keyword that is actually not faulty. See Section
11.2.3.

See Section 57.3 for a detailed discussion – including a thorough look at some source code – about reading
keywords from dictionaries.

11.2.3 Pitfall: semicolon (;)

Similar to C++, lines are terminated by a semicolon. Listing 41 shows the content of the file U1 in the 0 -
directory. The line defining the boundary condition (BC) for the outlet was not terminated properly. Listing
42 shows the provoked error message. This error message does not mention outlet, but rather walls – keyword
walls is undefined. The definiton of the boundary condition for the walls comes after the outlet definition. One
reason for this may be, that OpenFOAM terminates reading the file after the missing semicolon causes a syntax
error, and therefore the boundary condition for the walls remain undefined.
This example demonstrates that the error messages are sometimes not very meaningful if they are taken
literally. The error was made at the definiton of the BC for the outlet. If only the definition. of the BC of the
walls is examined, the cause for the error message will remain unclear, because the BC definition of the walls is
perfectly correct.

dimensions [0 1 -1 0 0 0 0];

internalField uniform (0 0 0) ;

boundaryField
{
inlet
{
type fixedValue ;
value uniform (0 0 0.03704) ;
}

outlet
{
type zeroGradient
}

walls
{
type fixedValue ;
value uniform (0 0 0) ;
}
}

Listing 41: Missing semicolon in the definition of the BC

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Foundation, the producer of the OpenFOAM® software and owner of the OpenFOAM® trademark.
--> FOAM FATAL IO ERROR :
keyword walls is undefined in dictionary "/ home / user / OpenFOAM / user -2.1. x / run / t w o P h a s e E u l e r F o a m
/ case /0/ U1 :: boundaryField "

file : / home / user / OpenFOAM / user -2.1. x / run / t w o P h a s e E u l e r F o a m / case /0/ U1 :: boundaryField from line
25 to line 47.

From function dictionary :: subDict ( const word & keyword ) const

in file db / dictionary / dictionary . C at line 461.

FOAM exiting

Listing 42: Error message caused by missing semicolon

11.2.4 Switches
Besides key-value pairs there are switches. These enable or disable a function or a feature. Consequently, they
only can have a logical value.
Allowed values are: on/off, true/false or yes/no. See Section 57.4.1 for a detailed discussion about valid
entries.

11.3 The controlDict

In this dictionary controls regarding time step, simulation time or writing data to hard disk are located.
The settings in the controlDict are not only read by the solvers but also by all kinds of utilities. E.g. some
mesh modification utilities obey the settings of the keywords startFrom and startTime. This has to be kept
in mind when using a number of utilities for pre-processing.

11.3.1 Time control

In this Section the most important controls with respect to time step and simulation time are listed. This list
makes no claim of completeness.
startFrom controls the start time of the simulation. There are three possible options for this keyword.

firstTime the simulation starts from the earliest time step from the set of time directories.
startTime the simulation starts from the time specified by the startTime keyword entry.
latestTime the simulation starts from the latest time step from the set of time directories.

startTime start time from which the simulation starts. Only relevant if startFrom startTime has been
specified. Otherwise this entry is completely ignored23 .
stopAt controls the end of the simulation. Possible values are {endTime, nextWrite, noWriteNow, writeNow}.

endTime the simulation stops when a specified time is reached.

writeNow the simulation stops after the current time step is completed and the current solution is
written to disk.

endTime end time for the simulation

deltaT time step of the simulation if the simulation uses fixed time steps. In a variable time step simulation
this value defines the initial time step.
adjustTimeStep controls whether time steps are of fixed or variable length.24 If this keyword is omitted, a
fixed time step is assumed by default. When an adjustable time step is used, then the time step length
∆t is controlled via a Courant number criterion. See Section 57.6.4 for more on the Courant number and
its influence on the time step.
23 If
the simulation is set to start from firstTime or latestTime, this keyword can be omitted or the value of this keyword can be
anything – startTime banana does not lead to an error, what would be the case if the simulation started from a specific start time.
24 This keyword is important only for solvers featuring variable time stepping. A fixed time step solver simply ignores this control

without displaying any warning or error message.

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Foundation, the producer of the OpenFOAM® software and owner of the OpenFOAM® trademark.
runTimeModifiable controls whether or not OpenFOAM should read certain dictionaries (e.g. controlDict)
at the beginning of each time step. If this option is enabled, a simulation can be stopped by using setting
stopAt to one of these values {nextWrite, noWriteNow, writeNow}, see Section 12.2.
maxCo when the simulation is run with an adjustable time step, then we can specify the maximum Courant
number, which is used to impose an upper boundary on the time step size.
maxDeltaT when we run a simulation with an adjustable time step, we can provide a manual, hard upper
boundary for the maximum time step. This setting limits the time step size, regardless of other conditions
allowing for a larger time step, e.g. the Courant number criterion.
In Section 57.6 a couple of aspects regarding time step control are discussed.

11.3.2 Data writing

In controlDict the controls regarding data writing can be found. Often, it is not necessary to save every time
step of a simulation. OpenFOAM offers several ways to define how and when the data is to be written to the
hard disk.
writeControl controls the timing of writing data to file. Allowed values are {adjustableRunTime, clockTime,
cpuTime, runTime, timeStep}.

runTime when this option is chosen, then every writeInterval seconds the data is written. This
option has no influence on the time step. Hence, the interval at which data is written may/does
not exactly match the entry in writeInterval, i.e. for a 1 s interval the data may be written at
t = 1.0012, 2.0005, . . . s.
adjustableRunTime this option allows the solver to adjust the time step, so that every writeInterval
seconds the data can be written. This option imposes an upper boundary upon the time step.
There must be at least 5 time steps between two instances at which data is written, i.e. ∆t ≤
0.2 ∗ writeInterval.
timeStep the data is written every writeInterval time steps. In this case, writeInterval is an integer,
not a time.

writeInterval a value that controls the interval of data writing. This value gets its meaning from the value
assigned to writeControl.
writeFormat controls how the data is written to hard disk. It is possible to write text files or binary files.
Consequently, the options are {ascii, binary}.
writePrecision controls the precision of the values written to the hard disk.

writeCompression controls whether to compress the written files or not. By default compression is disabled.
When it is activated, all written files are compressed using gzip.
timeFormat controls the format that is used to write the time step folders.
timePrecision specifies the number of digits after the decimal point. The default value is 6.

purgeWrite this setting control whether to clear out old time steps. The default value is 0, which means
that no clearing out will be conducted. For enabling clearing out old time steps, valid values are positive
integer numbers. If enabled with a non-zero value N , only the last N time steps will be retained. Once
the simulation has written N time steps to disk, for every new time step saved, the oldest one will be
deleted. The initial time step is not affected and will always remain in the case25 .
25 In the file TimeIO.C we see, that each time we reach write-time, the current time step is added to a FIFO stack. Subsequently,

the stack’s size is checked against the purgeWrite value. If the stack is larger, then one item will be removed.

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Pitfall: timePrecision
OpenFOAM is able to automatically increase the value of timePrecision parameter if need arises, e.g. due
to a reduction in (dynamic) time step size26 . This is typically the case when a simulation diverges and the
(dynamic) time step gets decreased by orders of magnitudes. However, simulations that do not diverge may
also create the need for an increase in time precision.

Increased the timePrecision from 6 to 7 to distinguish between timeNames at time 4.70884

Listing 43: Exemplary solver output in the case of an automatic increase of the timePrecision value.

If a simulation that increased its time precision is to be restarted or continued from the latest time step, then
the chosen time precision may not be sufficient to represent the present time step values, i.e. a timePrecision
of 3 is not sufficient to represent the latest time step at t = 0.1023 s. OpenFOAM will apply rounding to the
reach the selected number of digits behind the comma. Consequently, OpenFOAM will fail to find files at time
t = 0.102 s.
This behaviour is hard to detect for an unaware user. The only clue for detection lies in this case in the
fourth digit behind the comma, which is present in only in the name of the time step directory but not in
the timeName that is looked up by OpenFOAM. Listing 44 shows the according error message and a directory
listing of the case directory. It is up to the reader to decide whether this is an easy to spot error. The author
took some time, which motivated him to elaborate on this issue in this little collection of errors and misbehaviour.

--> FOAM FATAL IO ERROR : cannot find file

file : / home / user / OpenFOAM / user -2.3. x / run / icoFoam / cavity /0.102/ p at line 0.

From function regIOobject :: readStream ()

in file db / regIOobject / r eg IO o bj ec tR e ad . C at line 73.

FOAM exiting

user@host :∼/ OpenFOAM / user -2.3. x / run / icoFoam / cavity$ ls

0 0.1023 constant system
user@host :∼/ OpenFOAM / user -2.3. x / run / icoFoam / cavity$

Listing 44: Exemple of an error caused by an automatic increase of the timePrecision value in the previous
simulation run. We fail to restart the simulation as OpenFOAM is not able to find the correct time step.

Non-pitfall: time step control & writeInterval control of functionObjects

Note, that the general settings in the file controlDict are not the only settings controlling the time step size.
When we use functionObjects to extract data from a running simulation, we can control the interval at which
the data from the functionObjects is written independently from the general write interval of the simulation.
The functionObjects allow to use the setting adjustableRunTime in the same manner as we can use it for the
simulation in general.
Thus in such a case, the time step of the simulation is controlled by the functionObject in addition to
the general simulation settings. This can lead to a situation, when the write interval of the functionObject is
sufficiently small, that the maximum allowed Courant number is not reached when running the simulation. This
is normal behaviour, since there are multiple criteria at work to determine the time step size, and figuratively
spoken: the lowest bidder wins.

Somewhat-non-pitfall: time step control & writeInterval

The OpenFOAM manual says, that when we select runTime as write-control, then the data is written every
writeInterval seconds to disk. This does however, allow for the somewhat strange case of a write-interval
which is actually (much) larger than the writeInterval.
26 A dynamic increase of the timePrecision value in simulations with fixed time steps indicates a setting in which the time

precision is not sufficient to adequately represent the time step. This leads to a automatic increase of time precision after the first
time step is written to disk. I.e. if ∆t can’t be represented with timePrecision number of digits after the comma, then t1 + ∆t
also can’t be represented. Thus, t1 and t1 + ∆t would get the same time name and would consequently be indistinguishable. See
Section 57.6.3 on more implementation details on this matter.

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Foundation, the producer of the OpenFOAM® software and owner of the OpenFOAM® trademark.
 Since, we selected runTime as write-control, the writeInterval has no effect on the time step size. If
the time step controls allow for a time step larger than writeInterval, e.g. via the Courant criterion, then
OpenFOAM will oblige. In this case, after every time step OpenFOAM notices, that the time elapsed since the
last write-to-disk is larger than the writeInterval. Thus, it is time to write to disk again.
If we do not want this kind of behaviour, then we need to select adjustableRunTime as our write-control,
because then the time step will be checked against the writeInterval.

More an observation than a pitfall: time step control & writeInterval

If we select adjustableRunTime as our write-control, then the time step is adjusted to conform the interval set
by writeInterval. It has been observed, that in this case the time step adjustment adheres to the following
boundary:
writeInterval
∆t ≤
5
Thus, OpenFOAM performs at least 5 time steps between writing data to disk. This behaviour might be
confusing, and it is not explained in the documentation. Also, your trusted author has not been able to infer
this behaviour from OpenFOAM’s source code.

11.3.3 Loading additional Libraries

Additional libraries can be loaded with an instruction in controlDict. Listing 45 shows how an external library
(in this case a turbulence model that is not included in OpenFOAM) is included. This model can be found at
https://github.com/AlbertoPa/dynamicSmagorinsky/.

libs ( " l i b d y n a m i c S m a g o r i n s k y M o d e l . so " ) ;

Listing 45: Load additional libraries; controlDict entry

Note that the line in Listing 45 is a keyword (libs) followed by a list-type entry. Thus, the space between
the keyword and the opening parenthesis is vital, since whitespace is used to separate a keyword from its value.

11.3.4 functions
functions, or functionObjects as they are called in OpenFOAM, offer a wide variety of extra functionality, e.g.
probing values or run-time post-processing. See Section 49.
functions can be enabled or disabled at run-time.

11.3.5 Outsourcing a dictionary

Some definitions can be outsourced in a seperate dictionary, e.g. the definition of a probe-functionObject.

All inclusive
In this case the probe is defined completely in controlDict.

functions
{
probes1
{
type probes ;
f u n c t i o n O bj e c t L i b s (" libsampling . so ") ;

fields
(
p
U
);
outputControl outputTime ;
outp utInterv al 0.01;

prob eLocatio ns

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Foundation, the producer of the OpenFOAM® software and owner of the OpenFOAM® trademark.
 (
(0.5 0.5 0.05)
);
}
}

Listing 46: Definition of a probe in controlDict

Seperate probesDict
In this case the definition of the probe is done in a seperate file – the probesDict. In controlDict the name of
this dictionary is assigned to the keyword dictionary. This dictionary has be located in the system-directory of
the case. It is not possible to assign the path of this dictionary to this keyword.

functions
{
probes1
{
type probes ;
f u n c t i o n O bj e c t L i b s (" libsampling . so ") ;

dictionary probesDict ;
}
}

Listing 47: External definition of probes; Entry in controlDict

fields
(
p
U
);

outputControl outputTime ;
outp utInterv al 0.01;

prob eLocatio ns
(
(20.5 0.5 0.05)
);

Listing 48: Definition of probes in the file probesDict

Everything external
There is also the possibility to move the whole definition of a functionObject into a seperate file. In this case
the macro #include is used. This macro is similar to the pre-processor macro if C++.

functions
{
# include " cuttingPlane "
}

Listing 49: Completely external definition of a functionObject; Entry in controlDict

cuttingPlane
{
type surfaces ;
f u n c t i o n O b j ec t L i b s (" libsampling . so ") ;
outputControl outputTime ;

surfaceFormat raw ;
fields ( alpha1 ) ;

i n t e r p o l a t i o n S c h e m e cellPoint ;

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Foundation, the producer of the OpenFOAM® software and owner of the OpenFOAM® trademark.
 surfaces
(
yNormal
{
type cuttingPlane ;
planeType point AndNorma l ;
pointAndNormalDict
{
basePoint (0 0.1 0) ;
normalVector (0 1 0) ;
}

interpolate true ;
}
);
}

Listing 50: Definition of a cuttingPlane functionObject in a seperate file named cuttingPlane

11.3.6 Pitfalls
timePrecision
If the time precision is not sufficient, then OpenFOAM issues a warning message and increases the time precision
without aborting a running simulation.
Listing 51 shows such a warning message. The simulation time exceeded 100 s and OpenFOAM figured that
the time precision was not sufficient anymore.

--> FOAM Warning :

From function Time :: operator ++()
in file db / Time / Time . C at line 1024
Increased the timePrecision from 6 to 13 to distinguish between timeNames at time 100.001

Listing 51: Warning message: automatic increase of time precision

A side effect of this increase in time precision was a slight offset in simulation time. The time step of this
simulation was 0.001 s and the time steps were written every 0.5 s. As it is clearly visible in Listing 52, the
names of the time step folders indicate this offset. This effect on the time step folder names was the reason, the
automatic increase of time precision was noticed by the author.
However, automatic increase of time precision has no negative effect on a simulation. This purpose of this
section is to explain the cause for this effect.

101. 50000000 02
101. 00000000 02
100. 50000000 02
100
99.5
99
98.5

Listing 52: Time step folders after increase of time precision

11.4 Run-time modifcations of dictionaries

If the switch runTimeModifiable is set true, on or yes; certain files (e.g. controlDict or fvSolution) are read anew,
if a file has changed. In this way, e.g. the write interval can be changed during the simulation. If OpenFOAM
detects a run-time modification it issues a message on the Terminal.

regIOobject :: r eadIfMod ified () :

Re - reading object controlDict from file "/ home / user / OpenFOAM / user -2.1. x / run /
m u l t i p h a s e E u l e r F o a m / bubbleColumn / system / controlDict "

Listing 53: Detected modifaction of controlDict at run-time of the solver

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11.5 The fvSolution dictionary
The file fvSolution contains all settings controlling the solvers and the solution algorithm. This file must
contain two dictionaries. The first controls the solvers and the second controls the solution algorithm.

11.5.1 Solver control

The solvers dictionary contains settings that determine the work of the solvers (e.g. solution methods, toler-
ances, etc.).

11.5.2 Solution algorithm control

The dictionary controlling the solution algorithm is named after the solution algorithm itself. I.e. the name of
the dictionary controlling the PIMPLE algorithm is PIMPLE. Note, that the name of this dictionary is in upper
case letters unlike most other dictionaries.
Listing 54 shows an example of a PIMPLE dictionary. See Section 42.2 for a detailed discussion on the PIM-
PLE algorithm.

PIMPLE
{
n O u t e r C o r r e ct o r s 1;
nCorrectors 2;
n N o n O r t h o g o n a l C o r r e c t o r s 0;
pRefCell 0;
pRefValue 0;
}

Listing 54: The PIMPLE dictionary

11.6 Command line arguments

OpenFOAM’s solvers and utilities can be controlled by a set of command line arguments. Some of them are
common to all or many executables, some might be special to a certain tool.

11.6.1 Getting help: -help

The most important command line argument is -help. This is common to all solvers and tools of OpenFOAM
and it displays a summary of the respective tool.

11.6.2 Getting in control: -dict

Certain tools expect to find a specific dictionary containing necessary information. With the -dict option, the
user can tell the executable, where to look for the dictionary. To the authors knowledge, all tools expecting a
dictionary assume a default location and filename. E.g. in older versions of OpenFOAM blockMesh expected to
find a dictionary named blockMeshDict in the constant/polyMesh sub-directory of the case’s root, in newer
versions it checks also the system directory. If the use chooses to put the dictionary containing into a different
folder, he or she can do so, however, the path to the dictionary now needs to be passed using the -dict command
line argument.

no control dict
The help summary displayed by -help, in some cases, describes the -dict options as follows: read control dic-
tionary from specified location. However, the dictionary specified with the -dict option is not the controlDict.
Thus, all entries that go into controlDict need to go into controlDict. For some tools the description of
the -dict option seems a little ambiguous. What is meant by control dictionary in this case is the dictio-
nary controlling this specific tool, such as blockMeshDict controlls blockMesh or snappyHexMeshDict controls
snappyHexMesh.

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12 Usage of OpenFOAM
12.1 Use OpenFOAM
In the most simple case, Listing 55 represents a complete simulation-run.

blockMesh
checkMesh
icoFoam
paraFoam

Listing 55: Compute a simple simulation case

The first command, blockMesh, creates the mesh. The geometry has to be defined in blockMeshDict. checkMesh
performs, as the name suggests, checks on the mesh. The third command is also the name of the solver. All
solvers of OpenFOAM are invoked simply by their name. The last command opens the post-processing tool
ParaView.
There are additional tasks that extend the sequence of commands shown in Listing 55. These can be
• Convert a mesh created by an other meshing tool, e.g. import a Fluent mesh
• Initialise fields
• Set up an parallel simulation; see Section 12.5

12.1.1 Redirect output and save time

The solver output can be printed to the Terminal or redirected to a file. Listing 56 shows how the solver output
is redirected to a file named foamRun.log.

mpirun - np N icoFoam - parallel > foamRun . log

Listing 56: Redirect output to a file

Redirecting the solver output does not only create a log file, it also save the time that is needed to print the
output to the Terminal. In some cases this can reduce simulation time drastically. However, writing to hard
disk also takes its time.

Time steps Cells Print to Terminal Redirect to file

executionTime clockTime executionTime clockTime
5000 400 6,36 9 4,6 6
10000 400 12,71 18 9,22 10
12500 400 15,8 23 11,54 12
25000 400 32,33 47 22,99 23
5000 1600 9,74 11 9,3 10
5000 6400 282,19 283 282,83 283

Table 1: Run-time cavity test case

executionTime is the time the processor takes to calculate the solution of the case. clockTime is the time
that elapses between start and end of the simulation, this is the time the wall clock indicates. The value of
the clockTime is always larger than the value of the executionTime, because computing the solution is not the
only task the processor of the system performs. Consequently, the value of the ClockTime depends on external
factors, e.g. the system load.

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Redirect output to nowhere
If the output of a program is of no interest it can be redirected to virtually nowhere to prevent it from being
displayed on the Terminal. Listing 57 shows haw this is done. /dev/null is a special file on unix-like systems
that discards all data written to it.

mpirun - np N icoFoam - parallel > / dev / null

Listing 57: Redirect output to nowhere

12.1.2 Run OpenFOAM in the background, redirect output and read log
In Section 12.1.1 the redirection of the solver output was explained. To monitor the progress of running
calculation the end of the log can be read with the tail command.
Listing 58 shows how a simlation with icoFoam is started and the solver output is redirected. The & at
the end of the line causes the invoked command to be executed in the background. The Terminal remains
therefore available. Otherwise the Terminal would be waiting for icoFoam to finish before executing any further
commands.
The second command invoked in Listing 58 prints the last 5 lines of the log file to the Terminal. tail returns
the last lines of a text file. Without the parameter -n tail returns by default the last 10 lines.

user@host :∼/ OpenFOAM / user -2.1. x / run / icoFoam / cavity$ icoFoam > foamRun . log &
[1] 10416
user@host :∼/ OpenFOAM / user -2.1. x / run / icoFoam / cavity$ tail foamRun . log -n 5
ExecutionTime = 0.74 s ClockTime = 1 s

Time = 1.12

Courant Number mean : 0.444329 max : 1.70427

user@host :∼/ OpenFOAM / user -2.1. x / run / icoFoam / cavity$

Listing 58: Read redirected output from log file while the solver is running

12.1.3 Save hard disk space

OpenFOAM saves the data of the solution in intervals in time directories. The name of a time directory rep-
resents the time of the simulation. Listing 59 shows the content of a case directory after the simulation has
finished. Besides the three folders that define the case (0, constant and system) there are more time directories
and a probes1 -folder present.

user@host :∼/ OpenFOAM / user -2.1. x / run / icoFoam / cavity$ ls

0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1 constant probes1 system
user@host :∼/ OpenFOAM / user -2.1. x / run / icoFoam / cavity$

Listing 59: List folder contents

The probes1 -directory contains the data generated by the functionObject named probes1. The time-directories
contain the solution data of the whole computational domain. Listing 60 shows the contents of the 0 - and the
0.1 -directory. Typically, time-directories generated in the course of the computation contain more data than
the 0 -directory defining the initial conditions.

user@host :∼/ OpenFOAM / user -2.1. x / run / icoFoam / cavityBinary$ ls 0

p U
user@host :∼/ OpenFOAM / user -2.1. x / run / icoFoam / cavityBinary$ ls 0.1
p phi U uniform
user@host :∼/ OpenFOAM / user -2.1. x / run / icoFoam / cavityBinary$

Listing 60: List folder contents

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Using binary files or compressing files
In general the time-directories use the majority of the hard disk space a completed case takes. If the time-
directories are saved in binary instead of ascii format, these use generally a little less space. Another advantage
of storing time step data in binary format, the time step data has full precision.
OpenFOAM also offers the possibility to compress all files in the time step directories. For compression
OpenFOAM uses gzip, this is indicated by the files names in the time step directories, i.e. alpha1.gz instead
alpha1.
Table 2 shows a comparison of hard disk use. The most reduction is achieved by compressing ascii data files.
However, storing the time step data in ascii has the disadvantage that the numerical precision is limited to the
number of digits stated with the writePrecision keyword in the controlDict. In this case writePrecision
was set to 6, i.e. numbers have up to 6 significant digits. Compressing the binary files shows less effect than
compressing the ascii files, which indicates that the binary files contain less redundant bytes.

Write settings Used space reduction

ascii 45.5 MB
ascii, compressed 16.7 MB 28.8 MB -63.3 %
binary 33.8 MB 11.7 MB -25.7 %
binary, compressed 28.8 MB 16.7 MB -36.7 %

Table 2: Comparison of hard disk space consumption

Make sure to avoid unnecessary output

Disk space can easily be wasted by writing everything to disk. Not only writing too many time steps to disk
can waste space, functionObjects can be the culprit too. See 49.6.3.

12.2 Abort an OpenFOAM simulation

An OpenFOAM simulation ends when the simulation time reaches the value specified with the endTime keyword
in controlDict. However, we also need to be able to stop a simulation prematurely. This section explains how
to end a simulation in a controlled manner, i.e. the current state of the solution is written to the harddisk in
order to be able to continue the simulation at a later time.
As a prerequisite, the runTimeModifiable flag has to be enabled in controlDict. This keyword controls
whether controlDict is monitored for changes during the run-time of the simulation. This is necessary for this
method to work. Otherwise, the simulation will stop at endTime.
To abort a simulation we simply need to change the value of the stopAt entry in controlDict from endTime
to writeNow. When OpenFOAM detects the change and re-reads controlDict, this causes OpenFOAM to finish
its current time step and write the state of the solution to disk before ending the run.

12.3 Terminate an OpenFOAM simulation

This section describes how to terminate a running OpenFOAM simulation. See Section 12.2 on how to abort a
simulation in a controlled manner, i.e. saving the current solution and stop the simulation.
This section explains how terminate a running simulation immediately and without saving the current
solution. Use this approach when you wouldn’t use the solution anyway, e.g. because you chose incorrect
settings.

12.3.1 Terminate a process in the foreground

If a command is executed in the Terminal without any additional parameters the process runs in the foreground.
The Terminal is therefore busy and can not be used until the process is finished. When a process is running
in the foreground it can easily terminated by pressing CTRL + C . Listing 61 features the GNU command
sleep. The only function of this command is to pause for a specified amount of time. With this command the
permature termination of a process can be tried.

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Foundation, the producer of the OpenFOAM® software and owner of the OpenFOAM® trademark.
user@host :∼$ sleep 3
user@host :∼$

Listing 61: Keep the Terminal busy

12.3.2 Terminate a background process

If a process runs in the background, the Terminal is free to be used for further tasks while the process is
running. In this case, the background process can not be terminated by pressing CTRL + C because the
Operating System can not tell which background process the user wants to terminate.

Identify the process

On UNIX based systems every process is identified by a unique number. This is the PID, the process identifier.
The PID is equivalent to a licence plate for a car. During run-time this number is unique. However, after a
process has finished the PID of this process is available for other, later processes.
To find out which processes are currently running, invoke the command ps. This lists all running processes.
Without any further parameters only the processes that were executed from the current Terminal are listed.
Listing 62 shows the result if a new Terminal is opened and ps is called. The first entry – bash – is the Terminal
itself. The second entry – ps – is the only other process active at the time ps looks for all running processes.
The PID is listed in the first column of Listing 62. Depending on the parameters passed to ps the output can
be formatted differently.

user@host :∼$ ps
PID TTY TIME CMD
13490 pts /1 00:00:00 bash
13714 pts /1 00:00:00 ps
user@host :∼$

Listing 62: List processes in a fresh Terminal

The output of 62 is rather dull. However, there are lots of parameters telling ps what to do. The option -e
makes ps list all systemwide running processes. The output of such a call can be quite long, because ps lists all
processes started by the users as well as all system processes27 .
The option -F controls the output format of ps. In this case -F stands for extra full. This means the output
contains a lot of information. Another option to display much information is -l. This option truncates the
names of the processes to 15 characters, whereas -F displays not only the full name of the process, it also
displays the parameters with which the processes were called.

ps - eF

Listing 63: List all running processes of the system

ps displays much information about a process. For terminating a process only the PID is necessary.

Search in the list of processes

The output of ps is a list which can be quite long. To terminate a certain process its PID has to be known.
Searching a number in a list of numbers can be quite painful and errorprone. Therefore it would be handy to
search in the list ps has returned for the desired process.
Before all else, grep does the trick. And now for something more detailed. grep is a program that searches
the lines of its input for a certain pattern. grep can use a file or the standard input as its input. As it is
unpractical to redirect the output of ps into a file only for grep to read it, we directly redirect the output of ps
to the input of grep. This is achieved by the use of a pipe.
Listing 64 shows how this is done. The first part of the command invoked – ps -eF – calls ps to list
all processes currently running in great detail. The option -F is used to make sure long process names can
be distinguished, e.g. to tell buoyantBoussinesqPimpleFoam apart from buoyantBoussinesqSimpleFoam.
27 System processes are processes run by the Operating System itself.

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Both are standard solvers of OpenFOAM. The bold part are the first 15 characters of the solver’s name. If the
option -F was omitted and both solvers were running, the results of ps would be ambiguous.
The second part of the command invoked in Listing 64 shows the call of grep. grep can be called with one or
two arguments. If only one argument is passed to grep, grep uses the standard input as input. If grep is called
with two parameters, the second argument has to specify the file from which grep has to read. As grep is called
with only one argument, it reads from the standard input.
Because it would be even more boring to type the list returned by ps we redirect the output of ps to the
standard input of grep. This is done by the pipe. The character | marks the connection of two processes in the
Terminal. The command left of the | passes its output directly to the command specified right of the |.
Now we can read and interpret Listing 64. It shows the output of the search for all running processes con-
taining the pattern Foam. In this case a parallel computation is going on. The first line of the result is mpirun.
This process controls the parallel running solvers. The next four lines are the four instances of the solver. How
parallel simulation works is explained in Section 12.5. The second last entry of the result is grep waiting for
input28 . The last line of the result is the pdf viewer which displays this document at that time. This example
shows that is important to choose the pattern wisely, the search may return unexpected results.

user@host :∼$ ps - ef | grep Foam

user 11005 5117 0 17:11 pts /2 00:00:05 mpirun - np 4 twoPhaseEulerFoam - parallel
user 11006 11005 99 17:11 pts /2 00:40:27 twoPhaseEulerFoam - parallel
user 11007 11005 99 17:11 pts /2 00:40:28 twoPhaseEulerFoam - parallel
user 11008 11005 99 17:11 pts /2 00:40:27 twoPhaseEulerFoam - parallel
user 11009 11005 99 17:11 pts /2 00:40:26 twoPhaseEulerFoam - parallel
user 11673 11116 0 17:52 pts /12 00:00:00 grep -- color = auto Foam
user 32041 1 0 Aug01 ? 00:00:31 evince / tmp / lyx_tmpdir . J18462 / lyx_tmpbuf0 / open
Foam U s e r M a n ua l _ C D L v 2 . pdf
user@host :∼$

Listing 64: Search for processes

List only specified processes

You can tell ps directly in which processes you are interested. The option -C of ps makes ps list only those
processes that stem from a certain command. Listing 65 shows the output when ps -C twoPhaseEulerFoam
is typed into the Terminal. In this case also there are four parallel processes running. Notice, that only the
processes directly related to the solvers are shown. No other results are displayed unlike in Listing 64.
One has to bear in mind, that ps -C does not search for patterns. If the command name passed to ps as an
argument is misspelled, ps will not display the desired result. Listing 66 shows the effect of typos in this case.
The truncation of the process name in the list does not affect the search if the passed command name is equal
or longer than the truncated process name. The first two commands issued in Listing 66 result in a list of all
running instances of the solver. If the passed argument is shorter than the truncated process name – the third
command – ps does not output any results. Also if there is a typo in the passed argument, ps does not find
anything.

user@host :∼$ ps -C t w o P h a s e E u l e r F o a m
PID TTY TIME CMD
11006 pts /2 00:47:44 t wo Ph as e Eu le rF o
11007 pts /2 00:47:44 tw oP h as eE ul e rF o
11008 pts /2 00:47:44 tw oP h as eE ul e rF o
11009 pts /2 00:47:43 t wo Ph as e Eu le rF o
user@host :∼$

Listing 65: List all instances of twoPhaseEulerFoam

user@host :∼$ ps -C t w o P h a s e E u l e r F o a
PID TTY TIME CMD
12741 pts /0 00:00:34 tw oP h as eE ul e rF o
12742 pts /0 00:00:34 tw oP h as eE ul e rF o
12743 pts /0 00:00:34 tw oP h as eE ul e rF o
12744 pts /0 00:00:34 tw oP h as eE ul e rF o
28 On most Unix-like systems processes connected by a pipe are started at the same time. For this reason grep is already running

while ps is listing all running processes.

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user@host :∼$ ps -C t wo Ph as e Eu le rF o
PID TTY TIME CMD
12741 pts /0 00:00:36 t wo Ph as e Eu le rF o
12742 pts /0 00:00:36 t wo Ph as e Eu le rF o
12743 pts /0 00:00:36 t wo Ph as e Eu le rF o
12744 pts /0 00:00:36 t wo Ph as e Eu le rF o
user@host :∼$ ps -C twoPhase EulerF
PID TTY TIME CMD
user@host :∼$ ps -C t wP ha se E ul er Fo a
PID TTY TIME CMD

Listing 66: List all instances of twoPhaseEulerFoam – the effect of typos

Terminate
The operating system interacts with running processes using signals. The user can also send signals to processes
using the command kill. kill sends by default the termination signal. To identify the process to which the signal
is to be sent, the PID of this process has to be passed as an argument.
Listing 67 shows how the programm sleep is executed, all running processes are listed, the running instance
of sleep is terminated and the running processes are listed again. When ps was executed the second time, a
message is displayed stating the process has been terminated29 . If the process would not have been terminated
the message at the “natural” end of the process would be like in Listing 6830 .

user@host :∼$ sleep 20 &

[1] 13063
user@host :∼$ ps
PID TTY TIME CMD
12372 pts /0 00:00:00 bash
13063 pts /0 00:00:00 sleep
13064 pts /0 00:00:00 ps
user@host :∼$ kill 13063
user@host :∼$ ps
PID TTY TIME CMD
12372 pts /0 00:00:00 bash
13065 pts /0 00:00:00 ps
[1]+ Beendet sleep 20
user@host :∼$

Listing 67: Terminate a process using kill

user@host :∼$ sleep 1 &

[1] 13126
user@host :∼$ ps
PID TTY TIME CMD
12372 pts /0 00:00:00 bash
13127 pts /0 00:00:00 ps
[1]+ Fertig sleep 1
user@host :∼$

Listing 68: The natural end of a process

user@cluster user > sleep 10 &

[1] 31406
user@cluster user > kill 31406
user@cluster user >
[1] Terminated sleep 10
user@cluster user >

Listing 69: Terminate a process using kill on a different machine

29 On other systems this message is displayed immediately – see Listing 69. In this case the procedure was tried on the local

computing cluster.
30 A system with English language setting the message would read Terminated if the process would have been terminated and

Done if the process would have been allowed to finish.

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12.4 Continue a simulation
If a simulation has ended at the end time or if it has been aborted there may be the need to continue the
simulation. The most important setting to enable a simulation to be continued has to be made in the file
controlDict. There, the keyword startFrom controls from which time the simulation will be started.
The easiest way to continue a simulation is to set the startFrom parameter to latestTime. Then, if
necessary, the value of endTime needs to be adjusted. After this changes, the simulation can be continued by
simply invoking the solver in the Terminal.

12.5 Do parallel simulations with OpenFOAM

OpenFOAM is able to do parallel simulations. There is no great difference between calculating a case with one
single process or using many parallel processes. The only obvious additional task is to split the computation
domain into several pieces. This step is called domain decomposition. After the domain is decomposed several
instances of the solver are running the case on a subdomain each. Additionally, the invokation of the solver
differs from the single process case.
In fact, not only solvers are capable to be run in parallel, also many pre- and post-processing tools can be
similarly applied in parallel.

12.5.1 Starting a parallel simulation

To enable a simulation using several parallel instances of a solver, OpenFOAM uses the MPI standard in the
implementation of OpenMPI. OpenMPI ensures that all parallel instances of the solver run synchronously.
Otherwise the simulation would generate no meaningful results. In order to be able to manage all parallel
processes the simulation has to started using the command mpirun.
Listing 70 shows how a parallel simulation using 4 parallel processes is started. The solver outputs are
redirected into a file called > foamRun.log and the simulation runs in the background of the Terminal. So the
same Terminal can be used to monitor the progress of the calculation. See Section 12.1.2 for a discussion about
running a process in the background.
The output message in the Listing shows the PID of the running instance of mpirun. This PID can be used
to terminate the parallel calculation, like it is explained in Section 12.3.2.

user@host :∼$ mpirun - np 4 icoFoam - parallel > foamRun . log &

[1] 11099
user@host :∼$

Listing 70: Run OpenFOAM with 4 processes

The number of processes, in this case 4, has to be equal the number of processor* folders. These folders are
created by decomposePar and their number is defined in decomposeParDict. See Section 12.5.2 for information
about domain decomposition.
If this numbers – the number of processor* folders and the number of parallel processes with which mpirun
is invoked – are not equal OpenFOAM issues an error message similar to Listing 71. In this case the domain
was decomposed into 4 subdomains and it was tried to start the parallel simulation with 2 processes. If the
parallel simulation is called with too many processes, OpenFOAM issues an error message like in Listing 72.
The first example shows, that OpenFOAM reacts differently whether the parallel job was started with loo little
or too many processes.

[0] --> FOAM FATAL ERROR :

[0] "/ home / user / OpenFOAM / user -2.1. x / run / icoFoam / cavity / system / d e c o m p o s e P a r D i c t " specifies 4
processors but job was started with 2 processors .

Listing 71: Run OpenFOAM with too little parallel processes

[0] --> FOAM FATAL ERROR :

[0] number of processor directories = 4 is not equal to the number of processors = 8

Listing 72: Run OpenFOAM with too many parallel processes

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Pitfall: -parallel
The parameter -parallel is important. If this parameter is omitted, the solver will be executed n times.
Listing 73 shows the output of the command ls when it is run with mpirun with two processes. In this case ls
is simply run twice.
If the parameter -parallel is missing, the same happens as in the case of ls. The simulation is run by n
processes at roughly the same time. Listing 74 shows the first lines of output of a situation where the -parallel
parameter was omitted. All solvers start the calculation of the whole case and write their output to the Ter-
minal. The output appears on the Terminal in the order as it is generated by the solvers – in other words, the
output on the Terminal is completely disarranged. If the -parallel parameter is missing, there is also no check
if the processor* folders are present.

user@host :∼/ OpenFOAM / user -2.1. x / run / icoFoam / cavity$ mpirun - np 2 ls

0 constant system
0 constant system
user@host :∼/ OpenFOAM / user -2.1. x / run / icoFoam / cavity$

Listing 73: Run ls using 2 processes

user@host :∼/ OpenFOAM / user -2.1. x / run / icoFoam / cavity$ mpirun - np 4 icoFoam
/* - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -*\
| ========= | |
| \\ / F ield | OpenFOAM : The Open Source CFD Toolbox |
| \\ / O peration | Version : 2.1. x |
| \\ / A nd | Web : www . OpenFOAM . org |
| \\/ M anipulation | |
\* - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -*/
Build : 2.1. x -6 e89ba0bcd15
Exec : icoFoam
Date : Jan 29 2013
Time : 10:51:12
Host : " host "
PID : 25622
/* - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -*\
| ========= | |
| \\ / F ield | OpenFOAM : The Open Source CFD Toolbox |
| \\ / O peration | Version : 2.1. x |
| \\ / A nd | Web : www . OpenFOAM . org |
| \\/ M anipulation | |
\* - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -*/
Build : 2.1. x -6 e89ba0bcd15
Exec : icoFoam

Listing 74: Run icoFoam without the -parallel parameter

Pitfall: domain decomposition

If there was no domain decompositin prior to starting a parallel simulation, OpenFOAM will issue an corre-
sponding error message.

[0] --> FOAM FATAL ERROR :

[0] t w o P h a s e E ul e r F o a m : cannot open case directory "/ home / user / OpenFOAM / user -2.1. x / run /
t w o P h a s e E u l e r F o a m / testColumn / processor0 "
[0]
[0] FOAM parallel run exiting

Listing 75: Missing domain decomposition

Pitfall: domain resonstruction

After a parallel simulation has ended, all data is residing in the processor* folders. If paraView is started –
without prior domain reconstruction – paraView will only find the data of the 0 directory.

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12.5.2 Domain decomposition
Before a parallel simulation can be started the domain has to be decomposed into the correct number of
subdomains – one for each parallel process. The parallel processes calculate on their own subdomain and
exchange data of the border regions at the end of each time step. This is also the reason why the parallel
processes have to be synchonous. Otherwise, processes with a lower computational load would overtake other
processes and they would exchange data from different times.
Just before starting the simulation the domain has to be decomposed. The tool decompsePar is used for
this purpose. Other operations, e.g. initialising fields using setFields have to take place before the domain
decomposition. decomposePar reads from decomposeParDict in the system directory. This file has to contain
al least the number of subdomains and the decomposition method.
decomposePar creates the processor* directories in the case directory. Inside the processor* folders a 0 and
a constant folder are created. The 0 folder contains the initial and boundary conditions of the subdomain and
the constant folder contains a polyMesh folder containing the mesh of the subdomain.
All parallel processes read from the same system directory, as the information stored there is not affected
by the domain decomposition. Also the files in the constant directory are not altered.

Pitfall: Existing decomposition

If the domain has already been decomposed and decomposePar is called again, e.g. because the number of
subdomains has been changed or some fields have been reinitialised, OpenFOAM issues an error message.
Listing 76 shows an example. In this case the domain has already been decomposed into 2 subdomains and the
attempt is made to decompose it again. OpenFOAM always issues an error message, whether the number of
subdomains has changes or not.
The resulting error message proposes two possible solutions. The first is to invoke decomposePar with the
-force option to make decomposePar remove the processor* folders before doing its job. The second proposed
solution is to manually remove the processor* folders. In this case the error message contains the proper com-
mand to do so. The user can retype the command or copy and paste it into the Terminal.

--> FOAM FATAL ERROR : Case is already decomposed with 2 domains , use the - force option or
manually
remove processor directories before decomposing . e . g . ,
rm - rf / home / user / OpenFOAM / user -2.1. x / run / icoFoam / cavity / processor *

Listing 76: Already decomposed domain

Time management with decomposePar

In the course of an update of OpenFOAM decompose gained the option -time. This enhancement took place
between the release of OpenFOAM 2.1.0 and OpenFOAM 2.1.1. Such enhancements typically first appear in
the respository release OpenFOAM 2.1.x. So, it may be, that some installations of OpenFOAM 2.1.x contain
this feature and some not depending on the time of installation or the time of the last update.
The option time lets the user specify a time from which or a time range in which the domain is to be
decomposed. Listing 77 shows some examples of how this option works.
The option -latestTime makes decomposePar use the latest time step as starting time step for the subdo-
mains.

user@host :∼/ OpenFOAM / user -2.1. x / run / icoFoam / cavity$ ls

0 0.1 0.2 constant probes1 processor0 processor1 processor2 system
user@host :∼/ OpenFOAM / user -2.1. x / run / icoFoam / cavity$ decomposePar - time 0.1:0.2 - force > / dev /
null
user@host :∼/ OpenFOAM / user -2.1. x / run / icoFoam / cavity$ ls processor0
0.1 0.2 constant
user@host :∼/ OpenFOAM / user -2.1. x / run / icoFoam / cavity$ decomposePar - time 0.2 - force > / dev / null
user@host :∼/ OpenFOAM / user -2.1. x / run / icoFoam / cavity$ ls processor0
0.2 constant
user@host :∼/ OpenFOAM / user -2.1. x / run / icoFoam / cavity$

Listing 77: Time management with decomposePar

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12.5.3 Domain reconstruction
To be able to look at the results the data has to be reassembled again. This job is done by reconstructPar. This
tool collects all data of the processor* folders and reconstructs the original domain using all the generated time
step data. After reconstructPar has finished the data of the whole domain resides in the case directory and the
data of the subdomains resides in the processor* folders.
Listing 78 shows the content of the case directory after a parallel simulation has finished. The first command
is a simple call of ls to display the contents of the case directory. This is not different from the situation before
the parallel simulation was started with the exception of the log file. However, this log file could be from a
previous run. So, listing the contents after a parallel simulation has finished carries no real information.
The second command lists the contents of the processor0 directory. In this directory – as well as in all other
processor* folders – there is time step data. The third command reconstructs the domain. After this tool has
finished, the case directory also contains time step data. The last command lists the contents of the processor0
folder again. This data has not been removed. So, a finished parallel case stores its time step data twice and
therefore uses a lot of space.

user@host :∼/ OpenFOAM / user -2.1. x / run / icoFoam / cavity$ ls

0 constant foamRun . log probes1 processor0 processor1 processor2 processor3 system
user@host :∼/ OpenFOAM / user -2.1. x / run / icoFoam / cavity$ ls processor0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 constant
user@host :∼/ OpenFOAM / user -2.1. x / run / icoFoam / cavity$ recons tructPar > f o am Re co n st ru ct . log &
[1] 26269
user@host :∼/ OpenFOAM / user -2.1. x / run / icoFoam / cavity$ ls
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 constant fo am Re c on st ru ct . log foamRun . log probes1 processor0
processor1 processor2 processor3 system
[1]+ Fertig r econstru ctPar > f oa mR ec on s tr uc t . log
user@host :∼/ OpenFOAM / user -2.1. x / run / icoFoam / cavity$ ls processor0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 constant
user@host :∼/ OpenFOAM / user -2.1. x / run / icoFoam / cavity$

Listing 78: A finished parallel simulation

Time management
If a simulation has been startet from t = t1 the domain has to be reconstructed for times t > t1 . Calling re-
constructPar without any options regarding time, the program starts reconstructing the domain at the earliest
time. To prevent the tool from reconstructing already reconstructed time steps the -time option can be used.
Listing 79 shows how simulation results are reconstructed for t ≤ 60 s.

reco nstructP ar - time 60:

Listing 79: Zeitparameter für reconstructPar

Another option to reconstruct only the new time steps is the command line option -newTimes. By using
this option the proper time span to reconstruct is automatically determined.

12.5.4 Run large studies on computing clusters

Simulating parallel on a machine brings some advantages and enables the user to run even large simulations
on a workstation. However, if the cases is very large, or parametric studies are to be conducted, using the
workstation can be counter productive. Therefore, simulating on a computing cluster is the method of choice
for large scale calculations. The user can follow a two step method.

1. Set up the case and run some test simulations, e.g. for a small number of time steps, on the workstation
to ensure the simulation runs
2. Do the actual simulation on the cluster
The fact, that OpenFOAM runs on a great number of platforms enables the user to do simulations on the
workstation as well as on a big cluster with tens or hundreds of processors.

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Run OpenFOAM using a script
Section 67.5 explaines how to set up a script that runs multiple cases.

12.5.5 Weird MPI behaviour

Parallel simulation silently fails when a network interface is disconnected
Some weird behaviour was observed by your trusted author with regards to running parallel simulations. Al-
though, not the fault of OpenFOAM, it still is of interest, as this behaviour can be quite annoying and mysterious.
Furthermore, when OpenFOAM simulations silently fail, then the first route of investigation for most users is
most probably related to OpenFOAM, as can be seen here31 in the OpenFOAM forums.
It was observed that parallel simulations on a laptop simply stopped without error message, when its fragile
wifi connection dropped. Apparently, MPI uses all interfaces it can find for communication between its child
processes. If at the start of a simulation, wifi is available, MPI will use the wifi network interface. If the wifi
connection fails, then mpirun silently stops.
This behaviour was reported in OpenFOAM’s bug reporting platform32 , yet the reason is caused by MPI
itself. Thus, OpenFOAM is not at fault here. This behaviour was also reported with respect to general MPI
use33 .
Thus, if a network connection causes problems, mpirun can be explicitely told not to use a specific interface.
Listing 80 shows how to keep mpirun from using the wifi interface. What is important to note in the listing, is the
twofold exclusion of the wifi interface. Both, OOB (out of band messaging) and BTL (MPI point-to-point Byte
Transfer Layer, used for MPI point-to-point messages on some types of networks) need to be told not to used wifi.

mpirun -- mca o o b _ t c p _ i f _ e x c l u d e wlp3s0 -- mca b t l _ t c p _ i f _ e x c l u d e wlp3s0 - np 2

s o m e F o a m A p p l i c a t i o n - parallel > logFile . log &

Listing 80: Excluding the wifi interface (named wlp3s0 in this case) form use by mpirun

Alternatively, this setting can also be made permanent via an environment variables34 .

12.6 Using tools

OpenFOAM consists besides of solvers of a great collection of tools. These tools are used for all kind of
operations.
All solvers and tools of OpenFOAM35 assume that they are called from the case directory. If an executable
is to be called from another directory the path to the case diretory has to be specified. Then the option -case
has to be used to specify this path.
Listing 81 shows the error message displayed by the tool fluentMeshToFoam as it was executed from the
polyMesh directory. The tool added the relative path system/controlDict to the currect working directory.
This resulted in an invalid path to controlDict as the error message tells the user. Actually, the error message
states that the file could not be found. This does not solely imply an invalid path. The file could simply be
missing.

--> FOAM FATAL IO ERROR :

cannot find file

file : / home / user / OpenFOAM / user -2.1. x / run / icoFoam / testCase / constant / polyMesh / system / controlDict
at line 0.

From function regIOobject :: readStream ()

in file db / regIOobject / r eg IO o bj ec tR e ad . C at line 73.

FOAM exiting

Listing 81: Wrong path

31 https://www.cfd-online.com/Forums/openfoam-bugs/191087-openfoam-stops-when-there-no-internet.html
32 https://bugs.openfoam.org/view.php?id=2821
33 https://stackoverflow.com/questions/32162317/mpirun-hangs-when-connected-to-wifi/49662866
34 https://www.open-mpi.org/faq/?category=tuning#setting-mca-params
35 No exeption known to the author.

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 The correct usage of the -case option is shown in Listung 82. There the correct path to the case directory
– two levels upwards – is specified using ../...36

user@host :∼/ OpenFOAM / user -2.1. x / run / icoFoam / testCase / constant / polyMesh$ f l u e n t 3 D M e s h T o F o a m -
case ../.. caseMesh . msh

Listing 82: Specify the correct path to the case

12.7 Using OpenFOAM on a local machine and a cluster

If you are using OpenFOAM, or learning to use OpenFOAM, there is a big chance that you will use OpenFOAM
not only on your local machine, the computer you sit in front of, but also on a remote computing cluster.

12.7.1 General tips

Use the same versions locally and remotely
In order to avoid obscure problems stemming from version conflicts, make sure to use the same version on
the local machine as on the cluster. Usually, a computing cluster is managed by an IT department, which is
responsible to maintain the cluster. Ideally, the cluster has the point-release(es) of OpenFOAM installed. This
ensures, that the behaviour of OpenFOAM will be clearly defined.
Thus, we can only influence which versions of OpenFOAM are installed on our local machine. Installing
several versions of OpenFOAM side-by-side is no problem. Thus, there should be no reason not to install the
same version(s) of OpenFOAM, which are installed on the cluster, on the local machine. This way you can
make sure that a case will run on the cluster by testing it on the local machine first.

12.7.2 Pitfalls
Delete dynamicCode folder
A very common workflow, when using OpenFOAM on a remote computing cluster, involves setting-up the case
on your local machine, and then pass the case to the number crunching cluster. Set-up the case, and subsequent
trouble-shooting is best done locally, since generally time on clusters is a limited resource, which is best not
wasted with trouble-shooting.
However, when tinkering with a case with dynamic code, e.g. coded boundary conditions or coded function
objects, we need to delete the dynamicCode directory from the case, before passing the case on to the cluster.
The local machine and the cluster, are most probably not completely binary compatible, causing the parts
relying on dynamic code to cause OpenFOAM to abort. By deleting the dynamicCode folder, we ensure that
the OpenFOAM installation compiles all dynamic code related parts of the case by itself.
A common nuisance related to this topic occurs when dealing with cases featuring coded boundary condi-
tions, such as codedFixedValue. Operations on the local machine, e.g. parallel decomposition, cause the local
OpenFOAM installation to compile the coded boundary condition. Later, when starting the parallel run of
the case on the remote machine, the coded boundary condition is not recognized by the remote OpenFOAM
installation, and thus (remote) OpenFOAM aborts with an error message saying that the specified boundary
condition does not exist.

12.8 Using scripts to run OpenFOAM

Running a typical OpenFOAM simulation case involves the use of several tools and solvers. At the minimum,
we need to create a mesh and run a solver. Typically, there might be more operations related to pre- and/or
post-processing.
In the tutorials of OpenFOAM we can see that heavy use is made of shell scripts to combine all the individual
tasks regarding the running of a case into a single script for convenience.
While technically using shell scripts is a topic related to the general use of Linux, the author deems the
use of shell scripts quite integral to the way OpenFOAM was and is designed. Thus, discussing the use of
36 On most Linux or Unix systems . refers to the current directory and .. refers to the directory above the current one. To

change in the Terminal one directory upwards on Linux cd .. does the job and on MS-DOS or Windows cd.. is the proper
command.
Also, on Linux systems the tilda refers to the home directory of the current user.

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shell scripts with respect to using OpenFOAM deserves a prominent place in this section on the general use
of OpenFOAM. Section 67.5.1 of this document also discusses the use of shell script when running simulations
using OpenFOAM.

12.8.1 Supporting multiple Versions of OpenFOAM

While a shell script is simply a collection of commands that are executed successively, one can run into trouble
if one wants to support multiple versions of OpenFOAM. Over the development of OpenFOAM, the way some
tools are being called from the command line may change.
Listing 83 shows how to accomodate such a change of the way a tool is being called. With the release
of OpenFOAM-937 , the way the tool transformPoints is being called was changed. Thus, if our run-script
which uses transformPoints should work across all versions of OpenFOAM, we need to introduce a version-
dependent call of the tool. This can easily be done by using an if statement and use the version of OpenFOAM
for comparison. Note that the test shown in Listing 83 is quite simplistic.

# !/ bin / bash

# scale the mesh

if [ $ W M _ P R O J E C T _ V E R S I O N - eq ’9 ’ ]
then
t ra ns fo r mPoi nt s " scale =(3 3 3) "
else
t ra ns fo r mPoi nt s - scale = ’ (3 3 3) ’
fi

Listing 83: Using version-dependent commands in a run-script.

37 https://github.com/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-dev/commit/845d5b16e30d568af3eb71c69ff7f8079347522e

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Part III
Pre-processing
This part of the document deals with all issues related to pre-processing, i.e. all the tasks necessary to set-up a
valid simulation case. The majority of the following sections deal with the mesh. The final sections of this part
deal with general case manipulation and initialisation.

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13 Mesh basics
13.1 Basics of the mesh
13.1.1 Files
A mesh is defined by OpenFOAM using several files. All of these files reside in constant/polyMesh/. The
names of these files are rather self explanatory, the rest is explained in the OpenFOAM User Guide [52].
boundary contains a list of all faces forming the boundary patches. This file is always written in ASCII format.

faces contains the definition of all faces. A face is defined by the points that form the face.
neighbour contains a list of the neighbouring cells of the faces
owner contains a list of the owning cells of the faces

points contains a list of the coordinates of all points

The description of a mesh is based on the faces. The geometry is discretised into finite volumes – the cells.
Each cell is delimited by a number of faces, e.g. a hexahedron has 6 faces. The faces can be divided into two
groups. Boundary faces border only one cell. These faces make up the boundary patches. All other faces can
be seen as the connection between two cells and are called internal faces. A face bordering more than two cells
is not possible. An internal face is, by definition, owned by one cell and neighboured by the other one. So, the
two cells connected by a face can be destincted.
This five files are absolutely necessary to describe a mesh regardless of how the mesh was created in the
first place. However, some ways of creating a mesh produce additional files. Listing 84 shows a list of all files
created with Gambit and converted by fluentMeshToFoam.

user@host :∼/ OpenFOAM / user -2.1. x / run / t w o P h a s e E u l e r F o a m / columnCase$ ls constant / polyMesh /

boundary cellZones faces faceZones neighbour owner points pointZones

Listing 84: Content of constant/polyMesh

13.1.2 Definitions
Face
A face is defined by the vertices or points that are part of the face. The points need to be stated in an order
which is defined by the face normal vector pointing to the outside of the cell or the block. The way faces are
defined is the same for cells of the mesh or for blocks of the geometry.

n
7 6

4 5

Figure 5: The top face of the generic block of Figure 8

To elaborate this further we look at the top face of the generic block of Figure 8 in Figure 5. The vertices
with the numbers 4, 5, 6 and 7 are part of the face. The face normal vector – denoted by n in Figure 5 – that
points outwards of the block is parallel to the local z axis. Therefore we need to specify the vertices defining

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Foundation, the producer of the OpenFOAM® software and owner of the OpenFOAM® trademark.
the face in counter-clockwise circular order, when we look at the block from the top. The direction of rotation
is marked in Figure 5 with the + sign. The starting vertex is arbitrary but it must not appear twice in the list.

Correct definitions
(4 5 6 7) (7 4 5 6) (6 7 4 5) (5 6 7 4)

Wrong direction of rotation

(7 6 5 4) (4 7 6 5) (5 4 7 6) (6 5 4 7)

Non-circular Starting point repeated

(7 5 6 4) (4 5 6 7 4)

Table 3: Valid and invalid face definitions

While the definition of the face normal of boundary faces is straight forwards, as discussed above, the face
normal of internal faces is not as obvious. Internal faces connect two adjacent cells. While internal faces are
created by OpenFOAM’s meshing utilities, and no valid use-case for manually specifying internal faces comes
to mind, the face-normal orientation of internal faces may be important when specifying sets of internal faces
for run-time post-processing. The user-guide38 states, that the orientation of the face-normal of internal faces
is such, that the face normal points from the cell with the lower cell label to the cell with the higher cell label.
As all cells are consecuitively numbered from 0 to N , with N being the number of cells, the stated rule provides
a clear rule for the face-normal direction of internal faces.

13.1.3 Some notes on practical use

Use the binary writing format or sufficient writePrecision
Whenever, there is no specific reason to use ascii format, one should always use the binary write format. As
the points file contains a list of coordinates, we avoid losing information, i.e. geometric precision, by using
the binary format. If you need to write in ascii, use a large setting for the writePrecision, at least for mesh
generation and manipulation.

The binary format might not be compatible across various OpenFOAM variants
If we run checkMesh of foam-extend on a mesh which was written in binary format by OpenFOAM-6, then an
error as in Listing 85 occurs. Thus, make sure to pass the mesh between OpenFOAM variants in ASCII format.
See Section 27.6.4 for a discussion on how to convert mesh files from the binary to the ASCII format.

--> FOAM FATAL IO ERROR :

unexpected class name f a ce Co mp a ct Li st expected faceList
while reading object faces

file : / home / user / foam / run -4.0/ meshTesting / constant / polyMesh / faces at line 15.

From function regIOobject :: readStream ( const word &)

in file db / regIOobject / r eg IO o bj ec tR e ad . C at line 108.

FOAM exiting

Listing 85: A possible error when reading a binary mesh with a different OpenFOAM variant.

13.2 General advice on meshing and mesh/case manipulation

13.2.1 Division of labour: keep mesh creation/manipulation separate from field definition
Since, OpenFOAM’s toolbox contains lots of tool, which are specifically created for one job, OpenFOAM lends
itself well for creating meshing cases, which are cases that run a sequence of meshing and mesh-manipulation
38 https://cfd.direct/openfoam/user-guide/v6-mesh-description/

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tools to create the intended mesh. The most basic of such a mesh-creation & mesh-manipulation sequence
would be to first run blockMesh and subsequently run renumberMesh.
Thus, we should aspire to organize our cases in a way to achieve a separation of separated tasks, i.e. creating
the mesh, running the case and post-processing the case. Such a separation can be translated into an actual
division of labour by creating sub-scripts for each task. Listing 86 shows a pattern for an Allrun script, which
embodies this separation of tasks. Instead of calling tools and solvers directly, we call sub-scripts which we
created for those specific tasks.

# !/ bin / sh

# this script contains all steps for mesh - creation and mesh - manipulation
./ createMesh

# now , that the mesh is in its final form , we instate the initial time step 0
cp -r 0. org 0

# beyond this point , calls to init ializati on tools , such as setFields ,

# or case - decomposition for parallel running , are the only remaining pre - precessing steps
./ runCase

# run post - processing

./ r u n P o s t P r o c e s s i n g

Listing 86: Division of labour in an exemplary Allrun script.

If we introduced our fields too early, then missing – yet to be created – patches may cause some pre-
processing tools to fail. By eliminating the fields from the mesh-creation stage, we eliminate one source of
error. Furthermore, dragging the fields through the mesh-generation process, with creation of patches, adding
or removing cells, any many other non-trivial mesh-modifications, is a useless waste of computational effort,
and a needless source of error. Thus, it is advised to follow this rough guideline:
1. Create the mesh, without involving the fields
2. Set up the fields for the final form of the mesh

13.3 General mesh-related topics

13.3.1 Two-dimensional meshes, and meshes of even lesser dimensions
In OpenFOAM, a two-dimensional mesh is a mesh which is one cell in thickness direction. This is a rather
elegant way of avoiding the 2D-3D distinction, at least of the user-facing surface and in parts of the underlying
framework.
Thus, a two-dimensional mesh features one spatial direction which is resolved only by one cell. Similarly,
a one-dimensional mesh features two spatial dimensions which are resolved by only one cell. Brought to an
extreme, a zero-dimensional mesh is resolved by one cell in all spatial directions, i.e. the entire mesh is a single
cell.
The fact that all meshes in OpenFOAM are technically three-dimensional meshes allows us to create all
types of meshes using the same tools. Hence, there is no blockMesh2D for two-dimensional meshes. We can
create all kinds of meshes using the same blockMesh, from fully three-dimensional down to zero-dimensional.

Tools for three dimensions and tools for three dimensions or less
Not all tools in OpenFOAM’s arsenal allow for lesser-dimensional meshes. The two main mesh creation tools
serve as a perfect example. While blockMesh is perfectly capable to create meshes for three dimensions or less;
snappyHexMesh is a purely three-dimensional mesher39 .
39 Since there are always expections to any rule, there is also an exception for this rule. We can create a two-dimensional snappy-

like mesh by meshing a quasi two-dimensional block using snappyHexMesh, and then extrude a single-cell layer from this mesh and
discard the base mesh.

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13.3.2 Pitfall: combined front-and-back patch in a 2D wedge geometry
While it is perfectly normal and valid to define a combined front-and-back patch of the empty type in “normal”
two-dimensional simulations, axisymmetric 2D simulations do not allow for a combined front-and-back patch of
the type wedge.
If we defined such a combined front-and-back patch, OpenFOAM will complain about encountering a non-
planar wedge-type patch. While, the front and the back surface might be perfectly planar, a combined front-
and-back patch will inevitably cause problems. OpenFOAM’s definition for the planarity of a patch is that the
surface normal of the individual faces of a patch is parallel to the patch-average normal vector. A combined
front-and-back patch will violate this condition.
Thus, with axi-symmetric mesh must have separate front and back patches of the type wedge.

13.3.3 Pitfall: visual inspection

When creating a mesh, visual inspection of the intermediate and/or final mesh is often beneficial. However, one
may, under certain circumstances, be led astray.
Figure 6 shows an example when the author needlessly trouble-shooted a mesh, which had in fact no errors.
The cause was purely one the part of the visualisation done in ParaView. A certain ParaView installation
showed the mesh in a way that suggested trouble. However, if we compare the two other visualisations, the
mesh looks just fine.
Thus, if the visual inspection suggests flaws in the mesh, you might want to take a closer look at the results
of checkMesh, and if in doubt test a different installation of ParaView.

Figure 6: The same axi-symmetric two-dimensional viewed with three different installations of ParaView.

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14 Geometry creation & other pre-processing software
There are many ways to create a geometry. There is a great number of CAD software, there is a number of
CFD pre-processors capable of creating geometries and there is the good old blockMeshDict.
This section is about the different ways to generate the geometry for creating a finite volume mesh.

14.1 blockMesh
blockMesh is one of OpenFOAMs own pre-processing tools. It is able to create the domain geometry and the
corresponding mesh. See Section 15 for a discussion on blockMesh. For the reason of simplicity all aspects of
blockMesh – geometry creation as well as meshing – are covered in Section 15.

14.2 CAD software

There is a great number of CAD software around. Each CAD program usually uses its own file format. However
most CAD programs support exporting the geometry in different formats, e.g. STL, IGES, SAT. If CAD software
is used to create the geometry the data has to be exported to be used by a meshing program. A common file
format for this purpose is the STL format. snappyHexMesh can be used with STL40 geometry definitions.

14.2.1 OpenSCAD
OpenSCAD [http://www.openscad.org/] is an open source CAD tool for creating solid 3D CAD models. A
CAD model is created by using primitve shapes (cubes, cylinders, etc.) or by extruding 2D paths. Models are
not created interactively like in other CAD software. The user writes an input script which is interpreted by
OpenSCAD. This makes it easy to create parametric models.
For further information on usage see the documentation http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/OpenSCAD_User_
Manual.

Pitfall: STL mesh quality

OpenSCAD is a tool to create CAD models. Therefore the requirements on the produced STL mesh are
completely different than on a mesh for CFD simulations. OpenSCAD produces STL meshes that define the
geometry correctly but the mesh is of a bad quality from a CFD point of view.
Figure 7 shows the STL mesh of a circular area. All triangles defining the circular area share one vertex.
This vertex is probably the base point for the mesh creation of OpenSCAD. From a CFD point of view the
triangular face elements are highly distorted and have a bad aspect ratio. However from a CAD point of view
these triangles are prefectly sufficient to represent the circular area.
If a finite volume mesh is to be derived from the STL surface mesh (e.g. with GMSH) problems may arise.
If the only purpose of the STL mesh is to represent some geometry – like it is the case with snappyHexMesh –
then this quality issues can be ignored.

40 STL is infact a surface mesh enclosing the geometry. Therefore the term STL mesh or STL surface mesh is also valid.

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 Figure 7: The STL mesh of a circular area generated by OpenSCAD

14.3 Salome
Salome [http://www.salome-platform.org/] is a powerful open source pre-processing software developed by
EDF. Salome can be used to create a geometry interactively or by interpreting a python script41 . Salome comes
with a number of internal and external meshing utilities. Salome has also a post-processing module.
Salome is a part of a collection of open source software developed by EDF. Salome serves as the pre- and
post-processor for Code_Aster (structural analysis) and Code_Saturne (CFD).

14.3.1 Geometry
Salome can be used for geometry generation only. A common way of doing so, is to use Salome’s meshing
module to create a surface mesh of the CAD geometry, which can be exporting using the STL format. The
resulting STL file can then be used by other meshing tools, e.g. snappyHexMesh.

14.3.2 Mesh
Salome can also used to create the geometry and subsequently the mesh. This mesh needs to be exported by
Salome in the UNV format, which can be converted by the ideasUnvToFoam utility of OpenFOAM.
See http://caelinux.org/wiki/index.php/Doc:Salome for documentation and usage examples of Salome,
and Section 23 for some further points on creating the mesh with Salome.

14.4 GMSH
GMSH is a meshing tool with some pre- and post-processing capabilities [http://www.geuz.org/gmsh/]. The
meshes generated by GMSH can be converted to OpenFOAM’s format using the gmshToFoam utility.

41 Salome can be controlled completely by Python. Thus parametric geometry or mesh creation is possible.

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15 blockMesh
blockMesh is used to create a mesh. The geometry is defined in blockMeshDict. This file also contains all
necessary parameters needed to create the mesh, e.g. the number of cells. Therefore, blockMesh is a combined
tool to define and mesh a geometry in contrast to other meshers that use CAD files to import a geometry
created by some other software.

15.1 The block

The geometry created by blockMesh is based on the generic block. Figure 8 shows a generic block.
The blue numbers are the local vertex numbers of the block. The vertices are numbered counter-clockwise42
in the local x − y plane starting at the origin of the local coordinates43 . Then the vertices above the local x − y
plane are counter-clockwise numbered starting with the vertex on the local z axis.
The local vertex numbers are important when defining the block. The first part of the blockMeshDict is
generally a list of vertices. From this vertices the blocks are constructed. A block is defined by a list of 8 vertices
which have to be ordered in a way to match the local vertices. Therefore the first entry in the list of vertices
is the local 0 vertex, then the local 1 vertex follows. The local vertex numbers define the order in which the
vertices have to passed when constructing a block.
The coordinate system originating from vertex 0 are the local coordinates. The local coordinates are im-
portant when specifying the number of cells or mesh grading (see simpleGrading in Section 15.4). The local
coordinate axes do not need to be parallel or to coincide with the global coordinate axes.
The edges are also numbered and have a direction. Starting with the edge parallel to the local x axis the
edges are numbered counter-clockwise starting with the edge emanating from the origin of the local coordinates.
Next the edges parallel to the local y axis are numbered and finally the edges parallel to the local z axis. The
edge number is important when specifying a grading for each edge individually (see edgeGrading in Section
15.4).
As it is indicated on Figure 8, the edges do not need to be parallel or straight. See Section 15.2.4 on how to
define curved edges.

7 2 →
6
% %
7 6
3 → ↑
4 5 10
↑
11
↑
↑ 9
8 3 1 →
2
z
%
%
4 5
y

x 0 →
0 1
Figure 8: The generic block

42 In mathematics the positive direction of rotation is generally determined with the right-hand or cork-screw rule. Let the thumb

of your right hand point in the positive direction of the rotation axis, then the fingers of the right hand point in the positive
direction of revolution.
43 If we number all vertices in the x − y plane then the local z axis is the axis of revolution. Thus the counter-clockwise direction

is the mathematically positive direction of revolution.

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15.2 The blockMeshDict
The file blockMeshDict defines the geometry and controls the meshing process of blockMesh. Listing 87 shows
a reduced example of the blockMeshDict. This file was taken from the cavity tutorial case.

/* - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -* - C ++ -* - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -*\
| ========= | |
| \\ / F ield | OpenFOAM : The Open Source CFD Toolbox |
| \\ / O peration | Version : 2.1. x |
| \\ / A nd | Web : www . OpenFOAM . org |
| \\/ M anipulation | |
\* - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - */
FoamFile
{
version 2.0;
format ascii ;
class dictionary ;
object blockMeshDict ;
}
// * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * //

c on ve rt T oM et er s 0.1;

vertices
(
(0 0 0) // 0
(0 0 0.1) // 1
...
);

blocks
(
hex (0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7) (20 20 1) simpleGrading (1 1 1)
);

edges
(
);

boundary
(
movingWall
{
type wall ;
faces
(
(3 7 6 2)
);
}
...
);

m er ge Pa t ch Pa ir s
(
);

// * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * //

Listing 87: A minimal blockMeshDict

15.2.1 convertToMeters
convertToMeters is a scaling factor to convert the vertex coordinates of blockMeshDict into meters. If the
vertex coordinates are entered in an other unit than meters, this value has to be chosen accordingly. Listing 88
shows how to set this factor if the vertex coordinates are entered in millimeters.

c on ve rt T oM et er s 0.001;

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 Listing 88: convertToMeters
If the keyword convertToMeters is missing in the blockMeshDict, then no scaling is used, i.e. the default
value of 1 is assumed.
To make sure if a scaling factor has been used, the output of blockMesh can be checked. Listing 89 shows
the message issued by blockMesh regarding the scaling factor defined with convertToMeters.

Creating points with scale 0.1

Listing 89: Output of blockMesh when convertToMeters is set to 0.1

convertToMeters is a uniform scaling factor. Non-uniform scaling or other operations can be performed
with another tool. See Section 27.1 and 29.3.4.

15.2.2 vertices
The vertices sub-dictionary contains a list of vertices. Each vertexs is defines by its coordinates in the global
coordinate system. By default OpenFOAM treats these coordinates as in metres. However, with the help of
the keyword convertToMeters, the vertices can be specified in other units.
The index of a vertex in this list is also the global number of this vertex, which is needed when constructing
blocks from the vertices. Remember, counting starts from zero. Thus the first vertex is the list of vertices can
be addressed by its index 0. A way to keep oneself aware of this fact is to add comments44 to the vertex list as
in Listing 87.

15.2.3 blocks
The only valid entry in the blocks sub-dictionary is the hex keyword. The blocks section of the blockMeshDict
contains a list of hex commands. Listing 90 shows an example of a block definition with the hex keyword.
After the word hex a list of eight numbers defining the eight vertices of the block follows. The order of the
entries in this list is the same order as the local vertex numbers of the block in Figure 8.
Then a list of three positive integer numbers follows. These numbers tell blockMesh how many cells need
to be created in the direction of the local coordinate axes. Thus, the first number is the number of cells in the
local x direction.
The next entry is a word stating the grading of the edges. This entry is in fact redundant. In OpenFOAM-
2.1.x only the last entry, the list of expansion ratio, controls the grading. The third entry could even be omitted.
However, maybe future versions of OpenFOAM make use of this entry. So the author does not advocate to
omit this parameter.
The last entry of the block definition is a list of either three or twelve positive numbers. This numbers define
the expansion ratio of the grading. In the case of three numbers, simpleGrading is applied. If twelve numbers
are stated, then edgeGrading is performed.
If the list contains only one entry, then all edges share the same expansion ratio. Any other number of
entries in this list leads to an error.

hex (0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7) (20 20 1) simpleGrading (2 4 1)

Listing 90: The hex command in blockMeshDict.

Setting up cell zones

The cells belonging to a block can be assigned to a cell set at mesh creation by inserting the name of the
to-be-created cell set between the vertex list and the list with the number of cells. This feature is not really
documented in the official OpenFOAM User Guide, however, it seems to be present in OpenFOAM ever since.

hex (0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7) CELL_SET_NAME (20 20 1) simpleGrading (2 4 1)

Listing 91: The hex command in blockMeshDict with a cell set definition.

44 As OpenFOAM treats its dictionaries much in the same way as C/C++ source files are treated by the C/C++ compiler.

Therefore comments work the same way as they do in C or C++.

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Creating a block with 6 faces
The hex instruction can also be used to create a prism with a triangular cross-section. Such blocks are needed
for simulations that make use of axi-symmetry. In such a case, an “axis-patch” is created using only two vertices,
as shown in Figure 9. This patch is constructed from the vertex list (4 5 5 4), instead of (4 5 6 7) as it
would be the case for an ordinary block.

Figure 9: Creating a wedge geometry for 2D, axisymmetric domains. Reproduced after [52].

This collapsed patch results in an empty patch, i.e. one that contains no faces. In Listing 92, we see the
summary on the patches, which is printed to the Terminal by blockMesh. Here, we can see the empty patch axis.

Patches
----------------
patch 0 ( start : 10159 size : 5) name : inletCH4
patch 1 ( start : 10164 size : 70) name : wallOutside
patch 2 ( start : 10234 size : 61) name : wallTube
patch 3 ( start : 10295 size : 5) name : inletPilot
patch 4 ( start : 10300 size : 60) name : inletAir
patch 5 ( start : 10360 size : 71) name : outlet
patch 6 ( start : 10431 size : 0) name : axis
patch 7 ( start : 10431 size : 5170) name : f r o n t A nd B a c k _ p o s
patch 8 ( start : 15601 size : 5170) name : f r o n t A n d B a c k _ ne g

Listing 92: The patch list of an axisymmetric case from the OpenFOAM tutorials.
When setting up a two-dimensional case, pay attention to velocity boundary conditions, especially those
with a user-provided flow-rate. OpenFOAM is not aware, that the inlet patch is only a fraction of the real inlet.
Thus, a flow rate at the inlet needs to be corrected by the area ratio, i.e. the ratio of the inlet patch of the
two-dimensional simulation domain and the real inlet area.

Pitfall: writePrecision and wedge geometry

When we create and manipulate an axisymmetric geometry, we have two patches of the type wedge. If we use
an insufficient number of digits to define the geometry, then OpenFOAM may issue warning messages similar
to the one below, informing the us, the user, of non-planar faces.

--> FOAM Warning :

From function virtual void Foam :: wed gePolyPa tch :: calcGeometry ( Foam :: P streamBu ffers &)
in file meshes / polyMesh / polyPatches / constraint / wedge / wedge PolyPatc h . C at line 70
Wedge patch ’ front ’ is not planar . At local face at (4.07936 -0.000130603 0.0149657) the
normal (0 -0.999962 -0.00872414) differs from the average normal (8.95761 e -21 -0.999962
-0.00872653) by 5.70802 e -12
Either correct the patch or split it into planar parts

Listing 93: Insufficient writePrecision in controlDict when creating/using a 2D axisymmetic geometry.

If we create a single, wedge block, we specify only six points in space. All the intermediate points are
computed and written by blockMesh. If in such a case, the writePrecision setting in the controlDict is
insufficient, i.e. a too small number of digits is used to write the points file. blockMesh, by default45 , writes
45 At least in OpenFOAM-5.0. This might vary among the various version of OpenFOAM. Other versions have not been checked.

This behaviour might have been introduced sometime in the past, or it have been there from the beginning.

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 with at least 10 digits.

1 // Set the precision of the points data to 10

2 IOstream :: d ef a u l t P r e c i s i o n ( max (10 u , IOstream :: d e f a u l t P r e c i s i o n () ) ) ;

Listing 94: Using at least 10 digits for writing the points file; excerpt from the file blockMesh.C of OpenFOAM-
5.0

However, some mesh manipulation tools, simply use the setting from the writePrecision setting in the
controlDict. If a too small number of digits is specified in combination with writing in ascii format, informa-
tion (geometric precision) may be lost. This lost precision may be sufficient to trigger the warning messages,
which were discussed above.
OpenFOAM is, at times, quite generous when it comes to the information provided in its error messages.
Below, the example warning message is shown again. This time, the relevant bit of information is highlighted
in red. This very small difference between the local face-normal vector and the patch-average normal-vector is
indicative of an issue regarding writing precision.

--> FOAM Warning :

From function virtual void Foam :: wed gePolyPa tch :: calcGeometry ( Foam :: P streamBu ffers &)
in file meshes / polyMesh / polyPatches / constraint / wedge / wedge PolyPatc h . C at line 70
Wedge patch ’ front ’ is not planar . At local face at (4.07936 -0.000130603 0.0149657) the
normal (0 -0.999962 -0.00872414) differs from the average normal (8.95761 e -21 -0.999962
-0.00872653) by 5.70802e-12
Either correct the patch or split it into planar parts

Listing 95: Insufficient writePrecision in controlDict when creating/using a 2D axisymmetic geometry.

This indication could also be gleaned from a comparison of the two listed vectors, the affected local face-
normal and the patch-average normal-vector. However, the highlighted number, which is the magnitude of the
difference, is much easier to read and comprehend.

Pitfall: writePrecision and wedge geometry II - inline code

A very similar problem was observed, when creating an axi-symmetric domain by using some inline code to
compute vertex coordinates. Apparently, the writePrecision setting in the controlDict affects the precision
of the calculated vertex coordinates. Thus, if the write precision is too low, blockMesh will warn about non-
planar wedge patches. However, this can easily remedied by using a write precision of 10 digits or above. Note,
that writing in binary format does not alleviate this problem.

15.2.4 edges
The edges sub-dictionary contains pairs of vertices that define an edge. By default edges are straight, by
explicitely specifying the shape of the edge, curved edges can be created. This sub-dictionary can be omitted.
Listing 96 shows the message issued by blockMesh when edges is omitted.

No non - linear edges defined

Listing 96: Output of blockMesh when edges is omitted

Otherwise, blockMesh issues a message as in Listing 97 regardless whether curved edges are actually created or
only an empty edges sub-dictionary is present.

Creating curved edges

Listing 97: Output of blockMesh when edges is present

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Creating arcs
With the keyword arc a circular arc between two vertices can be created. Listing 98 shows the definition of a
circular arc between the vertices 0 and 3. In order to define a circular arc three points are necessary. Therefore
the third point follows the indizes of the two vertices defining the edge.

edges
(
arc 0 3 (0 0.5 0.05)
);

Listing 98: Definition of a circular edges in the edges sub-dictionary

The keyword arc can not be used to define a straight edge. If the two vertices and the additional interpo-
lation point are co-linear, blockMesh will abort issuing an error message as in Listing 99.

--> FOAM FATAL ERROR :

Invalid arc definition - are the points co - linear ? Denom =0

From function cylindricalCS arcEdge :: calcAngle ()

in file curvedEdges / arcEdge . C at line 55.

FOAM aborting

Listing 99: Output of blockMesh when the three points defining an arc are co-linear

Creating splines
The keyword spline defines a spline. After the two vertices defining the edge a list of interpolation points has
to follow.

edges
(
spline 0 3 ((0 0.25 0.05) (0 0.75 0.05) )
);

Listing 100: Definition of a spline in the edges sub-dictionary

Creating a poly-line
Other than a spline, a poly-line connects several points with straight lines.

edges
(
polyLine 0 3 ((0 0.25 0.05) (0 0.75 0.05) )
);

Listing 101: Definition of a poly-line in the edges sub-dictionary

Creating a straight line

For the sake of completeness there is the keyword line. This keyword takes the two vertices defining the edge
as arguments. Straight lines are created by blockMesh by default. So there is no need for the user to specify
straight lines.

edges
(
line 0 3
);

Listing 102: Definition of a line in the edges sub-dictionary

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Summary
Edges defined within the blockMeshDict are used to compute the locations of a block’s internal nodes. The
edge however, is approximated linearly as shown in Figure 10, i.e. the number of cells along the edge determine
the resolution of the edges.

Figure 10: A block with a poly-line at the left side. The red line indicates the poly-line. This figure makes it
obvious that edges defines in the blockMeshDict serve to compute the locations of the block’s internal nodes.
The block itself however, does not obey the poly-line.

Another feature of the edge definition is, that the two vertices defining the edge can be supplied in any
order.

Pitfalls
Edge creation of blockMesh sometimes fails silently46 . If we define an arc between two vertices not directly
connected by an edge, e.g. the vertices 0 and 2 in Figure 8, then blockMesh proceeds without any warning or
error. The faulty edge definition seems to be simply ignored. This, silence in the face of error might make it
hard for the user building his or her blockMeshDict to spot the reason why the definition of curved edges does
not result in curved edges.

15.2.5 boundary
The boundary list contains a dictionary per patch. This dictionary contains the type of the patch and the list
of faces composing the patch. Listing 103 shows an example of how a patch consisting of one face is defined.

boundary
(
inlet
{
type patch ;
faces
(
(0 3 2 1)
);
}

...
);
46 An example non blockMesh failing noisily is the definition of a co-linear interpolation point for an arc.

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 Listing 103: The boundary list of blockMeshDict

Pitfall: defaultFaces
If faces are forgotten in the boundary definition, then blockMesh creates an additional patch named defaultFaces.
This patch has an empty boundary condition automatically assigned. Listing 104 shows a warning message is-
sued by blockMesh. In this case some faces were missing in the boundary definition. This, however, does not
cause blockMesh to abort mesh generation. If a 2D mesh is to be created, the creation of the default patch
with an empty boundary condition can be expected behaviour. However, it is not advisible to rely this kind of
default behaviour when building a case.

Creating block mesh topology --> FOAM Warning :

From function polyMesh :: polyMesh (... construct from shapes ...)
in file meshes / polyMesh / p o l y M e s h F r o m S h a p e M e s h . C at line 903
Found 6 undefined faces in mesh ; adding to default patch .

Listing 104: A warning message of blockMesh caused by an incomplete boundary definition.

If faces are forgotten in the creation of a 3D mesh, this behaviour might hide the source of error. blockMesh
quietly creates the mesh with the default patch – save the warning message as in Listing 104. Running the case
with the errorneous mesh definition will not immediately crash the solver. Even the fact that none of the fields
have a boundary condition specified for the default patch does not cause the solver to abort. A patch with an
empty boundary condition does not require any further entries in the field-files (e.g. U or p). OpenFOAM knows
already all it needs to know about this specific patch and there is no reason to throw an error message. When
the case is run with a 3D mesh and one or more empty patches, the solver starts running without complaints.
At some point the solution might run into numerical trouble.
Only running checkMesh is able to give an indication to detect such kind of error. Listing 105 shows
the warning message issued by checkMesh when a 3D mesh contains one empty default patch. Although, the
warning states that there is something wrong with the mesh, in the end checkMesh reports no failed mesh checks.

Checking topology ...

Boundary definition OK .
*** Total number of faces on empty patches is not divisible by the number of cells in the mesh
. Hence this mesh is not 1 D or 2 D .

Listing 105: A warning message of checkMesh caused by an incomplete boundary definition of a 3D mesh.

Patch groups
Patches can be grouped to save ourselves the hassle to prescript large numbers of identical boundary con-
ditions. Patch groups were introduced with OpenFOAM-2.2.0 see http://openfoam.org/release/2-2-0/
pre-processing-macros-patch-groups/. All boundaries of the constraint type, e.g. empty or processor,
are automatically added to patch groups of the same name. Furthermore, since OpenFOAM-2.3.047 , the patches
of the type wall are added to a group named wall. Also, with OpenFOAM-2.3.0 the order of precedence for
defining boundary conditions for fields was defined:
1. An exact match of the patch name, e.g. inlet

2. A match by a patchGroup
3. A match by regular expression, e.g. “wallPatch.*” for wallPatch0815

2
(
wall 4(0 1 2 3)
empty 1(4)
)
47 http://openfoam.org/release/2-3-0/pre-processing/

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Listing 106: The automatically defined patch groups of the cavity tutorial of icoFoam. The list was created
with the method groupPatchIDs() of the Foam::polyBoundaryMesh and printed to Terminal with the Info
statement.

Pitfall: multiple patch group membership

If patches are members of more than two groups, and the boundary conditions are specified via group mem-
bershio, then the actual boundary condition that get applied is kind of undetermined. Some tests done by the
author suggest that the last patch group entry in the field file prevails.
To demonstrate the issue, the cavity tutorial was slightly modified. The three patches representing the fixed
walls, are members of the patch group wall by default and are members of the patch group banana, see Listing
107 below.

3
(
wall 4(0 1 2 3)
banana 3(1 2 3)
empty 1(4)
)

Listing 107: The patch groups of the modified cavity tutorial of icoFoam.

The velocity field BC definition was changed to employ patch groups.

boundaryField
{
movingWall
{
type fixedValue ;
value uniform (1 0 0) ;
}
wall
{
type noSlip ;
}
banana
{
type fixedValue ;
value uniform ( -1 0 0) ;
}
}

Listing 108: The velocity field boundary conditions of the modified cavity tutorial. The entry for frontAndBack
is omitted for brevity. Only movingWall is specified by exact patch name. The fixed walls are specified via
patch groups.

The resulting initial velocity field depends on the order of the entries for wall and banana.

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Figure 11: The initial velocity field depending on the order of the wall and banana. Left: Setting as in Listing
108. Right: wall and banana have changed places.

Thus, users are suggested to avoid situations involving multiple group membership when specifying boundary
conditions via patch groups.

Pitfall: identical names of patches and patchGroups

When patches have the same name as a patchGroup, OpenFOAM may issue a warning or exit with an error.
Up to, and including, OpenFOAM-4.0 a warning message was issued, as in Listing 109. In later versions, Open-
FOAM aborts with an error, as in Listing 110.

--> FOAM Warning :

From function const Foam :: HashTable < Foam :: List < int > , Foam :: word >& Foam :: p o l y B o u n d a r y M es h ::
groupPatchIDs () const
in file meshes / polyMesh / p o l y B o un d a r y M e s h / p o l y B o u n d a r y M e s h . C at line 448
Patch fixedWall01 specifies a group banana which is also a patch name . This might give
problems later on .

Listing 109: OpenFOAM is warning about identical names of a patch and a patchGroup.

--> FOAM FATAL ERROR :

Patch ’ fixedWall01 ’ specifies the group ’ banana ’ which clashes with a patch name .
Please choose patch names which are not patch type / group names .

From function const Foam :: HashTable < Foam :: List < int > , Foam :: word >& Foam :: p o l y B o u n d a r y M es h ::
groupPatchIDs () const
in file meshes / polyMesh / p o l y B o un d a r y M e s h / p o l y B o u n d a r y M e s h . C at line 448.

FOAM exiting

Listing 110: Identical names for patches and patchGroups are not allowed anymore.

Pitfall: patches
In older versions of OpenFOAM, there was a patches sub-dictionary instead of the boundary sub-dictionary,
see http://www.openfoam.org/version2.0.0/meshing.php. In some tutorial cases the old patches sub-
dictionary can be found. However, it is recommended to use the boundary sub-dictionary because in some cases
the use of the patches sub-dictionary results in errors.
To find out if there are still tutorial cases present that use the patches sub-dictionary the command of
Listing 111 searches all files with the name blockMeshDict in the tutorials for the word patches.

find $ FO AM _T U TO RI AL S - name blockMeshDict | xargs grep patches

Listing 111: Find cases that still use the patches sub-dictionary in the blockMeshDict to define the boundaries

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15.2.6 mergePatchPairs
The mergePatchPairs list contains pairs of patches that need to be connected by the mesher.

Nothing to merge
This entry can be omitted. Listing 112 shows the message issued by blockMesh when mergePatchPairs is
omitted.

There are no merge patch pairs edges

Listing 112: Output of blockMesh when mergePatchPairs is omitted

Patches to merge
When two patches need to be merged, then the patch pair needs to be stated in the mergePatchPairs list. The
first patch of the pair is considered the master patch the second is the slave patch. The reason and consequences
of this are described in the official User Manual [52].

m er ge Pa t ch Pa ir s
(
( master slave )
);

Listing 113: The mergePatchPairs list in the blockMeshDict

If the patches that are part of the merging operation contain faces which are unaffected by the merging, the
merge operation will fail. When the blocks of Figure 15 are to be connected, then the patch pair consists only
of the face (1 2 6 5) and (12 15 11 8). If one of the two patches contains an additional face, blockMesh will
crash with an error. Thus the patches need to be defined as in Listing 114.

boundary
(
master
{
type patch ;
faces
(
(1 2 6 5)
);
}
slave
{
type patch ;
faces
(
(12 15 11 8)
);
}
...
);

Listing 114: The patch definitions needed to connect the blocks of Figure 15 with mergePatchPairs in the
boundary sub-dictionary
blockMesh creates hanging nodes in order to connect the mesh of the blocks. Figure 12 shows the mesh of
two merged blocks. Figure 13 shows the larger of the two blocks. The diagonal lines – one of them is marked
with a red square in Figure 13 – are artefacts of the depiction of ParaView. The diagonal line that divides the
L-shaped area is not present in the mesh. The right image in Figure 13 was edited with an image manipulation
program to reflect the actual situation of the mesh. During the merging operation the face touching the second
block is divided to match the second block. Thus, a quadrangular cell face is divided to two faces. The face
denoted with the red 1 consists of 6 nodes and the face with the red 2 constists of four nodes.

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 Figure 12: The mesh of two merged blocks

Figure 13: The mesh of two merged blocks. Left: screenshot of ParaView. Right: edited image to depict the
actual faces.

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15.3 Create multiple blocks
A single block is almost never sufficient to model the geometry of a CFD problem. blockMesh offers the possibility
to create an arbitrary number of blocks which can be connected. If blocks are constructed in a fashion that
they share vertices, then they are connected by blockMesh by default.

15.3.1 Connected blocks

Figure 14 shows two connected blocks. These blocks share vertices. Therefore, the blocks are connected
automatically.

7 6

11
4 5
8
3 2 10

0 1
Figure 14: Two connected blocks

Listing 115 shows the blocks sub-dictionary to create two connected blocks as they are depicted in Figure
14. The global vertex numbering is arbitrary. However, the order in which the vertex numbers are listed after
the hex keyword corresponds with the local vertex numbering of the generic block in Figure 8.

blocks
(
hex (0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7) (10 10 10) simpleGrading (1 1 1)
hex (1 9 10 2 5 8 11 6) (10 10 10) simpleGrading (1 1 1)
);

Listing 115: The blocks entries in blockMeshDict to create the connected blocks of Figure 14

15.3.2 Unconnected blocks

Figure 15 shows a situation in which two blocks were created that share no vertices. Creating multiple blocks
is done simply by adding a further entry in the blocks list. The blocks are connected by the statements in the
mergePatchPairs section of the blockMeshDict.

Listing 116 shows the blocks sub-dictionary to create two unconnected blocks as they are depicted in Figure
15.

blocks
(
hex (0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7) (10 10 10) simpleGrading (1 1 1)
hex (8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15) (10 10 10) simpleGrading (1 1 1)
);

Listing 116: The blocks entries in blockMeshDict to create the unconnected blocks of Figure 15

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 7 6

15 14
4 5
12 13
3 11 2 10

8 9

0 1
Figure 15: Two unconnected blocks

In order to generate a connected mesh of the two blocks, the mergePatchPairs section of the blockMeshDict
has to be provided with the two touching patches.

15.4 Grading
In the file blockMeshDict the grading can be defined globally for the edges of the block or for all edges
individually. The grading is specified by the expansion ratio. This is the ratio of the widths of the first and the
last cell along an edge. The direction of an edge is defined in the general definition of a block (see OpenFOAM
Users Manual [52]).

simpleGrading
The global grading is defined for all edges parallel to the local x, y and z direction of the block. In Listing 117
the grading of all edges parallel to the local x axis oy the block is one, the grading of all edges parallel to the
local y axis is two and the grading of all edges parallel to the local z axis is three.

simpleGrading (1 2 3)

Listing 117: simpleGrading

edgeGrading
With the keyword edgeGrading the grading of each edge of the block is specified individually. Therefore, the
value of this keyword is a list with 12 numbers. The numbering of the edges – the list index corresponds to the
edge number – is defined in the general definition of a block (see OpenFOAM Users Manual [52]). Listing 118
has the same effect as Listing 117.

edgeGrading (1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 3 3 3 3)

Listing 118: edgeGrading

Pitfall: inconsistent grading

When a mesh consists of more than one block, then the grading of coincident edges must be consistent, i.e.
these edges must have the same grading. In Listing 119 the grading of the last block is erroneous – the grading
is set to 2 instead of 3. The error message caused by this fault is shown in Listing 120. The message mentions
the blocks 5 and 8. This is correct, because OpenFOAM counts – like C, C++ and many more programming

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languages – from 0. Therefore, block 8 is the ninth block.

blocks
(
hex (0 16 20 4 1 17 21 5) (30 5 10) simpleGrading (1 0.5 0.33) // 1
hex (1 17 21 5 2 18 22 6) (30 5 2) simpleGrading (1 0.5 1) // 2
hex (2 18 22 6 3 19 23 7) (30 5 15) simpleGrading (1 0.5 3) // 3

hex (4 20 24 8 5 21 25 9) (30 2 10) simpleGrading (1 1 0.33) // 4

hex (5 21 25 9 6 22 26 10) (30 2 2) simpleGrading (1 1 1) // 5
hex (6 22 26 10 7 23 27 11) (30 2 15) simpleGrading (1 1 3) // 6

hex (8 24 28 12 9 25 29 13) (30 5 10) simpleGrading (1 2 0.33) // 7

hex (9 25 29 13 10 26 30 14) (30 5 2) simpleGrading (1 2 1) // 8
hex (10 26 30 14 11 27 31 15) (30 5 15) simpleGrading (1 2 2) // 9
);

Listing 119: Inconsistent grading

--> FOAM FATAL ERROR :

Inconsistent point locations between block pair 5 and 8
probably due to inconsistent grading .

From function blockMesh :: calcMergeInfo ()

in file blockMesh / blockMes hMerge . C at line 294.

FOAM exiting

Listing 120: Error message caused by inconsistent grading

Pitfall: inconsistent discretisation

When a mesh consists of more than one block, then the number of cells of neighbouring blocks must be con-
sistent, i.e. the blocks must have the same number of cells along coincident axes. In Listing 121 the number
of cells of the first block is erroneous – the number is set to 44 instead of 45 along the local z direction. The
error message caused by this faulty definition is shown in Listing 122. The message mentions the blocks 0 and
1. This error message indicates more clearly – other than Listing 120 – that OpenFOAM counts from 0.

blocks
(
hex (0 1 5 4 8 9 13 12 ) (9 1 44) simpleGrading (1 1 1) // 1
hex (1 2 6 5 9 10 14 13 ) (2 1 45) simpleGrading (1 1 1) // 2
hex (2 3 7 6 10 11 15 14 ) (9 1 45) simpleGrading (1 1 1) // 3
);

Listing 121: Inconsistent discretisation

---> FOAM FATAL ERROR :

Inconsistent number of faces between block pair 0 and 1

From function blockMesh :: calcMergeInfo ()

in file blockMesh / blockMe shMerge . C at line 221.

FOAM exiting

Listing 122: Error message caused by inconsistent discretisation

Interesting observation
The source code also allows to state a list with only one entry. This is not documented in the official User
Manual [52].
Listing 123 prooves this observation in the form of the responsible source code. The first command reads a
scalar list from the input stream is. Then the three valid cases – one, three or twelve entries – are handled If
none of the three branches of the if-else branching is entered an error is reported.

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 This code listing is a beautiful example of deducting the behaviour of a program from its source code. Un-
fortunately not all parts of OpenFOAMs source code are that easy to read and understand.

1 scalarList expRatios ( is )
2
3 if ( expRatios . size () == 1)
4 {
5 // identical in x / y /z - directions
6 expand_ = expRatios [0];
7 }
8 else if ( expRatios . size () == 3)
9 {
10 // x - direction
11 expand_ [0] = expRatios [0];
12 expand_ [1] = expRatios [0];
13 expand_ [2] = expRatios [0];
14 expand_ [3] = expRatios [0];
15
16 // y - direction
17 expand_ [4] = expRatios [1];
18 expand_ [5] = expRatios [1];
19 expand_ [6] = expRatios [1];
20 expand_ [7] = expRatios [1];
21
22 // z - direction
23 expand_ [8] = expRatios [2];
24 expand_ [9] = expRatios [2];
25 expand_ [10] = expRatios [2];
26 expand_ [11] = expRatios [2];
27 }
28 else if ( expRatios . size () == 12)
29 {
30 expand_ = expRatios ;
31 }
32 else
33 {
34 FatalErrorIn
35 (
36 " bl oc kD e scri pt o r :: b lo ck D es cr ip t or "
37 " ( const pointField & , const c urvedEdg eList & , Istream &) "
38 ) << " Unknown definition of expansion ratios : " << expRatios
39 << exit ( FatalError ) ;
40 }

Listing 123: Some content of blockDescriptor.C

Pitfall: grading on a wedge geometry

Axisymmetric simulation domains are created in the form of a wedge geometry. In this case, the axis patch is
constructed from two vertices, which causes the axis patch to collapse into a straight line. Internally, OpenFOAM
knows what to do in such a case.
However, it was observed when applying some grading along the axis of the domain, that not all faces of the
axis patch are collapsed, resulting in a non-empty axis patch.
In Listing 124 the relevant part of the output of blockMesh is shown. In this case, some grading, in the
direction of the symmetry axis, was used. In that specific case, there were nearly 1500 cells in axis-direction and
only 6 faces in the axis patch. This discrepancy is highly suspicious, and it was assumed that during grading
the collapsing of faces on the axis patch somehow failed for some points, resulting in 6 triangular faces.

Patches
----------------
patch 0 ( start : 118329 size : 14) name : inlet
patch 1 ( start : 118343 size : 7) name : outlet
patch 2 ( start : 118350 size : 1577) name : walls
patch 3 ( start : 119927 size : 6) name : axis
patch 4 ( start : 119933 size : 59938) name : front
patch 5 ( start : 179871 size : 59938) name : back

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 Listing 124: The patch list of an axisymmetric case with a non-empty axis patch.

Having a non-empty axis patch poses no problem for blockMesh during mesh-creation, however, all other
tools and solvers fail to construct a proper mesh. Listing 125 shows an example of the error message issued by
OpenFOAM. Unfortunately, this error message is relatively inexpressive.

Create polyMesh for time = constant

#0 Foam :: error :: printStack ( Foam :: Ostream &) at ??:?

#1 Foam :: sigFpe :: sigHandler ( int ) at ??:?
#2 ? in "/ lib / x86_64 - linux - gnu / libc . so .6"
#3 Foam :: polyMesh :: calc Directio ns () const at ??:?
#4 Foam :: polyMesh :: polyMesh ( Foam :: IOobject const &) at ??:?
#5 ? at ??:?
#6 _ _ l i b c _ s t ar t _ m a i n in "/ lib / x86_64 - linux - gnu / libc . so .6"
#7 ? at ??:?
Floating point exception ( core dumped )

Listing 125: The result of having an axisymmetric case with a non-empty axis patch.

This problem was overcome by manually changing the patch type in constant/polyMesh/boundary of the
axis patch from empty to patch, running collapseEdges, and finally manually changing the patch type back to
empty. The manual changing of the patch type is necessary for collapseEdges to be able to read and construct
the mesh. In Listing 126 we see the output of checkMesh after the solution procedure was applied to that
example case. Now, the axis patch is empty, i.e. it contains no faces. Whether the patch is of the type empty
or of the type patch, is not printed by checkMesh.

Checking patch topology for multiply connected surfaces ...

Patch Faces Points Surface topology
inlet 14 29 ok ( non - closed singly connected )
outlet 7 15 ok ( non - closed singly connected )
walls 1577 3156 ok ( non - closed singly connected )
axis 0 0 ok ( empty )
front 59938 61486 ok ( non - closed singly connected )
back 59938 61486 ok ( non - closed singly connected )

Listing 126: The patch list of an axisymmetric case after fixing the problem with the non-empty axis patch.

Simply, increasing the writePrecision or switching to writing in binary format did not resolve the problem.

15.5 Parametric meshes by the help of m4 and blockMesh

In blockMeshDict only plain text is allowed, i.e. no symbols can be used. Also, no calculations can be made
by blockMesh with the exception of the keyword convertToMeters.

15.5.1 The blockMeshDict prototype

If the user wants to create parametrised meshes, i.e. properties of the mesh are calculated from certain pa-
rameters, an additional working step is necessary. In order to create a parametric mesh a prototype of the file
blockMeshDict is needed. This prototype contains symbols. Listing 127 shows the block definition of such a
prototype. This block definition is not fully parametric, only the number of cells is calculated. Note, that in
local y direction only one cell is used for discretisation. This indicates a 2D problem.

blocks
(
hex (0 1 5 4 8 9 13 12 ) ( N1x 1 N1z ) simpleGrading (1 1 1) // 1
hex (1 2 6 5 9 10 14 13 ) ( N2x 1 N1z ) simpleGrading (1 1 1) // 2
hex (2 3 7 6 10 11 15 14 ) ( N1x 1 N1z ) simpleGrading (1 1 1) // 3
);

Listing 127: Block definition of the prototype

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 15.5.2 The macro programming language m4
In order to replace the symbols of the prototype with meaningful numbers, the prototype has to be processed
by a macro programming language interpreter. In this case the programming language m4 48 is used. The
interpreter of this language scans the prototype for valid expressions (macros) and replaces them with their
result.
To replace a symbol of the prototype with a meaningful number, a macro has to be defined. Listing 128
shows the definition of the symbols used in Listing 127. In the first line a general variable h is defined. The
second and the third instruction calculate the number of cells in the local x direction based on the variable h.
The last instruction calculates the number of cells in the local z direction.

define (h ,2)

define ( N1x , ‘ eval (9* h ) ’)

define ( N2x , ‘ eval (2* h ) ’)

define ( N1z , ‘ eval (45* h ) ’)

Listing 128: Block definition of the prototype

This kind of parametrisation allows to specify a multiplier for the number of cells. The discretisation length
can not be refined gradually this way. Specifying the discretisation length requires more complex math than
integer operations.

Complex math - first shot

The builtin mathematic macros of m4 are restricted to integer operations only. As m4 supports system calls,
floating point calculations can be done by an external program. Consequently, the symbol is replaced by the
result of the system call.
In Listing 129 some variables are defined. In line 13 a macro is defined that passes its arguments to the
operating system via a system call. The argument of the command esyscmd gets executed in the command
line. This is the reason for the rather complicated argument of esyscmd. The output of the command echo is
the input of the command bc49 . Note the use of the pipe.
The input of the command echo is composed of three successive operations that need to be performed
by the calculator. The first instruction says that two digits after the decimal point should be used. The
second instruction calculates the difference between the first two arguments and the last instruction divides
this difference by the third argument. These operations compute first the length of the block that needs to be
descretised. Then by dividing this length by the discretisation length the number of cells is calculated.
The output is then formatted by the macro format. Note the formatting string %.0f. This causes the result
to loose its digits after the decimal point. This step is absolutely necessary, because only integers are allowed
to define the number of cells.

1 // # enter discreti zation length

2 define ( dx ,0.005)
3 define ( dz ,0.005)
4
5 // # enter x coordinates
6 define ( x1 ,0.0555)
7 define ( x2 ,0.0945)
8
9 // # enter heights ( z coordinates )
10 define ( H1 , 0.20)
11
12 // # relDiff : ( $1 - $2 ) / $3 # decimal places truncated ( done by format %.0 f )
13 define ( relDiff , ‘ format ( ‘%.0 f ’ , esyscmd ( echo " scale =2; a = $1 - $2 ; a / $3 " | bc ) ) ’)
14
15 define ( N1x , ‘ relDiff ( x1 ,0 , dx ) ’)
16 define ( N2x , ‘ relDiff ( x2 , x1 , dx ) ’)
17
18 define ( N1z , ‘ relDiff ( H1 ,0 , dz ) ’)
48 m4 is part of the GNU project. See http://www.gnu.org/software/m4/manual/index.html
49 bc is a calculator program. It is part of the GNU project.

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 Listing 129: Block definition of the prototype

Listing 129 allows to calculate the number of cells from a specified discretisation length. Due to rounding
operations the specified discretisation length is not exactly met. Listing 130 shows the result after the macros
from Listings 127 and 129 have been processed.

blocks
(
hex (0 1 5 4 8 9 13 12 ) (11 1 40) simpleGrading (1 1 1) // 1
hex (1 2 6 5 9 10 14 13 ) (7 1 40) simpleGrading (1 1 1) // 2
hex (2 3 7 6 10 11 15 14 ) (11 1 40) simpleGrading (1 1 1) // 3
);

Listing 130: Resulting parametric block definition

Complex math - the better solution

The above described way to do mathematical operations is not very elegant. At this place a more elaborate
solution is presented.
Listing 131 shows some examples taken from a m4 script found in the tutorials. The first statement changes
the delimiter for comments. By changing the delimiter to //, comments have the same delimiter as C or C++.
Remember, OpenFOAM dictionaries follow the C++ syntax, therefore, anything following a // is treated as a
comment. Now, commented lines are always treated as comments by m4 as well as OpenFOAM. See the first
line of Listing 129. There, the // starts a comment for OpenFOAM and the # starts a comment for m4. Setting
the delimiter for comments to be the same as in C++ removes an ambiguity and a possible source for errors.
The second line of Listing 131 redefines the quote delimiter. Changing this delimiters from the standard to
the brackets is probably done to improve readability.
In line 4 of Listing 131 a macro named calc is defined. This macro also uses a system call to outsource the
actual math. In this case the interpreter of the script programming language Perl50 is called. This interpreter
receives a command line argument and an instruction. The command line argument -e tells the interpreter
that only one line of code will follow. The interpreter will interpret this single line and exit. The instruction
print ($1) is a function that prints its argument on the standard output. The argument of the print function
is the argument of the calc macro. Therefore, the mathematical operation can be written directly in the code.
See line 9 for an example. There, the symbols rb and Rb are replaced my m4 by their definition. The argument
of the calc macro is passed via the system call to the Perl interpreter. As Perl is able to do mathematical
operations, the interpreter computes the result of the expression and executes the function print. The macro
esyscmd returns the standard output of the command it executed.
Line 12 of Listing 131 shows that even more complex math – e.g. using trigonometric functions – is possible.

1 changecom (//)
2 changequote ([ ,])
3
4 define ( calc , [ esyscmd ( perl -e ’ print ( $1 ) ’) ])
5
6 define ( rb , 0.5)
7 define ( Rb , 0.7)
8
9 define ( ri , calc (0.5*( rb + Rb ) ) )
10
11 define ( pi , 3.14159265)
12 define ( ca0 , calc ( cos (( pi /180) * a0 ) ) )

Listing 131: Doing complex math with m4

15.5.3 Conclusion
Parametric meshes can be created by using the macro language m4, this is demonstrated in real live by the
OpenFOAM tutorials. Also the author of this work has done so; up to a level which prompted his colleagues
50 See http://www.perl.org/

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to make fun of him. This highlights the major shortcoming of using m4 for parametric meshes. At some point,
the parametric geometry creation poses the need for complex math or even high-level data structures. Thus,
we soon are in need of a general purpose programming (or scripting) language.
The mesh in Figure 16 was created with a parametric geometry. It features a variable, user-selectable number
of rotor-paddles nb and stator-baffles np , with the contraint of that numbers being an integer divisor of 12. The
two numbers nb and np are independent of each other, as demonstrated in Figure 16. The infinitely thin baf-
fles and paddles are created by preventing selected blocks from getting connected by the use of collocated points.

nb , np ∈ {1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 12} (7)

In total the mesh shown in Figure 16 consists of 459 blocks. This mesh (most probably51 ) would have
been impossible to create using m4. The scripting language of choice for this mesh was python 52 , which is an
interpreted high-level, general-purpose programming language.

Figure 16: The mesh of a stirred tank with a Rushton impeller, stator baffles and an aeration device.

Thus, we conclude this section on using m4 for geometry creation with Eric S. Raymond’s view on m4 :
The m4 macro language supports conditionals and recursion. The combination can be used to
implement loops, and this was intended; m4 is deliberately Turing-complete. But actually trying to
use m4 as a general-purpose language would be deeply perverse.
This quote from Eric S. Raymond [22] should not be seen as trying to discourage the use of m4 for simple
task. It is intended to point out the limitations of macro languages. The limitation met and experienced by the
author are the following:

Math In the sections above, we discussed two ways to perform complex mathematical operations within an
m4 script, by utilizing bc or perl via a system call. In python, we can do complex math directly, without
having to perform system calls to programs which, might or might not be installed on the user’s system.
Data structures The mesh generation script for the stirred tank makes use of python’s high-level data struc-
ture reflecting the organisation of the points on the geometry Thus, the resulting script is far better to
understand than an even less complex m4 script.
51 After some initial attempts, the author gave up.
52 https://www.python.org/

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 File I/O With m4, all we can do is macro substitution. Thus, everything comes from one file and goes to
one file. With a high-level language such as python, we can write several files. Thus, all files containing
geometric information can be written by the same script, e.g. the blockMeshDict and the topoSetDict(s).
This improves maintainability and reduces code duplication and manual labour.

15.5.4 Parametric meshes by the help of Python

As mentioned in the previous sub-section on the creation of parametric meshes with the scripting language m4,
Python offers a great deal more versatility. This can partly be attributed to the passage of time, since m4 first
appeared in 1977 and Python was released in 1990. However, the main factor is language-design, since Python
has been designed around high-level data structures among other things.
Furthermore, repeated tasks can be more easily encapsulated into functions, e.g. write a block-definition
from a list of nodes and a list of cell numbers.

15.5.5 Parametric meshes with OpenFOAM’s on-board tools

Using the #calc directive
We can to complex math by using OpenFOAM’s #calc directive, as shown in Listing 132. Here we assign the
result of an inline calculation to a variable, which we can use just as any other variable with OpenFOAM’s
macro expansion.
As Listing 132 shows, we can use all functions that are part of the C standard library.

1 // compute the x - discre tisation of the first block

2 NX1 # calc " std :: ceil ( ( $X1 - $X0 ) / $dx ) " ;
3
4 // manually assign a value
5 NZ1 10;
6
7 // the block - definition of the first block ; here NX1 and NZ1 are being used
8 hex (0 1 5 4 12 13 17 16) ( $NX1 $NY1 $NZ1 ) simpleGrading (1 1 1) // 1

Listing 132: Using the #calc directive for inline calculations in blockMeshDict.

1 # include " dictionary . H "

2 # include " Ostream . H "
3 # include " Pstream . H "
4 # include " u nitConve rsion . H "
5
6 namespace Foam
7 {
8
9 extern " C "
10 {
11 void c o d e S t r e a m _ f a a a c 6 a b 5 d 5 8 1 9 d 3 4 0 e e 9 7 b 4 e d 5 b c 6 e c 9 8 2 0 e 7 f b
12 (
13 Ostream & os , const dictionary & dict
14 )
15 {
16 // {{{ begin code
17 # line 1 " " os << ( std :: ceil ( (7.500000 e -02 - 0.000000 e +00) / 3.000000 e -02 ) ) ;
18 // }}} end code
19 }
20 }
21
22 } // End namespace Foam

Listing 133: OpenFOAM creates and runs this code from the #calc directive in Line 2 of Listing 132.

Use the following command to find examples on the use of the #calc directive in the OpenFOAM tutorials:

find $ FO AM _T U TO RI AL S - type f | xargs grep ’# calc ’

Listing 134: Find usage examples of the #calc directive in the tutorials.

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Drawback
Using OpenFOAM to do the math, or any other tasks, has the drawback that we don’t get to see the final
blockMeshDict file. If we have an error in our math or our logic, then blockMesh will interpret its input in the
blockMeshDict file, and the error will lead to an error in mesh-creation. The result will be an error message
on the part of OpenFOAM. However, since the process is as follows, and everything happens within blockMesh,
debugging will be more difficult.
• Read and interpret the blockMeshDict
• Run all blocks of code

• Create the mesh

In the case of a scripting language, such as m4 oy Python, the interpreter runs the script and writes the
blockMeshDict to disk. Any math or logic error can be found in the resulting blockMeshDict file, e.g. in terms
of non-matching discretisation between adjacent blocks.

15.6 Trouble-shooting
15.6.1 Don’t be misled by error messages
During manually building a small mesh with blockMesh by hand, i.e. writing the blockMeshDict using nothing
but an ordinary text editor, I made a rather interesting observation. To save myself the effort of scrolling back
and forth between the vertex list and the patch definition, I copied a part of the vertex list and pasted it right
where I specified the boundary faces. Thus, vertex definitions ended up, where patch definitions are expected.
After I ran blockMesh without removing the vertex definitions from the list of patches, blockMesh unsurprisingly
failed. However, this example shows that OpenFOAM’s error messages can be misleading.
Listing 135 shows the output of blockMesh resulting from the above outlined scenario. The warning message
correctly reports an unexpected input, the error message however, reports a hanging pointer. The hanging
pointer is certainly caused by the faulty entry, however, the error message does not indicate an error within the
blockMeshDict. In this case, the warning message bears the relevant information, hence users are advised to
carefully read OpenFOAM’s output (warning and error messages) in case something goes wrong.

Creating topology blocks

Creating topology patches
--> FOAM Warning :
From function entry :: getKeyword ( keyType & , Istream &)
in file db / dictionary / entry / entryIO . C at line 80
Reading / home / user / OpenFOAM / user -4.0/ run / meshing / testCase / system / blockMeshDict . boundary
found on line 135 the punctuation token ’( ’
expected either } or EOF

...

--> FOAM FATAL ERROR :

hanging pointer at index 8 ( size 12) , cannot dereference

From function const T & Foam :: UPtrList <T >:: operator []( Foam :: label ) const [ with T = Foam ::
entry ; Foam :: label = int ]
in file / home / user / OpenFOAM / OpenFOAM -4.0/ src / OpenFOAM / lnInclude / UPtrListI . H at line 107.

FOAM aborting

#0 Foam :: error :: printStack ( Foam :: Ostream &) at ??:?

Listing 135: The output of blockMesh with a faulty blockMeshDict. The red dots indicate removed warning
messages were removed for brevity.

This observation the warning message carries more useful information than the error message might apply
also to other parts of the OpenFOAM framework.

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15.6.2 Viewing the blocks with ParaView
A mesh created by blockMesh consists of blocks. Listing 136 shows how ParaView can be used to visualise the
blocks.

paraFoam - block

Listing 136: Visualising the blocks

This way, only the blocks are displayed. ParaView only reads the file blockMeshDict. Figure 17 shows the
blocks of a parametric mesh. It consists of nine blocks. The image shows also the numbers of the vertices.

Figure 17: The blocks of a parametric mesh consisting of nine blocks.

15.6.3 Viewing the blocks with pyFoam

Troubleshooting can be difficult when blockMesh doesn’t create a mesh and displays some error messages instead.
See Section 15.6.2 for the discussion of a tool which is able to display the blocks as they are defined in
blockMeshDict. This tool even works, when blockMesh fails due to an errorneous definition in blockMeshDict.

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16 snappyHexMesh
snappyHexMesh, also referred to as snappy, is a meshing tool that is able to mesh the space around an ar-
bitrary triangulated surface, e.g. an STL surface-mesh. This is generally the case in external aerodynamics.
snappyHexMesh can only be used in conjunction with blockMesh, since it requires a background mesh.

16.1 Documentation
Unfortunately, the complexity of snappyHexMesh outweighs the available on-board documentation. The on-
board documentation (User Guide) can be found in doc/Guides-a4 or doc/Guides-usletter of your lo-
cal OpenFOAM installation or online at http://www.openfoam.org/docs/user/. You find a commented
snappyHexMeshDict at $FOAM_UTILITIES/mesh/generation/snappyHexMesh. This is the case for all utilities
which are controlled by an utility-specific dictionary file, such as decomposePar, topoSet and many more.
Individual features of snappy are in some cases discussed in the release notes of the release with which
these features were rolled out. Another source of good documentation of snappy are presentations held at the
OpenFOAM Workshops. An internet search with appropriate keywords will point the reader to them, since
some of them are publicly available on the internets.
As with any other tool, the reader is encouraged to run the tutorials provided by OpenFOAM and play
around with them. The tutorial cases also provide a good starting base for building your own cases.

16.2 Work flow

The creation of a mesh by snappyHexMesh is following a two step approach:
1. The background mesh is created by blockMesh. This is absolutely necessary to the later work of snappy.
It is advised for the background mesh to consist of all-hex cells with an aspect ratio of 1, i.e. cube-shaped
cells. It is furthermore beneficial to have many intersections of the background mesh’s cell-edges with the
tri-surface.
2. snappyHexMesh then perfoms three basic steps:

(a) Castellating
The tri-surface is approximated by splitting and removing cells outside the tri-surface.
Cell splitting The cells of the background mesh near the objects surface are refined.
Cell removal Cells of the background mesh inside the object are removed.
(b) Snapping
Cell snapping The remaining background mesh is modified in order to reconstruct the surface of
the object.
(c) Layer addition
Layer addition Additional hexahedral cells are introduced on the boundary surface of the object
to ensure a good mesh quality.

16.3 Example: Bath Tub

With the help of an actual example, we will now discuss some of snappyHexMesh’s features, as problems and
insights most often come with pratical use. Our bath tub has a non-trivial shape, thus we are not inclined to
painfully create the blockMeshDict by hand or by script. For complicated geometries a sophisticated meshing
tool such as snappy is the way to go.

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 Figure 18: A bath tub. The outlet patch is marked grey at the very bottom of the drain tube.

16.3.1 Boundary layers

Boundary layers are added in the last stage of snappy’s operation. These are added on a per-patch basis. Thus,
it is not possible to add layers only to parts of a patch. On the patch itself, we can control the regions in which
to add a layer by the keyword featureAngle. The operation of the layer addition stage is controlled by the
addLayersControls dictionary of snappyHexMeshDict.
Some of the entries of the addLayersControls dictionary are self-explanatory, such as the layers dictionary
specifying the patches on which to add layers of cells. However, other parameters are not that obvious in their
meaning.

featureAngle
The featureAngle is the angle between two consecutive faces. This parameter controls the behaviour of the
layer addition stage at corners and bends.

Figure 19: A badly chosen featureAngle causes snappy to add incomplete boundary layers.

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slipFeatureAngle
At the outlet patch of our domain, the layer added to the wall patch meets the outlet patch, i.e. vertices need
to be added to the outlet patch in order to properly grow a layer of cells onto the wall patch. See the left side of
Figure 20. In order to achieve this, we must be able to alter the outlet patch during layer addition even though,
we do not add a layer to the outlet patch itself.
This feature is discussed in the release notes53 of OpenFOAM-2.2.0.

Figure 20: The boundary layers added by snappy. On the left, layer addition went as we intended it to do; on
the right, we see the effect of the (missing) keyword slipFeatureAngle of the addLayersControls dictionary
of snappyHexMeshDict.

Exclude patches
We have to freedom to tell snappyHexMesh to leave patches alone. Thus, during layer addition these patches
remain untouched. This allows us to reverse the effect we achieved with the slipFeatureAngle parameter. By
specifically exluding the outlet from any layer addition activity (see Listing 137), we end up with a collapsing
cell layer at the boundary of the outlet patch, see Figure 21.

layers
{
bathTub
{
nSur faceLaye rs 2;
}
outlet
{
nSur faceLaye rs 0;
}
}

Listing 137: The layers sub-dictionary of the addLayersControl dictionary: specifically excluding a patch
from layer addition.

This example of use may most probably not meet practical requirements, however, it demonstrates how
snappy works. The take-away message might be that nSurfaceLayers beats slipFeatureAngle.
A non-academic (read less-useless) theoretical use-case for excluding patches from layer addition might be,
when we later merge different meshes. In that case, we might want to preserve some patches for the merging
operation.

53 http://www.openfoam.org/version2.2.0/snappyHexMesh.php

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Figure 21: A collapsing boundary layer. Maybe we did not want the mesh that way, however, we told snappy
to create it exactly that way.

16.3.2 Pitfalls, sources of error and hints on malfunction

Run time
If snappyHexMesh is finished in less than a second, then something is wrong. As snappyHexMesh performs up
to three work intensive steps (castellation, snapping and layer addition), a run of snappyHexMesh takes a couple
of seconds or even longer (tens of seconds).

Units
When creating a mesh with snappyHexMesh different scales (meter vs. millimeter) of the background mesh and
the STL-mesh are a frequent source of error. Check the following things:
1. The unit of the vertex coordinates in blockMeshDict
2. The value of the convertToMeters keyword in blockMeshDict

3. The unit in which the STL was created

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17 foamyHexMesh
With OpenFOAM-2.3.054 the new meshing tool foamyHexMesh was released. This tool is to some degree
similar to snappyHexMesh. The main distinction between foamyHexMesh and snappyHexMesh is that meshes
by foamyHexMesh are better aligned with the boundary surfaces. This is achieved by a different mode of
operation. foamyHexMesh generates an internal tetrahedral mesh fitting the boundaries, and then generates
and massages the dual mesh of this internal tetrahedral mesh.

17.1 Crude comparison between a snappy and a foamy bath tub

In this section we compare the way foamy- and snappyHexMesh work on the example of meshing a bath tub.
For this demonstration an STL-surface of a bath tub was created using OpenSCAD.
Figure 22 shows the outline and a part of the background mesh as well as our bath tub.

Figure 22: A bath tub with a background mesh enclosing the STL-surface of the bath tub.

17.1.1 SnappyBathTub
A first, the bath tub is meshed using snappyHexMesh. Figure 23 shows the resulting mesh. We clearly see, that
the interior cells are aligned with the global coordinate axes. At the side walls, this leads to some minor flaws.

Figure 23: SnappyBathTub

54 http://www.openfoam.org/version2.3.0/foamyHexMesh.php

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17.1.2 FoamyBathTub
Next, the bath tub was meshed using foamyHexMesh. In Figure 24 we see a good alignment of the cells with
the boundaries. The interior cells are not aligned with the global coordinate axes.

Figure 24: FoamyBathTub

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18 cfMesh
cfMesh is a collection of meshing tools55 provided by the company Creative Fields. This company offers the
basic cfMesh suite under the GPL for free. At the time of writing cfMesh consists of four meshing tools which
offer a workflow comparable to the workflow offered by snappy- and foamyHexMesh.
The meshing tools of cfMesh generate their mesh based on a user-provided surface-triangulation of the
geometry. There is no need for a background mesh similar as it is the case with foamyHexMesh. All of the
tools are capable of generating boundary layers on all or on selected surfaces. All the tools are controlled by a
dictionary named meshDict, which resides in the system directory. In general the control of the user over the
meshing tools is not as tight as with snappy- or foamyHexMesh. However, this less tight control manifests itself
in a lightweight control dictionary compared to snappy- and foamyHexMesh.
The meshers of cfMesh are:

cartesian2DMesh is the tool to generate 2D meshes

tetMesh generates tetrahedral meshes
cartesianMesh generates meshes consisting mainly of hexahedrals, similar to snappyHexMesh

pMesh generates polyhedral meshes

cfMesh also provides a range of utilities (21 at the time of writing) for various tasks.

18.1 Usage
18.1.1 To treat feature edges, or not to ...
Feature edges must be specified explicitely by the user for cfMesh to obey theses edges.
In the case of the bath tub, which has a single patch a boundary, we see the effect of not providing feature
edges explicitely in Figure 25. In this case the provided STL surface was not obeyed perfectly in favour of nicer
cells. If we wanted to resolve the feature edge, we need to split the boundary of the geometry into more than
one patch. As the edges between neighbouring patches are resolved by default by the mesher, diving the bath
tub’s boundary into several patches would solve the problem shown in Figure 25.

55 http://cfmesh.com/

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Figure 25: Poor feature edge resolution caused by not providing information on feature edges. Note, the whole
geometry is bounded by a single patch.

If we want to resolve a feature edge which is not the boundary of two patches, we can use the utility tool
surfaceFeatureEdges to extract the feature edges from the geometry. This tools checks the angles of neighbour-
ing triangles of the surface triangulation and creates additional patches. E.g. the patch wall is divided into the
patches wall_0 to wall_N, if the specified feature angle results in wall being divided into N individual zones.
cfMesh resolves the edges between neighbouring patches by default. Thus, the mesher is agnostic of our feature
edge treatment. After finishing meshing, the mesher can rename patches. This feature of the mesher allows us
to combine all the intermediate patches back into our initial wall patch.

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Figure 26: Resolved feature edge of the bath tub. In this case, the boundary consists of two patches: the top
surface and the rest.

We note in Figure 26 the hanging nodes inserted by the mesher to join the different refinement levels. These
hanging nodes protrude from the face they are inserted into. This prevents the faces connecting the cells of
different refinement level from being coplanar, as it is the case with snappyHexMesh.

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19 checkMesh
checkMesh is a tool to perform tests on an existing mesh. checkMesh is simply invoked by its name. Like other
tools, checkMesh assumes to be called from the case directory. When checkMesh is to be called from an other
location than the case directory, the path to the case directory has to be specified with the option -case.
Listing 138 shows an error message produced by checkMesh, if checkMesh has been called with no mesh
present. In this case the tool can’t find the files specified in Section 13.1.

--> FOAM FATAL ERROR :

Cannot find file " points " in directory " polyMesh " in times 0 down to constant

From function Time :: findInstance ( const fileName & , const word & , const IOobject :: readOption ,
const word &)
in file db / Time / findInstance . C at line 188.

FOAM exiting

Listing 138: No mesh present

A more thorough testing is performed when checkMesh is called with two additional options. Then checkMesh
performs some further tests.

checkMesh - allGeometry - allTopology

Listing 139: Do more checks

checkMesh has also the -latestTime option like many other OpenFOAM tools. This option is particularly
useful when examining meshes created by snappyHexMesh. snappyHexMesh stores intermediate meshes if it is
not told otherwise. By default, after a completed run of snappyHexMesh there are the background mesh and the
results of the three basic stages of a snappyHexMesh run (castellation, snapping and layer addition). Depending
on which of these steps are active up to four meshes may be present. Restricting checkMesh to the final mesh
reduces runtime and avoids the unnecessary examination of an intermediate mesh.

19.1 Definitions
In order to understand the output of checkMesh it is necessary to define some quantities calculated by checkMesh.

19.1.1 Face non-orthogonality

Non-orthogonality is a property of the faces of the mesh. We need to discriminate between internal faces and
boundary faces.

Internal faces
Each internal face connects two cells. The non-orthogonality is the angle between the vector connecting the cell
centres and the face normal vector. In Figure 27 the vector connecting the cell centres is denoted d and the
face normal vector56 S.

S
P θ N
f d

Figure 27: Definition of non-orthogonality for internal faces

56 The face normal vector or face area vector is a vector normal to a face. The length of this vector is equal to the area of the

face.

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 In a perfectly orthogonal mesh the vectors d and S are parallel. If a mesh is non-orthogonal these vectors
draw an angle as in Figure 27. This angle can be calculated from d and S by Eq. 10.

d · S = ||d|| ||S|| cos(θ) (8)

d·S ||d|| ||S|| cos(θ)
= = cos(θ) (9)
||d|| ||S|| ||d|| ||S||
d·S
θ = arccos( ) (10)
||d|| ||S||

Eq. 10 can also be found in the sources of OpenFOAM in the function faceNonOrthogonality in the file
cellQuality.C57 . Listing 140 shows a loop over all faces. For each face the non-orthogonality is computed.
The vectors d and s are the connecting vector between the cell centres, and the face area vector, respectively.
The scalar cosDDotS is the angle θ of Figure 27.
Note the two precautions that were taken to avoid numerical issues. First, the denominator is the sum of
the product of the magnitudes and VSMALL. VSMALL is a number with a very small value to prevent division by
zero. Second, the argument of the acos function is min(1.0, (d & s)/(mag(d)*magS + VSMALL)). Keeping
the argument of the arc-cosine equal or below 1 makes perfectly sense, because the arc-cosine is defined only
for values between -1 and 1. The limit of -1 is inherently ensured. The inner product of two vectors is always
positive. VSMALL is also positive.

1 forAll ( nei , faceI )

2 {
3 vector d = centres [ nei [ faceI ]] - centres [ own [ faceI ]];
4 vector s = areas [ faceI ];
5 scalar magS = mag ( s ) ;
6
7 scalar cosDDotS =
8 radToDeg ( Foam :: acos ( min (1.0 , ( d & s ) /( mag ( d ) * magS + VSMALL ) ) ) ) ;
9 result [ faceI ] = cosDDotS ;
10 }

Listing 140: A detail of the function faceNonOrthogonality in the file cellQuality.C

The non-orthogonality reported by checkMesh is the angle θ of Figure 27. Therefore the reported non-
orthogonality lies in the range between 0 and 90. A non-orthogonality of 0 means the mesh is orthogonal and
consists of hexahedra (cuboids) or regular tetrahedra. Listing 144 shows the output of checkMesh. In this case
the mesh is orthogonal, the maximum and average non-orthogonality is 0.
Listing 146 shows the output of checkMesh in case of a non-orthogonal mesh. Listing 147 indicates that a
non-orthogonality of above 70 triggers checkMesh to issue a warning message.

Boundary faces
Non-orthogonality is also defined for boundary faces. Figure 28 shows a schematic boundary face with its face
center f . Non-orthogonality of boundary faces is defined as the angle in degrees between the face area vector S
and the vector d, which connects the cell center P and the face center f .

S
P d θ
f

Figure 28: Definition of non-orthogonality for boundary faces

57 In the file cellQuality.C there are two methods defined: nonOrthogonality() and faceNonOrthogonality(). Comparing the

code of this two methods reveals, that they compute the same thing. However, the method nonOrthogonality() returns the affected
cells, whereas faceNonOrthogonality() returns the affected faces.

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1 const labelUList & faceCells = mesh_ . boundaryMesh () [ patchI ]. faceCells () ;
2 const vectorField :: subField faceCentres = mesh_ . boundaryMesh () [ patchI ]. faceCentres () ;
3 const vectorField :: subField faceAreas = mesh_ . boundaryMesh () [ patchI ]. faceAreas () ;
4
5 forAll ( nei , faceI )
6 {
7 vector d = faceCentres [ faceI ] - centres [ faceCells [ faceI ]];
8 vector s = areas [ faceI ];
9 scalar magS = mag ( s ) ;
10
11 scalar cosDDotS =
12 radToDeg ( Foam :: acos ( min (1.0 , ( d & s ) /( mag ( d ) * magS + VSMALL ) ) ) ) ;
13 result [ globalFaceI ++] = cosDDotS ;
14 }

Listing 141: A detail of the function faceNonOrthogonality in the file cellQuality.C

19.1.2 Face skewness

OpenFOAM defines skewness in a mesh different than other tools, e.g. Gambit. The reason for this OpenFOAM-
specific definition is that this definition is associated with the definition of a skewness error in [38] as part of
mesh induced discretisation errors.
Skewness is a property of the faces of the mesh. We need to discriminate between internal faces and boundary
faces.

Internal faces
Each internal face connects two cells. Figure 29 shows the cell centres P and N of two adjacent cells. The
face faceP N is the face connecting these two cells. The point F is the face centre of the face faceP N . The line
c = P N connects the cell centres. This connecting line intersects with the face faceP N . This intersection point
I divides the line c into the two parts c1 and c2 .

F
Af
do

P dOwn dNei X
c1
I
dn
c2
faceP N N

Figure 29: Definition of skewness of internal faces

To calculate the location of I the length of c1 is of key interest because the skewness is defined in Eq. 11.
The location (the vector to) the points P , N and F are easily obtained. From this three vectors do , dn and c
is computed. With do and dn the inner product with the face area vector Af is computed to obtain dOwn and
dNei58 .
58 dOwn and dNei are actual variable names. Therefore these symbols are written in typewriter font.

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 |IF |
skewness = (11)
|P N |
do = F − P~
~ (12)
dn = F~ − N~ (13)
c=N ~ − P~ (14)
d o · Af
dOwn = (15)
||Af ||
dn · Af
dNei = (16)
||Af ||
6 (XP N ) = α (17)
dOwn dOwn + dNei dOwn + dNei
cos(α) = = = (18)
c1 c1 + c2 ||c||
dOwn
c1 = ||c|| (19)
dOwn + dNei
I~ = P~ + c1 c (20)
||F~ − I||
~
skewness = (21)
||c||

Note that both P~ and c are vectors. The reader hopefully excuses this lack of consistency in mathematical
notation. P~ denotes the position vector of the point P . In this case the symbol P~ is prefered to P in order to
use symbols that can be found in Figure 29.
Listing 142 shows a detail of the function faceSkewness from the file cellQuality.C59 . There a loop over
all internal faces is traversed. The loop body contains the calculation of the skewness. First dOwn and dNei
are computed. Then the location of the point I is determined. The variable faceIntersection of the type
point contains the position vector to the point I – the point at which the connection line between the cell
centres intersects the face. Finally, the skewness is calculated (compare Eq. 21). Notice the precaution against
a possible division by zero (adding VSMALL to the denominator).

1 forAll ( nei , faceI )

2 {
3 scalar dOwn = mag
4 (
5 ( faceCtrs [ faceI ] - cellCtrs [ own [ faceI ]]) & areas [ faceI ]
6 ) / mag ( areas [ faceI ]) ;
7
8 scalar dNei = mag
9 (
10 ( cellCtrs [ nei [ faceI ]] - faceCtrs [ faceI ]) & areas [ faceI ]
11 ) / mag ( areas [ faceI ]) ;
12
13 point f a c e I n t e r s ec t i o n =
14 cellCtrs [ own [ faceI ]]
15 + ( dOwn /( dOwn + dNei ) ) *( cellCtrs [ nei [ faceI ]] - cellCtrs [ own [ faceI ]]) ;
16
17 result [ faceI ] =
18 mag ( faceCtrs [ faceI ] - f a c e I n t e r s e c t i o n )
19 /( mag ( cellCtrs [ nei [ faceI ]] - cellCtrs [ own [ faceI ]]) + VSMALL ) ;
20 }

Listing 142: A detail of the function faceSkewness in the file cellQuality.C

59 In the file cellQuality.C there are two methods defined: skewness() and faceSkewness(). Comparing the code of this

two methods reveals, that they compute the same thing. However, the method skewness() returns the affected cells, whereas
faceSkewness() returns the affected faces.

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 Boundary faces
Skewness is also defined and checked for boundary faces. Figure 30 shows the sketch of a boundary face with
its face center FC . The vector d from the cell center P to the face center FC is depicted in red. At the point
FC we see the face normal vector n. If we project the vector d on the vector n we gain the face-intersection
point FI . This is the point, where the face normal departing from the cell center intersects with the face. The
face-intersection does not necessarily need to be part of the face, as it is the case in Figure 30.
We then compute the vector f , which is the connection between the points FI and FC . The ratio of the
magnitudes of the vectors f and d defines the skewness of a boundary face.
Listing 143 shows the code that computes the skewness of the boundary faces. The points P and FC are

FI
P

f
d FC n

Figure 30: Definition of skewness of boundary faces

returned by the methods faceCells() and faceCentres(). The normal vector n is easily computed from the
face-area vector given by the method faceAreas().

n = faceAreas[faceI]/mag(faceAreas[faceI]) (22)
d = faceCentres[faceI] - cellCtrs[faceCells[faceI]] (23)
F~I = cellCtrs[faceCells[faceI]] + ((faceCentres[faceI] - cellCtrs[faceCells[faceI]])&n)*n
(24)
~ ~
FI = P + (d · n)n (25)
f = faceCentres[faceI] - faceIntersection (26)
f = F~C − F~I (27)

1 label globalFaceI = mesh_ . nInter nalFaces () ;

2
3 forAll ( mesh_ . boundaryMesh () , patchI )
4 {
5 const labelUList & faceCells =
6 mesh_ . boundaryMesh () [ patchI ]. faceCells () ;
7
8 const vectorField :: subField faceCentres =
9 mesh_ . boundaryMesh () [ patchI ]. faceCentres () ;
10 const vectorField :: subField faceAreas =
11 mesh_ . boundaryMesh () [ patchI ]. faceAreas () ;

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12
13 forAll ( faceCentres , faceI )
14 {
15 vector n = faceAreas [ faceI ]/ mag ( faceAreas [ faceI ]) ;
16
17 point f a c eI n t e r s ec t i o n = cellCtrs [ faceCells [ faceI ]]
18 + (( faceCentres [ faceI ] - cellCtrs [ faceCells [ faceI ]]) & n ) * n ;
19
20 result [ globalFaceI ++] = mag ( faceCentres [ faceI ] - f a c e I n t e r s e c t i o n )
21 /(
22 mag ( faceCentres [ faceI ] - cellCtrs [ faceCells [ faceI ]])
23 + VSMALL
24 );
25 }
26 }

Listing 143: A detail of the function faceSkewness in the file cellQuality.C

19.1.3 Face concavity

pending

19.1.4 Face warpage

A face is warped, when its vertices do not lie within a plane. Figure 31 shows a simplified situation of a
warped face. Any three points, which do not fall onto a single line, span a plane. In Figure 31 the area vec-
tor S1 of the triangle ∆457 is parallel to the face area vector Sf . Thus, we identify point 6 as being out-of-plane.

6
Sf
7 S2
S1
cf

4 5
Figure 31: Face warpage

If we decompose the face into individual triangles, we can compare the individual triangle area vectors to the
face normal vector. In Figure 31 a crude decomposition is chosen for simplicity. In OpenFOAM’s internals, the
individual triangles are defined by the face center and two consecutive vertices of the face. As, face vertices need
to be stored consecutive, a simple loop over the vertices of a face is sufficient to generate all individual triangles.
Thus, in OpenFOAM’s implementation of the test for warpage, the face of Figure 31 would be decomposed into
four triangles, as indicated by the thin dashed lines.
We bear in mind, that in OpenFOAM a face area vector has two important properties. It is normal to
the face’s plane and its magnitude is proportional to the face’s area60 . By diving the face area vector by its
magnitude we gain the face normal vector, see (29).
OpenFOAM checks for warpage by computing the inner product of the triangle area vectors with the face
normal vector, and summing up the results, see (30). This sum is equal to the magnitude of the face area vector,
when all vertices are in-plane. If the two vectors of an inner product are not parallel, then the magnitude of
the inner product is smaller by the cosine of the enclosed angle.
60 Since a length can not be an area in terms of physical units, we avoid the statement, that the face normal vectors length is the

face’s area. However, the factor of proportionality is 1.

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 ka·bk = kakkbk cos(α) (28)
Sf
nf = (29)
kSf k
?
X
Sf = nf ·Si (30)
i

19.1.5 Cell concavity

When a cell is concave

19.2 Pitfalls
The results of checkMesh need to be taken with a grain of salt. Therefore, it is helpful to know how checkMesh
defines the qualitity measures it tests for (Section 19.1) and also to know about the shortcomings of the tests
performed by checkMesh (Section 19.2).
The tests performed by checkMesh do not necessarily guarantee the mesh to be suitable for simulation.
Furthermore, if a mesh fails a test, that does not necessariliy mean that it is unsuitable for calculation.

19.2.1 Mesh quality - aspect ratio

checkMesh performs a number of quality checks. However, the user has to be careful. checkMesh does only
check if a mesh makes a simulation impossible. There are some situations in which checkMesh does not issue
an error or a warning, however, a mesh can nevertheless be unsuitable for a successful calculation.
The aspect ratio is the ratio of the largest and the smallest dimension of the cells. For the aspect ratio there
are no limits. Listing 144 shows the output of checkMesh when a mesh with high aspect ratio cells is tested.
Although checkMesh does not complain, the mesh is not suitable for simulation. Even with extremely small
time steps numerical problems appear.

Checking geometry ...

Overall domain bounding box (0 0 0) (0.1 0.1 0.01)
Mesh ( non - empty , non - wedge ) directions (1 1 1)
Mesh ( non - empty ) directions (1 1 1)
Boundary openness ( -9.51633 e -17 1.17791 e -18 -4.51751 e -17) OK .
Max cell openness = 1.35525 e -16 OK .
Max aspect ratio = 100 OK .
Minimum face area = 2.5 e -07. Maximum face area = 2.5 e -05. Face area magnitudes OK .
Min volume = 1.25 e -09. Max volume = 1.25 e -09. Total volume = 0.0001. Cell volumes OK .
Mesh non - orthogonality Max : 0 average : 0
Non - orthogonality check OK .
Face pyramids OK .
Max skewness = 2e -06 OK .
Coupled point location match ( average 0) OK .

Mesh OK .

End

Listing 144: checkMesh output for a mesh with high aspect ratio

19.2.2 Mesh quality - skewness

There are different ways to calculate the skewness of a finite volume cell. To test whether checkMesh complains
about high skewness, a mesh is distorted by the use of edge grading. Figure 32 shows this mesh. Parallel edges
are graded alternately – alternating between the expand ratio and its reciprocal value. Listing 145 shows the
grading settings. The test case for this examination is the cavity case of icoFoam. This case can be found in
the tutorials.

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hex (0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7) (20 20 2) edgeGrading (3 0.33 3 0.33 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1)

Listing 145: Block definition in blockMeshDict to achieve high skewness

Figure 32: A distorted mesh

checkMesh issues no warnings for the value pair 3 and 0.33. The values 4 and 0.25 cause a warning about severly
non-orthogonal faces.
However, a simulation is impossible for much lower values. The simulation runs for the value pair 1.33 and
0.75. The values 1.4 and 0.714 cause the simulation to crash. The limits of stability of a simulation are therefore
reached earlier than the limits of checkMesh.
To conclude this section, the user should bear the folling statement in mind. Numerical problems of a sim-
ulation may be caused by bad mesh quality. In some cases – like the one presented above – bad mesh quality is
the root of the problem, but checkMesh issues no warnings. However, the values of the quality characteristics
may give a hint. Some manuals of CFD software propose numerical ranges for characteristics like aspect ratio
to ensure good quality.

Checking geometry ...

Overall domain bounding box (0 0 0) (0.1 0.1 0.01)
Mesh ( non - empty , non - wedge ) directions (1 1 1)
Mesh ( non - empty ) directions (1 1 1)
Boundary openness (4.23516 e -18 9.03502 e -18 1.60936 e -16) OK .
Max cell openness = 1.67251 e -16 OK .
Max aspect ratio = 3.63059 OK .
Minimum face area = 1.42648 e -05. Maximum face area = 7.1694 e -05. Face area magnitudes OK .
Min volume = 1.03854 e -07. Max volume = 1.69673 e -07. Total volume = 0.0001. Cell volumes OK
.
Mesh non - orthogonality Max : 69.4798 average : 32.8092 Non - orthogonality check OK .
Face pyramids OK .
Max skewness = 2.35485 OK .
Coupled point location match ( average 0) OK .

Mesh OK .

End

Listing 146: checkMesh output for the distorted mesh; grading ratios 3 and 0.33

Checking geometry ...

Overall domain bounding box (0 0 0) (0.1 0.1 0.01)
Mesh ( non - empty , non - wedge ) directions (1 1 1)
Mesh ( non - empty ) directions (1 1 1)
Boundary openness (4.23516 e -18 -6.21157 e -18 1.18585 e -16) OK .
Max cell openness = 2.37664 e -16 OK .
Max aspect ratio = 4.23706 OK .
Minimum face area = 1.23181 e -05. Maximum face area = 8.67874 e -05. Face area magnitudes OK .

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 Min volume = 1.00882 e -07. Max volume = 1.84055 e -07. Total volume = 0.0001. Cell volumes OK
.
Mesh non - orthogonality Max : 73.1635 average : 36.2131
* Number of severely non - orthogonal faces : 80.
Non - orthogonality check OK .
<< Writing 80 non - orthogonal faces to set nonOrthoFaces
Face pyramids OK .
Max skewness = 2.93978 OK .
Coupled point location match ( average 0) OK .

Mesh OK .

End

Listing 147: checkMesh output for the distorted mesh; grading ratios 4 and 0.25

19.2.3 Possible non-pitfall: twoInternalFacesCells

If a mesh for a two-dimensional simulation is created and checked using checkMesh with the -allTopology
option enabled61 , then checkMesh will issue a message like in Listing 148. This message indicates, that there
are cells present with only two internal faces. This message can be ignored when 2D meshes are concerned. The
corner cells of a rectangular mesh have – by definition – only two internal faces.

Checking topology ...

Boundary definition OK .
Cell to face addressing OK .
Point usage OK .
Upper triangular ordering OK .
Face vertices OK .
Topological cell zip - up check OK .
Face - face connectivity OK .
<< Writing 4 cells with two non - boundary faces to set t w o I n t e r n a l F a c e s C e l l s
Number of regions : 1 ( OK ) .

Listing 148: checkMesh output for a 2D mesh with -allTopology option set.

If this message appears when a 3D mesh is examined, then there is probably some error in the definition of
the mesh. A cell in a 3D mesh should have at least three internal faces. A message stating the presence of cells
with two internal faces in a 3D mesh indicates non-connected regions.
If there are, in a 3D mesh, cells present with only two internal faces – this is sometimes the case with
tetrahedral meshes and the tet-cells in corners – then these cells will be written into a twoInternalFacesCells
cell set, furthermore, these cells will also be written into a cell set named underdeterminedCells.
Listing 149 and Figure 33 show such an example. An all-tet, 3D-mesh has be checked by checkMesh, and it
complained about cells with two internal faces, and underdetermined cells. In both cases the number of affected
cells was the same. Comparing the actual cellSets, as shown in Listing 149, revealed that in-fact, all cells with
two internal faces are considered under-determined, as the contents of the two files exactly match with the name
of the cell set being the only exception.

g e r h a r d @ g e r h a r d W o r k :/ home / user / OpenFOAM / user -6/ case - directory / constant / polyMesh / sets$ diff
twoInternalFacesCells underdeterminedCells
14 c14
< object twoInternalFacesCells ;
---
> object underdeterminedCells ;

Listing 149: Comparing the cell sets twoInternalFacesCells and underdeterminedCells in a case with an all-tet,
3D-mesh.

61 When the -allTopology option is enabled, checkMesh performs two additional topological checks. Checking the face connec-
tivity is one of these checks.

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 Figure 33: The cells with two internal faces in an all-tet, 3D-mesh.

19.2.4 Non-pitfall: underdetermined cells & aspect ratio

In certain cases, checkMesh reports under-determined cells, which are apparently the result of them having a
relatively large aspect ratio, yet these cells pass the test of checkMesh for aspect ratio itself. Here, we discuss
an example the author encountered when creating an axi-symmetric mesh. Listing 150 shows the output of
checkMesh, which reports one failed test, the test for under-determined cells.

Checking geometry ...

Overall domain bounding box ( -1.87738 e -14 -0.3105 -0.00628287) (0.359945 0.28176
0.00628287)
Mesh has 2 geometric ( non - empty / wedge ) directions (1 1 0)
Mesh has 3 solution ( non - empty ) directions (1 1 1)
Wedge back with angle 1 degrees
Wedge front with angle 1 degrees
All edges aligned with or perpendicular to non - empty directions .
Boundary openness (2.65459 e -17 -2.56868 e -15 -3.5724 e -14) OK .
Max cell openness = 6.00189 e -16 OK .
Max aspect ratio = 273.429 OK .
Minimum face area = 1.70066 e -08. Maximum face area = 0.000559933. Face area magnitudes OK
.
Min volume = 9.31147 e -12. Max volume = 6.7098 e -06. Total volume = 0.000535521. Cell
volumes OK .
Mesh non - orthogonality Max : 35.0627 average : 10.6127
Non - orthogonality check OK .
Face pyramids OK .
Max skewness = 0.997295 OK .
Coupled point location match ( average 0) OK .
Face tets OK .
Min / max edge length = 3.44218 e -05 0.0349612 OK .
All angles in faces OK .
Face flatness (1 = flat , 0 = butterfly ) : min = 1 average = 1
All face flatness OK .
Cell determinant ( wellposedness ) : minimum : 0.00012646 average : 2.46777
*** Cells with small determinant ( < 0.001) found , number of cells : 16
<< Writing 16 under - determined cells to set u n d e r d e t e r m i n e d C e l l s
Concave cell check OK .
Face interpolation weight : minimum : 0.289549 average : 0.486008
Face interpolation weight check OK .
Face volume ratio : minimum : 0.328662 average : 0.931884
Face volume ratio check OK .

Failed 1 mesh checks .

End

Listing 150: checkMesh output for a 2D, axi-symmetric mesh with -allGeometry and -allTopology option
set.

In Figure 34, wee see the under-determined cells, which were found by checkMesh. From Listing 150, we see
that the cells have a high aspect ratio, with the maximum aspect ratio well above 250. However, checkMesh

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determined the test for the aspect ratio to be OK, yet checkMesh found under-determined cells. However, these
cells, depicted in Figure 34 are regular hex cells, although quite thin ones.
As the simulation, this mesh was created for, runs perfectly fine, the reported under-determined cells pose no
problem for the numerics of OpenFOAM. Most likely some threshold value was exceeded by these high-aspect
ratio cells, which triggered checkMesh to report under-determined cells.

quite

Figure 34: The under-determined cells, which were found by checkMesh in the mesh of an axi-symmetric
simulation. These cells are on a far corner of the 2-D domain, and grading towards the more interesting regions
led them to have a high aspect ratio. In fact, these cells have the highest aspect ratio of the whole mesh. The
proximity to the lower wall results in these cells to be quite fine in the y-direction. Since, these cells are furthest
from the axis of symmetry, they are relatively large in radial and tangential direction.

19.3 Useful output

The output of checkMesh in Listing 148 also shows another interesting thing to know about checkMesh. The
line «Writing 4 cells with two non-boundary faces to set twoInternalFacesCells tells the user that
checkMesh created a set of cells that are found to have some problems.
Figure 35 shows the content of the case which resulted in Figure 32. There we see a directory named sets
inside the polyMesh folder. The sets folder was created by checkMesh and inside this folder checkMesh stores
any sets it creates. The file names are rather self-explanatory, e.g. the file skewFaces contains all faces which
failed the test for skewness. All these cell or face sets can be viewed with paraView.

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 .
0
p
U
constant
polyMesh
blockMeshDict
boundary
faces
neighbour
owner
points
sets
lowQualityTetFaces
nonOrthoFaces
skewFaces
underdeterminedCells
transportProperties
system
controlDict
fvSchemes
fvSolution

Figure 35: Sets created by checkMesh in the sets directory.

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20 extrudeMesh
extrudeMesh is a rather special tool. OpenFOAM lists extrudeMesh under the mesh generation tools, however,
extrudeMesh has a role between mesh generation and mesh manipulation. We can do mesh generation, e.g.
extruding one cell layer from a 2D STL surface in order to prepare the mesh for a 2D study in OpenFOAM.
However, we can also do mesh manipulation, which is essentially mesh extension, as we “grow” cell layers on
surfaces.

20.1 Control
extrudeMesh is controlled by the file extrudeMeshDict. This file contains all necessary settings for using this
tool, which can roughly be divided into the categories: “where to grow”, “what to grow”, and “how to grow”.

20.1.1 constructFrom
The constructFrom setting is used to determine the source of the extrusion. This basis for cell extrusion can be
either a patch of an existing mesh or an STL surface. In the case of a patch of an mesh, the source may also be
a patch from another case, e.g. extrude patch X from case Y to create the mesh of case Z.
For the case of an STL surface, the corresponding STL file needs to be provided using the surface keyword.
If we use the patch of a mesh, we can choose between retaining the source mesh or discarding it. Figure 36
shows the difference between these two options, when extruding a patch from the current case.

Figure 36: Extrude the wall patch from a cylinder mesh. left: constructFrom mesh. right: constructFrom
patch.

20.1.2 Layer control

The “what to grow” part consists of the number of cells in thickness direction of the new cell layer, the thickness
and an optional expansion ratio.

expansionRatio
Note, that the expansion ratio describes the expansion of thickness from one layer to the other. This is in contrast
to the expansion ratio we use with the grading feature of blockMesh, there the expansion ratio describes the
thickness ratio between the smallest and the largest cells at the boundaries of a block.

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20.1.3 Extrusion models
The extrusion models control the “how to grow”. There is a number of models available, some of which will be
discussed below.

Plane extrusion
The plane extrusion model is specifically for the creation of (quasi) 2D meshes. A single layer of cells is extruded
in normal direction to the povided surface. By default the front and back patches are created to be of type
empty.
In Figure 37 we see the mesh created from an STL, which was created by GMSH. In this case we could also
have used GMSH to create a mesh with a single cell in thickness direction.

Figure 37: The mesh for a 2D study generated from an STL surface.

Sector extrusion
Figure 38 shows the result of the sector extrusion model. For this model, the user needs to specify a point in
space (axisPnt), an axis of rotation (axis) and an angle. In this case the outlet patch of the original mesh
(shown in grey) was extruded. The original mesh was created by blockMesh and consists of 5 blocks (easily
scripted with e.g. Python). The axisPnt lies in the plane of the outlet patch, however, the point is well outside
the patch. The distance between the axisPnt and the centerline of the original pipe mesh determines the radius
of the pipe bend. The positive x-axis was selected as axis. The newly generated cells are by default added to
a cellSet named addedCells.
This use of extrudeMesh opens a rather cheap way to create good meshes of pipe bends. The blockMeshDict
for a straight pipe is easily scripted, and by extruding along the section of a circle, the mesh is continued along
a bend. Directly scripting the blockMeshDict for a pipe bend would definitely be a little bit harder.
The sector extrusion model also has a 2D “cousin”, which is called wedge. The class underlying the wedge
extrusion model is derived from the sector model. However, the wedge model is the axisymmetric analogue of
the plane model. Thus, only one cell layer is created, which is centered about the source surface, i.e. the cell
layer is extruded half the angle in both directions from the source surface.

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Figure 38: A cheap 90° pipe bend. The outlet patch of the original mesh was extruded along the sector of a
circle.

Linear extrusion
There are two models for linear extrusion in extrudeMesh. There is linearNormal, which extrudes in normal
direction of the underlying surface. This can be used to grow a cell layer on the pipe’s wall, see Figure 40.
Furthermore, there is linearDirection, which extrudes cells along a specified direction.
In Figure 39 we see the result of subsequent use of extrudeMesh. Unfortunately, at the time of writing
(using OpenFOAM-4.0), extrudeMesh does not offer the -dict option. Thus, we need to repeatedly edit the
extrudeMeshDict for subsequent applications of extrudeMesh. First, a bend was created by using the sector
model. Afterwards a straight pipe section was created using linearNormal, which is followed by a slanted pipe
section, which was created using linearDirection.

Figure 39: Subsequent mesh extrusions: sector, linearNormal and linearDirection.

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 Figure 40: Grow a wall! The walls patch of the pipe mesh was extruded using the linearNormal model.

20.2 Extruding 2-D meshes

We can use extrudeMesh also to create two-dimensional meshes, either from a STL surface mesh or an existing
OpenFOAM mesh.

20.2.1 extrudeMesh + snappyHexMesh = snappy2D

While snappyHexMesh is a fully three-dimensional meshing tool, we can create snappy-like meshes for two di-
mensions with the help of extrudeMesh. Figure 41 shows an example of such a mesh. The work flow for the
mesh shown is pretty straight forward and is not discussed any further.

Figure 41: Snappy two-dimensional meshing. The side patch of a snappy mesh was extruded using the
linearNormal model, with the base mesh being discarded. Thus, we remain with a snappy-like mesh for
the two-dimensional flow around a cylinder.

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20.2.2 Pitfall: extruding a too narrow 2D slice
The mesh for an axi-symmetric simulation is a slice of the full 3D domain, which is 1 cell in circumferential
direction. Figure 42 shows two examples, which differ only in the angle of the slice. Both seem like valid meshes,
when viewed in ParaView.
Yet, with the narrow angle, OpenFOAM complains of the wedge-type patches being non-planar. Listing 151
shows an example of such a warning message. Increasing the angle from 1 to 5 degrees solved this problem.
This problem could not be solved by increasing the write precision to large values.

Figure 42: Extruding a slice. Left: a 1 degree sector extrusion, Right: a 5 degrees sector extrusion.

--> FOAM Warning :

From function virtual void Foam :: wed gePolyPa tch :: calcGeometry ( Foam :: P streamBu ffers &)
in file meshes / polyMesh / polyPatches / constraint / wedge / wedge PolyPatc h . C at line 70
Wedge patch ’ front ’ is not planar .
At local face at (5.433932 e -05 -4.157483 e -07 4.764003 e -05) the normal (5.662783 e -19 -0.9999619
-0.008726535)
differs from the average normal ( -1.335286 e -10 -0.9999618 -0.008682201) by 1.965596 e -09
Either correct the patch or split it into planar parts

Listing 151: Warning message about a non-planar wedge-type patch.

20.2.3 Pitfall: remnant faces

Figure 43 shows a case, which caused the author some trouble-shooting. A 2-D slice of a hollow sphere was the
intended result. Thus, we extruded a patch from an imported mesh. The base patch, which is not visible in the
image, was used for extrusion. The red and green patches in Figure 43 were also present in the base mesh, all
other surfaces of the base mesh were subsumed automatically by OpenFOAM as a default patch.

Figure 43: Extruding the mesh for a 2-D slice of a hollow sphere.

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 After extruding the mesh, OpenFOAM was reporting a non-planar patch: the default patch. As it hap-
pened, extrudeMesh also created zero-length faces at the axis of symmetry. A run of collapseEdges fixed the
issue. If we compare the stats of checkMesh shown in Listing 152, we can clearly see that something was not
right after mesh extrusion, i.e. at Time = constant. However, at Time = 0.005, i.e. after the execution of
collapseEdges, the mesh’s stats look much more reasonable.

Time = constant

Mesh stats
points : 288
faces : 488
internal faces : 202
cells : 115
faces per cell : 6
boundary patches : 4

Overall number of cells of each type :

hexahedra : 115

Checking patch topology for multiply connected surfaces ...

Patch Faces Points Surface topology
faceBubble 115 144 ok ( non - closed singly connected )
b ub bl eI nne rS ur f 23 48 ok ( non - closed singly connected )
b u b b l e O u t e r S u r f a c e 23 48 ok ( non - closed singly connected )
defa ultPatch es 125 156 ok ( non - closed singly connected )

Checking geometry ...

<< Writing 288 points on non - aligned edges to set n on Al i gn ed Ed g es
*** Zero or negative face area detected . Minimum area : 0
<< Writing 4 zero area faces to set zeroAreaFaces
*** Max skewness = 661.5314 , 4 highly skew faces detected which may impair the quality of the
results
<< Writing 4 skew faces to set skewFaces

Failed 3 mesh checks .

Above: after calling extrudeMesh; Below: after calling collapseEdges
Time = 0.005

Mesh stats
points : 276
faces : 478
internal faces : 202
cells : 115
faces per cell : 5.913
boundary patches : 4

Overall number of cells of each type :

hexahedra : 105
prisms : 10

Checking patch topology for multiply connected surfaces ...

Patch Faces Points Surface topology
faceBubble 115 144 ok ( non - closed singly connected )
b ub bl eI nne rS ur f 23 46 ok ( non - closed singly connected )
b u b b l e O u t e r S u r f a c e 23 46 ok ( non - closed singly connected )
defa ultPatch es 115 144 ok ( non - closed singly connected )

Checking geometry ...

<< Writing 276 points on non - aligned edges to set n o nA li gn e dE dg es
Minimum face area = 1.1657 e -07. Maximum face area = 2.9696 e -05. Face area magnitudes OK .
Max skewness = 0.33015 OK .

Failed 1 mesh checks .

Listing 152: The most relevant lines of checkMesh’s output, before and after executing collapseEdges.

A clear indicator of the problem encountered is the number of cell types. This mesh of a 2-D slice should not
contain only hexahedra, since at the axis the cells should be prisms. This is the case after fixing the problem.
Further indication of the problem can be found in the numerous warnings about zero-area faces. Note the

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reduced number of points and faces before and after calling collapseEdges, this is a further indication that
faces due to zero-length edges have been removed.
The removed zero-area faces were perpendicular to the blue patch shown in Figure 43. Since these zero-area
faces would have been part of the blue patch of Figure 43, OpenFOAM was rightly complaining of this patch
not being planar.

20.2.4 Pitfall: remnant patches

When we create axi-symmetric meshes by extruding a patch from a source mesh, we may end up with an empty
patch, i.e. a patch with zero faces. Figure 44 shows how we can create an axi-symmetric mesh from a regular
mesh. In this case, the resulting mesh after extrusion may contain the patch axis with zero faces. While this
is no problem in itself, having a patch present requires us to specify boundary conditions. Thus, it is good
practice to remove all patches with zero faces. How this can be done is discussed is Section 27.8.1.

Figure 44: Creating an axi-symmetric mesh by extruding a patch (the patch front shown in blue).

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21 polyDualMesh
This tool falls into a similar category as extrudeMesh. While it operates on an existing mesh, the result is very
different from the initial mesh, so that this tool can be considered a mesh generation tool.
polyDualMesh takes any valid mesh and computes the dual of the provided mesh. As the dual of a mesh
is a rather abstract concept, this is best explained by a simple example. In Figure 45, the Voronoi diagram
is shown. In this example the centers of the circumcircles of a triangular grid are used to create the Voronoi
diagram. Thus, a polygonal grid can be created from a triangular grid.
polyDualMesh applies this approach to the provided mesh, which can be of any type.

Figure 45: Connecting the centers of the circumcircles produces the Voronoi diagram (in red). Source https:
//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Delaunay_Voronoi.svg.

polyDualMesh is a vital tool to create polyhedral meshes. Since it takes tetrahedral (tet) meshes as its input,
and tools to create tet meshes are plenty, polyDualMesh is our gateway to running simulations on polyhedral
meshes. Generally we can state, that the more elaborate meshes are to be, the rarer (in case of open source
solutions) or the costlier (in case of proprietary tools) the mesh generation software is.

Example: the elbow tutorial

Figure 46 shows the result of running polyDualMesh on the elbow tutorial case. The initial mesh is a triangular
mesh, and the resulting mesh is a mesh of polygons. Note, that OpenFOAM implements a 2D mesh as a 3D
with a thickness of a single cell. Since polyDualMesh acts in all spatial dimensions, the resulting mesh is not a
valid 2D mesh anymore. However, if we extrude the top patch as a single cell layer, and delete all old cells, we
end up with a valid 2D mesh again.

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 Figure 46: The mesh of the elbow tutorial case; before and after the application of polyDualMesh.

Example: 2D bubble column tutorial

polyDualMesh can take any valid mesh as its input. In Figure 47, on the right, we see the result of applying
polyDualMesh on a 2D all-hex mesh. This example also shows how the resulting mesh is not a valid 2D mesh
anymore, since the resulting mesh is 2 cells in thickness. The resulting mesh is hexahedral-dominant, since at
the boundary polyhedrals are created, which resemble hexahedrals with intermediate hanging nodes.

Figure 47: The mesh of the bubble column tutorial case; before and after the application of polyDualMesh.

Example: single cells

For curiosity’s sake, we take the dual mesh of individual cells.
In Figure 48 we see the result of creating the dual mesh of an initial mesh consisting of a single tetrahedral
cell. We see from the face decomposition, that the face-centroids are used as vertices for the new cells of the dual
mesh. In addition with the volume-centroid, new cells can be constructed. As there are no cells to recombine
the newly created cells, we end up with 4 hex-cells.
In Figure 49 we see the dual mesh of a mesh consisting of a single hexahedral cell. Here, we end up with 8
hex-cells.

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Figure 48: The dual mesh of a single tetrahedron: the original tet-cell is outlined in blue, the face-decomposition
is outlined in black, and one of the resulting cells is shown in grey.

Figure 49: The dual mesh of a single hexahedron: the original hex-cell is outlined in blue, the face-decomposition
is outlined in black, and one of the resulting cells is shown in grey.

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22 combinePatchFaces
This mesh manipulation tool checks for multiple patch faces on same cell and combines them. Having multiple
patch faces on the same cell might be result of some mesh manipulation operations, e.g. polyDualMesh in the
example of the elbow tutorial created such cells at the domain boundary.

Example: the elbow tutorial

In Figure 46, on the right, we see the dual mesh of the elbow tutorial case. It appears as if at the boundary
the cells were a lot smaller than within the domain. However, at close inspection, we see that the cells at the
boundary have multiple faces belonging to the same patch. Thus, if we run combinePatchFaces, all of these
multiple patch faces are combined, as we see in Figure 50 on the right. Now the cells at the boundary do not
appear to be much smaller than the cells in the interior.

Figure 50: The dual mesh of the elbow tutorial case; before and after the application of combinePatchFaces.

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23 Salome
The Salome platform is a powerful multitool, which features a meshing module. This meshing module offers a
number of meshing tools.

23.1 Export & Conversion

Meshes can be exported by Salome into several formats. The go-to procedure for OpenFOAM-use is to export
the mesh in the UNV format and use the ideasUnvToFoam mesh converter.

23.1.1 Salome’s native UNV export

However, there is an issue when using the UNV format. Apparently, see Figure 51, Salome’s mesh export tool
for the UNV format does not export pyramid cells.

Figure 51: Mesh export issue in Salome with the UNV format.

Apart from pyramid cells, there is also an issue when the mesh contains edge-groups. While Salome is
perfectly happy to export a mesh containing groups of edges, the converter for making this mesh usable for
OpenFOAM is happy to import groups of edges. This is discussed in Section 26.2.2.

23.1.2 salomeToOpenFOAM
A third-party Python script62 can be used to export a mesh containing pyramid cells to OpenFOAM. This
script directly writes the essential files63 . In order to export a mesh, simply select it in the Object Browser of
Salome and then execute the salomeToOpenFOAM.py Python script. This can be done by using File Load Script
menu.

23.1.3 Pitfall: Check your patches/patch types

In Salome we are able to define patches by creating face groups. These face groups are translated to patches,
when exporting the mesh. However, Salome has no way to distinguish between general patches and wall patches.
Thus, you may want to check constant/polyMesh/boundary for the patch types.
With Salome’s native export to UNV function, all patches are equal. After importing with OpenFOAM’s
native ideasUnvToFoam converter all patches are of the type patch. You need to take care yourself, to assign
the type wall to wall patches64 . This can be done manually or with the tool changeDictionary. See Section
30.1 for more information on changeDictionary and an example of how to change the patch type.
62 https://github.com/nicolasedh/salomeToOpenFOAM
63 The files boundary, faces, neighbour, owner and points in constant/polyMesh.
64 If this has not been done, the wall functions of turbulent simulations will complain about patch/data types.

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 The third party conversion script salomeToOpenFOAM.py makes all patches wall patches, when their names
contain the word wall.

1 if " wall " in gname . lower () :

2 fileBoundary . write ( " wall ;\ n " )
3 else :
4 fileBoundary . write ( " patch ;\ n " )

Listing 153: Determining the patch type in salomeToOpenFOAM.py.

23.1.4 Export all mesh groups from Salome Python-script

The standard export features of Salome might sometimes fail to fit our needs. However, since Salome is powered
in the background by Python, this allows us full access to a very powerful toop: Python scripting.
In Listing 154, we see an example of these opportunities, a script to export all mesh groups of a mesh into
their own UNV files. This can be quite handy when we create the geometry for a multi-region case with Salome.

1 # Export all mesh groups of a mesh into individual files

2 # Exporting a mesh including all mesh groups is nice , however ,
3 # exporting them individually into their own files is quite labourious .
4 #
5 # It is supposed that a mesh exists , along with mesh groups containing
6 # mesh elements is selected in the activated Mesh module
7 #
8 # Usage :
9 # Create a mesh in SMESH module
10 # Create mesh groups
11 # Select the mesh and run this script , e . g . File -> Load Script
12 # Copy and rename the exported files from / tmp / to where you need it
13 #
14 # Written by Gerhard Holzinger
15 # March 31. 2020
16 #
17 # Known to work :
18 # Salome 9.4 & OpenFOAM -7
19
20
21 import salome , SMESH
22 from salome . gui import helper
23
24 segMeshSO = helper . g e t S O b j e c t S e l e c t e d () [0]
25 if not segMeshSO :
26 raise RuntimeError ( " Select a mesh ! " )
27
28 segMesh = segMeshSO . GetObject ()
29 if not segMesh :
30 meshComp = salome . myStudy . Fi n d O b j e c t B y P a t h ( " / Mesh " ) . GetObject ()
31 if not meshComp :
32 raise RuntimeError ( " Activate Mesh module ! " )
33 else :
34 raise RuntimeError ( " Select a mesh ! " )
35
36 if not hasattr ( segMesh , " GetGroups " ) :
37 raise RuntimeError ( " Select a mesh ! " )
38
39 mesh = segMesh . GetMesh ()
40 meshName = segMeshSO . GetName ()
41
42 # loop over all mesh groups
43 for group in segMesh . GetGroups () :
44 curGroupName = group . GetName ()
45
46 outGroupName = meshName + ’_ ’+ curGroupName
47
48 fileName = ’/ tmp / ’+ outGroupName + ’. unv ’
49
50 mesh . Ex po rt P ar tT oU N V ( group , fileName )
51 # end for

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Listing 154: exportMeshGroupsUNV.py: a powerful Python script to export all mesh groups into their separate
UNV files.

23.2 Combined operations: blockMesh & salome

23.2.1 Motivation
Figure 52 shows a simulation domain with a comparatively small geometric feature. If we were to create a
blockMesh-mesh for this geometry we end up with plenty of rather useless fine cells next to that fine feature,
as can seen in Figure 53. Note that in Figure 53 we even can not make out individual cells, or even the cut-out
slot in the center.

Figure 52: A big simulation domain with a quite small geometric feature: the geometry.

Figure 53: A big simulation domain with a quite small geometric feature: the blockMesh-only mesh.

23.2.2 Workflow
An alternative to an outcome as shown in Figure 53, we could choose to create a bigger central block which
encompasses the cut-out slot, instead of representing the cut-out. This cut-out block will remain a part of the
mesh, and then we will split the mesh into the cut-out block and the remaining mesh.

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 Then, we create a geometry representation of the cut-out block with the cut-out slot in Salome. When, we
mesh the cut-out block, we follow this workflow.

1. Create groups on the geometry: the sides, the front face and the inner edges
2. Import the surface mesh from the meshed cut-out block, as shown in Figure 54
3. Mesh the geometry with the following sub-meshes, preferably in this order

(a) The sides with the “Import 1D-2D Elements from Another Mesh” algorithm
(b) The inner edges with a suitable 1D algorithm
(c) The front face with a suitable 2D algorithm
(d) The geometry with the “Extrusion 3D” algorithm
Figure 55 shows the mesh, which we created in Salome.

Figure 54: The mesh of the cut-out block in salome.

Figure 55: Meshing of a block in salome.

Finally, we need to export our mesh from Salome into OpenFOAM, and combine it with the mesh of the
remaining domain. Figure 56 shows the result of our procedure. Thus, we are able to create a relatively fine
mesh around the fine geometric feature, without the mesh fine-ness spreading out along the principal directions
as in the example shown in Figure 53.

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 Figure 56: Combining blockMesh and salome: the meshed block was re-combined with the initial mesh.

23.3 Meshing tips for Salome

23.3.1 Bottom-up mesh creation
Salome is quite well suited for creating meshes in a bottom-up procedure. However, proper care needs to
be taken with respect to the order in which sub-meshes are created. Proper mesh creation in a bottom-up
approach entails a two-stage work-flow: first, define all necessary and useful groups and sub-shapes in the
Geometry module, and subsequently create the appropriate sub-meshes and meshes in the Mesh module.
On complex geometries, this two-stage work-flow might be followed several times in a sort of loop, especially
if a particular geometry is quite complex or if one is rather new to the process. If you find your geometry lacking
certain groups or shapes to enable a more convenient mesh creation, going back to the geometry module and
creating the missing features is time well spent in most of the cases.

Pitfall: order of mesh creation

Even though Salome tries to create sub-meshes in the appropriate order, sometimes it might be necessary to
manually create all the sub-meshes in the intended order. Especially in situation when we import a surface
mesh from another mesh and subsequently create a volume mesh. This is especially the case, when we use a
wide variety of meshing algorithms, e.g., importing surface meshes, meshing using Netgen in complex regions
and meshing using extrusion in more simple regions.
Figure 57 shows an example of a rather complex geometry for which we use a mixed meshing work-flow. The
two coils are meshed by using an extrusion technique, which is quite simple. The fluid domain, on the other
hand, is meshed using a mix of free tet-generation and extrusion combined with the importing of the surface
mesh from the two coils. This is an example for which Salome’s automatic sequence of sub-mesh generation
does not work for the author65 .

65 As a rule of thumb, this may as well be simply a case of user error. The author is in no way sufficiently expert enough to claim

that this is the fault of Salome.

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Figure 57: A complex geometry warranting a complex meshing work-flow. Two pipe coils respresent a heat-
exchanger in a box-shaped vessel.

23.3.2 Extrusion3D with guidance

Mesh extrusion is a powerful tool for mesh generation, which is not only beneficial for pipes or other prismatic
bodies, it also allows us to create all-hex or hex-dominant meshes using Salome. Figure 58 shows the geometry
of a pipe which has been created by extruding a face.
We want to create a mesh for this geometry as well as the interior of the pipe, which is not shown in the
picture. Our method of choice for mesh-creation is extrusion as well. We begin with the body for the pipe’s
interior. First, we create a mesh for the cross-sectional face and a discretisation of the pipe’s axis. Extrusion3D
yields a perfectly serviceable mesh.
Next, we want to create a mesh for the pipe’s walls, i.e., the geometry shown in Figure 58. In order to
achieve matching meshes, we first import the surface-mesh of the pipe’s interior and use it as the sub-mesh for
the interior-surface of our geometry. Then, we create a mesh for the cross-sectional area. Finally, we create a
volume-mesh by running Extrusion3D with no further parameters or settings other than the two sub-meshes,
i.e.; interior surface and cross-section. The resulting mesh is shown in Figure 59 on the left. This resulting
mesh poses some problems.

Figure 58: The geometry of a pipe, both ends of a single coil are visible. The geometry was created by extruding
a face along a path.

While we may think that everthing has been settled for Extrusion3D by providing a mesh for the cross-

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section and a mesh for the pipe’s interior surface, the meshing algorithm disagrees. While we may have fixed
the axial discretisation on the interior surface, the exterior surface is without constraints. Hence, the meshing
algorithm chose a different discretation.
While this only leads to slight visual displeasure in the example shown on the left of Figure 59, this may as
well lead to serious errors .

Figure 59: Left: insufficiently guided extrusion. Right: extrusion with proper guidance.

Figure 60 shows an example of a serious meshing error due to insufficient guidance. The strongly misaligned
axial discretisation leads to some cells having a negative volume, i.e., the cells are distorted to such a degree
that they are turned at least partially inside-out.

Figure 60: Extrusion gone bad: the inner and outer surface of the pipe, shown in grey and red. Cells with
negative volume are shown in green. Note the vertices on the inner and the outer surfaces.

We can avoid these meshing problems when using Extrusion3D, if the specify the axial discretisation also
on the outside of the pipe. Hence, by enforcing the use of the same discretisation on the outside as well as on
the inside of the pipe, we create an error-free and visually pleasing mesh as shown in Figure 59 on the right.
Note, that in order to use the same axial discretisation on the outside of the pipe, the axial discretisation
should be specified in terms of Number of Segments rather than Local Length. Since the length of an axial
edge along the pipe’s outside is larger than the length of an axial edge on the inside, using Local Length for
discretisation might lead to different numbers of element in axial direction for the inside and the outside, which
causes Extrusion3D to fail.

23.3.3 Scripted mesh creation

Bottom-up meshing approaches can involve many steps and may even necessitate a specific order in which these
steps need to be processed. While such an approach may be cumbersome to set up, playing around with mesh

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 parameters might be even more cumbersome.
However, since Salome can be controlled using Python scripts, once a work-flow has been worked out, it is
advantageous to translate this workflow into a Python script. With such a script, we can then adjust individual
parameters, execute the script to create the entire mesh and then check the results.
In Listing 155 contains a snippet of the mesh creation script for the geometry shown in Figure 57. The mesh
of the fluid domain depends on several other meshes. First, the surface meshes of the coils are imported, hence
innerCoilSurface and outerCoilSurface being the first sub-meshes to be created.
One of the next sub-meshes (bottomInOutCorner) imports a surface mesh from another mesh (MeshBot-
tomInOutCorner). Thus, the mesh MeshBottomInOutCorner is created before everything else.
Another sub-mesh (bottomFrontCorner) depends in a similar manner from another mesh (MeshBottomFront-
Corner), which in turn depends on the mesh of the main fluid domain. Hence, the processing chain of events
is split, and the mesh Mesh_bottomFrontCorner is created at the appropriate place in the succession of the
sub-meshes of the main fluid domain, i.e., right between the sub-meshes frontMiddle and bottomFrontCorner.
While the discussion of the script in Listing 155 seems quite academic without the proper reference to the
underlying geometry and mesh definitions, we can nevertheless observe how a bottom-up meshing approach
with specific inter-dependencies can be translated into a script.
Since scripting saves us from the effort of clicking (a lot), time invested in setting up such scripts is generally
well spent.

1 import salome
2 import SMESH
3 from salome . smesh import smeshBuilder
4
5 m y S u b S h a p e S e q u e n c e 1 = list ()
6 m y S u b S h a p e S e q u e n c e 1 . append ( ’ i n n e r C o i l Su r f a c e ’)
7 m y S u b S h a p e S e q u e n c e 1 . append ( ’ o u t e r C o i l Su r f a c e ’)
8 m y S u b S h a p e S e q u e n c e 1 . append ( ’ b o t t o m I n O u t C o r n e r ’)
9 m y S u b S h a p e S e q u e n c e 1 . append ( ’ inOutCorner ’)
10 m y S u b S h a p e S e q u e n c e 1 . append ( ’ frontMiddle ’)
11
12 m y S u b S h a p e S e q u e n c e 2 = list ()
13 m y S u b S h a p e S e q u e n c e 2 . append ( ’ b o t t o m F r o n t C o r n e r ’)
14 m y S u b S h a p e S e q u e n c e 2 . append ( ’ frontCorner ’)
15
16 myMesh_ref = salome . myStudy . F i n d O b je c t B y P a t h ( " / Mesh / FluidDomain " ) . GetObject ()
17 smesh = smeshBuilder . New ()
18 myMesh = smesh . Mesh ( myMesh_ref ) myMesh . Clear ()
19 subMeshes = myMesh_ref . GetSubMeshes ()
20
21 c o r n e r 0 1 M e s h_ r e f = salome . myStudy . F i n dO b j e c t B y P a t h ( " / Mesh / M e s h B o t t o m I n O u t C o r n e r " ) . GetObject ()
22 corner01Mesh = smesh . Mesh ( c o r n e r 0 1 Me s h _ r e f )
23 corner01Mesh . Clear () corner01Mesh . Compute ()
24
25 for shapeName in m y S u b S h a p e S e q u e n c e 1 :
26 for curSubMesh in subMeshes :
27 if curSubMesh . GetSubShape () . GetName () == shapeName :
28 print ( ’ Processing ’ + curSubMesh . GetSubShape () . GetName () )
29 curSubShape = curSubMesh . GetSubShape ()
30 mySubMesh = myMesh_ref . GetSubMesh ( curSubShape , curSubShape . GetName () )
31 mySubMesh . Compute ()
32
33 break
34
35 c o r n e r 0 2 M e s h _r e f = salome . myStudy . F i n d Ob j e c t B y P a t h ( " / Mesh / M e s h B o t t o m F r o n t C o r n e r " ) . GetObject ()
36 corner02Mesh = smesh . Mesh ( c o r n e r 0 2 Me s h _ r e f )
37 corner02Mesh . Clear ()
38 corner02Mesh . Compute ()
39
40 for shapeName in m y S u b S h a p e S e q u e n c e 2 :
41 for curSubMesh in subMeshes :
42 if curSubMesh . GetSubShape () . GetName () == shapeName :
43 print ( ’ Processing ’ + curSubMesh . GetSubShape () . GetName () )
44 curSubShape = curSubMesh . GetSubShape ()
45 mySubMesh = myMesh_ref . GetSubMesh ( curSubShape , curSubShape . GetName () )
46 mySubMesh . Compute ()
47
48 break

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 Listing 155: Creating a bottom-up approach mesh using a Python script.

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24 Gmsh
Gmsh66 is a 3D finite element meshing software. Gmsh is operated via its GUI or via ASCII input files in
Gmsh’s own scripting language. Gmsh is able to create all cell shapes from tets to hexes. The meshes generated
by GMSH can be converted to OpenFOAM’s format using the gmshToFoam utility.

Figure 61: An extruded 2D mesh of quad elements created with Gmsh.

66 http://gmsh.info/

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25 enGrid
enGrid67 is an open source mesh generation software with CFD applications in mind. It uses the netgen68
meshing library. enGrid primarily creates tet meshes, however, it also allows for the creation of prismatic
boundary layers and the conversion of tets to polyhedras. enGrid natively exports its meshes to OpenFOAM.
enGrid is operated via its GUI.

Figure 62: Meshes by enGrid: left: tet-mesh with prismatic boundary layer, right: polyhedral mesh with
boundary layer.

67 https://github.com/enGits/engrid/wiki
68 https://sourceforge.net/projects/netgen-mesher/

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26 Mesh converters
To use meshes created by programs other than blockMesh there is a number of converters. The User Guide [52]
lists the following converters:
• fluentMeshToFoam

• starToFoam
• gambitToFoam
• ideasToFoam

• cfx4ToFoam
The names of the converters are pretty self explanatory.

General recommendations
Always write in ASCII format
Any data exchange between your current installation of OpenFOAM and any other software is best handled in
ASCII format.

26.1 fluentMeshToFoam and fluent3DMeshToFoam

fluentMeshToFoam converts meshes stored in the *.msh file format into the format of OpenFOAM. To be
more specific, fluentMeshToFoam converts only 2D meshes, whereas 3D meshes can be converted using flu-
ent3DMeshToFoam.
The converter expects the path to the *.msh file as an argument. The converter saves the mesh in the format
of OpenFOAM in the constant/polymesh directory.
If converter is invoked from a directory other than the case directory, then the path to the case directory
has to be specified via an additional argument. See Section 12.6.
If the mesh was created using an other dimension than in metres, the command line parameter -scale can
be used to correct the scaling. OpenFOAM expects the mesh data to be expressed in metres.
All other possible option can be displayed with this command line parameter fluentMeshToFoam -help.

26.2 ideasUnvToFoam
ideasUnvToFoam is a converter which is commonly used to convert meshes in the UNV format to OpenFOAM’s
format, Salome is a well-known meshing software, which exports meshes in the UNV format, see Section 23.

26.2.1 Mesh regions

At some time between the releases of OpenFOAM-6 and OpenFOAM-969 , the ideasUnvToFoam converter got
extended with the -region command line option. This is especially useful when creating a multi-region case
from external geometries/meshes, e.g., when we use Salome for geometry and mesh creation.

26.2.2 Pitfall: Groups of Edges

If we export a mesh from Salome in the UNV format containing groups of edges, then we might not be able to
convert the mesh into OpenFOAM’s format using ideasUnvToFoam.
Listing 156 shows the relevant lines of error message, which are somewhat enigmatic. Only with the knowl-
edge that LineThick and LineCircumference are edges of the geometry do we have a chance to figure out what
is going wrong. The output shown in the Lines 3 and 4 indicates that the groups of edges written out by Salome
are treated as patches by the converter. As an edge is no face, trouble looms.

69 The author couldn’t be bothered to narrow this down more specifically.

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1 Processing tag :2467
2 Starting reading patches at line 1382.
3 For group 1 named LineThick trying to read 4 patch face indices .
4 For group 2 named L i n e C i r c u m f e r e n c e trying to read 21 patch face indices .
5 For group 3 named faceThick trying to read 84 patch face indices .
6
7 Sorting boundary faces according to group ( patch )
8 0: LineThick is faceZone
9
10 --> FOAM FATAL ERROR : 1 not found in table . Valid entries :
11 218
12 (
13 105
14 106
15 ... further output omitted

Listing 156: A not so telling error message encountered with ideasUnvToFoam.

Hence, check-for and delete all groups of edges prior to exporting the mesh. Figure 63 shows the relevant
entry in the object browser of Salome.

Figure 63: The entry for groups of edges in the object browser of Salome.

26.2.3 Pitfall: faulty patch definition

A faulty patch definition within Salome can lead to an error when converting the exported mesh from the
UNV-format into OpenFOAM’s native mesh format using the ideasUnvToFoam mesh converter.
Listing 157 shows the relevant lines of output. In this case, an annular face was extruded along a curved
path. Figure 64 shows a detail of the resulting mesh. Note, that the mesh in question is created by extruding
the mesh of the base surface, in this case the annular cross-section, along a path. With this bit of relevant
information, we now turn our attention to Lines 5 and 6 of Listing 157. Here we see that the number of reported
faces of the inner and the outer surface of the pipe is not equal. If both inner and outer surface were properly
defined, then this numbers should be equal.
This faulty patch definition causes ideasUnvToFoam to treat the inner-surface as a face-zone, as indicated
in Line 12 of Listing 157.
The output at Line 24 indicated that mesh conversion fails at the stage when processing face- and cell-zones.
Since there are no cell-zones in our mesh, it is the face-zone that causes the error. In the experience of the
author, cell-zones pose no problem in conversion.
In this example, the outer-surface contained also some faces which should have belonged to the inner-surface.
Since, the outer-surface was processed first, these faces were added to the outerSurface patch. Since the inner-
surface also contained these wrongly-assigned faces, the converter could not make the inner-surface a patch,
since this would have resulted in faces belonging to two patches. Hence, the converter treated the inner-surface

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as a face-zone. Consequently, the converter created a new patch for the remaining unassigned faces, as indicated
by Line 22 in Listing 157.

Processing tag :2467

Starting reading patches at line 568030.
For group 1 named inface trying to read 39 patch face indices .
For group 2 named outface trying to read 39 patch face indices .
For group 3 named outerSurface trying to read 31200 patch face indices .
For group 4 named innerSurface trying to read 30550 patch face indices .

Sorting boundary faces according to group ( patch )

0: inface is patch
1: outface is patch
2: outerSurface is patch
3: innerSurface is faceZone

Constructing mesh with non - default patches of size :

inface 39
outface 39
outerSurface 31200

--> FOAM Warning :

From function Foam :: polyMesh :: polyMesh ( const Foam :: IOobject & , Foam :: pointField && , const
cellShapeList & , const faceListList & , const wordList & , const wordList & , const Foam :: word & ,
const Foam :: word & , const wordList & , bool )
in file meshes / polyMesh / p o l y M e s h F r o m S h a p e M e s h . C at line 595
Found 29900 undefined faces in mesh ; adding to default patch .
Adding cell and face zones
Face Zone innerSurface 30550
idea sUnvToFo am : ideasUn vToFoam . C :1287: int main ( int , char **) : Assertion ‘ nouveau > -1 ’ failed .
Abgebrochen ( Speicherabzug geschrieben )

Listing 157: The relevant output of the mesh conversion error.

Figure 64: The extruded mesh of a heat-exchanger coil

After the error was fixed in Salome, conversion finished without error, as can be seen from Listing 158. Now
the number of faces for the inner- as well as the outer-surface is equal, and both surfaces at treated as patches
by the converter.

Processing tag :2467

Starting reading patches at line 568030.
For group 1 named inface trying to read 39 patch face indices .
For group 2 named outface trying to read 39 patch face indices .
For group 3 named outerSurface trying to read 30550 patch face indices .

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For group 6 named innerSurface trying to read 30550 patch face indices .

Sorting boundary faces according to group ( patch )

0: inface is patch
1: outface is patch
2: outerSurface is patch
3: innerSurface is patch

Constructing mesh with non - default patches of size :

inface 39
outface 39
outerSurface 30550
innerSurface 30550
End

Listing 158: The relevant output of the mesh conversion after the error has been fixed.

26.3 Pitfall: length units

Third party meshes may be based on millimetres instead of metres as expected by OpenFOAM. Point coordinates
will be interpreted by OpenFOAM as being expressed in metres, i.e. Pin file = (120, 240, lef t(120 0) mm will
be read by OpenFOAM as Pin mesh = (120, 240, 0) m. Thus, the imported mesh will be scaled by a factor of
1000.
Some mesh converters (e.g. fluent3DMeshToFoam) offer a -scale option to fix the length scales along with
mesh conversion. Other mesh converters (e.g. ideasUnvToFoam) do not offer such a scaling function. However,
there is a utility (transformPoints) which, among other tasks, can be used to correct the length scales of the mesh.

Always run run checkMesh, ideally with its options -allGeometry and
-allTopology, to, first, check the mesh quality, and secondly, to check the
mesh bounding box. The bounding box will be expressed in metres, as any
other length in OpenFOAM. This will give you a chance to spot a millimetre
vs. metre situation.
Listing 159 shows the relevant lines of checkMesh’s output. Unless, we calculate meteorological flows, a
simulation domain in kilometre scale seems a bit off.

Checking geometry ...

Overall domain bounding box ( -752.264 -325 -684.294) (752.264 1400 3754.35)

Listing 159: The bounding box of our mesh

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27 Other mesh manipulation tools
27.1 transformPoints
The tool transformPoints can be used to scale, translate or rotate the points a mesh. Section 29.3.4 contains a
case in which this tool can be useful.

27.1.1 Rotation
Rotating the geometry can be specified in two ways.

Using two vectors

Here, the rotation is defined by providing a vector before and after the rotation. From these two vectors, the
transformation matrix can be computed

Yaw, Pitch and Roll

There are actually two options: rollPitchYaw and yawPitchRoll. Here, the rotation is defined by specifying
three angles in degrees, which are subsequently applied to the x-axis, the y-axis and the z-axis.

27.2 topoSet
The tool topoSet creates point, face or cell sets from a geometric definition. There are a number of ways to
define the geometric region containing the intended points, faces or cells.

27.2.1 Usage
The dictionary topoSetDict is used to define the geometric region. Find some examples in the tutorials using
the following command.

find $ FO AM _T U TO RI AL S - name topoSetDict

Listing 160: Find examples for the use of topoSet

A face or cell set will contain only faces or cells whose centres lie within the specified geometric region.

27.2.2 Life hack: apply topoSet on decomposed cases

The tool topoSet can be applied to decomposed cases, by running the tool in parallel in the same fashion as we
would run a solver in parallel.

mpirun - np 4 topoSet - parallel

Listing 161: Run topoSet in parallel, i.e. apply topoSet on a decomposed case.

This will apply all definitions for the creation of sets and zones to the sub-domains of the decomposed case.
This can also be done with cases that are currently running, e.g. as a long-duration simulation is running,
we are preparing sets and zones for the subsequent post-processing. However, if we apply topoSet on a case,
which is at that time being simulated, we need to take extra care not to alter, remove or mess in any other way
with already existing sets or zones.
The sets and zones we created for the sub-domains of the decomposed case need to be reconstructed, so that
they are present when the case is finished, and the subsequent post-processing is done on the reconstructed case.
We can reconstruct sets and zones, which were created with the decomposed case, by calling reconstructPar
with the -constant command line argument.

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27.2.3 Pitfall: The definition of the geometric region
To demonstrate the function of topoSet a cell set was defined for the cavity tutorial-case. The mesh of the
cavity case is 1 × 1 × 0.1 m and the box defining the cell set was chosen to be 0.5 × 0.5 × 0.05 m. The dimensions
of this box are simply half the dimensions of the mesh. However, only cells whose cell centre is located in the
box are contained in the cell set. As the mesh is one cell in depth and 0.1 m in depth, all the cell centres are
exactly at z = 0.05 m. Due to inevitable numerical errors in calculating the cell centre70 , the numerical errors
decided whether a cell was included into the cell set or not.
To avoid this error, always make sure the geometric region contains all the intended cells.

Figure 65: A faulty cell set definition. The red cells are part of the cell set. All other cells are blue.

27.2.4 Pitfall: the face-normal of internal faces

For simulations with run-time post-processing, we might need sets of internal faces, e.g. for extracting the
pressure at certain cross-sectional planes. With topoSet we can create sets of internal faces by using the using
the boxToFace source to select all faces in a slice of geometry, and the normalToFace source to select all faces
with a face-normal parallel to the normal of the cross-sectional plane in question, and finally perform a boolean
operation to eliminate all faces not oriented parallel to the cross-sectional plane.
While this procedure requires a bit of trail-and-error to determine the proper size of the box to include only
a single layer of faces parallel to the cross-sectional plane, the procedure is generally appropriate for the task
in question. However, there is one flaw in the discussed procedure: the orientation of the face-normal vectors
of internal faces.
If we imagine a pipe with its principal axis parallel to the x axis, then the internal faces we need for our
cross-sectional plane have their face-normals oriented parallel to the x axis. However, the face-normals of the
internal faces may point into the positive x direction or into the negative x direction. Thus, our procedure from
above needs to be extended by a second use of the normalToFace source, this time with the opposite normal
vector.

27.2.5 Legacy pitfall: renumbered mesh

At the point of writing, using OpenFOAM-2.something, the utility renumberMesh does not consider cell sets71 .
If renumberMesh is called after cell sets were created by topoSet, the cell set is invalid. The reason for this is,
that the cell labels of the cell set remain unchanged as renumberMesh completely relabels the mesh. Thus, the
cell set still exists and the number of cells is unchanged, however, as other cells bear the labels of the original
members of the cell set, the cell set is invalid.
70 The
location of the cell centre is not stored in any file, thus this quantity has to be computed.
71 This
behaviour was reported in bug report 1377 (http://openfoam.org/mantisbt/view.php?id=1377), and has been fixed for
OpenFOAM-3.0 and later versions.

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 To resolve this problem, topoSet needs to be run after renumberMesh. This even works in parallel, when the
case has been decomposed.

27.3 setsToZones
The utility setsToZones serves the purpose to:

Add pointZones/faceZones/cellZones to the mesh from similar named pointSets/faceSets/cellSets

[52].
This utility is needed when we create some cellSets which we later want to use e.g. with a functionObject (the
cellSource functionObject acts on all cells or on a cellZone). cellSets can be created with topoSet. After we
ran topoSet we simply run setsToZones without any further parameters or providing a dictionary. setsToZones
creates cellZones which contain the same cells as the corresponding cellSets.

27.4 refineMesh
The tool refineMesh is used – just as the name suggests – to refine a mesh.

27.4.1 Usage
First a cell set has to be defined, this can be done using the tool topoSet.
With the dictionary refineMeshDict the rules for refining a particular cell set can be stated. When rules
have been defined in refineMeshDict , then the command line option -dict has to be used.

Figure 66: An example of a refined mesh. The refined region is marked in red.

27.4.2 Pitfall: no command line parameters

If the tool refineMesh is called without any command line parameters then the whole mesh is refined. For
refineMesh to obey the rules set in the refineMeshDict the command line option -dict has to used when
calling refineMesh. See this useful post in the CFD-Online Forum http://www.cfd-online.com/Forums/
openfoam-meshing-utilities/61518-blockmesh-cellset-refinemesh.html#post195725
Notice the different meaning of the -dict command line option of the tools topoSet and refineMesh. If you
are in doubt about this difference, check the summary of the command line usage printed by the -help option.

27.5 refineWallLayer
refineWallLayer is a tool to refine cells that are adjacent to a set of user-specified patches.

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27.5.1 Control
The list of patches is provided by the user via a command line argument. The next argument is the edge
fraction, which is to be applied in the refinement. Listing 162 shows an example of how this tool is called. The
list of patches and the edge fraction are mandatory arguments.

r ef in eW a ll La ye r - overwrite ( top bottom sideLeft ) 0.4

Listing 162: Invoking refineWallLayer for the cells adjacent to three patches.

Figures 67, 68 and 69 show the results of a successive application of this tool along with the base mesh. In
this case, the patch of the inner void is refined. Figures 68 and 69 show the treatment of sharp, concave edges.
Figure 70 shows the result of refineWallLayer when the cells belonging only one patch are refined.

Figure 67: The base mesh for the wall layer refinement.

Figure 68: Applying the wall layer refinement once.

Figure 69: Applying the wall layer refinement a second time.

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 Figure 70: Applying the wall layer refinement twice on the horizontal patch at a concave edge.

Figures 71 and 72 show how refineWallLayer treats convex edges. If the edge is formed by two distinct
patches, refineWallLayer can be applied to each patch individually, which leads to a different outcome, com-
pare Figures 71 and 73.

Figure 71: Applying the wall layer refinement twice on both patches of a convex edge.

Figure 72: Applying the wall layer refinement twice on one patch of a convex edge.

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Figure 73: Applying the wall layer refinement successively on two patches of a convex edge. This approach
leads to a different outcome than the one shown in Figure 71.

27.6 renumberMesh
27.6.1 General information
The tool renumberMesh modifies the arrangement of the cells of the mesh in order to create lower bandwidth for
the numerical solution. For further information about the role and the influence of the bandwidth in numerical
simulation see books on the numerical solution of large equation systems, e.g. [37].
Renumbering the mesh can reduce computation times as it re-arranges the data to benefit the numerical
solution of the resulting equation system. The benefit of renumbering the mesh strongly depends on several
factors. However, testing is recommended.
Renumbering the mesh even has an effect at the simplest possible simulation case – the cavity case of the
tutorials. This mesh consists of a single block and it is quasi 2D (i.e. it is only 1 block in depth). The mesh
resolution was chosen to 40 × 40 × 1, resulting in 1600 cells. icoFoam was run for 10 s. Execution time was
reduced by renumberMesh from 6.18 s to 6.08 s.
A simulation with a mesh consisting of 120000 cells defined by 9 blocks was run for 5 s of simulated time
with twoPhaseEulerFoam. Execution time was reduced by renumberMesh from 9383.81 s to 9273.13 s.
Even though the reduction of execution time is small in this examples, this reduction comes at no cost.
Running renumberMesh takes little time and at run-time of the simulation no additional work has to be done.

Run renumberMesh before any other tools which generate sets or zones. Why
the order of execution of certain tools is significant is explained in Section ??
on a case which went slightly wrong.

27.6.2 Background
The discretized finite volume problem results in a linear equation system, which is usually expressed in matrix-
form.

Ax = b (31)

The vector x contains the field values at the cell centers. The matrix A contains non-zero elements for each
pair of neighbouring cells. This is a consequence of our assumption that only adjacent cells interact. If we
used some sort of higher order discretisation or interpolation, we might get into a situation where also second
neighbours interact. However, for sake of ease, we limit ourselves in this discussion to direct neighbours.
Regardless of our computational mesh being one-, two- or three dimensional, we label all cells with positive
ascending integers. Thus, we can store the values of a scalar field into a vector. The number of elements of this
vector (N ) is equal to the number of cells in our domain. Consequently, the matrix A is of the size N × N .
However, as only adjacent cells interact, most of the elements of A will be zero-entries.

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 If the cells with the labels i and j are adjacent, then the elements aij and aji of A will be non-zero. Since
we focus on the general structure of A we do not care whether aij equals aji , or if both of them are actually
non-zero72 .
The arrangement of the cells – or, to be more precise, the labelling – has a strong impact on the structure
of the matrix A, i.e. the distribution of the non-zero elements.

A simple example
Here we examine the effect of cell labelling with a very simple example. Figure 74 shows a simple mesh with 8
cells. Two different cell labelling schemes are indicated by the numbers inside the cells.
In Figure 75 we see the connections between the cells depicted as a graph. A N × N matrix can be from
the interaction perspective seen as a graph with N nodes. An edge between the nodes i and j represents the
non-zero elements aij and aji .

0 1 2 3 0 2 4 6

4 5 6 7 1 3 5 7

Figure 74: A simple mesh with 8 cells and different cell labelling schemes.

0 1 2 3 0 2 4 6

4 5 6 7 1 3 5 7

Figure 75: The connectivity graph of our mesh.

Figure 76 shows the corresponding matrix structure. The labelling scheme on the right hand side of Figures
74 and 75 results in a matrix with a lower bandwidth.

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
0 ∗ ∗ 0 0 ∗ ∗ 0 0 0 ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ 0 0 0 0
1 ∗ ∗ ∗ 0 ∗ ∗ ∗ 0 1 ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ 0 0 0 0
2 0 ∗ ∗ ∗ 0 ∗ ∗ ∗ 2 ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ 0 0
3 0 0 ∗ ∗ 0 0 ∗ ∗ 3 ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ 0 0
4 ∗ ∗ 0 0 ∗ ∗ 0 0 4 0 0 ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗
5 ∗ ∗ ∗ 0 ∗ ∗ ∗ 0 5 0 0 ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗
6 0 ∗ ∗ ∗ 0 ∗ ∗ ∗ 6 0 0 0 0 ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗
7 0 0 ∗ ∗ 0 0 ∗ ∗ 7 0 0 0 0 ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗

Figure 76: The matrix structure. A * denotes a non-zero element. Notice the lower bandwidth of the matrix on
the right hand side. The number of zero-entries is equal, however, the different distribution leads to a different
numerical behaviour.
72 The upwind differencing scheme causes the downstream cell to depend on the upstream cell. However, the upstream cell is not

directly influenced by the downstream cell.

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27.6.3 Pitfall: sets and zones will break my bones
The use of renumberMesh carries a certain risk. In simulation cases which make use of tools like topoSet and
renumberMesh, the order in which those tools are invoked is of importance. Update: This has been resolved
at some point. In OpenFOAM-4.0 this is no issue any more.
The reason behind this, is the way OpenFOAM stores its mesh information. The only actual geometric
information is stored in the list of points in the file constant/polyMesh/points. The faces are defined via the
point labels of the points defining the mesh. Thus, if the points Pk , Pm , Pu and Pw define a face, then the entry
in constant/polyMesh/faces for this very face reads (k m u w). The same principle applys for the definition
of cells. There, the labels of the faces defining the cell are stored. This way, no redundant information is stored.
If we define a cellSet with topoSet e.g. all cells within a certain geometrical region we simply store the cell
labels of all cells for which the condition is fulfilled. Thus, if we now run renumberMesh, we shuffle the cells
within the mesh. No actual change is applied in the mesh, however, the cell with the label A which was at the
location (xA , yA , zA ) before renumbering, may or most certainly will be at location (xB , yB , zB ) with B 6= A
after renumbering.
Figure 77 shows the simulation domain of an aerated stirred tank. The red cells are part of a cellZone
on which source terms using the fvOptions mechanism act73 . A run of renumberMesh after the cellZone was
created caused the cellZone to get scrambled. However, the simulation worked nontheless and yielded some
unexpected results.

Figure 77: Left: The cut-away of the walls of a stirred tank with the rotor (blue) and the aeration device
(red). The aeration device is a cellZone on which source terms are applied via the fvOptions mechanism in
OpenFOAM-2.3.x.
Right: The stirred tank was simulated using parallel processes. After decomposing the domain, a parallel
renumbering of the mesh was conducted. Renumbering the subdomains scrambled the cellZone within their re-
spective subdomains. The transparent iso-volume shows the gas-phase volume fraction 0.25 s into the simulation.
The cells of the cellZone act as source for the gas-phase, although not on their original location.

27.6.4 Life-hack: converting mesh (and fields) from binary to ASCII

You may run into a situation, my dear reader, when you might need to convert the mesh data of your OpenFOAM
case from the binary format into the ASCII format, or vice-versa. What we need in this situation is a tool,
which reads and writes the mesh, and renumberMesh is just the tool we need74 . In this case, we simple use to
tool for its I/O, and not for its actual use, i.e. re-ordering the mesh to improve numerical solutions.
73 Have a look on the injection tutorial of twoPhaseEulerFoam-2.3.x.
74 We could think of using the tool transformPoints with a scaling factor of 1.0, yet this only affects the file points, but not
faces, neighbour and owner.

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Foundation, the producer of the OpenFOAM® software and owner of the OpenFOAM® trademark.
 One such occasion of the former need, i.e. convert a mesh from binary to ascii, is when you want to use
tools of several OpenFOAM-variants, e.g. the checkMesh utility tool of foam-extend-4.0 can not read a mesh
in binary format, which was created by a mesh conversion tool (such as fluentMeshToFoam) of OpenFOAM-6.
For some reason, the binary formats of foam-extend and OpenFOAM (foundation release) are not compatible75 .
However, foam-extend is perfectly happy with meshes written by OpenFOAM in ASCII format. This, rather
lengthy prelude, leads us a use-case of the tool renumberMesh, which might be considered harmless abuse: use
the tool to change the format the mesh is stored on disk.
The procedure is rather simple:

1. Create a new case directory, in which the conversion should take place
2. Copy the relevant folders, i.e. constant and system, into this new case directory. Also copy time step
folders, if necessary.
3. Change the writeFormat setting in system/controlDict from binary to ascii.

4. Run renumberMesh -overwrite

Now, all the mesh-files, such as points or faces, are stored on disk in ASCII format.

A note on converting fields

As renumberMesh is not a classical pre- or post-processing tool for the case’s solution data, there is no option
to renumber all fields present in a case. Hence, only one time step is subject to renumbering. This is generally
the lowest time step.

Figure 78: Renumbering the solution of the cavity case: the case was run, and all time steps prior to 0.3 were
deleted. Then renumberMesh -overwrite was run. As 0.3 was the first time step, the fields in the time step
0.3 were renumbered along with the mesh. The later time steps, however, were left untouched.

Thus, if you want to convert a case with mesh and fields from binary to ASCII format, simply create a copy
of the case with one time step only, and perform the renumbering. The tool renumberMesh only allows the user
to specify one specific time, yet not a range of times. Thus, we consider it not possible to convert a case with
multiple time steps from binary to ASCII, or the other around.

27.7 subsetMesh
subsetMesh is a tool to remove certain cells from a mesh. The tool expects the name of a cellSet as a command
line argument. The cells of this cellSet will remain in the resulting mesh, all other cells are removed.
75 This incompatibility, however, is a uni-directional one. A binary mesh written by foam-extend-4, can be read and used by

OpenFOAM-6.

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Pitfall: sets and zones will break my bones
At the time of writing (OpenFOAM-4.0), subsetMesh does not treat cellSets or cellZones. Thus, when we use
subsetMesh to remove large parts of the mesh, then the cellSet may contain cells that are no longer part of the
mesh. This error will be felt when the cell indices associated with the cellSet or cellZone are larger than the
total number of cells in the mesh. Otherwise, if the cell indices are smaller than the total number of cells, the
cellSet might still be valid from OpenFOAM’s point of view, but it may contain different cells.

27.8 createPatch
27.8.1 Remove empty patches, i.e., patches without any faces
Apart from creating new patches from existing ones or changing the type of a patch, we can use createPatch
to clean up our mesh. Listing 163 shows an empty createPatchDict file, which is the bare minimum to be
able to run createPatch without error.
Hence, if we run createPatch with such an empty createPatchDict file, createPatch does nothing except
remove patches with zero faces.

/* - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -* - C ++ -* - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -*\
| ========= | |
| \\ / F ield | OpenFOAM : The Open Source CFD Toolbox |
| \\ / O peration | Version : 8 |
| \\ / A nd | Web : www . OpenFOAM . org |
| \\/ M anipulation | |
\* - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - */
FoamFile
{
version 2.0;
format ascii ;
class dictionary ;
object cr ea t eP at ch D ic t ;
}
// * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * //

pointSync false ;

// Patches to create .
patches
(
);

// * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * //

Listing 163: An empty createPatchDict

Listing 164 shows the patch list reported by checkMesh after an axi-symmetric mesh has been extruded
from a patch. Note the presence of an empty patch, i.e., a patch with zero faces.

Checking patch topology for multiply connected surfaces ...

Patch Faces Points Surface topology
inlet 30 61 ok ( non - closed singly connected )
outlet 30 61 ok ( non - closed singly connected )
walls 270 542 ok ( non - closed singly connected )
axis 0 0 ok ( empty )
front 8100 8401 ok ( non - closed singly connected )
back 8100 8401 ok ( non - closed singly connected )

Listing 164: The patches listed by checkMesh of an axi-symmetric mesh after extrusion from a patch.

3
Running createPatch -overwrite with an empty createPatchDict, as shown in Listing 163, removes the
patch with zero faces from the mesh. If we do not remove this patch, OpenFOAM would require us to specify
boundary conditions for it.

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Foundation, the producer of the OpenFOAM® software and owner of the OpenFOAM® trademark.
Checking patch topology for multiply connected surfaces ...
Patch Faces Points Surface topology
inlet 30 61 ok ( non - closed singly connected )
outlet 30 61 ok ( non - closed singly connected )
walls 270 542 ok ( non - closed singly connected )
front 8100 8401 ok ( non - closed singly connected )
back 8100 8401 ok ( non - closed singly connected )

Listing 165: The patches listed by checkMesh of an axi-symmetric mesh after running createPatch -overwrite
with an empty createPatchDict.

27.9 stitchMesh
27.10 tetDecomposition
The mesh manipulation tool tetDecomposition is part of the OpenFOAM variant foam-extend76 , and there is
no comparable tool within the foundation release of OpenFOAM at the time of writing.
This tool takes an OpenFOAM mesh, computes the tet-decomposition and writes the resulting mesh to disk.
Figures 79 and 80 illustrate how this tool works. The faces of the initial cell is decomposed into triangles. With
such a triangle and the centroid of the cell, a sub-tetrahedron can be created.
Depending on the original mesh, the number of cells of the resulting mesh can rise dramatically. The single
tetrahedron of Figure 79 is decomposed into 12 sub-tetrahedra. The initial hexahedron of Figure 80 is decom-
posed into 24 tetrahedra.

Figure 79: A tet-decomposed tetrahedron: the original tet-cell is outlined in blue, the face-decomposition is
outlined in black, and one of the resulting sub-tets is shown in grey.
76 http://www.foam-extend.org/

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Foundation, the producer of the OpenFOAM® software and owner of the OpenFOAM® trademark.
Figure 80: A tet-decomposed hexahedron: the original hex-cell is outlined in blue, the face-decomposition is
outlined in black, and one of the resulting sub-tets is shown in grey.

All roads lead to FOAM

With the big number of tools included with OpenFOAM and also the surrounding bits and pieces of software,
you should not be surprised to learn that there is also an alternative way to achive a tetrahedralisation of an
OpenFOAM mesh using completely different tools. See Section 51.4.1 for an alternative approach.

27.11 decomposePar
The tool decomposePar is used to divide the domain for a parallel simulation run into smaller sub-domains.

27.11.1 Visualize the decomposition

The tool decomposePar has the command-line option -cellDist, which causes decomposePar to write the cell
distribution as a field to disk. This cell distribution can then later be re-used with the manual decomposition
method, or be visualized using ParaView. For this purpose, decomposePar writes a volScalarField and a
labelList with the indices of the sub-domains.

Figure 81: The cell distribution of a multi-region case, with 2 regions and 4 sub-domains for parallel processing.
The small region outlined in white is the solid region, the surrounding larger region is the fluid region of this
case. Each sub-domain (colour-coded from 0 to 3) is assigned a chunk of each region.

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27.12 mirrorMesh
mirrorMesh is, similar to extrudeMesh, a mesh manipulation tool that is somewhere between mesh manipulation
and mesh creation. This tool is controlled by entries in the file system/mirrorMeshDict. The set of parameters
is quite limited, since we only need to provide a definition for the plane which is to act as the mirror, and a
tolerance.
Listing 166 shows an example of a mirrorMeshDict, which consists of a plane definition (here we have three
possible methods to choose from), and the tolerance.

planeType point AndNorma l ;

// Overall domain boundingBox : (0 0 0) (0.1 0.1 0.01)

pointAndNormalDict
{
basePoint (0.0 0.0 0.01) ;
normalVector (0 0 1) ;
}

// plane equation : ax + by + cz + d = 0
planeEquationDict
{
a 0;
b 0;
c 1;
d -0.01;
}

embeddedPointsDict
{
point1 (0 0 0.01) ;
point2 (1 0 0.01) ;
point3 (0 1 0.01) ;
}

plan eToleran ce 1e -5;

Listing 166: All the possible entries in the file mirrorMeshDict to mirror the initial mesh around an x − y plane
with a z-component of z = 0.01.

Potential pitfall: set and zones may break my bones

mirrorMesh does not apply the mirroring operation on the existing sets and zones of the mesh. This can be an
issue depending on whether an existing cellSet or cellZone needs to be mirrored as well. If this is not necessary,
users should remove all sets and/or zones prior to mirroring to avoid confusion.
In Figure 82, we see the result of the following sequence of operations: create the mesh using blockMesh,
extrude a patch to grow a number of cell-layers, and finally mirror the mesh. The extrusion operation created
the cellSet addedCells, which was not mirrored by mirrorMesh.

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 Figure 82: A cellSet after running mirrorMesh to mirror the mesh using the x − y plane.

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28 Surface mesh manipulation tools
OpenFOAM ships with a number of surface mesh manipulation tools. A probable use-case for this kind of tools
is doing some preprocessing on STLs prior to creating a mesh with snappyHexMesh or cfMesh.

28.1 surfaceAdd
This tool can be used to merge two STLs into one file. With the command line switch -mergeRegions regions
with an equal name get joined into one region. Otherwise the two regions would remain separate, regardless of
having the same name.

surfaceAdd - mergeRegions input1 . stl input2 . stl out . stl

Listing 167: Usage of surfaceAdd when joining two STL files.

28.2 surfaceSubset
With this tool a subset of an STL can be extracted. Via the surfaceSubsetDict various conditions can be
specified to define the subset. The user provides the STL to operate on (input.stl) and a file name for the
subset to be stored in (outSubset.stl). The faces of the subset get removed from the original STL.

surfaceSubset s u r f a c e S u b s e t D i c t input . stl outSubset . stl

Listing 168: Usage of surfaceSubset when extracting a certain subset from an STL.

28.3 surfaceFeatureExtract
This is a tool to extract features from an STL. E.g. snappyHexMesh pays extra attention to geometric features
which are explicitely provided, surfaceFeatureExtract is a tool to generate the necessary data. The tool is
controlled by the surfaceFeatureExtractDict. Surface feature extraction is controlled by a user-provided
feature angle, which is used to determine whether an edge between two surface elements constitutes a feature
edge, or not.
This tool writes the feature edges into an *.eMesh file located in the constant/triSurface folder.
In the file surfaceFeatureExtractDict we can enable the switch writeObj, which causes the tool to write
all sorts of extracted data into *.obj files located in the constant/extendedFeatureEdgeMesh folder. These
files can be viewed in ParaView to assess whether all surface features have been correctly and completely been
extracted.

28.4 surfaceFeatureConvert
This tool can be used to convert *.eMesh files to *.vtk files to view them in ParaView. This is important when
trying to find the proper settings, e.g. the feature angle for the file surfaceFeatureExtractDict.

28.5 surfaceTransformPoints
This tool is the surface mesh equivalent to the tool transformPoints, see 27.1, which can be used to scale,
translate and rotate surface meshes. Apart from the obvious transformation options, this tool expects two file
names: first, the input file; and second, the output file.

28.6 Third party surface manipulation tools

28.6.1 surfaceFeatureEdges
With this tool, provided by cfMesh (see Section 18), feature edges can be extracted from a surface mesh file,
e.g. an STL.

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s u r f a c e F e a t u r e E d g e s - angle 30 input . stl out . fts

Listing 169: Usage of surfaceFeatureEdges when extracting feature edges from an STL.

28.6.2 FMSToVTK
The tool FMSToVTK can be used to convert the *.fms files created by the tool surfaceFeatureEdges to the
VTK format. Thus, the user can review how well the feature edges have been identified by surfaceFeatureEdges.
This is important when trying to find the proper setting for the feature angle, which is passed with the -angle
parameter.
This tool, provided by cfMesh (see Section 18).

28.7 The Linux command line

When doing some pre-processing with ASCII STLs the linux command line offers some nice features. Listing
170 shows the basic syntax of an STL file in ASCII format. STLs can be stored on harddisk either in ASCII,
i.e. in plain text, or in binary format (non-human-readable). An STL file consists of solids, which are defined
by their bounding surface.

solid SOLIDNAME
facet normal X Y Z
outer loop
vertex X Y Z
vertex X Y Z
vertex X Y Z
endloop
endfacet
...
endsolid

Listing 170: The basic syntax of an STL in ASCII format. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STL_(file_
format) for more on this.

28.7.1 Renaming solids

Certain CAD tools do not offer the feature to name a part. E.g. OpenSCAD names the exported STL solid
OpenSCAD_Model. If our STL pre-processing based on an STL generated by OpenSCAD yields an STL file per
patch, a likely result when using surfaceSubset, we end up with a number of STLs, containing each one solid
named OpenSCAD_Model. Now, we need to assign proper names to the solids, i.e. the STL solid of the file
inlet.stl should be named inlet.
When the STL is in ASCII format, we can use sed77 to perform a simple text replacement. Since an STL
is very unlikely to contain the string OpenSCAD_Model, we simply can tell sed to replace every occurance of
OpenSCAD_Model with inlet.

sed -i s / OpenSCA D_Model / inlet / g inlet . stl

Listing 171: Renaming STL an solid with sed.

28.7.2 Joining STL files

If our pre-processing left us with a large number of STL files, e.g. an STL file for each patch, which is a likely
result when using surfaceSubset, we might need to join these STLs, e.g. because the meshing tool expects only
one STL to contain all the information. Joining text files is a task easily done from the command line with the
tool cat78 , however, this could also be done using surfaceAdd. Other than with surfaceAdd, joining STLs with
this approach is limited to STLs containing different solids.
77 https://www.gnu.org/software/sed/manual/sed.html
78 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_(Unix)

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Foundation, the producer of the OpenFOAM® software and owner of the OpenFOAM® trademark.
 Listing 172 shows how to join three STLs, each containing one solid, i.e. the information of one patch. The
first line is simply a copy operation. Alternatively, we might use cp or mv for the first operation. Note, that the
resulting STL gets written to a different folder, constant/triSurface is a folder in which some meshing tools
expect STLs. The second and third lines show how to append the output of cat to the specified file.
The difference between the first and the following lines is the redirection operator (> vs. >>), see e.g.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redirection_(computing). The > operator simply redirects the output
to the specified file, if this was used in the second line, then the contents from the first line would get overwritten
in myDomainMesh.stl. Using the >> operator redirects and appends the output to the specified file. Using the
> operator in the first line ensures to overwrite an eventual existing file.

cat walls . stl > constant / triSurface / myDomainMesh . stl

cat inlet . stl >> constant / triSurface / myDomainMesh . stl
cat outlet . stl >> constant / triSurface / myDomainMesh . stl

Listing 172: Joining STL files with cat.

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Foundation, the producer of the OpenFOAM® software and owner of the OpenFOAM® trademark.
29 Initialize Fields
29.1 Basics
There are two ways to define the initial value of a field quantity. The first is to set the field to a uniform value.
Listing 173 shows the 0/U file of the cavity tutorial. There the internal field is set to a uniform value.
If a non-uniform initialisation is desired, then a list of values for all cells is needed instead. Listing 180 shows
some lines of such a definition. Entering such a nonuniform list by hand would be very tiresome. To spare the
user of such a painful and exhausting task, there are some tools to provide help.

/* - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -* - C ++ -* - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -*\
| ========= | |
| \\ / F ield | OpenFOAM : The Open Source CFD Toolbox |
| \\ / O peration | Version : 2.1. x |
| \\ / A nd | Web : www . OpenFOAM . org |
| \\/ M anipulation | |
\* - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -*/
FoamFile
{
version 2.0;
format ascii ;
class vol VectorFi eld ;
object U;
}
// * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * //
dimensions [0 1 -1 0 0 0 0];

internalField uniform (0 0 0) ;

boundaryField
{
movingWall
{
type fixedValue ;
value uniform (1 0 0) ;
}

fixedWalls
{
type fixedValue ;
value uniform (0 0 0) ;
}

frontAndBack
{
type empty ;
}
}
// * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * //

Listing 173: The file 0/U of the cavity tutorial

29.2 setFields
setFields is a utility that allows to define geometrical regions within the domain and to assign field values
to those regions. setFields reads this definitions from a file in the system-directory – the setFieldsDict. To
initialize the field quantities setFields has to be executed after creating the mesh. setFields needs to read all
files defining the mesh79 .
In Listing 174 a box is defined in which the field alpha1 is set to a different value.

/* - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -* - C ++ -* - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -*\
| ========= | |
| \\ / F ield | OpenFOAM : The Open Source CFD Toolbox |
79 Only the file neighbour can be missing for setFields not to crash.

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Foundation, the producer of the OpenFOAM® software and owner of the OpenFOAM® trademark.
| \\ / O peration | Version : 2.1. x |
| \\ / A nd | Web : www . OpenFOAM . org |
| \\/ M anipulation | |
\* - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -*/
FoamFile
{
version 2.0;
format ascii ;
class dictionary ;
object setFieldsDict ;
}
// * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * //
defaultFieldValues
(
v o l S c a l a r F i e l d V a l u e alpha1 1
);

regions
(
boxToCell
{
box ( -0.3 -0.3 0) (0.3 0.3 0.26) ;

fieldValues
(
v o l S c a l a r F i e l d V a l u e alpha1 0
);
}
);
// * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * //

Listing 174: setFieldsDict

29.2.1 Defining regions

In Listing 174 we see the list named regions containing dictionaries defining regions in which to set field values.
The boxToCell dictionary very much resembles something we also can see in the topoSetDict dictionary. In
fact, setFields internally uses the machinery to create cell sets as topoSet does. A quick look into the main
source files of setFields and topoSet reveals, that both make use of the class topoSetSource, which describes
itself in the header file as: Base class of a source for a topoSet. All actual cell sources, such as boxToCell
or cylinderToCell, directly inherit from topoSetSource. Thus, all cell sources available to topoSet, are also
available to setFields. Such is the beauty of object-oriented programming.

29.2.2 Pitfalls
A nice, little collection of what may go wrong.

Geometric region is not part of the domain

If the geometric region, in which to initialise a field with a specified value, lies outside the domain, setFields
does not issue any warning or error message.

Geometric region covers the whole domain

This may happen if the geometric region is defined with respect to the vertex coordinates found in blockMeshDict.
When the vertex coordinates are entered in millimeters – and convertToMeters is set appropiately – then it may
happen, that the geometric region, based on the vertex coordinates in millimeters, is too large by the factor of
1000.
Listing 175 and 176 show the root of such a situation. The plan is to create a box and initialise it in a way,
that the domain is half filled with one phase. The definition of the box in the setFieldsDict relies solely on the
vertex coordinates ignoring the scaling factor convertToMeters resulting in a way too large box. After executing
setFields the domain is completely filled with one phase instead of half filled.

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c on ve rt T oM et er s 1e -3;

vertices
(
(0 0 0)
(50 0 0)
(50 0 250)
(0 0 250)
(0 50 0)
(50 50 0)
(50 50 250)
(0 50 250)
);

Listing 175: blockMeshDict entry for a box of 50 × 50 × 250 mm

regions
(
boxToCell
{
box (0.0 0.0 0.0) (50.0 50.0 125.0) ;

fieldValues
(
v o l S c a l a r F i e l d V a l u e alpha1 0
);
}
);

Listing 176: setFieldsDict entry for a box of 50 × 50 × 125 m

Field not found

If the setFieldsDict specifies a field which is not present, then OpenFOAM issues an error message similar to
Listing 177. In this case the file setFieldsDict was copied from a case which uses the old naming scheme of
twoPhaseEulerFoam, i.e. alpha instead of alpha1. See Section 45.2 for further information about the naming
scheme. Therefore, the dictionary contained a definition for the field alpha which was not present in the 0 -
directory.

Setting field default values

--> FOAM Warning :
From function void s e t C e l l F ie l d T y p e ( const fvMesh & mesh , const labelList & selectedCells ,
Istream & f i e l d V a l u e S t r e a m )
in file setFields . C at line 103
Field alpha not found

--> FOAM FATAL IO ERROR :

wrong token type - expected word , found on line 19 the label 1

file : / home / user / OpenFOAM / user -2.1. x / run / t w o P h a s e E u l e r F o a m / bubbleColumn / system / setFieldsDict ::
d e f a u l t F i e l d V a l u e s at line 19.

From function operator > >( Istream & , word &)

in file primitives / strings / word / wordIO . C at line 74.

FOAM exiting

Listing 177: Missing field

29.3 mapFields
mapFields is a utility to transfer field data from a source mesh to target mesh. This may be useful after the
mesh of case has been refined and existing solution data is to be used for initialising the case with the refined

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mesh. mapFields preserves the format of the data, if the source data was stored in binary format, the target
data will also be binary.
To use mapFields the file mapFieldsDict has to be existent in the system folder of the case80 . mapFields
expects as the only mandatory argument the path to the source case. The current directory is assumed to be
the case directory of the target case. If there is no specification regarding time, the latest time steps of both
cases are processes. That means the latest time step of the source case is mapped to the latest time step of the
target case.
Listing 178 shows the last lines of output of mapFields. With lines like interpolating alpha mapFields
indicates that it is processing some field data. Even when source and target meshes are equal and no interpo-
lation is needed, mapFields displays lines like interpolating alpha anyway.

Source time : 0.325

Target time : 0
Create meshes

Source mesh size : 81000 Target mesh size : 273375

Mapping fields for time 0.325

interpolating alpha
interpolating p
interpolating k
interpolating epsilon
interpolating Theta
interpolating Ub
interpolating Ua

End

Listing 178: Output of mapFields

29.3.1 Pitfall: Missing files

mapFields issues no warning or error message when the source case contains no data. Listing 179 shows the
output of mapFields as the target case contained no 0 -directory. Only the missing lines containing statements
like interpolating alpha indicate that something is amiss and no field data is processed.

Source time : 0.325

Target time : 0
Create meshes

Source mesh size : 81000 Target mesh size : 273375

Mapping fields for time 0.325

End

Listing 179: Output of mapFields; Missing target 0 -directory

29.3.2 Pitfall: Unsuitable files

In the files containing the field data the values of the boundary fields as well as the values of the internal fields
can be entered homogeneously (by the keyword uniform) or inhomogeneously (with the keyword nonuniform).
Inhomogeneous field values have to be entered as a list of values. This list is preceded by the number of entries
as well as the nature of the value. Listing 180 shows the beginning lines of the definition of a nonuniform vector
field. The general syntax for such a list is the following:

nonuniform List<TYPE> COUNT ( VALUES )

80 In the most basic case mapFieldsDict contains no other information than the header and empty definitions. Although this file

may seem of no use, it has to exist in the system folder, and it has to contain the header and the empty definitions.

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the list. A wrong value of COUNT leads to reading errors.
If data is to be mapped from a source case, the source case’s data will always be stored as a nonuniform list.
Otherwise, mapping the data would make no sense, as uniform fields are most easily defined. If the data of the
target case is uniform, then mapping makes no problems.
If the data of the target case is nonuniform – for whatever reason – then it is necessary that the nonuniform
lists have the same length. Otherwise, mapFields will exit with an error message like in Listing 181. The target
case should always be set up with uniform fields to avoid such errors. This is most easily done by removing the
definition of the internal field. In the tutorials sometimes files with an .org file extension can be found. This
is a way to preserve the uniform field data in the 0 -directory without causing any trouble.

dimensions [0 1 -1 0 0 0 0];

internalField nonuniform List < vector >

1600
(
(0.000174291 -0.000171512 0)
(0.000171022 -0.000143648 0)
( -0.000259297 0.000305772 0)
( -0.000380671 0.000374937 0)
( -0.00182755 0.000930701 0)

Listing 180: An inhomogeneous internal field definition in the file 0/U

Mapping fields for time 0.325

interpolating alpha

--> FOAM FATAL IO ERROR :

size 81000 is not equal to the given value of 10125

file : / home / user / OpenFOAM / user -2.1. x / run / t w o P h a s e E u l e r F o a m / Case /0/ alpha from line 18 to line
39.

From function Field < Type >:: Field ( const word & keyword , const dictionary & , const label )
in file / home / user / OpenFOAM / OpenFOAM -2.1. x / src / OpenFOAM / lnInclude / Field . C at line 236.

FOAM exiting

Listing 181: Error message of mapFields; unequal number of values

29.3.3 Pitfall: Mapping data from a 2D to a 3D mesh

In this section we deal with some difficulties of the mapFields utility. We have finished a simulation on a 2D
mesh. The geometry of the 2D case is 20 cm × 2 cm × 45 cm.
Now we want to transfer the 2D data to a 3D mesh to initialise the 3D simulation. The geometry of the 3D
simulation is 20 cm × 5 cm × 45 cm. Note the different dimension in y-direction.
Listing 182 shows the mapFieldsDict that was used. Because of the great similarity of the geometry, no
entries are necessary.

The problem
Figure 83 shows the result of the mapFields run. Only the field values inside the 2D domain were altered. The
part of the 3D domain that lies outside the 2D domain remains unchanged. This behaviour is not satisfactory.

The work-around
One way to solve this problem would be to choose the 2D domain of a similar size as the 3D domain. However,
if the 2D is already finished, then it would take some time to re-simulate the case with a redefined geometry.
Another solution is:
1. define the 3D domain to be of the same size as the 2D domain

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/* - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -* - C ++ -* - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -*\
| ========= | |
| \\ / F ield | OpenFOAM : The Open Source CFD Toolbox |
| \\ / O peration | Version : 2.1. x |
| \\ / A nd | Web : www . OpenFOAM . org |
| \\/ M anipulation | |
\* - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -*/
FoamFile
{
version 2.0;
format ascii ;
class dictionary ;
location " system ";
object mapFieldsDict ;
}
// * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * //

patchMap ( );

cutt ingPatch es ( );

// * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * //

Listing 182: The file mapFieldsDict

Figure 83: The mapped field

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 2. map the fields

3. redefine the 3D domain to its intended size, without changing the total number of cells

29.3.4 The work-around: Mapping data from a 2D to a 3D mesh

The work-around to the problem of the previous section is rather unelegant. A 2D mesh that has the same
depth as the 3D mesh but is discretised with only 1 cell in depth will have a very bad aspect ratio.
A more elegant solution is to transform the mesh after the 2D simulation has finished. In our example, the
2D mesh has the dimensions 20 cm × 2 cm × 45 cm and the 3D mesh is 20 cm × 5 cm × 45 cm big.
With the tool transformPoints the mesh can be scaled selectively in the three dimensions of space. Listing
183 shows how transformPoints can be used to scale the 2D mesh in y-direction by the factor of 2.5. After this
scaling operation the 2D mesh has the desired dimensions of 20 cm × 5 cm × 45 cm.

t ra ns fo r mP oi nt s - scale ’(1.0 2.5 1.0) ’

Listing 183: Scaling the 2D mesh in y-direction with transformPoints

After the mesh transformation the utility mapFields can be used to map the field from the scaled 2D mesh
to the 3D mesh.

29.3.5 The importance of mapping

The purpose of this example is to highlight the need for the mapFields utility. A simulation of the bubble
column has been made. Now, the user decides to change the size of the inlet patch. Thanks to the parametric
mesh, this can be done easily only by changing some numbers in the file blockMeshDict.m4. See Section 15.5
for a discussion on creating a parametric mesh.
After the user changed the coordinates of some points, meshing yields a new mesh with the same number of
cells as the old mesh had. Because the number of cells did not change, the data files from the finished simulation
fit the new one. The user simply copies the necessary files from the latest time step of the finished simulation
to the initial time step of the new simulation.
Starting the simulation resulted in a floating point exception. However, after reducing the time step, the
simulation proceeded without any further errors. Figure 84 shows the initial alpha and U1 fields of the new
simulation. Due to a change in the numbering of the cells, the formerly smooth fields are now completely
distorted. The single blocks of the mesh can be distinguished from the figures. This indicates, that OpenFOAM
numbers the cells block-wise.

29.3.6 Pitfall: binary files

If the source case has binary data files, then the boundary conditions need to be defined before mapping the
fields. Therefore, the boundary conditions need to be defined in a suitable ascii file. Then, the fields can be
mapped. Editing a binary file with a text editor may render this file defective.

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 Figure 84: The unmapped fields

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30 Case manipulation
This section contains a discussion on tools for the manipulation of the simulation case which to not create or
modify the mesh or are used for initialisation. Utilities for the before mentioned tasks are already disussed in
previous sections.

30.1 changeDictionary
The utility changeDictionary can be used to modify a dictionary, except those residing in system. We can of
course manipulate any of our dictionaries using a simple text editor, even from the command line (emacs, vim,
nano, etc.).
A possible scenario in which changeDictionary comes in handy is when we do spin-up simulations, i.e. run
the simulation for a certain time with e.g. reduced inflow and continue afterwards with full inflow81 . This
approach might improve the stability of the simulation.
Another case in which changeDictionary proofes to be quite important is when we want to change boundary
value of fields we have gained from a previous simulation. Editing ascii files which measure in the megabytes
can be very tiresome with some text editors. If the files are stored in binary, using a text editor might not be
an option anymore. In this changeDictionary provides a neat way to change boundary values.
Listing 184 shows a simple example of the changeDictionaryDict.

dictionaryReplacement
{
U
{
boundaryField
{
inlet
{
type fixedValue ;
value uniform (20 0 0) ;
}
}
}
}

Listing 184: A simple changeDictionaryDict used to change an inlet velocity

By default changeDictionary operates only on dictionaries living in the time step directories. By adding the
command line option -constant the dictionaries of the constant folder can be edited.

30.1.1 A spin-up simulation

In this section we discuss what is termed a spin-up simulation in this manual. This simulation is intended to
run without user intervention once the simulation is started. In this case we assume we have set up a simulation
with a reduced inflow. Thus, the flow establishes within the domain in a much gentler regime. After the flow
is established we increase the inflow to the desired value. Again, the build-up of the flow within the domain
happens in a gentler manner, as there is already a slower flow present through out the domain. Thus, we avoid
punching the quiescent fluid in the domain with full force at the inlet82 .
Listing 185 shows the Allrun script for such a kind of simulation. In Line 11 the solver is run for the first
time. Since none of the lines in the script is terminated by the ampersand (&), execution waits for the command
of the current line to finish until the next command is invoked. Thus, we save to assume all commands are run
in the stated order.
In Line 14 the log-file generated by runApplication is renamed (moving a file within a directory is essentially
renaming). The reason for this operation is, that runApplication checks if there is already a log present. If
there is, runApplication does not run the specified application.
81 In such a scenario we also would need to manipulate controlDict to increase the endTime. Well, we can’t have everything.
82 Such a simple kind of thing could also be achieved with time-dependent boundary conditions. However, there are solvers which
do not support time-variant boundary conditions, or we want to do something nastier, which can’t be achieved with time-variant
bounary conditions.

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 Figure 85: The established flow field and the increased inlet boundary condition of the pitzDaily tutorial case
at t = 1 s

In Line 15 changeDictionary is called. This is the step in which, in our example, we increase the inlet
velocity. In Line 16 we use the GNU tool sed to edit controlDict83 .
In Line 19 we call the solver for the second time. Here it is crucial that the keyword startAt is set to
latestTime in controlDict.
In Line 20 we apply the same renaming to the solver-log of the second run. This is not necessary in priciple,
however, if we are to perform to automated processing of the logs, then a consistent naming scheme might be
very helpful.

1 # !/ bin / sh
2 cd $ {0%/*} || exit 1 # run from this directory
3
4 # Source tutorial run functions
5 . $ WM _ PR OJ EC T_ D IR / bin / tools / RunFunctions
6
7 # Create the mesh using blockMesh
8 runA pplicati on blockMesh
9
10 # Run the solver
11 runA pplicati on pimpleFoam
12
13 # prepare second run
14 mv log . pimpleFoam log . p im pl eF o am Ru n0 1
15 runA pplicati on c h a n g e D i c t i o n a r y
16 sed -i ’s / endTime 20/ endTime 40/ g ’ system / controlDict
17
18 # Run the solver again
19 runA pplicati on pimpleFoam
20 mv log . pimpleFoam log . pimpleFoam02
21
22 # - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - end - of - file

Listing 185: The Allrun script of a spin-up simulation

The Allrun script was applied to a slightly modified pitzDaily tutorial case. A appropriate changeDictionaryDict
file Listing 184 was added to the system directory, otherwise the tutorial is untouched. Figure 85 shows the
flow field after changeDictionary was called. The increased inlet velocity is displayed as well as the established
flow from the initial run with an inlet velocity of (10 0 0).

30.1.2 Change boundary types

Another, very handy use of changeDictionary is changing the type of certain boundaries. This may be necessary
when using imported meshes. Some mesh formats or meshing tools do not support to assign patch-types to
83 We could also do the edit manually with any text editor, as controlDict will never reach megabytes or be stored in binary

format. However, the whole idea of the spin-up simulation idea is to avoid manual intervention.

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certain boundaries. Thus, when importing these meshes into OpenFOAM, all patches are of the general patch
type. Hence, there is the necessity to change the patch type of the wall patches to the type wall. This could
be done by manually editing the file boundary, yet this approach does not scale – what if we have hundreds of
wall patches – and it is easy to forget this step.
Using changeDictionary to change the patch type is a scalable solution, i.e. once the changes are specified in
the file changeDictionaryDict, there is no additional work if we do the whole process of importing the mesh
and changing the patch type all over again.
The second main advantage of using changeDictionary instead of manual editing, is that using a tool is
scriptable, whereas manual file manipulation is not. Scripting ensures that no intermediate operation is omitted
in any process.

boundary
{
walls
{
type wall ;
}
}

Listing 186: A simple changeDictionaryDict used to change the type of a patch walls to wall.

30.2 The allmighty Linux Terminal

This section covers case manipulation we can do with the tools available in the Linux Terminal. The reason
for this, is partly that for certain tasks there is to the authors knowledge no tool provided by OpenFOAM, or
that the task can be done more conveniently with the tools of the Terminal rather than OpenFOAM’s tools.
The primary reason we are able to manipulate cases with the might of the tools we find in a Linux Terminal
is that everthing is a text file in OpenFOAM’s case definition. If there is one thing Linux, or UNIX in general,
has an over-abundance, it is test editors and text editing tools. This is due to a design decision of the UNIX
creators which is best clarifed by quoting Eric S. Raymond [22]:
Unix tradition strongly encourages writing programs that read and write simple, textual, stream-
oriented, device-independent formats. Under classic Unix, as many programs as possible are written
as simple filters, which take a simple text stream on input and process it into another simple text
stream on output.
Despite popular mythology, this practice is favored not because Unix programmers hate graphical
user interfaces. It’s because if you don’t write programs that accept and emit simple text streams,
it’s much more difficult to hook the programs together.
Text streams are to Unix tools as messages are to objects in an object-oriented setting. The
simplicity of the text-stream interface enforces the encapsulation of the tools. More elaborate forms
of inter-process communication, such as remote procedure calls, show a tendency to involve programs
with each others’ internals too much.

With a little help from a friend

If we combine the powers of the Linux Terminal and OpenFOAM’s tools, anything is possible. In remainder
of this section, some case manipulation scenarios of the combined use of the tools provided by Linux and
OpenFOAM are presented

30.2.1 Rename a patch and edit the corresponding boundary condition

If we are in the lucky situation to have a symmetric mesh, we can remove half the domain and apply a symmetry
constraint on the newly formed boundary. This is achived by the following sequence of steps:
1. Select all cells belonging to one half of the domain with topoSet

2. Remove the cells of the other half of the domain with subsetMesh
3. Change the definition of the newly formed boundary to a symmetry plane with createPatch.

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After executing this steps, the mesh has a new symmetry boundary, however, all the fields retain their
oldInternalFaces boundary introduced by subsetMesh. Thus, we need to rename the boundary condition
in all fields and change the type of the boundary condition to symmetry.

Change BC type
We can change the type of a boundary condition with the tools changeDictionary or foamDictionary. The
task of bulk-renaming is not possible with either of the tools. The tool changeDictionary is controlled by the
changeDictionaryDict file. Within this file, we can use wildcards for the patch names, however, we can not
use a wildcard for field names. Listings 187 and 188 show an allowed use-case of wildcards and one impossible
use-case in changeDictionaryDict.
Our task, change the BC type for all fields, falls under the latter category. We could, however, work around
this issue if we included all fields in the changeDictionaryDict.

T
{
boundaryField
{
".*"
{
type zeroGradient ;
}
}
}

Listing 187: Possible use of wildcards with changeDictionary: Change all boundary conditions of the field T to
zeroGradient.

".*"
{
boundaryField
{
o l d I n t e r n a l Fa c e s
{
type symmetry ;
}
}
}

Listing 188: Impossible use of wildcards with changeDictionary: Change the type of the boundary condition
for the patch oldInternalFaces of all fields to symmetry.

The tool foamDictionary can also be used to change the type of a boundary condition. This tool is controlled
by command line arguments, Listing 189 shows how the tool is called.

foam Dictiona ry FILE - entry boundaryField . o l d I n t e r n a l F a c e s - set "{ type symmetry ;}"

Listing 189: Calling up foamDictionary to change the type of the BC of the patch oldInternalFaces for the
field defined in FILE.

However, we can only pass one file at a time. This is where the Linux Terminal comes into play. With
a simple for loop, we can loop over all files contained in the 0 directory and call foamDictionary for each
individual file. Done!

for file in 0/*; do

foam Dictiona ry $file - entry boundaryField . o l d I n t e r n a l F a c e s - set " { type symmetry ;} "
done

Listing 190: Changing the type of the BC of the patch oldInternalFaces for all fields.

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Rename all BCs for all fields
Next, we would like to change the patch name in all field files. This operation is necessary, as createPatch
operates only on the mesh. The fields are untouched by this tool. As we used createPatch to change the name
and the type of the oldInternalFaces boundary for the mesh, we need to change the boundary name also for
the fields.
This operation is a simple find&replace, which can be done with any text editor. For the sake of automa-
tion, we use the stream editor sed. Again, we loop over all files present in the 0 directory and we apply the
find&replace operation on each file.

for file in 0/*; do

sed -i ’s / o l d I n t er n a l F a c e s / symmetry / g ’ $file
done

Listing 191: Changing the name of the of the patch oldInternalFaces for all fields to symmetry.

30.2.2 Rename phases

The multi-phase solvers of OpenFOAM84 use the phase name as file extension in order to distinguish fields
and files, e.g. U.air and U.water. In Listing 192 we see the content of the 0 directory of the bubble column
tutorial. This clearly demonstrates the use of file extensions to distinguish phases.

alpha . air alphat . water epsilon . water k . water p Theta U . water

alpha . air . orig epsilon . air k . air nut . air p_rgh T . water

Listing 192: The content of the 0 directory of the bubble column tutorial.

If we wanted to simulate nitrogen gas in water, we would need to rename all files in order to follow this
convention. Manually renaming files is tedious and can be automated by the use of the tools available in the
Linux Terminal.

Rename files
First, we want to rename all files in order for them to have the proper file extension. This helps avoiding
confusion. Thus, we use find to search for all files with the file extension air and pass them to rename, which
renames the files according to the specified pattern.

find . - name ’ *. air ’ | xargs rename . air . nitrogen

Listing 193: Replacing the file extension air with the file extension nitrogen in all files in and below the
current folder.

Replace text
Next, we need to replace the old phase name within the files itself. Again we use find to search for all files and
pass them to sed, which replaces all text fitting the specified pattern. Note: applying sed to all files can lead
to some trouble, as the text “pair” also gets treated and thus becomes “pnitrogen”. However, if the application
of sed causes such a side effect, OpenFOAM will crash if vital entries were damaged in this way.

find . - type f | xargs sed -i s / air / nitrogen / g

Listing 194: Replacing the word air with the word nitrogen in all files in and below the current folder.

84 From the release of OpenFOAM-2.3.0 onwards, see http://openfoam.org/release/2-3-0/multiphase/.

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Part IV
Modelling
31 Solution dimensions
In OpenFOAM all meshes are three-dimensional, yet with a single-cell discretisation and a proper assignment of
empty- or wedge-type boundary conditions, a simulation may have 0, 1, 2 or 3 solution dimensions, or solution
directions as they are referred to by OpenFOAM’s checkMesh tool.

Checking geometry ...

Overall domain bounding box (0 -0.1 0) (0.07 0.11 0.001)
Mesh has 2 geometric ( non - empty / wedge ) directions (1 1 0)
Mesh has 2 solution ( non - empty ) directions (1 1 0)
All edges aligned with or perpendicular to non - empty directions .

Listing 195: A snippet of the output of checkMesh.

0-D simulations
In a 0-D simulation, the mesh consists of only a single cell, and all PDEs simplify into ODEs with time as the
independent variable. This may seem too strong of a simplification, yet 0-D simulations may be useful to test
the temporal development of certain models.
The OpenQBMM project85 uses a 0-D solver to test their population balance model86 . In a 0-D domain,
only sources and sinks can change the value of a field, as convection is ruled out.

1-D simulations
A 1-D simulation is resolved, respectively discretised, in only one spatial direction. This is a valid simplification
for simulations when the axial flow dominates any lateral flow, e.g. very long pipelines. In the OpenFOAM
tutorials, e.g. the shockTube tutorial case is a 1-D simulation.

2-D simulations
Many tutorials of OpenFOAM are 2-D cases, as they are detailled enough to represent realistic flow, yet they
are simple enough to finish in a finite amount of time. 2-D simulations can be planar 2-D cases, e.g. a narrow
channel, which is much greater in depth than it is in length and height; or axi-symmetric, e.g. a slice of a
domain, which features rotational symmetry. The cavity tutorial case is an example of a planar 2-D simulation;
and the movingCone case is an example of an axi-symmetric simulation case in the OpenFOAM tutorials.

3-D simulations
Full 3-D simulation feature no empty- or wedge-type patches.

31.1 Basic rules for simulations with reduced solution dimensions

An empty- or wedge-type boundary needs to be planar
One consequence of this rule is, that the two wedge-type patches need to be separate patches

There can’t be a single wedge-type patch

Such a patch, consisting of both sides of the slice, would be non-planar, as the patch-mean normal-direction
will be different from each face’s normal-direction.
85 http://www.openqbmm.org/
86 https://github.com/OpenQBMM/OpenQBMM/tree/master/applications/solvers/pbeFoam

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An empty-type boundary needs to be parallel to a coordinate plane
Listing 196 shows the output of checkMesh, after we rotated the mesh of the cavity tutorial case. Initially, the
empty boundary is parallel to the x-y plane. However, after we rotated the mesh using transformPoints, the
empty boundary normal direction is (1, 1, 1). This, results in checkMesh reporting 0 solution directions. When
we try to run the case, icoFoam fails with a rather obscure error message.

Checking geometry ...

Overall domain bounding box ( -0.0211325 -0.0211325 -0.11547) (0.084641 0.084641 0.0057735)
Mesh has 0 geometric ( non - empty / wedge ) directions (0 0 0)
Mesh has 0 solution ( non - empty ) directions (0 0 0)
*** Number of edges not aligned with or perpendicular to non - empty directions : 2121
<< Writing 882 points on non - aligned edges to set n on Al i gn ed Ed g es

Listing 196: The output of checkMesh after we applied a rotation from (0, 0, 1) to (1, 1, 1) to the simulation
domain of the cavity tutorial.

--> FOAM FATAL ERROR :

Continuity error cannot be removed by adjusting the outflow .
Please check the velocity boundary conditions and / or run potentialFoam to initialise the
outflow .
Total flux : 2.22507 e -308
Specified mass inflow : 0.000211325
Specified mass outflow : 0
Adjustable mass outflow : 0

From function bool Foam :: adjustPhi ( Foam :: s u r f a c e S c a l a r F i e l d & , const volVec torField & , Foam
:: volScal arField &)
in file cfdTools / general / adjustPhi / adjustPhi . C at line 107.

FOAM exiting

Listing 197: The output of icoFoam after we applied a rotation from (0, 0, 1) to (1, 1, 1) to the simulation domain
of the cavity tutorial.

A wedge-type boundary mustn’t be parallel to a coordinate plane

The mesh of an axi-symmetric simulation is a discretised slice of the geometry, with a single cell in circum-
ferential direction. This slice is supposed to straddle a coordinate plane. If one of the wedge-type patches is
parallel to a coordinate plane, then OpenFOAM issues an error message, similar to the one shown in Listing 198.

--> FOAM FATAL ERROR :

wedge back plane aligns with a coordinate plane .
The wedge plane should make a small angle (∼2.5 deg ) with the coordinate plane
and the pair of wedge planes should be symmetric about the coordinate plane .
Normal of wedge plane is (6.451349 e -20 1 5.042482 e -20) , implied coordinate plane
direction is (0 1 0)

From function virtual void Foam :: wed gePolyPa tch :: calcGeometry ( Foam :: P streamBu ffers &)
in file meshes / polyMesh / polyPatches / constraint / wedge / wedge PolyPatc h . C at line 110.
FOAM exiting

Listing 198: The output of checkMesh when a wedge-type patch is parallel to a coordinate plane.

Do not base your residual-controls on the velocity

Listing 199 shows the residuals of an axi-symmetric, transient compressible case. The main flow direction is in
x-direction. We can observe that the residual for Ux drops quite fast over the iterations of the PIMPLE-loop.
The residual for Uy, the velocity component orthogonal to the main flow direction, shows only a minor decrease.
The residual for Uz, the velocity component in the direction that is not solved for, remains quite constant at a
higher order of magnitude compared to the other two velocity components.
Thus, basing the residual control on the velocity, i.e., determining when to stop the PIMPLE-loop for
each time step, would not work since the residual in the non-solution direction does not decrease. Hence, the

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PIMPLE-loop would always run for the specified maximum number of outer iterations.

PIMPLE : I t e r a t i o n 1
DILUPBiCGStab : S o l v i n g f o r Ux , I n i t i a l r e s i d u a l = 0 . 0 0 0 2 3 9 8 1 , F i n a l r e s i d u a l = 1 . 6 3 4 0 8 e −08 , No I t e r a t i o n s 1
DILUPBiCGStab : S o l v i n g f o r Uy , I n i t i a l r e s i d u a l = 0 . 0 0 0 6 2 6 6 1 , F i n a l r e s i d u a l = 2 . 4 2 2 0 3 e −07 , No I t e r a t i o n s 2
DILUPBiCGStab : S o l v i n g f o r Uz , I n i t i a l r e s i d u a l = 0 . 0 0 8 2 8 6 3 2 , F i n a l r e s i d u a l = 8 . 7 8 6 4 7 e −07 , No I t e r a t i o n s 1
DILUPBiCGStab : S o l v i n g f o r e , I n i t i a l r e s i d u a l = 1 . 5 7 5 1 3 e −05 , F i n a l r e s i d u a l = 6 . 5 1 7 3 8 e −10 , No I t e r a t i o n s 1
...
PIMPLE : I t e r a t i o n 2
DILUPBiCGStab : S o l v i n g f o r Ux , I n i t i a l r e s i d u a l = 3 . 8 6 5 7 4 e −05 , F i n a l r e s i d u a l = 9 . 4 1 5 2 8 e −09 , No I t e r a t i o n s 1
DILUPBiCGStab : S o l v i n g f o r Uy , I n i t i a l r e s i d u a l = 0 . 0 0 0 9 3 2 5 4 , F i n a l r e s i d u a l = 1 . 3 0 6 8 8 6 e −07 , No I t e r a t i o n s 2
DILUPBiCGStab : S o l v i n g f o r Uz , I n i t i a l r e s i d u a l = 0 . 0 0 8 7 3 8 3 , F i n a l r e s i d u a l = 6 . 1 0 1 2 2 5 e −07 , No I t e r a t i o n s 1
DILUPBiCGStab : S o l v i n g f o r e , I n i t i a l r e s i d u a l = 1 . 1 0 4 1 9 e −05 , F i n a l r e s i d u a l = 6 . 1 4 6 4 1 3 e −10 , No I t e r a t i o n s 1
...
PIMPLE : I t e r a t i o n 3
DILUPBiCGStab : S o l v i n g f o r Ux , I n i t i a l r e s i d u a l = 9 . 8 3 8 8 5 e −06 , F i n a l r e s i d u a l = 6 . 7 4 6 4 2 e −09 , No I t e r a t i o n s 1
DILUPBiCGStab : S o l v i n g f o r Uy , I n i t i a l r e s i d u a l = 0 . 0 0 0 9 2 6 1 7 , F i n a l r e s i d u a l = 2 . 2 6 0 1 5 e −07 , No I t e r a t i o n s 2
DILUPBiCGStab : S o l v i n g f o r Uz , I n i t i a l r e s i d u a l = 0 . 0 0 8 8 5 4 4 , F i n a l r e s i d u a l = 6 . 0 8 1 7 3 7 e −07 , No I t e r a t i o n s 1
DILUPBiCGStab : S o l v i n g f o r e , I n i t i a l r e s i d u a l = 6 . 1 8 1 7 3 e −06 , F i n a l r e s i d u a l = 3 . 7 9 4 9 8 5 e −10 , No I t e r a t i o n s 1
...
PIMPLE : C o n v e r g e d
Doing f i n a l i t e r a t i o n
PIMPLE : I t e r a t i o n 4
DILUPBiCGStab : S o l v i n g f o r Ux , I n i t i a l r e s i d u a l = 3 . 9 0 2 5 8 e −06 , F i n a l r e s i d u a l = 5 . 0 4 5 1 7 e −09 , No I t e r a t i o n s 1
DILUPBiCGStab : S o l v i n g f o r Uy , I n i t i a l r e s i d u a l = 0 . 0 0 0 4 8 3 4 1 , F i n a l r e s i d u a l = 1 . 1 5 0 2 9 e −07 , No I t e r a t i o n s 2
DILUPBiCGStab : S o l v i n g f o r Uz , I n i t i a l r e s i d u a l = 0 . 0 0 8 7 9 3 4 , F i n a l r e s i d u a l = 6 . 3 1 7 7 5 9 e −07 , No I t e r a t i o n s 1
DILUPBiCGStab : S o l v i n g f o r e , I n i t i a l r e s i d u a l = 3 . 3 5 1 4 3 e −06 , F i n a l r e s i d u a l = 5 . 0 9 4 5 2 3 e −10 , No I t e r a t i o n s 1
...
DILUPBiCGStab : S o l v i n g f o r omega , I n i t i a l r e s i d u a l = 1 . 4 1 3 0 0 e −05 , F i n a l r e s i d u a l = 9 . 0 0 6 7 4 e −09 , No I t e r a t i o n s 1
DILUPBiCGStab : S o l v i n g f o r k , I n i t i a l r e s i d u a l = 0 . 0 0 0 1 4 1 5 7 , F i n a l r e s i d u a l = 1 . 0 9 9 7 0 1 e −09 , No I t e r a t i o n s 2
PIMPLE : C o n v e r g e d i n 4 i t e r a t i o n s

Listing 199: The solver output for one time step of a transient compressible axi-symmetric case.

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32 Turbulence-Models
32.1 Organisation
The way the source for the turbulence models is organized changed over the time87 the author is dealing with
OpenFOAM. With the release of OpenFOAM-2.3.088 a new, (even) more general, way of code organisation was
rolled out.
The old way relied essentially on namespaces and inheritance to achieve generality and abstraction. The new
way to do stuff is based on templates, inheritance and inheritance from templates. This section discusses both
ways of code organisation. Especially the new way – with all its template madness – may lead to difficulties to
understand the code at first glances. Thus, the author hopes to be able to shed some light into the mysteries
of the new way to do things.
With the release of OpenFOAM-3.0, the transition to the new turbulence modelling framework has been
completed89 . There is no $FOAM_SRC/turbulenceModels directory anymore in the sources. Thus, the discussion
of the old ways is on its way to be of purely historical interest. However, the author hopes, that even the outdated
sections of this ever-growing collection of stuff may provide some insights.

32.1.1 The old ways

Although, this section is not intended as a rant against everything new, the organisation was easier to under-
stand. You can inspect it at $FOAM_SRC/turbulenceModels. The old turbulence modelling framework is based
on namespaces to draw the distinction between compressible and incompressible models.
The multiphase solvers within this old framework either use a turbulence model on mixture quantities
(multiphaseEulerFoam or interFoam), or the turbulence model was applied to the continuous phase only
(twoPhaseEulerFoam). Within the old framework, only one turbulence model was applied in multiphase simu-
lations
Figure 86 shows the organisation of the old turbulence modelling framework. The class hierarchy is dupli-
cated to some degree with largely identical or equivalent classes in each namespace, i.e. Foam::compressible
and Foam::incompressible. A comparison of the files RASModel.H and RASModel.C in the namespaces
Foam::compressible and Foam::incompressible reveals that these files share more common lines than they
have differing lines.
This issue is also addressed in the release notes of the new turbulence framework in even more pressing
terms:
The issue of compressibility has been managed for many years using two distinct turbulence mod-
elling frameworks, one for constant density flows and another for variable density flows. However,
neither framework is appropriate for multiphase systems, in conservative form, for which the phase-
fraction must be included into all transport and source terms of the turbulence property equations.
Code is largely duplicated between the two frameworks, which is inconsistent with the OpenFOAM
code development policy to minimise code duplication to promote code maintainablity and sustain-
ability. Extension of the current code architecture to multiphase flows would increase the number of
hierarchies from two to four, one for each combination of phase-fraction and density representation.
87 Since beginning of 2012 or OpenFOAM-2.0.x.
88 http://www.openfoam.org/version2.3.0/multiphase.php
89 http://openfoam.org/version3.0.0/

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 regIOobject

Foam::incompressible Foam::compressible

turbulenceModel turbulenceModel

RASModel LESModel RASModel LESModel

Figure 86: The class hierarchy of the basis of the old turbulence model framework. The namespaces
Foam::incompressible and Foam::compressible are indicated by the colours red and blue.

32.1.2 The new order

The new framework for all turbulence models is located at $FOAM_SRC/TurbulenceModels, notice the capital
T90 . The use of templates is necessary, since this framework is meant to be used by all solvers of OpenFOAM
at some point of time. All solvers means compressible and incompressible, as well as single- and multiphase.
This makes sense, since the concept of turbulence is general, and not related to the specific sitation in question.
The advantages of this approach is best said by the release note itself:
This new framework is very powerful and supports all of the turbulence modelling requirements
needed so far. It will be enhanced and extended in future OpenFOAM releases to include a wide
range of models and sub-models, with the expectation to replace the current dual hierarchies of
turbulence models, to aid code maintainability and sustainability.

Initially the new turbulence modelling framework was introduced with an update of the multiphase solvers.
In the OpenFOAM-2.3.0 release only twoPhaseEulerFoam and DPMFoam. As time progresses more and more
solvers are updated to use the new framework instead of the old. By the time of writing this paragraph (October
2015) dozens of solvers in the OpenFOAM-dev repository were already ported.

One to rule them all

Whenever, a certain concept manifests itself in a variety of incarnations91 , the developers of OpenFOAM take
this rough quote from Lord of the Rings by heart. A single turbulence model class was created to be applied
to whatever physics OpenFOAM implements. For this to work, this most basic turbulence model contains only
the things which can be abstracted enough to apply everything. The most trivial example of this (a feature
independent of compressibiltiy or the number of phases involved), is the sheer existence of a turbulence model92 .
Figure 87 shows the basic class hierarchy of the new turbulence framework. Besides this basic, non-templated
class hierarchy, there is the templated hierarchy of the implementing classes. The basic classes represent the
very abstraction. On top of the familiy tree is the class IOdictionary, which provides the IO facilities. From
using OpenFOAM, we know, that there is a dictionary controlling the turbulence modelling. By deriving the
turbulence model class from IOdictionary, the turbulence model is its dictionary.
From IOdictionary the class turbulenceModel is derived. Note the lower case letter at the beginning.
This is not the only base class for turbulence models, we will also encounter a capital letter class. As already
mentioned, OpenFOAM makes heavy use of the file system’s case sensitivity. Thus, we need to pay attention
to the letter (turbulenceModel 6= TurbulenceModel).
The class turbulenceModel declares a large number of pure virtual functions which the derived classes down
the family tree inevitably need to implement. This class is the source-code-wise incarnation of the fact that
there is a turbulence model. No further information is as of this point known to the turbulence model, except
90 This is one of the reasons why OpenFOAM is not readily available on Windows, since it assumes that the file system is

case-sensitive. In fact, OpenFOAM makes heavy use of case-sensitivity of the file system. Microsoft, however, reminds us not to
expect, e.g. NTFS, to be case-sensitive. See: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa365247%28VS.85%29.aspx#naming_
conventions
91 Such as turbulence is present in single-phase, multi-phase, compressile, and incompressible flow.
92 This is not a non-statement, however trivial this might sound. We can relate the existence of turbulence modelling to a certain

class, namely turbulenceModel, which is derived from IOdictionary, and serves as the absolute basis for everything further down
the family tree.

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that it is a turbulence model. The data of this class is consequently sparse. The most important data members
of this class are references to the run-time object and the mesh. More information can be found in the file
$FOAM_SRC/TurbulenceModels/turbulenceModels/turbulenceModel.H.
From the class turbulenceModel two classes are derived: incompressibleTurbulenceModel and compressibleTurbulenc
These two classes represent the fact, that flow can be considered incompressible or compressible. The conse-
quence of this difference can be seen in the treatment of the density by these two classes. In Figure 87 we see,
that the incompressible turbulence model has a geometricOneField as density data member, in contrast to
the compressible model, which has a reference to the actual density field.

IOdictionary

turbulenceModel
Time& runTime_
fvMesh& mesh_
Time& time()
fvMesh& mesh()

incompressibleTurbulenceModel compressibleTurbulenceModel
geometricOneField rho_ volScalarField& rho_

Figure 87: The class hierarchy of the basis of the new turbulence model framework.

A little note on ancestry: in the class hierarchy of the ye olden ways, see Figure 86, we saw that the base
classes for the turbulence models, were derived from regIObject. Thus, allowing access to the turbulence model
via OpenFOAM’s registry.
In the class hierarchy of the fancy new order, see Figure 87, we see that the base class for all turbulence
models is derived from the class IOdictionary. In Figure 153, all the way down in Section 57.7, we see that the
class IOdictionary is derived from regIOobject93 . Thus, the turbulence model base class is derived indirectly
derived from regIOobject. Thus, allowing access to the turbulence model via OpenFOAM’s registry.
A mere comparison of Figures 86 and 87 might have suggested otherwise, however, as the list of ancestors
got longer for the new modelling framework, this fact (the derivation from regIOobject) has travelled up the
family tree.

Many to rule the many

The distinction between incompressible and compressible, as well as, single-phase and multi-phase, turbulence
modelling is made by passing appropriate template parameters to the base class TurbulenceModel. Note that
TurbulenceModel is derived from the template parameter BasicTurbulenceModel. In Figure 88 we see the
(templated) class hierarchy of the new turbulence modelling framework. This class hierarchy is related to the
classes depicted in Figure 87 by the use of the template parameter BasicTurbulenceModel, which is either
incompressibleTurbulenceModel or compressibleTurbulenceModel, note the lower case first letter.
The distinction between incompressible and compressible modelling is made by the template parameters
Rho and BasicTurbulenceModel. In the case of incompressible models a geometricOneField94 is passed for
the parameter Rho. The distinction between single-phase and multi-phase modelling is made by the template
parameter Alpha. In the case of single-phase modelling a geometricOneField is passed.
93 In OpenFOAM-5.0, the class IOdictionary is derived from a base class baseIOdictionary, which in turn is derived from

regIOobject and dictionary. In earlier versions of OpenFOAM, IOdictionary is directly derived from regIOobject and
dictionary.
94 The header file of the class geometricOneField describes its intention as follows:

A class representing the concept of a GeometricField of 1 used to avoid unnecessary manipulations for objects which are known
to be one at compile-time.
Used for example as the density argument to a function written for compressible to be used for incompressible flow.

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 The approach, that TurbulenceModel is derived from its template parameter BasicTurbulenceModel, which
is either an incompressibleTurbulenceModel or compressibleTurbulenceModel, which in turn are derived
from a common base class, demonstrates the great flexibility a high-level programming language, such as C++.
However, the presence of templates and their heavy, sophisticated use – as demonstrated in OpenFOAM – raises
the bar when it comes to reading the source code and finding out what is happening.

BasicTurbulenceModel

Alpha
Rho
BasicTurbulenceModel
TransportModel
TurbulenceModel
Alpha& alpha_,
TransportModel& transportModel_
Alpha& alpha()

geometricOneField geometricOneField
geometricOneField Rho
incompressibleTurbulenceModel compressibleTurbulenceModel
TransportModel TransportModel
IncompressibleTurbulenceModel CompressibleTurbulenceModel

Alpha
geometricOneField
incompressibleTurbulenceModel
TransportModel
PhaseIncompressibleTurbulenceModel Alpha
Rho
compressibleTurbulenceModel
TransportModel
PhaseCompressibleTurbulenceModel

Figure 88: The base class TurbulenceModel has four template parameters and it is derived from one of its
template parameters. Note, that the four derived classes – the four incarnations of the turbulence model – differ
in the template parameters.

Branching the family tree

In turbulence modelling, we can identify three elementary choices: we can treat a fluid flow as laminar, or
apply a RAS or LES turbulence model. This basic choice is reflected in the three classes derived from the
template parameter in Figure 89. Since RAS and LES turbulence models are turbulence models95 , those
two base classes are derived from the common template parameter BasicTurbulenceModel. The nature of
BasicTurbulenceModel has been discussed above.
By treating the laminar case as a turbulence model, the OpenFOAM developers got rid of the special case
laminar flow. In Figure 89, the behaviour of the laminar turbulence model is indicated by the methods R()
and nut(). The laminar turbulence returns zero (with the appropriate dimension) for all turbulent quantities.
Thus, the method R(), which computes the Reynolds stress tensor, returns a volumetric96 field of symmetric
tensors will all-zero components97 . This behaviour is indicated in Figure 89 with the (= 0) appended to the
method’s names.
95 Again, we encounter an is a relationship, which is a strong hint for relating two classes by inheritance.
96 I.e. all values are defined at the cell centers.
97 In the file laminar.C, we find this expression in the constructor of the returned tensor field: dimensionedSymmTensor("R",

sqr(this->U_.dimensions()), symmTensor::zero).

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 The class eddyViscosity is a class which implements the ideas behind the Boussinesq hypothesis, which is
discussed below.

BasicTurbulenceModel ⇒ BTM

BTM BTM
RASModel LESModel
Switch printCoeffs_ Switch printCoeffs_
Switch turbulence_ Switch turbulence_
volScalarField nuEff() volScalarField nuEff()

BTM BTM
eddyViscosityModel laminar
volScalarField nut_
volSymmTensorField R() volSymmTensorField R() = 0
volScalarField nut() = 0

Figure 89: The class hierarchy of the elementary turbulence models of the new turbulence model framework.
Note the shorthand notation BTM for the class BasicTurbulenceModel.

Further down the family tree

A great number of turbulence models are based on the so-called Boussinesq hypothesis which computes the
Reynolds stresses from an eddy viscosity µt and the mean strain-rate tensor, and was proposed by Boussinesq
[13] [66].

2
R = µt ∇u + ∇uT − ρI k (32)
3
1X 0 0 1 0 0
k= u u = u ·u (33)
2 i i i 2

The quantity k is the specific kinetic energy of the turbulent fluctuations. A great part of literature refers
to k as turbulent kinetic energy [55, 37, 9, 10], most probably for reasons of keeping the vocabulary short. The
unit tensor I is often denoted with the Kronecker delta δij in literature.
The Boussinesq hypothesis is common to both RAS and LES turbulence models. This can be translated into
a class relationship. In Figure 90 we see how the kEpsilon and the Smagorinsky turbulence models are derived.
Those two models are discussed since these are widely used. The class eddyViscosityModel implements the
general idea of the Boussinesq hypothesis, thus, it is the common base for both turbulence models. In the case
of LES models, an intermediate class (lesEddyViscosityModel) is in between the class eddyViscosityModel
and the actual turbulence model. This class serves to hold data and define methods specific to LES models
using the Boussinesq hypothesis.
The distinction between RAS models and LES models is made by the template parameter inserted in
eddyViscosityModel. In the case of RAS models, the template parameter of eddyViscosityModel from which
e.g. the kEpsilon model is derived is RASModel<BasicTurbulenceModel>. Since RASModel is derived from
BasicTurbulenceModel, the class RASModel is a BasicTurbulenceModel. Thus, this operation is perfectly
valid. In the case of LES models, LESModel<BasicTurbulenceModel> is inserted as the template parameter of
eddyViscosityModel.
Sounds complicated, which it probably also is. Nevertheless, we admire the versatility of generality of the
new turbulence modelling framework and stomach the mental pain caused by all the template and inheritance
wizardry.

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 BasicTurbulenceModel ⇒ BTM

BTM
eddyViscosityModel ⇒ EVM

volScalarField k()

EVM<RASModel<BTM>> EVM<LESModel<BTM>>

BTM BTM
kEpsilon lesEddyViscosityModel
volScalarField k_ dimensionedScalar Ce_
volScalarField epsilon_ volScalarField epsilon()
volScalarField k()
volScalarField epsilon()

BTM
Smagorinsky
dimensionedScalar Ck_
volScalarField k()

Figure 90: The class hierarchy of a selection of turbulence models of the new turbulence model framework.
Note the shorthand notation BTM for the class BasicTurbulenceModel, and EVM for eddyViscosityModel.

The method signature in italics of the class eddyViscosityModel indicates a pure virtual function. This
method has to be implemented by the classes derived from eddyViscosityModel. In the case of the kEpsilon
class it is the class derived directly from eddyViscosityModel which implements k(). In the case of the
Smagorinsky class, the pure virtual function was inherited via lesEddyViscosityModel. A class containing a
pure virtual function can not be instantiated, thus, there can be no usable turbulence model lesEddyViscosityModel.
This class can only serve as an intermediary.

32.2 Reynolds averaged models (RAS)

32.2.1 kEpsilon and low-Reynolds flows
The standard wall functions require the yPlus value to fall into a certain range. If the yPlus value is outside
of that range, the simulation’s results can become quite wrong. Thus, the use of the kEpsilon model creates an
effective upper limit on the mesh resolution at the walls [21]. This becomes a problem, when we want to finely
resolve the flow at and near the wall, e.g. when solving heat-transfer problems.
For cases, when the yPlus value is too small, i.e. it is smaller than the lower bound of the standard
wall-function’s validity range, there are the so-called low Reynolds formulations.

Wall functions
From OpenFOAM-5.0 onwards, there are no special low-Reynolds wall-functions for epsilon, as the standard
and low-Reynolds formulation have been merged into a single wall-function98 .
However, other fields, such as k and nut, still require special wall-functions when a low-Reynolds model is
used.

Disclaimer
Everthing of Section 32 after this point has been created a while ago. The some of the content of the sub-sections
below might be outdated by the time you read this.
98 See https://github.com/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-dev/commit/f260780b7310528505137bbfc8d5f85084379120

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32.3 Categories
The desired category of turbulence models can be specified in the file turbulenceProperties. There are three
possible entries.
laminar The flow is modelled laminar
RASModel A Reynolds averaged turbulence model (RAS-model) is used.
LESModel Turbulence is modelled by a large-eddy model.
The file turbulenceProperties contains only one entry. In case of a large eddy simulation, this entry reads:

simu lationTy pe LESModel ;

Listing 200: turbulenceProperties

32.4 RAS-Models
The entry in the file turbulenceProperties specifies only the class of turbulence models. The exact turbulence
model is specified in the file RASProperties. This file must contain all necessary parameters.
Listing 290 shows the content of RASProperties. In this case a k- model is used and no further parameters
are necessary.

RASModel kEpsilon ;
turbulence on ;
printCoeffs on ;

Listing 201: RASProperties

Depending on the exact model more parameters can be necessary.

32.4.1 Keywords
RASModel The name of the turbulence model. At this place laminar can also be chosen. The banana test
(see Section 11.2.1) delivers a list of available models.

--> FOAM FATAL ERROR :

Unknown RASModel type banana

Valid RASModel types :

17
(
LRR
LamBr emhorstK E
LaunderGibsonRSTM
L au nd er S ha rm aK E
LienCubicKE
L i e n C u b i c K EL o w R e
LienLeschzinerLowRe
N on li ne a rK ES hi h
RNGkEpsilon
S pa la rt A ll ma ra s
kEpsilon
kOmega
kOmegaSST
kkLOmega
laminar
qZeta
realizableKE
)

Listing 202: Possible RAS-model entries in RASProperties

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turbulence This is a switch to activate or deactivate the turbulence modelling. Allowed values are: on/off,
true/false or yes/no.
If this switch is deactivated, then a laminar simulation is conducted. This way of choosing a laminar
model is not recommended, see Section 32.6.1.
printCoeffs If this switch is enabled, then the solver will display the coefficients of the selected turbulence
model.
Even if the switch turbulence is disabled, the solver will display the coefficients at the beginning of the
simulation, see Listing 209. The coefficients are not displayed only when RASModel laminar is chosen.
optional parameters Some models accept optional parameters to override the default values of the model.
Listing 203 shows how the coefficients of the k- model can be overridden.

kEpsi lonCoeff s
{
Cmu 0.09;
C1 1.44;
C2 1.92;
C3 -0.33;
sigmak 1.0;
sigmaEps 1.11; // Original value :1.44
}

Listing 203: Definition of model parameters in RASProperties

32.4.2 Pitfall: meaningless Parameters

In the above section it was shown how to override default values of the model constants. In this procedure,
there is one source of error hidden. This is not an actual error, but it can lead to a fruitless search for an error.
If nonsensical parameters are added to the kEpsilonCoeffs dictionary, these will be read and also printed.
Listing 204 shows the kEpsilonCoeffs dictionary of the file RASProperties. This dictionary is used to override
default values of the model constants. A fake model constant has been added to this dictionary.
Listing 205 shows parts of the solver output, when this dictionary is used in a simulation. All constants of
the dictionary are read and printed again. It seems as if the constant banana is part of the turbulence model.
Varying this parameter yields no results, which is no error.
The reason for this behaviour is, there is no check whether the defined constants in the dictionary make
sense or not.

kEps ilonCoef fs
{
Cmu 0.09;
C1 1.44;
C2 1.92;
C3 -0.33;
sigmak 1.0;
sigmaEps 1.11; // Original value :1.44
banana 0.815; // nonsense parameter
}

Listing 204: Definition of model parameters in RASProperties

Selecting RAS turbulence model kEpsilon

kEps ilonCoef fs
{
Cmu 0.09;
C1 1.44;
C2 1.92;
C3 -0.33;
sigmak 1.0;
sigmaEps 1.11;
banana 0.815;
}

Starting time loop

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 Listing 205: Solver output

32.5 LES-Models
32.5.1 Keywords
The keywords turbulence and printCoeffs have the same meaning with LES models. There is also the
possibility – depending on the selected model – of defining optional parameters.
LESModel The name of the turbulence model. At this place laminar can also be chosen. The banana test (see
Section 11.2.1) delivers a list of available models. Listing 206 shows the result of such a banana test. The
model dynamicSmagorinsky was loaded from an external library. See Section 11.3.3 for how to include
external libraries.

--> FOAM FATAL ERROR : Unknown LESModel type banana

Valid LESModel types :

16
(
DeardorffDiffStress
LRRDiffStress
Smagorinsky
S pa la rt A ll ma ra s
SpalartAllmarasDDES
SpalartAllmarasIDDES
dynLagrangian
dynOneEqEddy
dynamicSmagorinsky
homogeneousDynOneEqEddy
homogeneousDynSmagorinsky
kOmegaSSTSAS
laminar
m i x e d S m a g o ri n s k y
oneEqEddy
spectEddyVisc
)

Listing 206: Possible LES-model entries in LESProperties

32.5.2 Algebraic sub-grid models

Algebraic sub-grid models introduce no further transport equation to the simulation. The turbulent viscosity
is calculated from existing quantities.

32.5.3 Dynamic sub-grid models

The dynamic sub-grid models calculate the model constant CS from known quantities instead of prescribing a
fixed value. The way how CS is calculated is determined by the sub-grid model.

32.5.4 One equation models

A further class of LES turbulence models are one equation models. These models add one further equation to
the problem. Usually, an additional equation for the sub-grid scale turbulent kinetic energy is solved.

32.6 Pitfalls
32.6.1 Laminar Simulation
As already mentioned – see Section 32.4 – turbulence modelling can be deactivated in a some ways.
In the following, different ways to conduct a laminar simulation are listed. This list applys only to solvers
that utilize the generic turbulence modelling of OpenFOAM:

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 1. turbulenceProperties: simulationType laminar
This is the most general way to turn turbulence modelling off. turbulenceProperties controls the generic
turbulence class. The generic turbulence class can take the form of the laminar, RASModel or LESModel
class, see Figure 154. This is controlled by the parameter simulationType.

Selecting turbulence model type laminar

Listing 207: Solver output for simulationType laminar

2. RASProperties: RASModel laminar

LESProperties: LESModel laminar
In this case, a certain turbulence modelling strategy is chosen (RASModel or LESModel). However, there
is a dummy turbulence model for laminar simulation. This dummy turbulence model is derived from the
base class RASModel but it implements a laminar model. See Figure 155. Therefore, RASModel laminar
selects the laminar RAS turbulence model. In this point RASModel and LESModel behave similar.

Selecting turbulence model type RASModel

Selecting RAS turbulence model laminar

Listing 208: Solver output for RASModel laminar

3. RASProperties: turbulence off

The switch turbulence can be used to enable or disable turbulence modelling. When the calculation is
started, the turbulence model specified is used. However, in the source code of the solver, there is the test
whether turbulence modelling is active or not. See Listing 282.

Selecting turbulence model type RASModel

Selecting RAS turbulence model kEpsilon
kEpsi lonCoeff s
{
Cmu 0.09;
C1 1.44;
C2 1.92;
sigmaEps 1.3;
}

Listing 209: Solver output for turbulence off

Solver output
The last two prossibilities to conduct a laminar simulation can lead to confusion because the solver output
contains word like RASmodel or RAS turbulence model. See Listings 208 and 209. In both cases the simulation
is laminar. In order to avoid this source of confusion, the user should use the parameter simulationType to
perform a laminar calculation.
Independent from all other settings, printCoeffs prints the model constants of the selected turbulence
model. This may also lead to confusion, when e.g. turbulence off is chosen to conduct a laminar simulation.

Exceptions
The above explanation only applies to solvers that utilize the generic turbulence models of OpenFOAM. However,
there is no rule without its exceptions.
simpleFoam This solver uses only RAS turbulence models. Therefore, the entries of the file turbulenceProperties
are redundant and the only ways to control turbulence modelling are items 2 and 3 of the list above.
twoPhaseEulerFoam This solver has the k- turbulence model hardcoded. Only item 3 of the list above
applies to this solver. See Section 32.6.2 for a detailled discussion.
bubbleFoam The same as twoPhaseEulerFoam.
multiphaseEulerFoam This solver only uses LES turbulence models. Items 2 and 3 of the list above apply.

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32.6.2 Turbulence models in twoPhaseEulerFoam
In the solver twoPhaseEulerFoam, the use of the k- turbulence model is hardcoded. This means that the solver
does not use the generic turbulence modelling ususally used by OpenFOAMs solvers. The only choice the user
of twoPhaseEulerFoam has is whether to enable or disable the k- turbulence model.
For this reason, the file constant/turbulenceProperties is not needed any more. This file can savely be
deleted.
Another consequence of the k- turbulence model being hardcoded into twoPhaseEulerFoam is that the
keyword turbulenceProperties in the file RASproperties is also not needed any more. This entry is only
read if the generic turbulence modelling is used and if there is any choice of which RAS-model to use. The
only mandatory keyword in RASproperties is the switch turbulence. This switch is the only way to decide
whether to use turbulence modelling or not with twoPhaseEulerFoam. Solvers which use the generic turbulence
modelling offer three possible ways to disable turbulence modelling, see Section 32.6.1.

32.6.3 Laminar simulation with twoPhaseEulerFoam

If twoPhaseEulerFoam is used and a laminar simulation is conducted, then the presence of the files like 0/k or
0/epsilon is mandatory. The solver read this files regardless of the fact, that a laminar simulation is conducted.
This is due to the fact that the use of the k- model is hardcoded into twoPhaseEulerFoam.
Other solvers read this files based on the condition if and which turbulence model is used. Otherwise there
would be the need for all possible files (0/k, 0/epsilon, 0/omega, etc.) to be present in any case, which would
be utter madness.

32.6.4 Initial and boundary conditions

All turbulence models can be divided into classes depending on their mathematical properties.

Algebraic models These models add an algebraic equation to the problem. The turbulent viscosity is com-
puted from known quantities using an algebraic equation (e.g. the Baldwin-Lomax model)
One equation models These models introduce an additional transport equation to the problem. The eddy
viscosity is computed from this additional quantity (e.g. the Spalart-Allmaras model)
Two equation models These models introduce two additional transport equations to the problem. The eddy
viscosity is computed from these additional quantities (z.B. k-, k-ω)
Every field quantity of a turbulence model needs its initial and boundary conditions. Consequently, there may
be the need for additional files in the 0 -directory. One way to find out which files are needed is to look at the
tutorials. There, a case may be found which utilises the needed turbulence model.
If a simulation is started and the solver is missing files – i.e. the solver tries to read files which are not
present – then OpenFOAM will issue a corresponding error message. Listing 210 shows an error message of a
case with a missing 0/k file.

Selecting turbulence model type RASModel

Selecting RAS turbulence model kEpsilon
--> FOAM FATAL IO ERROR : cannot find file
file : / home / user / OpenFOAM / user -2.1. x / run / pisoFoam / cavity /0/ k at line 0.

From function regIOobject :: readStream ()

in file db / regIOobject / r eg IO o bj ec tR e ad . C at line 73.

FOAM exiting

Listing 210: Solver error message: missing file

32.6.5 Additional files

RAS turbulence models produce additional files. Most RAS models calculate the turbulent viscositiy from
certain quantities. These quantities are usually field quantities and depend on the used turbulence model.
However, the aim of all RAS turbulence models is to calculate the turbulent viscosity. The turbulent viscosity
itself is a field quantity.

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 Listing 211 shows the folder contents before and after a simulation with pisoFoam. The 0 -directory contains
only the mandatory files, in this case pressure and velocity as well as the turbulent quantities k and .
After the simulation has finished, the 0 -directory contains more files. The reason for creating the *.old files
is not known. However, the turbulence model created the file nut for storing the turbulent viscosity.
The file phi as well as the folder uniform is created by the solver.

user@host :∼/ OpenFOAM / user -2.1. x / run / pisoFoam / ras / cavity$ ls

0 constant system
user@host :∼/ OpenFOAM / user -2.1. x / run / pisoFoam / ras / cavity$ ls 0/
epsilon k p U
user@host :∼/ OpenFOAM / user -2.1. x / run / pisoFoam / ras / cavity$ pisoFoam > / dev / null
user@host :∼/ OpenFOAM / user -2.1. x / run / pisoFoam / ras / cavity$ ls
0 0.5 1 constant system
user@host :∼/ OpenFOAM / user -2.1. x / run / pisoFoam / ras / cavity$ ls 0/
epsilon epsilon . old k k . old nut p U
user@host :∼/ OpenFOAM / user -2.1. x / run / pisoFoam / ras / cavity$ ls 0.5/
epsilon k nut p phi U uniform
user@host :∼/ OpenFOAM / user -2.1. x / run / pisoFoam / ras / cavity$

Listing 211: Folder contents at the begin and the end of a simulation

The 0 -directories of some tutorial cases may already contain such additional files, e.g. nut. In some cases
the 0-directory may also contain several of such files due to a change in the naming scheme. Listing 212 shows
the contents of the 0 -directory of the pitzDaily tutorial case of simpleFoam. The case has not been run, so the
files nut and nuTilda have not been generated by the solver. None of these two files is necessary to run the
case with the k- turbulence model.

epsilon k nut nuTilda p U

Listing 212: The content of the 0 -directory of the pitzDaily tutorial case of simpleFoam

32.6.6 Spalart-Allmaras
The Spalart-Allmaras is a one-equation turbulence model. Although it introduces only one additional equation
to the problem it needs two additional files in the 0-directory. Listing 213 shows the content of the 0 -folder
of the airFoil2D tutorial case of simpleFoam. The files nut and nuTilda are both necessary to run the case.
The former contains the turbulent viscosity and the latter contains the transported quantity of the turbulence
model. Therefore, the rule one additional transport equation entails one additional data file is not violated.
Because the viscosity is not constant it has to be defined in a file in the 0 -directory. And, because the
viscosity is not the transported quantity of the Spalart-Allmaras model another file is added to the 0 -directory.

nut nuTilda p U

Listing 213: The content of the 0 -directory of the airFoil2D tutorial case of simpleFoam

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33 Thermophysical modelling
OpenFOAM features a rich selection of models to account for a fluid’s thermophysical properties, reaching from
constant properties to elaborate models. While the official guide, see cfd.direct/openfoam/user-guide/
thermophysical/, does a good job of summarizing the models, I feel the need to share some (non-)wisdom of
mine on this topic.

33.1 The modelling framework

Much like the fully-templated turbulence modelling framework, the thermophysical modelling framework is also
heavily templated. From inspecting the source code of OpenFOAM-1.1, which is the oldest version99 that
your trusted author has the source code for, this seems to have always been designed this way. However.
the framework got extended over time to accommodate more models; and to be more granular, e.g. to also
accommodate thermophysical modelling of solids.

33.1.1 The base classes

Similar to the turbulence modelling framework, there is a hierarchy of base classes, and a hierarchy of class
templates. Figure 91 shows the class hierarchy of the base classes for the thermophysical modelling framework.
At the top is the class basicThermo, which is derived only from IOdictionary. basicThermo represents
the smallest common denominator of all of OpenFOAM’s thermophysical models. This class holds a reference
to the pressure field and it contains the temperature field100 as well as the laminar thermal diffusivity.

99 For the interested historians among the readers, visiting the following site is recommended: the repository at sourceforge

https://sourceforge.net/projects/foam/files/foam/, and the archived versions section on the OpenFOAM homepage https:
//openfoam.org/download/archive/.
100 This is the reason that we can’t find any code which reads the temperature field when we study the source code of solvers that

involve temperature in some way, e.g. heat-transfer or compressible solvers. Another hint for the thermophysical model being the
owner respectively the handler of the temperature field is that in chtMultiRegionFoam the temperature is accessed via thermo.T().

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 IOdictionary

basicThermo
volScalarField& p_
volScalarField T_
volScalarField alpha_
volScalarField& p()
volScalarField& T()
volScalarField& alpha()
volScalarField& rho()
volScalarField& Cp()
volScalarField& kappa()

fluidThermo solidThermo
volScalarField rho_
tmp<scalarField> mu() volScalarField& rho()
volScalarField& psi() tmp<scalarField> Kappa()

rhoThermo psiThermo
volScalarField rho_ volScalarField psi_
volScalarField psi_ volScalarField mu_
volScalarField mu_
tmp<scalarField> rho()
tmp<scalarField> rho() tmp<scalarField> mu()
tmp<scalarField> mu() volScalarField& psi()
volScalarField& psi()

Figure 91: The class hierarchy of the basis of the thermophysical modelling framework in OpenFOAM-7.

The next classes down the family tree are fluidThermo and solidThermo. The class solidThermo is derived
only from basicThermo and it holds a density field. The solidThermo class extends the thermal conductivity
kappa(), which is provided by basicThermo, by an anisotropic thermal conductivity Kappa(). Anisotropic heat
conduction is a property only solids can exhibit.
The class fluidThermo on the other hand is also derived from the class compressibleTransportModel,
which is not shown in Figure 91. fluidThermo does not hold own data members, however it provides methods
which are relevant for fluids, e.g. access to viscosity.
From fluidThermo the two classes rhoThermo and psiThermo are derived, which model thermodynamic
properties based on density respectively compressibility.
The classes discussed in this section are base classes since these clases are used by the solvers of OpenFOAM.
See the Listings 214 and 215, in which the thermophysical model is created, and used to access the temperature
field.

1 Info < < " Reading th ermophys ical properties \ n " << endl ;
2
3 autoPtr < rhoThermo > pThermo ( rhoThermo :: New ( mesh ) ) ;
4 rhoThermo & thermo = pThermo () ;
5 thermo . validate ( args . executable () , " h " , " e " ) ;
6
7 volS calarFie ld rho
8 (
9 IOobject
10 (
11 " rho " ,
12 runTime . timeName () ,
13 mesh ,
14 IOobject :: NO_READ ,

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15 IOobject :: NO_WRITE
16 ),
17 thermo . rho ()
18 );
19
20 volS calarFie ld & p = thermo . p () ;

Listing 214: An extract of buoyantPimpleFoam’s createFields.H file. Note the creation and the use of the
thermophysical model.

1 // Initialise solid field pointer lists

2 PtrList < solidThermo > thermos ( solidRegions . size () ) ;
3
4 // Populate solid field pointer lists
5 forAll ( solidRegions , i )
6 {
7 Info < < " *** Reading solid mesh th ermophys ical properties for region "
8 << solidRegions [ i ]. name () << nl << endl ;
9
10 Info < < " Adding to thermos \ n " << endl ;
11 thermos . set (i , solidThermo :: New ( solidRegions [ i ]) ) ;
12
13 Info < < " Adding to radiations \ n " << endl ;
14 radiations . set (i , radiatio nModel :: New ( thermos [ i ]. T () ) ) ;

Listing 215: An extract of chtMultiRegionFoam’s createSolidFields.H file. Note the creation and the use of
the thermophysical model.

An interesting observation on the pressure field

In Listing 214, we see that the solver’s reference to the pressure field is provided by the thermophysical model,
see Line 20 of that listing. As the basicThermo model holds only a reference to the pressure field, in contrast,
the basicThermo model holds the temperature field as a field; i.e. the basicThermo “owns” the temperature
field but only refers to the pressure field. Thus, we are left with the puzzle who created the pressure field, since
the thermophysical model is able to provide the pressure field immediately after its construction, we turn our
attention to the base classes of the thermophysical models.
Taking a look at the constructor of the class basicThermo, it appears as if the pressure field needs to be
already existing, see Line 19 in Listing 216. The method lookupOrConstruct() strongly reminds us of the
various lookup*() methods provided by OpenFOAM’s object registry, see Section 57.7. However, this is not
the case with this class: the method lookupOrConstruct() is provided by the class basicThermo itself, see
Listing 217. This is actually a pretty elegant way to handle the pressure field.
This approach allows the designers of OpenFOAM not to care about the pressure field in regards to the
thermophysical models. E.g. in multiphase solvers, there are two or more thermophysical models constructed,
one for each phase, and the constructor of the first thermophysical model creates the pressure field, whereas all
subsequent constructor-calls result in a look-up from the object registry.

1 Foam :: basicThermo :: basicThermo

2 (
3 const fvMesh & mesh ,
4 const word & phaseName
5 )
6 :
7 IOdictionary
8 (
9 IOobject
10 (
11 p h a s e P r o p e r t y N a m e ( dictName , phaseName ) ,
12 mesh . time () . constant () ,
13 mesh ,
14 IOobject :: MUST_READ_IF_MODIFIED ,
15 IOobject :: NO_WRITE
16 )
17 ),
18 phaseName_ ( phaseName ) ,
19 p_ ( l o o k u p Or C o n s t r u c t ( mesh , " p " ) ) ,

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20 T_
21 (
22 IOobject
23 (
24 phasePropertyName ("T"),
25 mesh . time () . timeName () ,
26 mesh ,
27 IOobject :: MUST_READ ,
28 IOobject :: AUTO_WRITE
29 ),
30 mesh
31 ),

Listing 216: An extract of a constructor of the class basicThermo.

1 Foam :: v olScalar Field & Foam :: basicThermo :: l o o k u p O r C o n s t r u c t

2 (
3 const fvMesh & mesh ,
4 const char * name
5 ) const
6 {
7 if (! mesh . object Registry :: foundObject < volScalarField >( name ) )
8 {
9 volS calarFie ld * fPtr
10 (
11 new volScala rField
12 (
13 IOobject
14 (
15 name ,
16 mesh . time () . timeName () ,
17 mesh ,
18 IOobject :: MUST_READ ,
19 IOobject :: AUTO_WRITE
20 ),
21 mesh
22 )
23 );
24 // Transfer ownership of this object to the object Registry
25 fPtr - > store ( fPtr ) ;
26 }
27 return mesh . object Registry :: lookupObjectRef < volScalarField >( name ) ;
28 }

Listing 217: The method lookupOrConstruct() of the class basicThermo.

33.1.2 The class templates

heThermo
Thermophysical modelling is all about the modelling of the temperature-dependent behaviour of a fluid or
solid. Fully accommodating thermophysical modelling into a solver necessitates the inclusion of the energy
conservation equation, which means we need to provide the solver with an energy field.
This energy field can be either the specific enthalpy h or the specific internal energy e. Using the specific
enthalpy to solve the energy conservation equation was apparently done right from the start, code that uses h
is around in OpenFOAM-1.1. The internal energy field e makes its debut101 in OpenFOAM-1.6 with some of
the compressible solvers.
From OpenFOAM-2.2.0 onwards102 , the class heThermo was used to provide the specific enthalpy respec-
tively the specific internal energy. This is possible since both enthalpy and internal energy have the same
physical unit, and are closely related.

101 Interestingly, the ReleaseNotes file of OpenFOAM-1.6 talks of a *New* (reinstated) =eThermo= thermodynamics package.

Prior to OpenFOAM-1.6, the specific internal energy e was only used by the sonicFoam solver in the form of a direct implementation
without an underlying thermophysical model based on the internal energy.
102 https://openfoam.org/release/2-2-0/thermophysical-multiphase-energy/

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 BasicThermo MixtureType

BasicThermo
MixtureType
heThermo
volScalarField& he_
volScalarField& he()
tmp<volScalarField> Cp()
tmp<volScalarField> kappa()

BasicPsiThermo BasicSolidThermo
MixtureType MixtureType
heRhoThermo heSolidThermo

tmp<volVectorField> Kappa()

BasicPsiThermo
MixtureType
hePsiThermo

Figure 92: The class hierarchy of the templated classes of the thermophysical modelling framework in
OpenFOAM-7.

Figure 92 shows the class hierarchy around the class heThermo, which serves the thermophysical modelling
needs of both fluids and solids. As the need for a respresentation of thermal energy is independent of the
simulated medium being a fluid or solid, the class providing this representation serves them both.
If we compare Figures 91 and 92, we see that the class heThermo provides the methods Cp() and kappa(),
which were abstract methods in the class basicThermo. Furthermore, the class heSolidThermo now provides
the method Kappa(), which was an abstract method in the class solidThermo.

33.2 Model selection

The framework for thermophysical modelling requires us to select a model for each of seven categories, see
Listing 218 for an example. If you are unsure of the available options, just apply the banana test, i.e. enter a
ridiculous value, and OpenFOAM will tell you the valid options.

thermoType
{
type hePsiThermo ;
mixture pureMixture ;
transport sutherland ;
thermo janaf ;
e qu at io n Of St at e perfectGas ;
specie specie ;
energy sensibleInternalEnergy ;
}

Listing 218: The selection of thermpophysical models in the file thermophysicalProperties in the constant
directory.

The only entry in the thermoType dictionary, which eludes the banana test is the entry for the keyword
specie, since this is the only available option.

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33.3 transport models
The transport model deals among others with the computation of the fluid viscosity as well as thermal conduc-
tivity and diffusivity.

33.3.1 const
The constantTransport model provides constant properties. The model reads the dynamic viscosity µ and the
Prandtl number P r from its coefficient-dictionary.

Cp µ
κ= (34)
Pr

33.3.2 Sutherland
The Sutherland transport model computes the viscosity from Sutherland’s formula [60].

Viscosity
The Sutherland formula computes the dynamic viscosity µ from two model parameters As and Ts .

√
T
µ = As (35)
1 + Ts/T

Figure 93: The dynamic viscosity of nitrogen: the model coefficients were fitted to data reporded in [16], the
model is compared to values reported in [2].

Thermal conductivity
For the thermal conductivity κ a modified Eucken correlation is used [54], which computes the thermal con-
ductivity from the viscosity and other properties. This can be done, since the temperature dependence of the
thermal conductivity is approximately the same as the temperature dependence of the viscosity [18, 23, 24].

 
1.77Rs
κ = µcv 1.32 + (36)
cv
Note that Rs in (36) is the specific gas constant. If we take a look at the actual source code in Listing 219,
then we might be under the impression that we need the universal gas constant R. However, this is not the
case. See Section 33.7.1 for further information.
In Line 8 of Listing 219 we see the modified Eucken relation from Eq. (36) translated into C++ and Open-
FOAM.

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1 template < class Thermo >
2 inline Foam :: scalar Foam :: sutherlandTransport < Thermo >:: kappa
3 (
4 const scalar p , const scalar T
5 ) const
6 {
7 scalar Cv_ = this - > Cv (p , T ) ;
8 return mu (p , T ) * Cv_ *(1.32 + 1.77* this - > R () / Cv_ ) ;
9 }

Listing 219: The method kappa of the class sutherlandTransport.

In Figure 94, we compare the thermal conductivity returned by the Sutherland model with data reported
in literature [16, 2]. For the specific heat capacity, we used the JANAF model with OpenFOAM’s model coeffi-
cients for nitrogen, which can be found in the file $FOAM_ETC/thermoData/thermoData. The good fit between
the values of the Sutherland model and the reported data from literature shows the validity of the modified
Eucken correlation.

Figure 94: The thermal conductivity of nitrogen: the model is using a modified Eucken correlation with the
viscosity model, which was fitted to viscosity data reporded in [16], the model is compared to values of thermal
conductivity reported in [2, 16].

Pitfall: standard units

When you are fitting model parameters for the Sutherland model to measured data from literature, make sure
to use the correct values. OpenFOAM generally uses SI units103 for all its computations. Thus, for dynamic
viscosity the appropriate unit is the Pascal seconds Pa s. However, in literature, we often find the values for
dynamic viscosity given in micro Pascal seconds µPa s.
Fitting the model parameters to viscosity data given in µPa s will cause the parameter As to be too high by
a factor of 106 . Make sure to use the correct values, when fitting model parameters.

33.3.3 WLF
This model is based on the work of Williams et al. [70].

 
−C1 (T − Tr )
µ = µ0 exp (37)
C2 + T − Tr

The thermal conductivity is provided by this model by using the Prandtl number. Note that rPr_ in Line
8 of Listing 220 is the reciprocal Prandtl number.

103 Technically, OpenFOAM can also use USCS units, yet why would one choose to use non-SI units?

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1 template < class Thermo >
2 inline Foam :: scalar Foam :: WLFTransport < Thermo >:: kappa
3 (
4 const scalar p ,
5 const scalar T
6 ) const
7 {
8 return this - > Cp (p , T ) * mu (p , T ) * rPr_ ;
9 }

Listing 220: Definition of the thermal conductivity in the source code of the WLF model.

33.3.4 Andrade
The Andrade model [7, 8] allows to fit viscosity and thermal conductivity separately. This model was introduced
into OpenFOAM sometime after the release of OpenFOAM-9.

Cµ,3
log µ = Cµ,0 + Cµ,1 T + Cµ,2 T 2 + (38)
Cµ,4 + T
Cκ,3
log κ = Cµ,0 + Cκ,1 T + Cκ,2 T 2 + (39)
Cκ,4 + T

Figure 95 shows the curves of the WLF and the Andrade model fitted to some data from literature. Not
shown in the plot, is the divergence of the WLF curve. As one can see from Eq. (37), the denominator van-
ishes for a temperature of approximately 145 K. While this temperature is well out of the reasonable range for
temperatures of a natural convection case involving an aqueous liquid, a viscosity model that returns bounded
values seems nevertheless preferable. The Andrade model, seeing from Eq. (38), can also diverge when the
denominator vanishes, this happens at a temperature of approximately 0.05 K.

Figure 95: The viscosity of a fluid and the viscosity computed by the WLF and Andrade models fitted to the
data.

33.4 thermo
The thermo model deals with the computation of the specific heat and other derived properties.

33.4.1 JANAF
The name JANAF stems from the Joint-Army-Navy-Air Force Thermochemical Working Group, which pub-
lished thermodynamic properties of many compounds from the 1960s onwards. We also find references to

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 JANNAF, which brings the NASA into the abbreviation. Furthermore, the polynomials underlying the JANAF
tables are also referred to as the NASA polynomials or the 7 term NASA polynomials 104 .
In the time of limited computer recources, especially memory, polynomials were a very effective way of making
the vast body of experimentally determined thermodynamic data usable for computing. Thus, huge amounts
of data were reduced by virtue of polynomial-fitting to a small, finite number of polynomial coefficients [15].
Furthermore, the recursive formulation of (41) is considered most efficient in terms of the involved computational
operations and memory [15].
The JANAF model is one of the thermo models provided by OpenFOAM. The JANAF model depends on
two sets of model coefficients. The lowCpCoeffs are used when the temperature is below the threshold Tcommon,
when temperatures are higher the coefficients in highCpCoeffs are used. Mathematically spoken, the JANAF
model implements the following equation:

(
lowCpCoeffs Tlow <= T < Tcommon
a= (40)
highCpCoeffs Tcommon <= T <= Thigh
Cp = (((a4 T + a3 )T + a2 )T + a1 )T + a0 (41)

The JANAF model coefficients are two sets of 7 coefficients. Using two polynomials allows to cover a wide
temperature range. Thus, the first polynomial usually covers the low temperature region, 200-1000 K, whereas
the second covers the high temperature region, 1000-6000 K. The two polynomials are constrained to yield the
1000 K value. Furthermore, the polynomial for the low temperature region is pinned to 298.15 K, which serves,
in combination with a pressure of 1 bar, as the standard reference state. Pinning the polynomial to the standard
state ensures, that the thermodynamic properties are exactly reproduced at the standard state [15].
The first 5 coefficients of a polynomial are used for computing the specific heat capacity Cp , as shown above.
The remaining two coefficients are used to compute the enthalpy and the entropy. In Listing 221 an example,
for the way JANAF model coefficents are defined, is shown.

mixture
{
ther modynami cs
{
Tlow 200;
Thigh 6000;
Tcommon 1000;
highCpCoeffs ( 3.08793 0.00124597 -4.23719 e -07 6.74775 e -11 -3.97077 e -15 -995.263 5.95961 ) ;
lowCpCoeffs ( 3.5684 -0.000678729 1.55371 e -06 -3.29937 e -12 -4.66395 e -13 -1062.35 3.71583 ) ;
}
}

Listing 221:
The model coefficients of the JANAF thermpophysical model in the file thermophysicalProperties in the
constant directory.

In OpenFOAM’s etc/thermoData/thermoData the JANAF coefficients for a large number of species can be
found. However, if we want to use the JANAF model outside of OpenFOAM, e.g. in a MATLAB/Octave
script, it turns out that these coefficients need to be multiplied by the specific gas constant of the respective
species. As shown in Listing 222, this is done by the constructor automatically, see Lines 14 and 15 of Listing 222.

1 template < class EquationOfState >

2 Foam :: janafThermo < EquationOfState >:: janafThermo ( const dictionary & dict )
3 :
4 E qu at io n Of St at e ( dict ) ,
5 Tlow_ ( readScalar ( dict . subDict ( " ther modynamic s " ) . lookup ( " Tlow " ) ) ) ,
6 Thigh_ ( readScalar ( dict . subDict ( " thermod ynamics " ) . lookup ( " Thigh " ) ) ) ,
7 Tcommon_ ( readScalar ( dict . subDict ( " thermod ynamics " ) . lookup ( " Tcommon " ) ) ) ,
8 highCpCoeffs_ ( dict . subDict ( " th ermodyna mics " ) . lookup ( " highCpCoeffs " ) ) ,
9 lowCpCoeffs_ ( dict . subDict ( " thermody namics " ) . lookup ( " lowCpCoeffs " ) )
10 {
11 // Convert coefficients to mass - basis
12 for ( label coefLabel =0; coefLabel < nCoeffs_ ; coefLabel ++)
13 {
14 highCpCoeffs_ [ coefLabel ] *= this - > R () ;
15 lowCpCoeffs_ [ coefLabel ] *= this - > R () ;
16 }
104 http://combustion.berkeley.edu/gri_mech/data/nasa_plnm.html

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17
18 chec kInputDa ta () ;
19 }

Listing 222: The constructor of the class janafThermo.

In Figure 96 the specific heat capacity of air computed with the JANAF model is compared to data from [64].

Figure 96: Specific heat capacity Cp of air computed with the JANAF model compared to data from [64].

33.5 equationOfState
The equation of state covers the computation of the fluid’s density.

33.5.1 rhoConst
The rhoConst model provides a constant density. The model reads a density value from its coefficient dictionary.

33.5.2 perfectGas
This model uses the eponymous perfect gas model to compute the density from the other two state variables,
i.e. pressure and temperature. This model does not require a coefficient dictionary, as it uses three states of
the fluid (pressure, density and temperature), and the specific gas constant, which can readily be determined.

p
ρ= (42)
Rs T

Pitfall: zero pressure

Some rather odd behaviour was observed, when tinkering with cases. In this instance, files from an incom-
pressible case ended up in an compressible case, which had the perfectGas selected as the equationOfState.
Apart from a looming error due to the different dimensions of pressure in incompressible and compressible cases,
another error was triggered.
As it is common with incompressible cases, the internal field value for the pressure was set to zero. When
the compressible solver was launched, the following, quite cryptic error message was issued by OpenFOAM.

Selecting turbulence model type laminar

Selecting laminar stress model Stokes
Creating field dpdt

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Creating field kinetic energy K

No MRF models present

No finite volume options present

#0 Foam :: error :: printStack ( Foam :: Ostream &) at ??:?

#1 Foam :: sigFpe :: sigHandler ( int ) at ??:?
#2 ? in "/ lib / x86_64 - linux - gnu / libc . so .6"
#3 Foam :: divide ( Foam :: Field < double >& , Foam :: UList < double > const & , Foam :: UList < double > const &)
at ??:?
#4 Foam :: operator /( Foam :: UList < double > const & , Foam :: UList < double > const &) at ??:?
#5 ? at ??:?
#6 _ _ l i b c _ s t ar t _ m a i n in "/ lib / x86_64 - linux - gnu / libc . so .6"
#7 ? at ??:? Floating point exception ( Core dumped )

Listing 223: A quite un-informative error message of rhoPimpleFoam.

The error message looks different, when a turbulence model other than laminar is selected. In this case, the
error message is slightly more informative, as the error occurs within the turbulence model framework. If such
an error occurs there, then the error message contains at least the method name, in which the error happened.
At some point, at the construction of all the necessary models, OpenFOAM inevitably divides by the density,
which evaluates to zero in the case of zero pressure. In the case shown above, the laminar model was selected,
which does not need to divide by the density.
The remarkable thing with the error message in Listing 223 is, that it contains no information other than
that a floating point exception occured during dividing numbers.

33.6 Energy
The thermophysical modelling framework of OpenFOAM allows for the use of internal energy or enthalpy as
the primary variable describing the energy of the fluid105 .

33.6.1 Solids
For solids, using internal energy seems to be the proper choice, as indicated by the following commit message106 :
chtMultiRegionFoam: Changed solid energy from enthalpy to internal energy
The solid is currently assumed incompressible (the solid pressure is not updated) and in general
would be near incompressible so internal energy is a more appropriate energy choice than enthalpy
which would require a pressure work term currently not implemented. Additionally due to the way
in which the conduction is handled in terms of the gradient of energy the accuracy of the current
enthalpy implementation is sensitive to the pressure distribution as this introduces an enthalpy
gradient from the p/rho term which would need to be corrected; this issue is avoided by solving for
internal energy instead.
This is consistent with the CHT tutorials of OpenFOAM-9.

33.6.2 Fluids
For incompressible or weakly compressible fluids, solving for internal energy seems favourable as indicated by
the following commit message107 :
thermophysicalModels::equationOfState: Completed departure functions for all except adiabaticPer-
fectFluid
Changed liquid thermo from sensibleEnthalpy to sensibleInternalEnergy in tutorials. It is generally
more convergent and stable to solve for internal energy if the fluid is incompressible or weakly
compressible.
In the tutorials, the choice of internal energy versus enthalpy is not that clear as in the case of solids. With
fluids we can find both uses.
105 https://cfd.direct/openfoam/energy-equation/
106 https://github.com/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-dev/commit/c109bec4cc3702ac6dba172efdd30ec6916e73a1
107 https://github.com/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-dev/commit/f9971f80d72a5318cdc81120a925ab9817b3ec62

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 Steady-state
However, another commit message states that enthalpy is preferable for steady-state cases108 :
tutorials/heatTransfer/buoyantSimpleFoam: Updated solver settings to improve convergence
Also changed from internal energy to enthalpy which is preferable for steady-state simulations.

33.7 Thermophysical properties

33.7.1 Pitfall: the gas constant(s)
The class specie provides the method R() to return the gas constant.

1 // - Gas constant [ J / kg / K ]
2 inline scalar R () const ;

Listing 224: The declaration of the method R() in the header-file of the class specie.

1 inline scalar specie :: R () const

2 {
3 return RR / molWeight_ ;
4 }

Listing 225: The implementation of the method R() in the header-file of the class specie.

The implementation in Listing 225 stongly suggests that the method R() returns a specific gas constant.
This is confirmed by looking at Listing 226.

1 // - Universal gas constant ( default in [ J / kmol / K ])

2 extern const scalar RR ;

Listing 226: The declaration of the universal gas constant in the file thermodynamicConstants.H.

In this case, regarding the universal and specific gas constants, OpenFOAM’s notation is not following the
widely used convention to denote the universal gas constant as R, and the specific gas constant as Rs [50].

33.8 Mixture
OpenFOAM can not only deal with pure fluids, it can also deal with mixtures: e.g. a combustion solver solves
for momentum and energy transport for a single gas phase, whereas the gas phase consists of the gaseous
fuel (methane), the gaseous oxidizer (oxygen), the gaseous oxidation products (carbon-dioxide) and inert gases
(nitrogen). The properties of the gas phase are evaluated on a cell-by-cell basis for the mixture of all gaseous
species.

33.8.1 pureMixture
For a pure fluid, a dictionary named mixture contains the model definitions for all necessary sub-models.

mixture
{
specie
{
//
}

ther modynami cs
{
//
}

transport
{
108 https://github.com/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-dev/commit/5df9ec5b1e937817764adaf2932b964a1d188754

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 //
}
}

Listing 227: The definition of thermophysical modelling in the file thermophysicalProperties for a pure fluid.

33.8.2 multiComponentMixture
Thermophysical modelling
With the multiComponentMixture model, we need to provide a list of species, and a definition the thermophys-
ical modelling for each individual species. The thermophysical modelling definition of the individual species
follows the same pattern as the definition of the thermophysical modelling for pure fluids, see Section 33.8.1.

species
(
Ar
H2
);

Ar
{
//
}

H2
{
//
}

Listing 228: The definition of thermophysical modelling in the file thermophysicalProperties for a mixture
of several fluids.

Composition
The composition of a multiComponentMixture is specified with the mass fractions of the individual components.
The user can provide either a Ydefault field, if the mass fractions are to be initialized equally; or a mass fraction
field for each component. In the example of Listing 228, a user can provide the components’ mass fractions as
fields with the name of the components, i.e. Ar and H2. We can also provide specific mass fraction fields for a
subset of components, in this case the value of Ydefault is applied to the remaining components.
Upon construction of the mixture, the mass fractions are normalized, such that the sum of all mass fractions
is equal to one. Thus, the values in the mass fraction fields do not necessarily sum-up to one.
The mixture’s properties are computed using the mass fractions, e.g. below we see the relation for the
mixture’s density depending of the components’ mass fractions and densities.

mmix = m1 + m2 (43)
mmix = ρmix VCV (44)
mmix = ρ1 V1 + ρ2 V2 (45)
mmix = ρmix (V1 + V2 ) (46)
with the following relation for the individual species’ mass mi
mi = Yi mmix = ρi Vi (47)
we can derive a relation for the mixture density
 
Y1 mmix Y2 mmix
mmix = ρmix + (48)
ρ1 ρ2
 
Y1 Y2
1 = ρmix + (49)
ρ1 ρ2
1
ρmix = Y1 Y2
(50)
ρ1 + ρ2

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33.9 Model combination
Note, that models can not be freely combined.

33.9.1 Polynomial models

If you would like to use polynomial models, i.e. properties such as viscosity are computed from a polyno-
mial depending on temperature, then you are basically restricted to use polynomial models for the categories
transport, thermo and equationOfState. In Listing 229 all possible model combinations involving a polyno-
mial model are shown. This list was generated by applying the banana test and filtering OpenFOAM’s output
for the occurance of the expression olynomial, which is common to all polynomial models.
There are some combinations involving only one or two polynomial models.

hePsiThermo pureMixture polynomial hPolynomial P en gR ob i ns on Ga s specie sensibleEnthalpy

hePsiThermo pureMixture polynomial janaf Pe ng R ob in so n Ga s specie sensibleEnthalpy
heRhoThermo multiComponentMixture polynomial hPolynomial icoPolynomial specie s e n s i b l e E n t h a l py
heRhoThermo multiComponentMixture polynomial hPolynomial icoPolynomial specie sensibleInternalEnergy
heRhoThermo pureMixture polynomial hPolynomial P en gR ob i ns on Ga s specie sensibleEnthalpy
heRhoThermo pureMixture polynomial hPolynomial icoPolynomial specie s e n s i b l e E n t h a l py
heRhoThermo pureMixture polynomial hPolynomial icoPolynomial specie sensibleInternalEnergy
heRhoThermo pureMixture polynomial janaf Pe ng R ob in so n Ga s specie sensibleEnthalpy
heRhoThermo r ea ct i ng Mi xt u re polynomial hPolynomial icoPolynomial specie s e n s i b l e E nt h a l p y
heRhoThermo r ea ct i ng Mi xt u re polynomial hPolynomial icoPolynomial specie sensibleInternalEnergy

Listing 229: The selection of thermpophysical models in the file thermophysicalProperties in the constant
directory.

33.10 Solids : Thermophysical modelling

With the introduction of conjugate heat transfer (CHT) modelling, the need for thermophysical models for solids
arises. In OpenFOAM, CHT was introduced with OpenFOAM-1.5 and OpenFOAM-1.6. With OpenFOAM-
2.0.0, thermophysical modelling for solids was introduced. Prior to this version, all relevant fields, e.g. specific
heat capacity or thermal conductivity, were simply read from disk.
The available models for solids are a subset of those for fluids. Some of the models can be used by both
fluids and solids, whereas in other cases there are model specifically for solids.

33.10.1 transport
Similar to the thermophysical models for fluids, the transport model for solids is responsible to provide the
thermal conductivity. However, other than with the fluids, no viscosity is provided.

constant
The constant model is the simplest available model. It takes only one model parameter, i.e. the thermal
conductivity.

transport
{
kappa 57.4781;
}

Listing 230: The model coefficients of the constant transport model in the file thermophysicalProperties in
the constant directory.

polynomial
The polynomial model takes the polynomial coefficients as model parameters.

transport
{
kappaCoeffs <8 > (127.821 -0.267 2.844 e -04 -8.84 e -08 -1.3 e -08 9.3 e -12 -3.6 e -15 5.6 e -19) ;
}

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Listing 231: The model coefficients of the polynomial transport model in the file thermophysicalProperties
in the constant directory.

exponential
The exponential model requires three model parameters, the constant coefficient κ0 , the exponent n0 and the
reference temperature Tref .

  n0
T
κ = κ0 (51)
Tref

transport
{
kappa0 0.166;
n0 1.6187 e -12;
Tref 0.17385;
}

Listing 232: The model coefficients of the exponential transport model in the file thermophysicalProperties
in the constant directory.

constant-anisotropic
A special case of solid materials are anisotropic properties, e.g. fiber composites have a distinct two-dimensional
internal structure as they are made from layers of fabric infused with resin. This may lead to a variation of
properties depending on whether we consider a material property in the plane of the fibers or perpendicular to
this plane. Wood is another prominent example of a solid material exhibiting anisotropic properties.
The constAnIso model allows the user to specify the heat conductivity kappa as a vector.

transport
{
kappa (42.0 48.0 42.0) ;
}

Listing 233: The model coefficients of the constant transport model in the file thermophysicalProperties in
the constant directory.

In addition to the thermal conductivity in the form of a vector, the user must also provide a coordinate
system. The necessity of reading the coordinate system is due to the solver chtMultiRegionFoam. This is
useful, when the relevant local coordinates of the solid are not aligned with the global coordinate system of the
simulation domain.

Pitfall: phase change

Some solid metals undergo a phase change, in which their crystalline structure changes, e.g. when iron changes
from ferrite to austenite as it is heated up. Figure 97 shows the thermal conductivity of nickel, which decreases
with increasing temperature, and at some point (its phase transition) increases with increasing temperature
[29].
From the available models, only the polynomial model is capable to incorporate a transition of the kind
shown in Figure 97. The exponential model only depict a strictly monotonic increase or decrease, however,
not a transition from one to the other.

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Figure 97: The thermal conductivity of nickel: data from literature [29], and the available, fitted models of
OpenFOAM.

33.10.2 thermo
The thermo model is, similar to the case of fluids, responsible to provide the specific heat capacity, the entropy
and various enthalpies.
In contrast to fluids, which offer models formulated in terms of enthalpy or internal energy, the thermopyh-
sical modelling of energy in solids is based solely on enthalpy.

hConst
The hConst model provides constant values. It reads in the specific heat capacity cP and the standard enthalpy
of formation Hf .

hPower
The hPower model computes the specific heat capacity according to Eq. (52). The model takes the model
parameters of Eq. (52) and the standard enthalpy of formation Hf as inputs.

 n0
T
Cp (T ) = c0 (52)
Tref

hPolynomial
The hPolynomial model computes its properties using user-provided polynomial coefficients. Additionally, it
takes the standard enthalpy of formation Hf and the standard entropy Sf as model parameters.

33.10.3 equationOfState
rhoConst
The only valid equation of state for thermophysical modelling of solids is rhoConst.

33.10.4 energy
sensibleEnthalpy
The only valid model for energy transport for thermophysical modelling of solids is sensibleEnthalpy.

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33.10.5 Model combination
Listing 234 shows the available models for solids in OpenFOAM-7. The model choice for solids is a small subset
of the models available for fluids.

heSolidThermo multiComponentMixture constIso hConst rhoConst specie s e n si b l e E n t h a l p y

heSolidThermo pureMixture constAnIso hConst rhoConst specie s e n s i b l e E n t h a l py

heSolidThermo pureMixture constIso hConst rhoConst specie s e n si b l e E n t h a l p y
heSolidThermo pureMixture exponential hPower rhoConst specie s e n s i b le E n t h a l p y
heSolidThermo pureMixture polynomial hPolynomial rhoConst specie se n s i b l e E n t h a l p y

Listing 234: The available thermpophysical models for solids; determined with a banana test with the solver
chtMultiRegionFoam.

33.11 Density: modelling degrees of (in-)compressibility

With a more realistic treatment of fluid properties, there is a range of models we can choose for our simulations.

33.11.1 Incompressible fluids

With incompressible fluids the density does not change at all, neither temperature nor pressure can change the
fluid density. With incompressible solvers, this assumption is baked right into the solver, i.e., into the equation
that are solved.
Incompressible fluids can be used in a compressible solver by using the rhoConst equation of state, which
makes the fluid density a user-specified constant.

33.11.2 Incompressible, temperature-dependent fluids

This class of fluid models is generally used for natural convection cases, in which the change of density due to
temperaure is the main driving force and any changes of density caused by the pressure are negligile.
OpenFOAM offers tabulated and polynomial models which allow the user to depict quite complex relations
between fluid density and temperature.

Boussinesq model
If our fluid features a change of density due to temperature however not due to pressure, then we can use the
Boussinesq model for the equation of state. This equation of state model was introduced with OpenFOAM-4
to make the Boussinesq approximation available to compressible solvers, as the commit message clearly points
out109 :
equationOfState/Boussinesq: New equation of state for the Boussinesq approximation for buoyant
flows
Description Incompressible gas equation of state using the Boussinesq approximation for the density
as a function of temperature only:
\verbatim rho = rho0*(1 - beta*(T - T0)) \endverbatim
To be used with the buoyantPimpleFoam and buoyantSimpleFoam solvers as an alternative to using
buoyantBoussinesqPimpleFoam or buoyantBoussinesqSimpleFoam, providing consistency with all
other solvers and utilities using the thermodynamics package in OpenFOAM.
The two incompressible solvers with the Boussinesq approximation, i.e., buoyantBoussinesqPimpleFoam and
buoyantBoussinesqSimpleFoam, were retired with the release of OpenFOAM-7110 .
Since using the Boussinesq equation of state is akin to the use of an incompressible fluid model from the
perspective of the dependence on pressure, the absolute pressure has little to no meaning as far as the flow is
concerned. Thus, while the fluid density can change (due to temperature), the fluid is an incompressible one
with respect to pressure.
109 https://github.com/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-dev/commit/dfecb23b08c04c92401bc0bdf904ed0793c3be66
110 buoyantBoussinesqPimpleFoamorbuoyantBoussinesqSimpleFoam

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33.11.3 Compressible fluids
For (fully) compressible fluids, the density does change due to both temperature and pressure. The perfect gas
model is a typical example, however, OpenFOAM also supports tabulated and polynomial relationships of the
fluid density with respect to temperature and pressure.

33.12 Under pressure: setting a reference

In a compressible solver, the absolute pressure has meaning as well any pressure differences. While a flow is
generally driven by a pressure difference (between inlet and outlet), the absolute pressure determines the fluid
density of compressible fluids. This in turn directly influences the relationship between volumetric and mass
flow.

33.12.1 Provide a pressure reference

With incompressible fluids, the absolute pressure has no meaning. Thus, we need to provide a pressure reference
for enclosed cases.

33.12.2 Setting the boundary

If we have an open domain, e.g., with inflow and outflow, a pressure is generally provided via the pressure
boundary condition of the outlet.

33.12.3 Case study: natural convection in an enclosed domain

In this section, we take a closer look on the importance of the way we prescribe the pressure in a simulation of
natural convection using the Boussinesq equation of state, which makes the case essentially an incompressible
one.
In this comparison we apply the strategies for setting a pressure reference for both enclosed and open-domain
cases on a case which has an enclosed domain. Thus, we hope to demonstrate the resulting error of choosing
the wrong approach. Table 4 lists the relevant differences between the two cases.

Case p_rgh BC top-patch pRef in constant Pressure reference in fvSolution

1 fixedFluxPressure none pRef 0
2 prghPressure 1.0e+5 none

Table 4: The different settings for pressure in the two compared cases. Case 1 follows the settings of the
hotRoomBoussinesq tutorial, which is a natural convection case with an enclosed domain. Case 2 is based on
the comfortHotRoom tutorial, which is an open domain case using the Boussinesq equation of state.

Figure 98 shows the mesh of our natural convection case. There are two vertical rows of warm pipes which
will drive the natural convection. The mesh is a hybrid mesh, which is less ideal than the blockMesh-based
meshes of the tutorials. Thus, we hope for a more realistic behaviour of this case in contrast to the small,
near-perfect all-hex meshes of the tutorials.

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Figure 98: Two rows of warm pipes in a fluid domain. The mesh is a hybrid mesh consisting of hexahedral and
prismatic cells, which was created by extruding a mixed tet-quad mesh.

Figures 99 to 101 show the development of the flow of our cases. While at first, both cases appear to develop
among similar lines, the error near the top patch at some point dominates the flow within the domain.

Figure 99: Onset of natural convection: both cases feature a quite similar velocity field.

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Figure 100: On-going development of natural convection: the flow field on the right shows developing errors in
the flow caused by the pressure boundary condition.

Figure 101: Further development of natural convection: in the flow field on the right, the errors in the flow field
now outweigh the proper flow.

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 34 Radiation modelling
Radiative heat transfer needs to be considered when temperatures are quite high. OpenFOAM offers several
models to account for radiative heat transfer: the discrete ordinates model (fvDOM), the P1 model and the
view factor model.

34.0.1 Solver control

The base class for all radiation models (radiationModel) provides controls on how often the radiation model
needs to be solved. Since the radiation models can be computationally quite expensive, and temperature changes
might be slower than the dynamics of the fluid flow, we may want to solve for radiation only every N-th time
step.
This is achieved by the entry for the solverFreq keyword in the file radiationProperties dictionary. This
keyword expects an integer value, which defaults to 1, and is also bounded to be at least 1 to prevent mischief
caused by a user entering a negative value.

1 void Foam :: radiat ionModel :: initialise ()

2 {
3 solverFreq_ = max (1 , lookupOrDefault < label >( " solverFreq " , 1) ) ;
4
5 a b s o r p t i o n E m i s s i o n _ . reset
6 (
7 r ad ia ti o nM od el s :: a b s o r p t i o n E m i s s i o n M o d e l :: New (* this , mesh_ ) . ptr ()
8 );
9
10 scatter_ . reset ( r ad ia t io nM od e ls :: scatterModel :: New (* this , mesh_ ) . ptr () ) ;
11
12 soot_ . reset ( ra di at io n Mo de ls :: sootModel :: New (* this , mesh_ ) . ptr () ) ;
13 }

Listing 235: The initialise() method of the radiationModel class.

34.0.2 Radiative heat flux

Each of the radiation models writes, among other fields, the total radiative heat flux qr to disk. The sign-
convention for the radiative heat flux is such111 , that it is positive, when the surface absorbes the heat flux.
This is in line with the sign-convention for face normal vectors on a patch.
However, the convention for the wall heat flux, which is determined by a function object of that name is
opposite. With the wallHeatFlux function object, a positive heat flux means that the heat flows from the wall
into the domain.

34.1 Discrete ordinates - fvDOM

In OpenFOAM, the discrete ordinates (DO) model is named fvDOM. The eponymous discrete ordinates are a
finite number of spatial directions, along which radiative heat transport is solved for. Listing 236 shows the
diagnostic output of the model’s constructor listing these directions.

fvDOM : Created 60 rays with average directions ( dAve ) and solid angles ( omega )
Ray I0 : dAve = (0.010235 0.0381976 0.0904495) , omega = 0.0999985
Ray I1 : dAve = (0.0279626 0.0279626 0.0904495) , omega = 0.0999985
Ray I2 : dAve = (0.0381976 0.010235 0.0904495) , omega = 0.0999985
Ray I3 : dAve = (0.0381976 -0.010235 0.0904495) , omega = 0.0999985
Ray I4 : dAve = (0.0279626 -0.0279626 0.0904495) , omega = 0.0999985

Listing 236: The constructor of the fvDOM radiation model is reporting the discretized directions for radiative
heat transport.

Each direction has its own radiative intensity field named ILambda_XX_YY, which has two suffixes: the first
(XX) is a counter for the direction, and the second suffix (YY) is a counter for the wavelength band. Listing 237
shows an example of this naming scheme, which is taken from OpenFOAM’s tutorials. In this specific case, we
111 See this note on OpenFOAM’s bug tracker explaining the convention: https://bugs.openfoam.org/view.php?id=2722#c9101.

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solve for 60 discrete ordinates, which is indicated in Listing 236, and for a single wavelength band. Thus, the
first suffix runs from 0 to 59; and the second counter has only the value 0.
Since specifying identical BCs for each of the dozens of radiative intensity fields, the fvDOM model offers
the possibility to specify BCs using a field named IDefault, which applies to all the fields.

Time = 910

DILUPBiCGStab : Solving for Ux , Initial residual = 0.000484957 , Final residual = 8.59355 e -07 , No Iterations 1
DILUPBiCGStab : Solving for Uy , Initial residual = 0.000636378 , Final residual = 1.3728 e -06 , No Iterations 1
DILUPBiCGStab : Solving for Uz , Initial residual = 0.00100732 , Final residual = 1.64924 e -06 , No Iterations 1
DILUPBiCGStab : Solving for h , Initial residual = 0.000646664 , Final residual = 9.12454 e -07 , No Iterations 1
Radiation solver iter : 0
GAMG : Solving for ILambda_0_0 , Initial residual = 0.000289555 , Final residual = 7.99208 e -16 , No Iterations 1
GAMG : Solving for ILambda_1_0 , Initial residual = 0.000281662 , Final residual = 7.86555 e -16 , No Iterations 1
GAMG : Solving for ILambda_2_0 , Initial residual = 0.00028829 , Final residual = 7.91439 e -16 , No Iterations 1
...
GAMG : Solving for ILambda_59_0 , Initial residual = 0.00312848 , Final residual = 2.98335 e -06 , No Iterations 1
DICPCG : Solving for p_rgh , Initial residual = 0.00253219 , Final residual = 2.296 e -05 , No Iterations 35
time step continuity errors : sum local = 1.18082 e -06 , global = 1.41217 e -19 , cumulative = -7.81505 e -19
rho max / min : 1.16452 0.69867
DILUPBiCGStab : Solving for epsilon , Initial residual = 0.000330527 , Final residual = 6.62334 e -06 , No Iterations 1
DILUPBiCGStab : Solving for k , Initial residual = 0.000939773 , Final residual = 1.06366 e -05 , No Iterations 1
ExecutionTime = 654.13 s ClockTime = 655 s

Listing 237: An extract of the solver output when using the fvDOM radiation model. The solver output for the
radiation model follows the output of the solution for the momentum and energy equations. For each of the
discrete ordiantes a transport equation for the radiative intensity is solved.
When the solver writes a time step to disk, the radiative intensity field for each discrete ordiante is written
into the time step folder. The fvDOM radiation model also writes some additional fields to disk, which are
according to the description in the header file of the fvDOM model:
a Total absorption coefficient [1/m]
G Incident radiation [W/m^2]
qin Incident radiative heat flux [W/m^2]
qem Emitted radiative heat flux [W/m^2]
qr Total radiative heat flux [W/m^2]

34.2 P1
The P1 model is suited for optically thick problems, i.e. the medium through which the radiation is passing
through does absorb or scatter some of the incident radiation.

34.3 View factor

The viewFactor model has been released with OpenFOAM-2.0.0112 . This model only considers radiative heat
transfer between surfaces. Thus, this model is suitable for simulation cases with vacuum between hot surfaces, or
for cases with non-participating gases. Non-participating gases do neither absorb nor scatter thermal radiation.
Such gases are mono-atomic gases, such as argon or helium, or symmetric diatomic gases, such as oxygen,
nitrogen or hydrogen [17, 31].
The anouncement in the release notes of OpenFOAM-2.0.0 has the following to say about this model:
... view factor model for radiative heat transfer, specifically between surfaces. The method begins
with the generation of rays between discrete faces of the surfaces, using the viewFactorsGen utility
in OpenFOAM. Radiative heat transfer is then calculated by summing energy exchanges between
ray end-points. A major benefit of this approach is that energy is only exchanged between parts of
surface that are directly visible to one another, giving a representative solution to complex problems
where some surfaces are shielded from radiative sources by others.
The view factor model is also referred to as surface-to-surface (S2S) model, e.g. in Fluent [9].

34.3.1 Pre-processing
The viewFactor model requires some pre-processing, which is a 2 step process that involves the following
pre-processing tools:
112 https://openfoam.org/release/2-0-0/thermophysical-modelling/

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faceAgglomerate
The anouncement of the viewFactor model in the release notes of OpenFOAM-2.0.0 has the following to say
about the computational requirements of the viewFactor model:
The computational time and memory requirement of the modelling is largely determined by the
number of faces from which the rays emanate. In OpenFOAM, the cost can be reduced by grouping
faces together using the faceAgglomerate pre-processing utility.
Hence, the faceAgglomerate tool is used in preparation to create a coarser representation of the surface to reduce
computational effort. In Fluent, using face agglomeration to reduce the computational effort is referred to as
clustering [9].

viewFactorsGen
This tool does the actual creation of rays between the involved surfaces, respecively it computes the view factors
between the agglomerated faces.

Figure 102: The result of faceAgglomerate and viewFactorGen applied to a slightly refined cavity case. The
patches movingWall and fixedWalls have both been agglomerated, i.e. for the purposes of computing the view
factor, several faces of a patch form a coarsened face. This is evident from the visualisation of the rays created
by viewFactorGen, each bundle of rays starts from the center of such a coarsened face. The colour of the rays
is a mere ID, not the actual view factor.

34.3.2 Visualising the pre-processing results

Inspecting the results of the pre-processing steps can be quite important, see Section 34.3.5. Also, you might
wonder how Figure 102 was created.

Write the face-agglomeration

Enabling the writeFacesAgglomeration switch in the viewFactorDict dictionary causes faceAgglomerate
to write a field named facesAgglomeration, which contains a trivial internal field, yet the boundary values
correspond to a running index of the agglomerates. I.e. all faces with the value X belong to the agglomerate X.

Dump the rays

Enabling the dumpRays switch in the viewFactorDict dictionary causes viewFactorsGen to write a file named
allVisibleFaces.vtk, which contains the rays from each agglomerate to all other agglomerates. These rays
are shown in Figure 102 as lines connecting all agglomerates with each other.

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 34.3.3 Model use
The viewFactor model requires an additional field in the case setup, the new radiative heat flux qr. The unit
of qr is given in the header description of the viewFactor model as W/m2 . In the field definition of qr, the
dimension set corresponds to the unit kg/s3 , which works out to be the same unit once the unit Watt is replaced
by its SI representation.
The model furthermore reads the finalAgglom field, which is created by the faceAgglomerate tool.

34.3.4 Solution procedure

Once the view factors are determined by the pre-processing tools, the model can be used in a simulation. The
viewFactor model essentially boils down to an algebraic equation linking the net radiative heat flux with the
surface temperature via the view factors and other properties.
The model equation underlying the viewFactor model is the following:

Cij qi = bi (53)
 
1 1
δij −( − 1)Fij qi = (deltaij − Fij ) σTi4 (54)
Ej Ej

With a static mesh, the view factors are constant, and the only major task for the viewFactor model is to
compute the inverse of an N × N matrix C, with N being the number of coarsened faces. As C contains only
constant entries, the inversion only needs to be done once, at the first iteration of the solver.
Thus, for big simulation cases, we can expect the viewFactor model to take long during pre-processing,
especially when creating the rays using viewFactorGen; and it will take especially long, when it computes the
inverse of C during the first iteration. This is compounded by the fact, that the computation of the radiative
flux happens on the master-process, i.e. parallelisation does not accelerate the viewFactor model, since the
major computational work is done by a single process.
Afterwards, howewer, the viewFactor model doesn’t incur significant computational effort anymore, since
the inverse of C is cached, and during each iteration, computing the radiative heat flux reduces to a simple
matrix-vector multiplication. With a cached inverse matrix, we can solve Eq. (53) very efficiently over and
over, since only the RHS changes from time step to time step.
The discussion above, about the computational effort, can be better understood if we take a look at the
relevant code, shown in Listing 238. There, we see that the viewFactor model is only then efficient, when the
emissivities are constant, otherwise we are not able to benefit from caching the inverse of the matrix C, since
it would change from time step to time step.

1 if ( Pstream :: master () )
2 {
3 // Variable emissivity
4 if (! c on s tE m i s s i v i t y _ )
5 {
6 s c a l a r S q u a r e M a t r i x C ( totalNCoarseFaces_ , 0.0) ;
7
8 // build equation system - code removed for brevity
9
10 Info < < " \ nSolving view factor equations ... " << endl ;
11 // Negative coming into the fluid
12 LUsolve (C , q ) ;
13 }
14 else // Constant emissivity
15 {
16 // Initial iter calculates CLU and chaches it
17 if ( iterCounter_ == 0)
18 {
19 // build equation system - code removed for brevity
20
21 if ( debug )
22 {
23 Info InFuncti on
24 << " \ nDecomposing C matrix ... " << endl ;
25 }
26 LUDecompose ( CLU_ () , pivotIndices_ ) ;

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 Figure 103: One of the aggressively agglomerated faces: On the right boundary the temperature is 300 K,
yet the radiative heat-flux computed by the mean temperature cools the solid down to 165 K, which is very
unphysical for a case that computes a heated solid interacting with a body of gas. No cooling should occur at
all.

27 }
28
29 // build equation system - code removed for brevity
30
31 if ( debug )
32 {
33 Info InFuncti on
34 << " \ nLU Back substitute C matrix .. " << endl ;
35 }
36 L U B a c ks u b s t it u t e ( CLU_ () , pivotIndices_ , q ) ;
37 iterCounter_ ++;
38 }
39 }

Listing 238: A snippet of the calculate() method of the viewFactor model.

34.3.5 Pitfall: too aggressive faceAgglomeration

The pre-processing operation of face-agglomeration is an important one, since it reduces the computational effort
for computing the view-factors by orders of magnitude. However, don’t be too aggresive with face-agglomeration,
at least in regions in which you expect large temperature gradients.
In Figure 103 we see the result of an overly aggresive agglomeration, aggromeration if you like. The case in
question is a solid which is volumetrically heated by Joule heating, i.e. an electrical current passing through
the solid. The solid is embedded in a fluid region with a gas (nitrogen) as working fluid. The large agglomerate
causes the radiative heat transfer locally to be under- or overestimated. In regions colder than the mean
temperature of the agglomerate, the radiative heat transfer acts to cool the local cells. In regions hotter than
the mean temperature of the agglomerate, the heat transfer is underestimated, thus, these regions get hotter
than they ought to be.
Always check the face-agglomeration, i.e. view it in ParaView and judge whether it is fine enough in regions
where you expect temperature gradients, as the radiative heat-transfer depends on the fourth power of the
temperature, even a moderate within an agglomerate can lead to great error.

34.3.6 Pitfall: temperature boundary conditions in CHT cases

A pit the author has fallen into recently. When modifying an existing CHT case to incorporate radiation, take
special care to get the temperature boundary conditions right. The motivation for tale of caution was a botched
case setup, which turned out to be a very simple case of user error.

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 Class
Foam :: compressible ::
turbulentTemperatureCoupledBaffleMixedFvPatchScalarField

Description
Mixed boundary condition for temperature , to be used for heat - transfer
on back - to - back baffles .
}

Listing 239: A snippet from the header-file’s description of the class

turbulentTemperatureCoupledBaffleMixedFvPatchScalarField.

Class
Foam :: compressible ::
t u r b u l e n t T e m p e r a t u r e Rad C o u p l e d M i x e d F v P a t c h S c a l a r F i e l d

Description
Mixed boundary condition for temperature and radiation heat transfer
to be used for in multiregion cases .
}

Listing 240: A snippet from the header-

file’s description of the class turbulentTemperatureRadCoupledMixedFvPatchScalarField. The difference
in the class name has been marked in red, since these three letters in the middle of a long name are easy to
miss.

Listings 239 and 240 show the relevant header-file descriptions of the involved boundary conditions: a
coupled temperature BC without and with radiation.

Listing 241 shows the relevant boundary condition of the temperature field. Note the similar names of the
temperature BCs, i.e., the one without and the one with radiation.
So, what can go wrong if we do not adjust the temperature BC? Simply put, there will be no radiative heat
transfer. Since the viewFactor model is entirely based on boundary surfaces, all the magic happens with the
boundaries. If we get the temperature boundary wrong, we incur ourselves the cost of modelling radiative heat
transfer without the benefit of acutally accounting for radiative heat transfer in our simulation.

1 " S o l i d G a s In t e r f a c e .* "
2 {
3 /* this does not work !
4 type compressible :: t u r b u l e n t T e m p e r a t u r e C o u p l e d B a f f l e M i x e d ;
5 Tnbr T;
6 kappaMethod solidThermo ;
7 value uniform 1800; */
8
9 // this will work
10 type compressible :: t u r b u l e n t T e m p e r a t u r e R a d C o u p l e d M i x e d ;
11 Tnbr T;
12 kappaMethod solidThermo ;
13 qrNbr qr ;
14 qr none ;
15 value uniform 1800;
16 }

Listing 241: Changing the relevant boundary conditions of the field T in a CHT simulation case to enable heat
transfer due to radiation.

Your trusted author of this very collection of pitfalls has failed to make the according adjustment to his case
and was left wondering why heat transfer was glacially slow. Beginner’s errors happen all the time to all kinds
of people, especially when we are beginning to create a new simulation case.

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35 Eulerian multiphase modelling
In Eulerian two-phase modelling both phases are considered continua even though one phase might consist of
dispersed phase elements (DPEs) such as bubbles, drops or particles. In these simulations the two phases can
be distinguished into a continuous phase and a dispersed phase. This naming scheme refers to the physical
situation. Within the (Eulerian) mathematical description, however, both phases are continua.
As two momentum equations are solved (one per phase), each phase has its own velocity field. However,
there is only one pressure field. Thus, the pressure is the same for both phases; this also applies to the VOF
method. Due to the fact that two continuity113 and two momentum equations are solved, this approach is often
referred to as two fluid model.
The Eulerian description of multi-phase flow is not limited to two phases, however, for reasons of simplicity,
we limit ourselves to the case of two phases.

gas

liquid
(a) Discrete bubbles in a continuous (b) Continuum approach.
liquid.

Figure 104: Modelling approach on the example of a gas-liquid two-phase system.

As the DPEs are considered to be a continuous phase, their properties are averaged over each cell of the
computational domain. Thus, the properties of the dispersed phase are the mean properties of the dispersed
matter. If all DPEs have equal properties (e.g. diameter, density, etc.), then the dispersed phase is referred to as
being mono-disperse. Only in the case of mono-dispersity, the averaging over the cells introduces no additional
errors. If the DPEs have variable properties (e.g. a diameter range), then the dispersed phase is referred to as
being poly-disperse. The correct handling of poly-dispersity requires additional considerations on the models.

35.1 Phase model class

One of the strenghts of object oriented programming is that the class structure in the source code can reflect
the properties and relations of real-world things.
The phase model class in the various two- and multi-phase solvers of OpenFOAM is one example of how
techniques of object oriented programming can be applied. In terms of a multi-phase problem in fluid dynamics
we distinguish different phases.
We now violate the unwritten law of to not cite Wikipedia [Citation needed].
Phase (matter), a physically distinctive form of a substance, such as the solid, liquid, and gaseous
states of ordinary matter—also referred to as a "macroscopic state"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phase

In fluid dynamics phase is a commonly used term. When we intend our code to represent the reality we want
to describe as closely as possible we need to introduce the concept of the phase into our source code. From a
programming point of view properties of a phase – such as viscosity, velocity, etc. – are easy to implement. The
viscosity of a phase is simply a field of values, velocity is another field of values.
113
P !
The constraint that the sum of all volume fraction fields must yield unity, i.e. α = 1, allows for one continuity equation
i i
to be eliminated. In the case of two phases, only one continuity equation needs to be solved. However, both continuity equation
can be combined.

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 Object orientation allows us to translate the idea of the phase into programming language. The basic idea
is that a phase has a viscosity, it also has a velocity. We now create a class named phaseModel and this class
needs to have a viscosity, a velocity and everthing else a phase needs to fit our needs.
The phase model classes follow the code of best practice in object oriented programming to hide internal
data from the outer world and to provide access via the classes methods (data encapsulation, see http://www.
tutorialspoint.com/cplusplus/cpp_data_encapsulation.htm).

No phases, please
In the single-phase solvers of OpenFOAM – such as simpleFoam – the concept of a phase is not used. As there
is only one temperature and velocity to deal with, the concept of phases is not needed. In the single-phase
solvers the phase-properties (viscosity, velocity, density, etc.) are linked according to the physical relations that
are taken into account, but the concept of a phase is missing.

35.1.1 A comparison of the phase models in OpenFOAM-2.2

In this section we want to compare the implementation of the phase model class of the two solvers twoPhaseEuler-
Foam and multiphaseEulerFoam.

twoPhaseEulerFoam
The phase model class in twoPhaseEulerFoam-2.2.x collects the properties of a phase and offers an interface
for accessing these properties. Listing 242 shows the essence of the header file of the phase model class. The
listing is syntactically correct, however all pre-processor instruction (e.g. the #include statements) have been
removed. Furthermore, most of the comments have been removed and the formatting has been adapted to
reduce the line number. The purpose of Listing 242 is to present the data members and methods of the class
by actual source code.

1 namespace Foam
2 {
3
4 class phaseModel
5 {
6 // Private data
7 dictionary dict_ ;
8 word name_ ;
9 d i m e n s i o n e d S c a l a r d_ ;
10 d i m e n s i o n e d S c a l a r nu_ ;
11 d i m e n s i o n e d S c a l a r rho_ ;
12 volV ectorFie ld U_ ;
13 autoPtr < surfaceScalarField > phiPtr_ ;
14
15 public :
16 // Member Functions
17 const word & name () const { return name_ ; }
18
19 const d i m e n s i o n e d S c a l a r & d () const { return d_ ; }
20
21 const d i m e n s i o n e d S c a l a r & nu () const { return nu_ ; }
22
23 const d i m e n s i o n e d S c a l a r & rho () const { return rho_ ; }
24
25 const vol VectorFie ld & U () const { return U_ ; }
26
27 volV ectorFie ld & U () { return U_ ; }
28
29 const s u r f a c e S c a l a r F i e l d & phi () const { return phiPtr_ () ; }
30
31 s u r f a c e S c a l a r F i e l d & phi () { return phiPtr_ () ; }
32 };
33
34 } // End namespace Foam

Listing 242: A boiled-down version of the file phaseModel.H

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 The phase model class of twoPhaseEulerFoam-2.2.x contains all phase properties needed for an incompressible
two-phase solver that makes use of an important consequence of being limited to two phase problems. By
taking a look on the members of the class we see that there is no volume fraction field. In two phase problems
one volume fraction field (alpha1) suffices as the volume fraction field of the other phase is instantly known
(alpha2 = 1 - alpha1). Thus, the volume fraction can be treated seperately from other phase information.
Another missing item is the pressure. Most two- or multi-phase Eulerian solvers assume/use a common
pressure for all phases. Thus, the pressure is independent of the phases and can be treated seperately.

multiphaseEulerFoam
One difference between the phase model class used in twoPhaseEulerFoam and the one used in multiphaseEuler-
Foam follows directly from the simplification made in the two-phase case. When dealing with an arbitrary
number of phases, each phase must keep track of its own volume fraction. Thus, the volume fraction must be
included into the phase model.
The straight-forward way would be to add another reference to the data members. As the volume fraction
field is a scalar field, this reference would be a reference to a volScalarField. In multiphaseEulerFoam a
more subtle approach was chosen. This also presents the application of another object-oriented programming
technique.
The phase model class of multiphaseEulerFoam is derived from the class volScalarField. Thus, the phase
model class is among other things its own the volume fraction field.
Listing 243 shows a stripped version of the header file of multiphaseEulerFoam’s phase model class. Again,
large parts of the file have been removed leaving only the data members and the methods of the class.

1 namespace Foam
2 {
3
4 class phaseModel
5 :
6 public volSca larField
7 {
8 // Private data
9 word name_ ;
10 dictionary phaseDict_ ;
11 d i m e n s i o n e d S c a l a r nu_ ;
12 d i m e n s i o n e d S c a l a r kappa_ ;
13 d i m e n s i o n e d S c a l a r Cp_ ;
14 d i m e n s i o n e d S c a l a r rho_ ;
15 volV ectorFie ld U_ ;
16 volV ectorFie ld DDtU_ ;
17 s u r f a c e S c a l a r F i e l d phiAlpha_ ;
18 autoPtr < surfaceScalarField > phiPtr_ ;
19 autoPtr < diameterModel > dPtr_ ;
20
21 public :
22
23 // Member Functions
24 const word & name () const { return name_ ; }
25
26 const word & keyword () const { return name () ; }
27
28 tmp < volScalarField > d () const ;
29
30 const d i m e n s i o n e d S c a l a r & nu () const { return nu_ ; }
31
32 const d i m e n s i o n e d S c a l a r & kappa () const { return kappa_ ; }
33
34 const d i m e n s i o n e d S c a l a r & Cp () const { return Cp_ ; }
35
36 const d i m e n s i o n e d S c a l a r & rho () const { return rho_ ; }
37
38 const vol VectorFi eld & U () const { return U_ ; }
39
40 volVe ctorFiel d & U () { return U_ ; }
41
42 const vol VectorFi eld & DDtU () const { return DDtU_ ; }
43

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44 volV ectorFie ld & DDtU () { return DDtU_ ; }
45
46 const s u r f a c e S c a l a r F i e l d & phi () const { return phiPtr_ () ; }
47
48 s u r f a c e S c a l a r F i e l d & phi () { return phiPtr_ () ; }
49
50 const s u r f a c e S c a l a r F i e l d & phiAlpha () const { return phiAlpha_ ; }
51
52 s u r f a c e S c a l a r F i e l d & phiAlpha () { return phiAlpha_ ; }
53
54 void correct () ;
55
56 bool read ( const dictionary & phaseDict ) ;
57 };
58
59 } // End namespace Foam

Listing 243: A boiled-down version of the file phaseModel.H

The statements following the class keyword and the class name indicates the derivation of a class. The class
name (phaseModel) and the name of the class we are deriving from (volScalarField) are separated by a colon
(:). The name of the base class (volScalarField) is preceded by a visibility specifier (public). Here, we see a
prototype of a class definition. The class we define (phaseModel) is derived from a base class (volScalarField).

class phaseModel : public vol ScalarFi eld

{
/* some c ++ code */
}

This example highlights, that the class phaseModel is derived from the class volScalarField. This infor-
mation alone does no proof that the phase model is its own volume fraction field. However, a glance on the
constructor in the implementation file brings clarity.
In Listing 244 we see, that the first instruction in the initialisation list of the constructor reads the vol-
ume fraction field of the respective phase. This proofes that the phase model is in fact its own volume
fraction field. For an explanation why we come to this conclusion we refer to any C++ textbook or on-
line resource that covers the concept of inheritance, see e.g. http://www.learncpp.com/cpp-tutorial/
114-constructors-and-initialization-of-derived-classes/ or [59].

// * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Constructors * * * * * * * * * * * * * * //
Foam :: phaseModel :: phaseModel
(
const word & name ,
const dictionary & phaseDict ,
const fvMesh & mesh
)
:
volS calarFie ld
(
IOobject
(
" alpha " + name ,
mesh . time () . timeName () ,
mesh ,
IOobject :: MUST_READ ,
IOobject :: AUTO_WRITE
),
mesh
),
name_ ( name ) ,
// code continues

Listing 244: The first few lines of the constructor of the phase model.

Besides being its own volume fraction field the phase model class of multiphaseEulerFoam was extended by
several fields bearing information for the simulation of thermodynamics.
We can also observe the rudiment of giving the phase model a more active role. The phase model class
of twoPhaseEulerFoam is simply an information carrier. The phase model of multiphaseEulerFoam features a

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 method named correct(). The correct() method is used in many models for actions performed at every time
step. However, in multiphaseEulerFoam-2.2.x this method is empty.
With OpenFOAM-2.1.0 the class diameterModel was introduced into multiphaseEulerFoam and compress-
ibleTwoPhaseEulerFoam. The phase model class of multiphaseEulerFoam uses a diameter model class for keep-
ing track of the dispersed phase’s diameter. The diameter model offers the choice of computing the diameter of
the dispersed phase elements from thermodynamic quantities besides using a constant diameter. Thus, the data
member dimensionedScalar d_ is replaced by a reference to a diameter model (autoPtr<diameterModel> dPtr_).

35.1.2 A comparison of the phase models in OpenFOAM-2.3

In this section we want to compare the implementation of the phase model class of the two solvers twoPhaseEuler-
Foam and multiphaseEulerFoam.

A comment on multiphaseEulerFoam
The phase model class used for multiphaseEulerFoam in OpenFOAM-2.2.x and OpenFOAM-2.3.x differs very
little with respect to the class’s methods and members. Listing 245 shows that the header files of the phaseModel
class of multiphaseEulerFoam differs only in the copyright notice. The implementation file shows slightly greater
differences114 . However, the behaviour of this class can be considered nearly identical in OpenFOAM-2.2.x and
OpenFOAM-2.3.x.

user@host :∼/ OpenFOAM$ diff

OpenFOAM -2.2. x / applications / solvers / multiphase / m u l t i p h a s e E u l e r F o a m / phaseModel / phaseModel /
phaseModel . H
OpenFOAM -2.3. x / applications / solvers / multiphase / m u l t i p h a s e E u l e r F o a m / m u l t i p h a s eS y s t e m /
phaseModel / phaseModel . H
5 c5
< \\ / A nd | Copyright ( C ) 2011 OpenFOAM Foundation
---
> \\ / A nd | Copyright ( C ) 2011 -2013 OpenFOAM Foundation

Listing 245: The output of diff for the file phaseModel.H of the solver multiphaseEulerFoam of the versions
OpenFOAM-2.2.x and OpenFOAM-2.3.x as of May 2014115 .

twoPhaseEulerFoam
The two-phase model of twoPhaseEulerFoam-2.3.x makes heavy use of abstractions. The phase model class is
used in conjunction with a class for the two-phase system.

1 namespace Foam
2 {
3
4 c l a s s phaseModel
5 :
6 public volScalarField ,
7 public transportModel
8 {
9 // P r i v a t e data
10 c o n s t twoPhaseSystem& f l u i d _ ;
11 word name_ ;
12 d i c t i o n a r y phaseDict_ ;
13 s c a l a r alphaMax_ ;
14 autoPtr<rhoThermo> thermo_ ;
15 v o l V e c t o r F i e l d U_;
16 s u r f a c e S c a l a r F i e l d alphaPhi_ ;
17 s u r f a c e S c a l a r F i e l d alphaRhoPhi_ ;
18 autoPtr<s u r f a c e S c a l a r F i e l d > phiPtr_ ;
19 autoPtr<diameterModel> dPtr_ ;
20 autoPtr<P h a s e C o m pr e s s i b l e T u r bu l e n c e M o d e l <phaseModel> > t u r b u l e n c e _ ;
21

114 The diff of the implementation file would be too long to be shown at this place. For general information on diff see Section
??.
115 OpenFOAM Builds compared: 2.2.x-61b850bc107b and 2.3.x-0eb39ebe0f07.

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22 public :
23
24 // Member F u n c t i o n s
25 c o n s t word& name ( ) c o n s t { r e t u r n name_ ; }
26
27 c o n s t twoPhaseSystem& f l u i d ( ) c o n s t { r e t u r n f l u i d _ ; }
28
29 c o n s t phaseModel& o t h e r P h a s e ( ) c o n s t ;
30
31 s c a l a r alphaMax ( ) c o n s t { r e t u r n alphaMax_ ; }
32
33 tmp<v o l S c a l a r F i e l d > d ( ) c o n s t ;
34
35 c o n s t P h a s eC o m p r e s s i b le T u r b u l e n c e Mo d e l <phaseModel>&
36 turbulence () const ;
37
38 P h a s e Co m p r e s s i b l eT u r b u l e n c e M od e l <phaseModel>&
39 turbulence () ;
40
41 c o n s t rhoThermo& thermo ( ) c o n s t { r e t u r n thermo_ ( ) ; }
42
43 rhoThermo& thermo ( ) { r e t u r n thermo_ ( ) ; }
44
45 tmp<v o l S c a l a r F i e l d > nu ( ) c o n s t { r e t u r n thermo_−>nu ( ) ; }
46
47 tmp<s c a l a r F i e l d > nu ( c o n s t l a b e l p a t c h i ) c o n s t { r e t u r n thermo_−>nu ( p a t c h i ) ; }
48
49 tmp<v o l S c a l a r F i e l d > mu( ) c o n s t { r e t u r n thermo_−>mu( ) ; }
50
51 tmp<s c a l a r F i e l d > mu( c o n s t l a b e l p a t c h i ) c o n s t { r e t u r n thermo_−>mu( p a t c h i ) ; }
52
53 tmp<v o l S c a l a r F i e l d > kappa ( ) c o n s t { r e t u r n thermo_−>kappa ( ) ; }
54
55 tmp<v o l S c a l a r F i e l d > Cp ( ) c o n s t { r e t u r n thermo_−>Cp ( ) ; }
56
57 c o n s t v o l S c a l a r F i e l d& rho ( ) c o n s t { r e t u r n thermo_−>rho ( ) ; }
58
59 c o n s t v o l V e c t o r F i e l d& U( ) c o n s t { r e t u r n U_; }
60
61 v o l V e c t o r F i e l d& U( ) { r e t u r n U_; }
62
63 c o n s t s u r f a c e S c a l a r F i e l d& p h i ( ) c o n s t { r e t u r n phiPtr_ ( ) ; }
64
65 s u r f a c e S c a l a r F i e l d& p h i ( ) { r e t u r n phiPtr_ ( ) ; }
66
67 c o n s t s u r f a c e S c a l a r F i e l d& a l p h a P h i ( ) c o n s t { r e t u r n alphaPhi_ ; }
68
69 s u r f a c e S c a l a r F i e l d& a l p h a P h i ( ) { r e t u r n alphaPhi_ ; }
70
71 c o n s t s u r f a c e S c a l a r F i e l d& alphaRhoPhi ( ) c o n s t { r e t u r n alphaRhoPhi_ ; }
72
73 s u r f a c e S c a l a r F i e l d& alphaRhoPhi ( ) { r e t u r n alphaRhoPhi_ ; }
74
75 void c o r r e c t ( ) ;
76
77 v i r t u a l b o o l r e a d ( c o n s t d i c t i o n a r y& p h a s e P r o p e r t i e s ) ;
78
79 v i r t u a l bool read ( ) { return true ; }
80 };
81
82 } // End namespace Foam

Listing 246: A boiled-down version of the file phaseModel.H

The data members of the phase model class in twoPhaseEulerFoam-2.3.x contain a reference to the two-phase
model class. This makes the phase model class aware of the other phase. The data members also contain a
reference to a turbulence model and a thermophysical model. This is up to now the greatest generalisation we
could observe in the multi-phase solvers of OpenFOAM.

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 35.2 Phase system classes
In a multiphase solver we can not only create an abstraction for the physical phase, e.g. water. We can
also create an abstraction for the multi-phase system, i.e. the entirety of the involved phases. Again, multi-
phaseEulerFoam was the forerunner for this idea. Since the introduction of multiphaseEulerFoam there is a
class named multiphaseSystem. In twoPhaseEulerFoam-2.3 the class twoPhaseSystem was introduced. The
most obvious purpose of this class is the implementation of the phase continuity equation. In both solvers the
solution of the continuity equation(s) hides behind the function call fluid.solve().

35.2.1 The class twoPhaseSystem

We now take a detailled look on the class twoPhaseSystem. This class was introduced with twoPhaseEulerFoam-
2.3 and this class seems to be a consequent continuation of ideas introduced in the class multiphaseSystem. We
focus on the class twoPhaseSystem, since the class multiphaseSystem has not really evolved from the release of
OpenFOAM-2.1 til the release of OpenFOAM-2.3. The header and the implementation file are largely identical.

Phase models
Two data members of the class are the two involved phase models phase1_ and phase2_. The class provides
methods to access this phase models. There is also a method to access the other phase. As there are only two
phases involved, this operation is possible.

Phase pair models

In order to cover all possible flow situations the momentum exchange models are defined in the case pair-wise
in a separated fashion, i.e. drag for air dispersed in water (bubbly flow) and drag for water dispersed in air
(droplet flow).
The classes phasePair and orderedPhasePair provide an elegant way to deal with this situation. The
phase pair models are used for blending the interfacial momentum exchange models.

Momentum exchange models

The class has member variables for the interfacial momentum exchange models. Listing 247 shows the members
of the class related to momentum exchange models. The templated class BlendedInterfacialModel<> provides
functionality that is needed for all momentum exchange models. As the class name suggests, the blending is
covered by this class. The template parameter of this class stands for any one of the interfacial momentum
exchange models.

1 // - Drag model
2 autoPtr < BlendedInterfacialModel < dragModel > > drag_ ;
3 // - Virtual mass model
4 autoPtr < BlendedInterfacialModel < virtualMassModel > > virtualMass_ ;
5 // - Heat transfer model
6 autoPtr < BlendedInterfacialModel < heatTransferModel > > heatTransfer_ ;
7 // - Lift model
8 autoPtr < BlendedInterfacialModel < liftModel > > lift_ ;
9 // - Wall lubrication model
10 autoPtr < BlendedInterfacialModel < wallLubricationModel > > wa l l L u b r i c a t i o n _ ;
11 // - Wall lubrication model
12 autoPtr < BlendedInterfacialModel < turbulentDispersionModel > > t u r b u l e n t D i s p e r s i o n _ ;

Listing 247: The declaration of the momentum exchange members of the class twoPhaseSystem in
twoPhaseSystem.H

A momentum exchange model alone is nice, but what we really need are the contribution to the momentum
equation. Thus, the class twoPhaseSystem provides methods to access the respective force terms or the respec-
tive coefficients. We have seen this force terms and coefficients in action in Section 45.6.

1 // - Return the drag coefficient

2 tmp < volScalarField > dragCoeff () const ;
3 // - Return the virtual mass coefficient
4 tmp < volScalarField > v i r t ua l M a s s C o e f f () const ;

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5 // - Return the heat transfer coefficient
6 tmp < volScalarField > h e a t T r a n s f e r C o e f f () const ;
7 // - Return the lift force
8 tmp < volVectorField > liftForce () const ;
9 // - Return the wall lubrication force
10 tmp < volVectorField > w a l l L u b r i c a t i o n F o r c e () const ;
11 // - Return the wall lubrication force
12 tmp < volVectorField > t u r b u l e n t D i s p e r s i o n F o r c e () const ;

Listing 248: The declaration of the accessing methods for the momentum exchange coefficients of the class
twoPhaseSystem in twoPhaseSystem.H

35.2.2 The class multiphaseSystem

The solver multiphaseEulerFoam uses the class multiphaseSystem. This class seems to be the ancestor of the
class twoPhaseSystem.

Phase pair
The class multiphaseSystem declares a nested class interfacePair. A nested class is a class definition within
another class. Thus, the nested class is hidden from the outside world116 .
The phase pair class is used to deal with surface tension, which by definition is a property of a pair of phases,
and drag.

35.3 Turbulence modelling

35.3.1 Modelling strategies
The problem of turbulence modelling in multi-phase problems can be tackled in one of the following fashions. The
methods are sorted by their perceived computational cost. Whereas the first two methods may be equivalent,
the last is definitely more expensive in terms of memory and computational time. However, each of these
methods has its strengths and weaknesses, and its use cases.
Continuous phase only This model solves computes the turbulent properties of the continuous phase and
assumes an algebraic relationship between the turbulent properties of the continuous and the dispersed
phase. The influence of turbulence on the dispersed phase can also be neglected alltogether. In the Fluent
Theory Guide [9] it is noted: [...] is the appropriate model when the concentrations of the secondary
phases are dilute. In this case, interparticle collisions are negligible and the dominant process in the
random motion of the secondary phases is the influence of the primary-phase turbulence. In Fluent this
approach is referred to as dispersed turbulence model.

Mixture In this approach the turbulence model is evaluated for the mixture of all phases, i.e. the mixture
velocity and mixture density are inserted into the turbulence model. The turbulent quantities of each
individual phase are computed with the density ratio between the mixture and the corresponding phase.
The applicability of this model is described in the Fluent Theory Guide [9] as follows: [...] is applicable
when phases separate, for stratified (or nearly stratified) multiphase flows, and when the density ratio
between phases is close to 1.
Per-phase In this case each phase has its own turbulent properties. Because there are additional transport
equations to be solved per phase, this model is the most computational intensive. The Fluent Theory
Guide [9] states: [...] is the appropriate choice when the turbulence transfer among the phases plays a
dominant role.

35.3.2 Implementation in OpenFOAM

In Section 32.1 the frameworks for implementing turbulence modelling within OpenFOAM are discussed. Now
we take a look on multi-phase turbulence and OpenFOAM’s frameworks for modelling turbulence.
116 See http://pic.dhe.ibm.com/infocenter/compbg/v121v141/topic/com.ibm.xlcpp121.bg.doc/language_ref/cplr061.html
for details.

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 The old framework, see Section 32.1.1, allow only for the first two of the described strategies, since only
one turbulence model is employed by the multiphase solvers. The turbulence model is generally a global object
within the solver, as is also the mesh or the run-time object.
The new framework allows for greater flexibility. In the Eulerian multiphase solvers, the turbulence model
has been moved to the phase model. Thus, each phase has its own turbulence model. This allows for all three
modelling strategies discussed in Section 35.3.1. The turbulence modelling employed by twoPhaseEulerFoam
within the new framework is discussed in Section 45.4.

35.4 Interfacial momentum exchange

On the RHS of the momentum equation there are two types of source terms. The first term Fq,i is a force
density acting on the phase q. The second term is a force (density) coefficient Kqp,i which is multiplied by the
relative velocity uR = up − uq between the phases q and p.
The models for interfacial momentum transfer in OpenFOAM are implemented in a way, such that these
models return either a force or a force coefficient117 . The distinction between forces and force coefficents is a
matter of convenience. Contributions directly proportional to the velocity, e.g. drag, can be treated differently
than contributions indirectly proportional to the velocity, e.g. the virtual mass force which is proportional to
the time derivative of the relative velocity. Terms directly proportional to the velocity are numerically treated
differently than other terms.
The interfacial momentum transfer due to drag, lift and virtual mass are based on the force acting on
a single bubble. The turbulent dispersion force is observed when the turbulent eddies of the liquid phase
interact with a swarm of bubbles. This interaction tends to disperse bubble swarms [46]. Figure 105 gives a
schematic representation of the different momentum exchange mechanisms between the liquid and the gas phase.

Flift

Fdrag

(a) Drag; the black arrow indicates the relative velocity (b) Lift

Virtual mass

Fvirtual mass

Ft.-disp.

(c) Virtual mass; the purple arrow indicates the relative acceleration (d) Turbulent dispersion

Figure 105: Modelling approach on the example of a gas-liquid two-phase system.

35.5 Diameter models

As mentioned in the previous Section, diameter models were introduced at some point in the multiphase mod-
els. The multiphaseEulerFoam offered since its introduction in version 2.1.0 two diameter models (constant and
isothermal). With twoPhaseEulerFoam-2.3 a further diameter model was introduced, which is available only in
twoPhaseEulerFoam.

117 The correct denomination would be force density and force density coefficient. In the source files of OpenFOAM related to

these models, Fq,i and Kqp,i are referred to as force and force coefficient, most probably for the sake of reducing typing effort. As
OpenFOAM keeps track of the physical units of its variables, we can see from the actual source codes, that the force Fq,i is in fact
a force density.

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 OpenFOAM Constant, no model Constant Isothermal IATE
twoPhaseEulerFoam
2.0.x x
2.1.x x
2.2.x x
2.3.x x x x
multiphaseEulerFoam
2.1.x x x
2.2.x x x
2.3.x x x

Table 5: Overview of diameter modelling in Eulerian multiphase solvers

35.5.1 No model
The older versions of twoPhaseEulerFoam (≤ 2.2.x) use no model for the diameter of the dispersed phase
elements (DPE). In all of these versions the phase diameter is a scalar of type dimensionedScalar that is read
from the transportProperties dictionary.

35.5.2 Constant
The constantDiameter diameter model is the implementation of a constant diameter in a framework that
allows for a variable diameter.
Internally, the diameter is still a scalar which is read from transportProperties respectively from phaseProperties.
However, the phase model returns the diameter as a field quantity. Listing 249 shows how a volScalarField
is returned. The private variable d_ is of the type dimensionedScalar.

1 Foam :: tmp < Foam :: volScalarField >

2 Foam :: d iameterM odels :: constant :: d ()
3 const
4 {
5 return tmp < Foam :: volScalarField >
6 (
7 new volScala rField
8 (
9 IOobject
10 (
11 "d",
12 phase_ . U () . time () . timeName () ,
13 phase_ . U () . mesh ()
14 ),
15 phase_ . U () . mesh () ,
16 d_
17 )
18 );
19 }

Listing 249: Accessing the diameter in constantDiameter.

35.5.3 Isothermal
Gas bubbles change their diameter as the ambient pressure changes. The isothermalDiameter model imple-
ments this behaviour by assuming the change of state to be isothermal.
Generally, the ideal gas law (55) governs the state of a gas.

pV = nRT (55)

under the assumption of an isothermal state

pV = const (56)

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 Next we introduce the bubble volume
d3 π
V = (57)
6
Thus, we gain the relation
π π
p1 d31 = p2 d32 (58)
6 6
This leads to the isothermal diameter model
r
p1
d2 = 3
d1 (59)
p2

For the isothermalDiameter model the user needs to specify a reference pressure and diameter. Listing
250 shows the d() method of the class isothermalDiameter. The reference pressure p0_ and diameter d0_ are
private data members of the class118 . With Eqn. (59) the local diameter is computed (Line 10).

1 Foam :: tmp < Foam :: volScalarField >

2 Foam :: d iameterM odels :: isothermal :: d ()
3 const
4 {
5 const volS calarFie ld & p = phase_ . U () . db () . lookupObject < volScalarField >
6 (
7 "p"
8 );
9
10 return d0_ * pow ( p0_ /p , 1.0/3.0) ;
11 }

Listing 250: The method d() of the class isothermalDiameter.

35.5.4 IATE
IATE stands for interfacial area transport equation. This model is based on [35]. The IATE diameter model
solves a transport equation for the interfacial curvature kappai_.
Solves for the interfacial curvature per unit volume of the phase rather than interfacial area per
unit volume to avoid stability issues relating to the consistency requirements between the phase
fraction and interfacial area per unit volume.
Class description in IATE.H
In Section 65 we cover the derviation of the governing equations implemented in OpenFOAM from the equations
in [35].

35.6 Thermophysical models

Each phase in a multi-phase simulation is assigned its own set of models with regards to thermo-physical
properties, such as density, dynamic viscosity and specific heat capacity. The set of available models is discussed
in Section 33. In this section, we focus on the use of thermophysical modelling with respect to multiphase
simulations.

35.6.1 A note on using thermophysical properties in BCs

If we want to specify a massflow boundary condition in a multiphase simulation, we need to specify which
density is to be used for computing the velocity BC from the mass flow. Listing 251 shows an example, of how
we can specify massflow BCs. Note, the entry rho, which tells OpenFOAM which density to used to compute
the actual velocity BC.

118 An underscore (_) as suffix to the variable name apparently indicates private variables. Although the coding style guidelines

of OpenFOAM (http://openfoam.org/contrib/code-style.php) do not explicitely say so. However, this is recommended style by
other communities, e.g. http://geosoft.no/development/cppstyle.html.

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boundaryField
{
inlet
{
type flowRateInletVelocity ;
massFlowRate 0.2;
rho thermo : rho . air ;
extrapolateProfile no ;
value uniform (0 0 0) ;
}
// ...
}

Listing 251: Specifying a massflow BC in an U.air file, here we need to specify the phase-density.

In multiphase solvers, access to the density field is generally handled by the phase-model class. Thus, the
multiphase solvers do not create registered density fields, in contrast to compressible single-phase solvers, such
as rhoPimpleFoam. As access to the density is handled via the phase model’s thermophysical model, this reflects
in the way we refer to the phase’s density when we e.g. specify a massflow BC.
Note, that in Line 7 of Listing 251 a single colon (:) is used as a separator. This can potentially be confused
with the double colons (::), which are used in C++ to separate namespace qualifiers. However, in a certain way,
we find that this is also a sort of namespace, since the thermo prefix indicates that this field is a field which is
provided by the thermophysical model, as opposed to solver-managed fields, such as p or U.

35.6.2 A note on post-processing thermophysical quantities

Section 35.6.1 also applies, when we want to do some post-processing on thermophysical quantities, e.g. write
out the gas-density field as shown in Listing 252. Here, we also use a single colon (:) to separate the thermo
qualifier from the name of the field, i.e. rho.air. Using a double colon, or just the field’s name alone would
result in an error.

writeObjects1
{
type writeObjects ;
libs (" l i b u t i l i t y F u n c t i o n O b j e c t s . so ") ;

objects (
thermo : rho . air
);
writeOption anyWrite ;
}

Listing 252: Writing the gas-density field to disk, using the writeObjects function object.

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36 Boundary conditions
When the geometry of a problem is meshed, then the boundary patches – i.e. the faces delimiting the geometry
– need to be specified. Every boundary patch is of a certain type. In Section 36.1 the possible types are
discussed.

36.1 Base types

36.1.1 Geometric boundaries
Some kinds of boundary patches can be described purely geometrically. The numerical treatment of this kind
of patches is inherently clear to the solver and needs no more modelling.
symmetry plane If a problem is symmetric, then only half of the domain needs to be modelled. The boundary
that lies in the symmetry plane is of type symmetry plane.
empty OpenFOAM creates always three-dimensional meshes. If a two-dimensional simulation needs to be
conducted, then the mesh must be one cell in thickness. The boundaries that are parallel to the considered
plane must be of the type empty to cause the simulation to be two-dimensional.

wedge If a geometry is axisymmetric, then the problem can be simplified. In this case, only a part of the
geometry – a wedge – is modelled. The additional boundaries are of type wedge.
cyclic Cyclic boundary.
processor A boundary between sub-domains created during the domain decomposition is of type processor.

36.1.2 Complex boundaries

Some kinds of boundary patches are more than just a geometric boundary of the domain. E.g. on a wall, the
no-slip condition usually applies, therefore there is need for further modelling.
patch This is the generic type for all boundaries. A boundary is of this type, if none of the following types
applies.

wall This is a special type for walls. This type is mandatory for using wall models when modelling turbulence.
The boundaries of the types patch and wall need to be specified further. These boundaries can have boundary
conditions of the primitive or derived types.

36.2 Primitive types

The most important primitive type boundary conditions are:
fixedValue The value of a quantity is prescribed directly.
fixedGradient The gradient of a quantity is prescribed directly.

zeroGradient The gradient of a quantity is prescribed to zero.

type fixedValue ;
value uniform (0 0 0) ;

Listing 253: fixedValue boundary condition

36.3 Derived types

The boundary condition of the derived types are derived from the boundary conditions of the primitive types.
The boundary conditions of this type can be used to model more complex situations.

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36.3.1 inletOutlet
The behaviour of the inletOutlet boundary condition depends of the flow direction. If the flow is directed out-
wards, then a zeroGradient boundary condition is applied. If the flow is inwards, then a fixed value is prescribed.
The value of the inflowing quantity is provided by the inletvalue keyword. The value keyword has to be
present, but it is not relevant.

type inletOutlet ;
inletValue uniform (0 0 0) ;
value uniform (0 0 0) ;

Listing 254: inletOutlet boundary condition

36.3.2 surfaceNormalFixedValue
The surfaceNormalFixedValue boundary condition prescribes the norm of a vector field. The direction is taken
from the surface normal vector of the patch. A positive value for refValue means, that this quantity is directed
in the same direction as the surface normal vector. A negative value means the opposite direction.

type surfaceNormalFixedValue ;
refValue uniform -0.1;

Listing 255: surfaceNormalFixedValue boundary condition

36.3.3 pressureInletOutletVelocity
This boundary condition is a combination of pressureInletVelocity and inletOutlet.

36.4 Pitfalls
36.4.1 Syntax
When assigning a fixedValue boundary condition, OpenFOAM expects the keyword uniform or nonuniform
after the value keyword.
Listing 256 shows the file 0/k. There the inlet boundary definition differs from Listing 253. Note the missing
uniform keyword. The reaction of OpenFOAM differs from the value after the keyword version.
Listing 257 shows the warning message OpenFOAM issues, when the value after the keyword version is
2.0 like in Listing 256. In this case, OpenFOAM assumes uniform.
If the value after the keyword version is 2.1, then OpenFOAM will issue an error message like in Listing
258.
In both cases OpenFOAM-2.1.x was used. The author assumes the reason for this distinction between version
2.0 and 2.1 lies in an extension of the possible boundary conditions See the release notes of OpenFOAM-2.1.0
(http://www.openfoam.org/version2.1.0/boundary-conditions.php).

FoamFile
{
version 2.0;
format ascii ;
class vol ScalarFi eld ;
object k;
}

// * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * //

dimensions [0 2 -2 0 0 0 0];

internalField uniform 1e -8;

boundaryField
{
inlet

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 {
type fixedValue ;
value 1e -8;
}

Listing 256: The file 0/k

--> FOAM Warning :

From function Field < Type >:: Field ( const word & keyword , const dictionary & , const label )
in file / home / user / OpenFOAM / OpenFOAM -2.1. x / src / OpenFOAM / lnInclude / Field . C at line 262
Reading "/ home / user / OpenFOAM / user -2.1. x / run / t w o P h a s e E u l e r F o a m / bubblePlume / case /0/ k ::
boundaryField :: inlet " from line 25 to line 26
expected keyword ’ uniform ’ or ’ nonuniform ’ , assuming deprecated Field format from Foam
version 2.0.

Listing 257: Warning message: missing keywords

--> FOAM FATAL IO ERROR :

expected keyword ’ uniform ’ or ’ nonuniform ’ , found on line 26 the doubleScalar 1e -08

file : / home / user / OpenFOAM / user -2.1. x / run / t w o P h a s e E u l e r F o a m / bubblePlume / case /0/ k :: boundaryField
:: inlet from line 25 to line 26.

From function Field < Type >:: Field ( const word & keyword , const dictionary & , const label )
in file / home / user / OpenFOAM / OpenFOAM -2.1. x / src / OpenFOAM / lnInclude / Field . C at line 278.

FOAM exiting

Listing 258: Warning message: missing keywords

36.5 Time-variant boundary conditions

Time-variant boundary conditions can help to avoid problems from an inept initialisation of the solution data.
The most easy initialisation is to prescribe all values to be zero throughout the domain, see Listing 173 in
Section 29.
At the start of a simulation when the non-zero values of some boundary meet the zero values of the neigh-
bouring cells stability problems may arise due to the large relative velocities. One solution would be to choose
a very small time step at the beginning. Another solution would be to prescribe a time-variant boundary con-
dition. Thus, the field-values at the boundary are initially small and grow during a certain time span to their
final value.

36.5.1 uniformFixedValue
This boundary condition is an generalisation of the fixedValue BC. See http://www.openfoam.org/version2.
1.0/boundary-conditions.php.
Listing 259 shows the definition of a time-variant boundary condition with a fixed value. Between the time
t = 0.0 s and t = 5.0 s the value of the boundary condition is linearly interpolated between the values for both
ends of the interval. After this interval has ended, the value of the boundary condition remains constant.

inlet
{
type uniformFixedValue ;
uniformValue table
(
( 0.0 (0.0 0.0 0.0) )
( 5.0 (0.0 0.0 0.1) )
);
}

Listing 259: Definition of a time-variant boundary condition

Pitfall: old two-phase solvers

This boundary condition does not work with two-phase solvers of old OpenFOAM versions. With OpenFOAM-4
using time-variant boundary conditions poses no problem anymore.

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37 Mesh interfaces: AMI and ACMI
In a perfect world, the gods of CFD look favourably upon us mere earthly creatures. However, as the world
is far from perfect, the gods of CFD, in their infinite wisdom, blessed us with some of their beloved nasties:
non-conformal meshes, moving meshes and various other things.
However, not all hope is lost. OpenFOAM offers AMI and ACMI to address the issues of unconnected
meshes and moving meshes.

37.1 AMI and ACMI in brevity

AMI
The arbitrary mesh interface (AMI) can be used for connecting two unconnected meshes, when the connect-
ing patches fully overlap, e.g. a rotating, cylindrical mesh within a surrounding stationary mesh. AMI was
introduced in OpenFOAM-2.1119 .
AMI can be used not only to solve rotating mixer within a stationary domain, as e.g. in the various
mixerVessel tutorials of solvers capable of employing a dynamic mesh. We can also use AMI to couple two
unconnected, stationary meshes. Thus, we may have an easier time at mesh creation since, we can mesh mesh
sub-domains indidually and couple them in the simulation using AMI.

ACMI
With OpenFOAM-2.3120 the AMI method was extended and the arbitrary coupled mesh interface (ACMI) was
introduced. The ACMI allows for having partially overlapping patches.

37.2 Arbitrary Mesh Interface - AMI

37.2.1 Use case - varying body orientation
If we wanted to study the drag on a triangular body at various orientations, we could either create a mesh for
each individual orientation of the body in question, or we could harness the power of AMI.
In Figure 106 we see a simulation domain consisting of two unconnected regions. The outer domain, in grey,
has a cylindrical void. The inner domain contains the body under investigation, and its outer boundary is such
that the inner domain fills the void of the outer domain. The inner boundary of the outer domain as well as
the outer boundary of the inner domain are both of the type cyclicAMI.

Figure 106: Our simulation domain. The block structure of outer domain, in blue, does not match the block
structure of the inner domain, in red. However, by keeping the two regions separate, we cen mesh each region
individually, which is fairly easy, and use AMI to essentially connect the two regions. After meshing, we can
rotate the inner domain with respect to the outer domain to change the orientation of the triangle in the center
of the inner domain.

Thus, AMI will deal with the information exchange between the two unconnected mesh regions. When
simulating the flow, the two regions will act as if they were a single one. Furthermore, AMI frees us from the
119 See https://openfoam.org/release/2-1-0/ami/
120 See https://openfoam.org/release/2-3-0/non-conforming-ami/

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worry to create a matching mesh on the connecting boundary, i.e. the mesh of the inner patch of the outer
domain, and the mesh of the outer patch of the inner domain do not need to match. The only thing we need
to specify is which patch needs to talk with which other patch, i.e. we need to specify the neighbouring patch
of each AMI patch.
When we study the flow for various orientations of the body in question, we simply rotate the inner domain
with respect to the outer domain to get a proper mesh for current orientation. Thus, while we created a single
mesh, we can study an arbitrary number of orientations without the need to create the same number of meshes.
We simply use the utility moveMesh to rotate the inner domain to the new orientation, and we are good to go.

Figure 107: Varying the orientation of the investigated body. Since the body-fitting mesh of the inner domain
is in an over-all cylindrical shape, we simply can rotate the inner domain with respect to the outer domain, to
change the orientation of the investigated body with respect to the incident flow. After creating the mesh, we
can use moveMesh to rotate the inner domain. With appropriate settings for the angular velocity and the write
interval, we can get a mesh for any orientation of the triangular prism.

This case demonstrates the use of AMI for studies with a purely stationary mesh. If we apply all the steps
described above, to each time step of a simulation, instead of an individual simulation of a parametric study,
we end up with a sliding mesh simulation case. Thus, AMI enables simulations with a dynamic, sliding mesh.
However, AMI can also be used for simulations with purely stationary meshes. Sometimes it is easier to mesh
individual regions of the simulation domain individually, and let AMI handle the connection of this regions. In
the case of two stationary unconnected mesh regions121 , we could alternatively use stitchMesh to connect the
two regions. Using stitchMesh will result in a mesh with one single region.

Figure 108: A 2D simulation of the triangular, prismatic body in laminar cross-flow using AMI to connect the
body fitted mesh of the inner region with the mesh of the outer domain.

37.3 Arbitrary Coupled Mesh Interface - ACMI

The arbitrary coupled mesh interface works in a similar way as the AMI with the exception that the involved
patches do not need to overlap completely.
121 Or any number of unconnected mesh regions.

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37.3.1 Use case - varying body orientation
To demonstrate the ACMI, we use again the example from above. Only this time, our inner domain does not
fill the outer domain completely, see Figure 109. In this example, the remaining void represents the body under
investigation, i.e. a prismatic body with a semi-circular base. Again, by rotating the inner domain with respect
to the outer domain, we change the orientation of the body under investigation.
The inner boundary of the outer domain is a patch with the form of a cylinder shell. The outer boundary
of the inner domain, however, has the shape of the shell of a semi-cylinder. Thus, the two patches forming the
interface of the outer and inner domain overlap only partially.
The ACMI needs to distinguish whether a face has a neighbour, i.e. the face is part of the overlaping section
of the patch; or the face has no neighbour, i.e. the face acts as a wall. Thus, we need a pair of patch defini-
tions for each domain: couple and blockage. In the case of couple, we need to specify the neighbouring patch, as
we needed in the AMI case. In the case of blockage, we need to specify the behaviour, in most cases: being a wall.

Figure 109: A simulation domain with two unconnected regions. Note that the inner region only partially fills
the void of the outer region.

Figure 110: The inner domain in more detail. The block-structure of the inner domain is clearly recognizable.
The remaining void is the body under investigation, in this case a semi-cylinder.

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Figure 111: A 2D simulation of the semi-cylinder in laminar cross-flow using ACMI to connect the mesh of the
inner region with the mesh of the outer domain.

37.4 Avoiding errors

37.4.1 AMI and MRF
When using AMI in conjunction with MRF, add the AMI patches to the list of non-rotating patches in the file
MRFProperties.

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38 The MRF method
The MRF method allows for the simulation of rotating machinery without an actually rotating mesh. By using
multiple reference frames, we can simulate the problem with a static mesh. Although, this simplifaction intro-
duces certain modelling errors, the reduced complexity and faster computation times compared to a simulation
with a moving mesh, as well as the sufficient precision on a global scale, justifies this method under the right
circumstances. See Section 66 for the theoretical backgound of the MRF method.

38.1 Usage
The MRF method is applied to cell zones. This is clearly indicated by the cellZone keyword in the MRFProperties
dictionary, see Listing 260. Apart from where to apply the MRF method, we can enable/disable the application
of the MRF method using the active keyword.
Another important input is the list of non-rotating patches, aptly named nonRotatingPatches, as the solid
body rotation according to the rotation of the reference frame is applied to all wall patches. However, there
might be the case of patches within the MRF cell zone, that are actually stationary, hence the option to exclude
individual patches from the application of the MRF method.
Finally, in Listing 260, the nature of the rotation of the reference frame is specifed. This is done by providing
the axis of rotation (axis) and a point in space (origin). The point origin must be located somewhere on the
axis of rotation. The keyword omega is used to specify the rotational velocity.

zone1
{
cellZone rotor ;
active yes ;

// Fixed patches ( by default they ’ move ’ with the MRF zone )

n o n R o t a t i ng P a t c h e s () ;

origin (0 0 0) ;
axis (0 0 1) ;

omega table
2(
(0 0.0)
(0.75 20.0)
);
}

Listing 260: Specifying the necessary inputs for the MRF method in the MRFProperties dictionary.

Figure 112 shows the cell zone for the mesh of a stirred tank. The cell zone, to which the MRF method is
applied, is shown as white wireframe. Note, that this zone is of cylindrical shape and is aligned with the axis
of rotation.
If we extended the cylinder from the very bottom to the very top, then the bottom and top patches of the
stator would need to be entered into the list of non-rotating patches.

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Figure 112: A baffled stirred tank with a Rushton impeller. The stator patch is shown in grey and the rotor
patch is shown in red. The white wireframe shows the boundary of the rotor zone. For all cells of the rotor
zone the MRF method is applied.

38.2 Avoiding errors

38.2.1 Non-rotating patches
AMI and MRF
It has been found, that AMI-type patches need to be added to the list of non-rotating patches, see Section
37.4.1.

Cyclic patches and MRF

It has been observed, that when using cyclic-type patches, e.g. when simulating half a stirred tank as in Figure
113, we need to add the cyclic-type patches to the list of non-rotating patches in the file MRFProperties.

Figure 113: Half a baffled stirred tank with a Rushton impeller. The cyclic-type patches are shown as coloured
wireframes, and all other patches are shown as coloured surfaces.

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 39 The fvOption framework
The fvOption framework handles sources and constraints of our numerical flow model. The fvOption framework
allows us to plug various constraints or sources into an existing solver without any solver modification. Besides
general sources and constraints, there is a number of specialised sources representing a specific physical models,
e.g. the effect of a porous zone on the momentum equation.
The fvOptions framework was introduced with the release of OpenFOAM-2.2.0122 in 2013 and has expanded
since.

Motivation
The use of the fvOption framework is best explained on an example. Equation (60) shows a convective trans-
port equation for a general scalar C, e.g. a passive tracer concentration. On the RHS, we see the general,
linearized source term. If, in our example, the tracer enters the simulation domain through the inlet, then all is
well and an inlet BC for the tracer concentration C suffices. If, however, the tracer is introduced via a probe,
which we do not want to resolve with our mesh123 , then we need a mechanism to introduce the tracer C within
our simulation domain. This is where fvOptions come to the rescue. These offer us to specify, at the location
of the tip of the probe, an injection rate or a fixed value for the field C.

∂C
+ ∇ · (Cu) = Su + Sp C (60)
∂t
The fvOption framework offers a fixed-value constraint and a semi-implicit source, with which we can model
our tracer generating probe.

Application
Below, in Listing 261, we see the energy equation of a compressible flow solver of OpenFOAM. In this Listing,
all calls to the fvOptions framework are marked in red, green and blue. There, we see that the fvOptions
framework can act on the governing equation of a certain field itself, as well as act on the computed field after
the governing equation has been solved.

1 {
2 volS calarFie ld & he = thermo . he () ;
3 fvSc alarMatr ix EEqn
4 (
5 fvm :: ddt ( rho , he ) + fvm :: div ( phi , he )
6 + fvc :: ddt ( rho , K ) + fvc :: div ( phi , K )
7 + (
8 he . name () == " e "
9 ? fvc :: div
10 (
11 fvc :: absolute ( phi / fvc :: interpolate ( rho ) , U ) ,
12 p,
13 " div ( phiv , p ) "
14 )
15 : - dpdt
16 )
17 - fvm :: laplacian ( turbulence - > alphaEff () , he )
18 ==
19 fvOptions(rho, he)
20 );
21
22 EEqn . relax () ;
23 fvOptions.constrain(EEqn);
24 EEqn . solve () ;
25 fvOptions.correct(he);
26 thermo . correct () ;
27 }

Listing 261: The energy equation in the file EEqn.H of the compressible, single-phase solver rhoPimpleFoam
122 https://openfoam.org/release/2-2-0/fv-options/
123 E.g. the smoke probe used in wind tunnels for the study of external aerodynamics.

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 A solver, that uses the fvOptions framework creates an object of the type fvOptionList, which is a list of
fvOptions. This is also the reason why, for all calls to the fvOptions framework, parameters have to be passed.
Otherwise, the framework would not be able to assign the options to their respective equations. In the case of
a porous zone in the domain of a single-phase simulation, we might use the fvOptions framework to account
for the additional flow resistance in the momentum equation and also to apply certain source terms for the
turbulence model equations. Thus, the list of options has to be traversed to find and apply the proper fvOption
to the respective model equation.
In the Listing 262 below, we see the method fvOptionList::constrain() as an example of how Open-
FOAM applies the fvOptions. We traverse the list of all options, and for each options, we check whether this
option applies to the provided model equation. If the option applies, it is determined whether the option is
enabled, i.e. whether it is active, and if this is the case, the option is applied by calling the constrain() method
of the fvOption class, i.e. calling the constrain() method of the source itself.

1 template < class Type > void Foam :: fv :: optionList :: constrain ( fvMatrix < Type >& eqn )
2 {
3 checkApplied () ;
4 forAll (* this , i )
5 {
6 option & source = this - > operator []( i ) ;
7 label fieldi = source . applyToField ( eqn . psi () . name () ) ;
8 if ( fieldi != -1)
9 {
10 source . setApplied ( fieldi ) ;
11 if ( source . isActive () )
12 {
13 if ( debug )
14 {
15 Info < < " Applying constraint " << source . name ()
16 << " to field " << eqn . psi () . name () << endl ;
17 }
18 source . constrain ( eqn , fieldi ) ;
19 }
20 }
21 }
22 }

Listing 262: The method constrain() of the class fvOptionList

The mode of operation shown above is the same for all calls to the fvOptions framework, we see in Listing
261. Each call causes the list of options to be traversed, and all applicable options to be applied.

39.1 Controlling space & time

A number of fvOptions are derived from the base class cellSetOption, which implements control over when
and where the fvOption is to be active. This is used for porous zones, which make up only part of the simulation
domain, or for tracer injection, which might be of limited duration.
The active time of the fvOptions derived from cellSetOption is controlled by the keywords timeStart
and duration. The region in which the option is to be acting can be selected by providing the name of a cellSet
or a cellZone. by specifying points in space, or by provinding cell labels.
This, however, does not apply to all fvOptions. For some of them, a restriction to a limited time span or a
certain region would make no sense at all, e.g. for considering buoyant forces on the momentum equation.

39.2 Types of options

The fvOptions framework implements a number of different options, which fall into one of the following cate-
gories:

39.2.1 Constraint
A constraint acts on an already computed field. We can infer this from the point in the code when the method
fvOptions.constrain() is called, the relevant line is high-lighted in green in Listing 261.
With a constraint, fixed values at certain locations can be enforced in an otherwise freely computed field,
e.g. if we are solving the passive transport of a scalar acting as a tracer or marker, we can define certain cells,

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 in which the value of the scalar has a fixed value. These locations would be points in space, where the tracer is
injected into our simulation domain.
Available constraints, at the time of writing, are:
• fixedValueContraint
• fixedTemperatureConstraint

39.2.2 Correction
A correction is a type of option, that acts on a field after it has been computed. We can infer this from the
point in the code when the method fvOptions.correct() is called, the relevant line is high-lighted in blue in
Listing 261.
Available corrections, at the time of writing, are:
• limitTemperature

• limitVelocity

39.2.3 Source
A source adds source and sink terms to the governing equation of a certain field. Thus, a source influences
a field via the solution process of its governing equation. We can infer this from the point in the code when
fvOptions() is called, the relevant line is high-lighted in red in Listing 261. In contrast to the constraints and
the corrections, the sources call the ()-operator class fvOptionList.
There is a large number of sources available in OpenFOAM, ranging from very general ones, such as
codedSource or semiImplicitSource to specific sources for certain specific purposes, e.g. actuationDiscForce,
buoyancyForce and many others.

39.3 Sources
This sub-section contains an incomplete list of sources from the fvOptions framework.

39.3.1 Porosity models

The fvOptions framework can be used to model the influence of porous zones on the flow, e.g. the catalytic
converter in an exhaust system. The presence of a porous medium acts as a sink in the fluid’s momentum
equation. The explicitPorositySource fvOption can be used to model the effect of porous zones in a flow
simulation.
Listing 263 shows the momentum equation of pimpleFoam. Here, the contributions from the fvOptions
framework are on the RHS. A porosity model will introduce a negative term on the RHS, since porous zones
require additional force to drive the fluid through them.

1 fvm :: ddt ( U ) + fvm :: div ( phi , U )

2 + MRF . DDt ( U )
3 + turbulence - > divDevReff ( U )
4 ==
5 fvOptions ( U )

Listing 263: The momentum equation in the file UEqn.H of pimpleFoam

fixedCoeff
The fixedCoeff model calculates a momentum contribution S which is proportional to the velocity and the
squared velocity. The model features two model constants: α and β.

S = −ρRef (α + β|u|) u (61)

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 or a little rearranged

S = −ρRef α|u| + β|u|2 u

In OpenFOAM’s implementation α and β are vectorial quantities. In addition with a reference coordinate
system for the porous zone, anisotropic porosity can be considered. Isotropic porosity is then a special case
covered by choosing all components of α and β to be equal.

powerLaw
The powerLaw model computes a momentum contribution S, which is proportional to a model constant C0 and
the C1 -th power of the velocity. The powerLaw model does not support anisotropy.

S = −ρ C0 |u|(C1 −1) u (62)

or a little rearranged

S = −ρ C0 |u|C1 eu

DarcyForchheimer
The DarcyForchheimer model is very similar to the fixedCoeff model. It also has two contributions propor-
dp
tional to the linear and the squared velocity. This model is a combination of the Darcy model U = − µκ dx ,
which is valid for laminar flow, and the its extension to higher Reynolds numbers, known as Forchheimer model
dp
− dx = µκ U + kρ2 U 2 . The Darcy model is proportional to κ, the permeability of the porous medium, [κ] = m2 .
The Forchheimer model introduces k2 , the inertial permeability, [k2 ] = m.
There are two model constants of OpenFOAM’s implementation of the DarcyForchheimer model. The
Darcy coefficient d is the inverser permeability d = κ1 , and the Forchheimer coefficient f is the inverse inertial
permeability f = k12 .

S = − (µ d + 1/2 ρ|u|f ) u (63)

or a little rearranged

S = −ρ ν d|u| + 1/2 f |u|2 eu

In OpenFOAM’s implementation d and f are vectorial quantities, as are the coefficients of the fixedCoeff
model. In addition with a reference coordinate system for the porous zone, anisotropic porosity can be consid-
ered. Isotropic porosity is then a special case covered by choosing all components of d and f to be equal.

39.3.2 phaseLimitStabilization
With OpenFOAM-6124 an fvOption source was introduced to specifically, numerically stabilize transport equa-
tions when the phase fraction falls below a certain threshold. This source adds an implicit source term to a
transport equation for all cells in which the phase fraction falls below a certain limit.
Solving transport equations, which are formulated using a phase fraction field, becomes numerically more
and more difficult when the phase fraction field tends to zero in some cells. Adding an implicit source term
in those cells ensures the discretized equation system does not become ill-posed. When a transport equation
becomes ill-posed due to a phase fraction tending towards zero, the solver of the linear equation system fails
with a floating-point error.
Listing 264 shows the code of the relevant method of this source class. The max() statement ensures that
the source is only applied to cells in which the phase fraction alpha is smaller than the limit residualAlpha.

1 template < class Type > void Foam :: fv :: PhaseLimitStabilization < Type >:: addSup
2 (
3 const volS calarFie ld & alpha ,
4 const volS calarFie ld & rho ,
124 https://openfoam.org/release/6/

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Foundation, the producer of the OpenFOAM® software and owner of the OpenFOAM® trademark.
5 fvMatrix < Type >& eqn ,
6 const label fieldi
7 )
8 {
9 const GeometricField < Type , fvPatchField , volMesh >& psi = eqn . psi () ;
10 u n i f o r m D i m e n s i o n e d S c a l a r F i e l d & rate =
11 mesh_ . lookupObjectRef < u nif orm Di men sio ned Sca lar Fi eld >( rateName_ ) ;
12
13 eqn -= fvm :: Sp ( max ( resi dualAlph a_ - alpha , scalar (0) ) * rho * rate , psi ) ;
14 }

Listing 264: The method addSup() of the class PhaseLimitStabilization

We see from the code in Listing 264, that a uniformDimensionedScalarField rate is used to compute
the implicit source. This uniformDimensionedScalarField rate can be created by a codedFunctionObject
and then be registered with the mesh. Only when the uniformDimensionedScalarField rate is registered
with the mesh, can the PhaseLimitStabilization source access it via the lookup() method of the mesh. Listing
265 shows an example of how this can be done. The relevant line of code to register the computed rate field is
high-lighted in red. If this line is omitted, then the fvOption source will abort with an error caused by trying
to lookup a non-existent field. See Section 57.7 for in-depth information on the object registry.

functions
{
rate
{
libs ( " l i b u t i l i t y F u n c t i o n O b j e c t s . so " ) ;
type coded ;
name rate ;
codeRead
#{
static autoPtr < uni for mD ime nsi one dSc ala rFi el d > pField ;
if (! pField . valid () )
{
pField . set
(
new u n i f o r m D i m e n s i o n e d S c a l a r F i e l d
(
IOobject
(
" rate . water " ,
mesh () . time () . timeName () ,
mesh () ,
IOobject :: NO_READ ,
IOobject :: NO_WRITE
),
d i m e n s i o n e d S c a l a r ( " rateInit " , dimensionSet (0 , 0 , -1 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0) , 1.0)
)
);
}
u n i f o r m D i m e n s i o n e d S c a l a r F i e l d & rate = pField () ;
rate.checkIn();
#};
}
}

Listing 265: Computation of a rate field using a codedFunctionObject in the file controlDict.

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40 The Lagrangian world
In OpenFOAM not only the finite volume method (FVM), which is part of the Eulerian world, is implemented.
There are also Lagrangian methods available. The Lagrangian methods available in OpenFOAM cover fields
such as:
• molecular dynamics
• discrete particle method
• sprays
• general Lagrangian particle tracking
• reacting and combusting particles
This section covers general Lagrangian particle tracking. The basics behind the Lagrangian methods apply to
all models listed above, e.g. the molecule and the spray parcel are based on the particle class.

40.1 Background
40.1.1 Interaction between Lagrangian particles and Eulerian flow
The coupling between Lagrangian particles and the surrounding (Eulerian) flow can be characterised by their
degree of interaction.

one-way two-way four-way

flow acts on particles flow acts on particles flow acts on particles
particles act on the flow particles act on the flow
particle-particle collisions
e.g. snow drift e.g. dense particulate flows e.g. fluidized beds

Table 6: Levels of coupling between Lagrangian particles and (Eulerian) flow

Controlling the level of interaction

OpenFOAM’s Lagrangian model library is able to accommodate for one-way, two-way and four-way interaction.

40.1.2 Particle tracking

For particle tracking there are two general approaches, the lose-find method and the face-to-face method [49, 42].
Knowing the cell in which a particle is located is important when interaction with the flow fields is to be
considered.
The lose-find method tracks the particle along its path according to its velocity. The information on the cell
in which the particle is located, however, is lost in this process. Hence, this method is referred to as lose-find.
Whenever, the current cell in which the particle is located is needed, the neighbouring cells need to be searched
until the particle is found. This approach can pose some problems [49].
The face-to-face method, which is implemented by OpenFOAM, tracks the particles to the cell faces, updates
the cell information and tracks the particle further on [42]. Thus, only once at the start of the simulation the
cells at the particles’ locations need to be searched. During the simulation the cell index to which a particle
belongs is continuously updated whenever the particle crosses a cell face.

Barycentric tracking
With the release of OpenFOAM-5.0, the LPT algorithm was changed to barycentric tracking125 , see also the
relevant commit message126 . Barycentric tracking has been implemented to increase the robustness of the
tracking algorithm.
125 https://cfd.direct/openfoam/free-software/barycentric-tracking/
126 https://github.com/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-dev/commit/371762757dbe3cd38a3841a547a9bc8c1aff0b85

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 40.2 Libraries
OpenFOAM offers two choices for implementing or using Lagrangian particle tracking (LPT). A discussion on
these can be found in [44].

particle
The class particle is the root of all LPT in OpenFOAM, since it implements the tracking (i.e. the motion) of
the particles itself.

40.2.1 basic solidParticle

The basic choice for LPT is the class solidParticle, which is derived from particle. The class solidParticle
adds little to its ancestor class. The two additional data members are the particle’s diameter and velocity. The
two most important methods of solidParticle are move() and hitWallPatch(). With these two methods the
particle’s drag (via modifying the particle’s velocity in move()) and the wall interaction (i.e. wall collision, via
modifying the particle’s velocity in hitWallPatch()) can be implemented. This is sufficient for one-way and
two-way coupled simulations.

40.2.2 intermediate parcels

The advanced implementation of LPT in OpenFOAM is the intermediate library127 in $FOAM_SRC/lagrangian.
This library contains some heavily templated classes which provide a general framework to implement a range
of additional models for LPT, e.g. collision modelling, heat transfer or reactions. The intermediate library was
first published with OpenFOAM-1.5beta128 .
The basis for LPT itself is again the class particle, although hidden under layers of templates, Listings 266
and 267 show a prime example of OpenFOAM’s template insanity.

1 namespace Foam
2 {
3 typedef R e a c t i n g M u l t i p h a s e P a r c e l
4 <
5 Reac tingParc el
6 <
7 ThermoParcel
8 <
9 K in em at i cP ar ce l
10 <
11 particle
12 >
13 >
14 >
15 > basicReactingMultiphaseParcel ;
16
17 /* the rest of the code ... */

Listing 266: The class definition of the ReactingMultiphaseParcel class, in

basicReactingMultiphaseParcel.H

The class KinematicParcel is an example for the hardships one faces when trying to understand C++.
KinematicParcel is a templated class, with ParcelType as template parameter. In addition KinematicParcel
also is derived from its template parameter ParcelType.
Thus, KinematicParcel is a templated class built around ParcelType, however, it is a ParcelType too (by
inheritance).

1 template < class ParcelType >

2 class Ki ne ma t ic Pa rc el
3 :
4 public ParcelType
5 {
127 $FOAM_SRC/lagrangian/intermediate is actually a library, since it is a separate compilation unit and is compiled into $(FOAM_

LIBBIN)/liblagrangianIntermediate.
128 http://www.openfoam.org/download/version1.5beta.php

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6 public :
7
8 /* the rest of the code ... */

Listing 267: The class definition of the KinematicParcel class, in KinematicParcel.H

To underpin the claim made, that particle is the very root of LPT, we have a look at the most basic
parcel-based class of the intermediate library of OpenFOAM. Listing 268 shows the definition of the class
basicKinematicParcel, which is the class particle passed to the templated class KinematicParcel as a tem-
plate parameter. From one of the above paragraphs, we know that this means also that basicKinematicParcel
is derived from particle, hence it is a particle.

1 namespace Foam
2 {
3 typedef KinematicParcel < particle > b a s i c K i n e m a t i c P a r c e l ;
4
5 template < >
6 inline bool contiguous < basicKinematicParcel >()
7 {
8 return true ;
9 }
10 }

Listing 268: The class definition of the basicKinematicParcel class, in basicKinematicParcel.H

40.3 Cloudy, with a chance of particles

In OpenFOAM and its class layout there is the distinction between the single particle and the entirety of all
particles. The particle class defines the features and the behaviour of the single particle. The Lagrangian solver,
however, needs to deal with all particles. Not all particles are equal, but the solver should not have to deal with
this. In order to provide a common interface for the solver, OpenFOAM’s creators thought of the cloud class.
The cloud129 is class acts as a connection between the solver and the individual particles. It makes sure that
commands are passed on to all particles within the cloud.

40.3.1 The code to rule them all

This section is one of the many examples of OpenFOAM’s sources being case-sensitive. The class Cloud and
the class cloud are completey different things. Admittedly, Cloud is derived from cloud, thus every Cloud is
a cloud, however, not vice-versa. Always keep in mind: case matters.

The Cloud
A class is best described by taking a look on the code that actually defines it. Listing 269 shows from which
classes Cloud is derived from. Looking at the inheritance actually tells us what the class Cloud is, since an
inheritance relation is an “is a” relation. If A is derived from B, then A is a B.
The listing shows us, that Cloud is a cloud and a IDLList. This poses two new questions, what is a cloud
and a IDLList?

1 template < class ParticleType >

2 class Cloud
3 :
4 public cloud ,
5 public IDLList < ParticleType >
6 {
7 // code
8 }

Listing 269: The class definition of Cloud in the file Cloud.H; the ancestry.
In anticipation of the following paragraphs we can state, that the inheritance from two base classes is an
example of applied division of labour. As we will see, the cloud heritage is in charge of input and output (I/O)
whereas the IDLList legacy deals with the management of the single particles which form the cloud.
129 Not to be mixed up with the “cloud” in terms of information technology (IT) as in cloud storage, cloud computing, etc..

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 The cloud
The class cloud is an object registry similar to the mesh class130 . cloud is derived from the class objectRegistry,
and so are fvMesh and Time. This enables us to register fields with the particle cloud. The class objectRegistry
is in turn derived from regIOobject which is in turn derived from IOobject. Thus, the ancestry of cloud allows
us to read and write the particle cloud to disk131 . See Sections 57.7 and 57.8 for a more detailed discussion on
I/O and the concepts around the class regIOobject.
Disk I/O is most often seen in code that creates or reads fields. Via the cloud branch of a Lagrangian cloud’s
ancestry, disk I/O is controlled in a similar fashion. If we were able to sneak the line of code in Listing 270
e.g. into DPMFoam, right after the construction of the kinematicCloud object, then writing the Lagrangian
solution data to disk would be permanently disabled.

1 kine maticClo ud . writeOpt () = IOobject :: NO_WRITE ;

Listing 270: Disabling writing to disk for kinematicCloud

The IDLList
The IDLList is an intrusive doubly-linked list. The concept of a linked list is taught at programming classes
when it comes to objects and data-structures. The traditional linked-list consists of a list class and a node class.
The node class contains a pointer to, or the list-element itself. If the node class is implemented in a generic
fashion, using templates, then one list implementation is sufficient for all datatypes. Otherwise, the node class
would need to be implemented specifically for every datatype that is to be used by the list.
An intrusive linked-list is a very efficient implementation of a linked-list. However, the actual layout differs
from the standard layout of a linked list132 . In an intrusive list, the list element serves also as the node. Figure
114 compares the schematic layouts of traditional and intrusive linked lists.
Intrusive linked-lists are generally considered as being much more efficient than traditional linked-lists133 .
One of the downsides of using intrusive lists is that the implementation of the datatype which is to be used within
the list is mangled with the implementation of the list itself. Generally, this (mangling the implementation
of unrelated concepts) is considered a bad practice in object-oriented design (OOD). However, due to the
performance gain, intrusive lists are widely used in fields where performance beats conformity with standards,
such as computer games or number crunching.

List
Node* head

Node Node
Node* prev Node* prev ...
Node* next Node* next
MyClass* val MyClass* val

MyClass MyClass
Link prev Link prev
MyClass MyClass Link next Link next ...
elem elem // class data // class data
(a) Traditional doubly-linked list. (b) Intrusive doubly-linked list.

Figure 114: Schematic diagrams of doubly-linked lists.

130 In fact the class polyMesh is derived from objectRegistry. fvMesh is in turn derived from polyMesh. The mesh in a solver

or an utility application is of the type fvMesh. Almost all solvers and utilties include the file createMesh.H, which resides in
OpenFOAM/include of your installation.
131 Fields, such as volScalarField and others, are also derived from regIOobject via GeometricField and DimensionedField.
132 http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_43_0/doc/html/intrusive/intrusive_vs_nontrusive.html
133 http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_58_0/doc/html/intrusive/performance.html

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 Again, we can take a look at the actual source code to find out what is really going on. Figure 115 shows the
class diagram behind the singly- and doubly-linked intrusive lists. This diagram is in fact a great example of
how far C++ developers can go with abstraction and encapsulation. The classes SLListBase and DLListBase
define the behaviour as being single-linked or doubly-linked. The classes UILList and ILList are more or
less helper or base classes. The class UILList provides STL-conforming iterators, whereas ILList adds some
member functions. The reason for UILList and ILList being separate classes is unknown to the author.
In the case of classic linked lists (non-intrusive lists, either singly- or doubly-linked), the class LList derived
from its template parameter LListBase provides the base class for concrete non-intrusive linked lists.

DLListBase ListBase SLListBase

link* first_ link* first_
link* last_ label nElmts_
label nElmts_ link* first()
link* first() ListBase, T
link* last() UILList

T* first()
T* last()

ListBase, T
ILList

clear()

DLListBase SLListBase
IDLList ISLList

Figure 115: The class hierarchy needed for intrusive lists of objects of type T; this diagram can be regarded as
a subset of the class diagram for singly- and doubly-linked lists, both classic and intrusive.

40.4 Cloudy Templates

The Lagrangian models are modularized by making heavy use of inheritance and templating. This compart-
mentalisation of functionality and data is done for the clouds as well as the particles themselves. This approach
makes perfect sense as particles of the type X need a cloud of the type X to make X’s properties available to
the outside world (i.e. the solver using model X). To be more specific, if we want to solve heat transport with
Lagrangian particles, the particles themselves need to provide appropriate data (temperature) and methods
(heat transfer), as well as the cloud needs to offer appropriate methods (heat transfer from the particles to the
carrier phase and vice versa). Thus, most of the points discussed below hold also for the particles.
The templates for both the clouds and the particles create a framework which allows to create specific clouds
and particles simply by combining the templates carrying the intended functionality.

40.4.1 Base classes

kinematicCloud
This virtual abstract class (note the lower case k in kinematic) specifies the behaviour of the templated class
KinematicCloud (note the capital K in the class’ name).

thermoCloud
Also the virtual abstract class thermoCloud declares some abstract methods, i.e. methods that a derived class
must implement.

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 40.4.2 Templates
There are two kinds of cloud templates: the ones that are derived from a base class and their template parameter
CloudType, and the ones that are solely derived from their template parameter. In the following we try to shed
some light into the tempest of templates.

Base class + template parameter

One example for such a cloud template is the class KinematicCloud (note the capital K). This class is derived
from the class kinematicCloud (minor k) and its template parameter CloudType. The base class defines the
behaviour of the kinematic part, and the template parameter allows to add additional functionality.
A class passed as a template parameter can provide data and methods as well as a separate base class. How-
ever, pure abstract methods can realistically only be provided via the separate base class. The kinematicCloud
(lower case k) base class provides, among others, the pure virtual method nParcels(), which returns the total
number of parcels. If this method was provided by the KinematicCloud (capital K) template class, then we
would not be able to instantiate the basicKinematicCloud, as in Listing 273, since we can not create objects
of abstract classes.
Another reason for deriving a cloud template from a base class and their template parameter is to introduce
the debugging mechanism of the run-time selection framework. Listing 271 shows the relevant lines for the
example of the base class thermoCloud. This allows the use of the debug flag in the class ThermoCloud.

1 namespace Foam
2 {
3 d e f i n e T y p e N a m e A n d D e b u g ( thermoCloud , 0) ;
4 }

Listing 271: Introduction of thermoCloud into the debugging mechanism in the file thermoCloud.C

Template parameter
The classes CollidingCloud and MPPICCloud are templated clouds, which are derived only from their template
parameter. Both classes provide modelling for particle-particle interactions134 .

ParticleType
kinematicCloud Cloud

label nParcels()

CloudType : Cloud
KinematicCloud

label nParcels()

Figure 116: The class hierarchy of the class basicKinematicCloud.

40.4.3 Derived clouds

The derived cloud classes are the classes which we can actually use. The most basic derived cloud class is
basicKinematicCloud, which offers the minimal set of functionality. As we see in Listing 272, the basicKinematicCloud
is build from the KinematicCloud template with a Cloud of basicKinematicParcels135 as template parameter.
Here the dual templated hell of Lagrangian modelling reveals itself nicely. The template parameter of Cloud is
a particle type basicKinematicParcel. The definition of this particle type is shown in Listing 273. The type
basicKinematicParcel is also the most basic particle type provided by the Lagrangian intermediate library
of OpenFOAM.
134 See https://openfoam.org/release/2-3-0/dpm/
135 As the reader might remember, the class Cloud takes a template parameter ParticleType.

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 We note, that the kinematic cloud is a cloud of kinematic particles. The kinematic particle class provides
the means to move the particle around and the kinematic cloud type provides the means to move the particles
collectively. This is useful since a solver using Lagrangian particles does not operate on the individual particles.

1 namespace Foam {
2 typedef KinematicCloud < Cloud < basicKinematicParcel > > b a s i c K i n e m a t i c C l o u d ;
3 }

Listing 272: The class definition of basicKinematicCloud in the file basicKinematicCloud.H

1 namespace Foam {
2 typedef KinematicParcel < particle > b a s i c K i n e m a t i c P a r c e l ;
3 }

Listing 273: The class definition of basicKinematicParcel in the file basicKinematicParcel.H

To substantiate the claim from above, that the templates allow us to build custom Lagrangian models,
we take a look at some more derived clouds. In Listing 274 we see the definition of a cloud class, which of-
fers heat transfer modelling. This class throws the ThermoCloud template into the mix of the already known
KinematicCloud class. In combination with Listing 275, we see that the basicThermoCloud is a Cloud of
basicThermoParcels. Again, the type of the cloud is reflected in the type of the parcel.

1 namespace Foam {
2 typedef ThermoCloud
3 <
4 Kine maticClo ud
5 <
6 Cloud
7 <
8 basicThermoParcel
9 >
10 >
11 > b a s i c T h er m oC l o u d ;
12 }

Listing 274: The class definition of basicThermoCloud in the file basicThermoCloud.H

1 namespace Foam {
2 typedef ThermoParcel < KinematicParcel < particle > > b a s i c T h e r m o P a r c e l ;
3 }

Listing 275: The class definition of basicThermoParcel in the file basicThermoParcel.H

40.5 The evolution of clouds

The title of section is taken from the main method a solver calls during its run: evolve(). Listing 276 shows
the heavily redacted run-time loop of DPMFoam, where we see a call of the cloud’s evolve() method prior to
the PIMPLE loop which computes the fluid flow. Hence, the title of this section.

1 while ( pimple . run ( runTime ) )

2 {
3 Info < < " Evolving " << kine maticClo ud . name () << endl ;
4 kine maticClo ud . evolve () ;
5
6 // --- Pressure - velocity PIMPLE corrector loop
7 while ( pimple . loop () )
8 {
9 // ...
10 }
11
12 runTime . write () ;
13 }

Listing 276: The bare-bones run-time loop of the solver DPMFoam

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40.5.1 Evolution calling
What happens exactly, when the evolve() method of the cloud is called? To answer this question, we have to
travel the family tree. Figure 117 shows some of the involved methods and classes when a call to evolve() is
made by a solver using a Lagrangian particle cloud.

Figure 117: A simplified sequence diagram of a call to evolve() from DPMFoam.

The sequence shown in Figure 117 is more important to the developer than to the user. Cloud function
objects do offer methods that are evaluated at various stages over this sequence. The names of the methods are
quite telling: preEvolve(), postEvolve(), etc., with these it is important for the developer to understand the
sequence of events.

40.6 Run-time post-processing

The cloud class offers function object to perform some run-time post-processing. These can be found at $FOAM_
SRC/lagrangian/intermediate/submodels/CloudFunctionObjects. Among the cloud function objects are
ones for counting particles crossing a certain patch or computing the volume fraction field of the lagrangian
particles. See Section 40.8.2 for a more detailled discussion on cloud function objects.

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40.7 Times of Use
40.7.1 Not so telling error messages
Out of domain
As OpenFOAM’s Lagrangian particle framework keeps track of the cells in which a particle is located, a
Lagrangian solver needs to determine the cell label of each particle’s initial position. OpenFOAM’s particle
tracking algorithm is described among other resources in [45, 42, 49].
When a particle is placed outside the domain, i.e. the position in the positions file is outside the domain,
OpenFOAM is unable to find a cell label for this very particle. Note that failing to find a cell which contains the
particle’s location may happen also for other reasons than placing it outside the domain. As the error message
in Listing 277 suggests, this might also happen through a combination of insufficient write precision and do-
main decomposition or reconstruction. However, plainly putting them outside the domain is also a possibility,
especially, when a script is used to create the initial particle distribution.

--> FOAM FATAL ERROR :

cell , tetFace and tetPt search failure at position (0.0026 0.0026 0.4502)
for requested cell 0
If this is a restart or rec onstruct ion / decomposition etc . it is likely that the write
precision is not sufficient .
Either increase ’ writePrecision ’ or set ’ writeFormat ’ to ’ binary ’

From function void Foam :: particle :: in itCellFa cePt ()

in file / home / user / OpenFOAM / OpenFOAM -2.3. x / src / lagrangian / basic / lnInclude / particleI . H at
line 758.

FOAM aborting

Listing 277: Error message issued by OpenFOAM when a Lagrangian simulation is started with particle positions
defined outside of the domain; checkMesh reports for this case an Overall domain bounding box (0 0 0) (0.15
0.15 0.45); Note the position (Line 3) at which the search failure occurs

40.8 Sub models

40.8.1 Injection models
The are a number of models to insert Lagrangian particles or parcels into the simulation domain.

Common controls inherited from base classes

The injection models have a number of base classesm which determine common behaviour and provide common
data. Common control parameters are the start of injection (SOI), and the mass to be injected (massTotal).

ManualInjection
The manualInjection model is probably the simplest model. The user needs to provide the to-be-injected
particle mass and the injection positions. All parcels are introduced at SOI.

CellZoneInjection
The cellZoneInjection model works similar to the manual injection model. The locations at which parcels
are injected, however, are determined using a user-provided cellSet. The actual injection locations are randomly
distributed across the cellSet. The number of inserted parcels is determined by the volume of the cellSet and
the user-specified target parcel number density. All parcels are introduced at once at SOI.

FieldActivatedInjection
The fieldActivatedInjection model is also related to the manual injection model. In addition to the user-
provided injection locations, a scalar factor and the names of a threshold field and a referenceField have to be

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 specified. Parcels are injected only at locations at which the following relation holds:

factor*referenceField[celli] >= thresholdField[celli] (64)

Parcel injection is controlled by the injector positions read from the positions file. All positions, which fulfil
the condition above are valid injector positions. Furthermore, the number of parcels per injector (parcelsPerInjector)
has to be specified. Each injector injects parcelsPerInjector parcels which account for a parcelsPerInjector-
th of massTotal. Parcels are injected from SOI onwards until massTotal is reached.

PatchInjection
The patchInjection model introduces parcels at a patch rather than within a volume like the models discussed
above. This injection model implements a classical inflow condition for Lagrangian particles. The injection
position on the patch is chosen randomly. Parcels are injected from SOI until massTotal is reached.

40.8.2 CloudFunctionObjects
CloudFunctionObject are, similar to the standard functionObjects for fields, function objects for Lagrangian
clouds. The main purpose of OpenFOAM’s cloud function objects – judging by the implemented ones at the
time of writing – is post-processing. However, cloud function objects can also be used to actively influence the
Lagrangian particles.

PatchPostProcessing
This cloud function object can be used to accumulate data from all particles leaving the domain through a
specified patch. Thus, e.g. a residence time distribution (RTD) can be generated using this data.

FacePostProcessing
This cloud function object serves a similar purpose as the PatchPostProcessing cloud function object, only this
one acts on face sets.

VoidFraction
This cloud function object can be used to create the volume fraction field associated with the particles. Thus,
the name VoidFraction can be misleading.
If we take a look at the code, we clearly see that the volume fraction of the particles is computed. In Listing
278, we see the two methods of this cloud function object which are responsible for computing the result. The
field theta is initialized to zero, this is not shown in the listing. In the method postMove(), which is called for
each parcel after it has moved within the current timestep, the particle’s volume is added to the field theta.
In the method postEvolve(), which is called after evolving the Lagrangian cloud for the current time step has
been completed, the field theta is divided by the mesh’s volume, i.e. a field in which the value of a cell is that
cell’s volume.
Thus, as in each cell the volume of the particles is accumulated and subsequently divided by the volume of
the cell, we end up with the volume fraction of the particles.

1 template < class CloudType > void Foam :: VoidFraction < CloudType >:: postMove
2 (
3 // ...
4 )
5 {
6 volS calarFie ld & theta = thetaPtr_ () ;
7 theta [ celli ] += dt * p . nParticle () * p . volume () ;
8 }
9
10 template < class CloudType > void Foam :: VoidFraction < CloudType >:: postEvolve ()
11 {
12 volS calarFie ld & theta = thetaPtr_ () ;
13 const fvMesh & mesh = this - > owner () . mesh () ;
14 theta . p r i mi t i v e F i e l d R e f () /= mesh . time () . deltaTValue () * mesh . V () ;
15 CloudFunctionObject < CloudType >:: postEvolve () ;

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16 }

Listing 278: Two methods of VoidFraction.C

ParticleCollector
The ParticleCollector cloud function object can be used to count particles traversing an arbitrary surface defined
by a set of polygons or the area enclosed by concentric circles. The data accumulated by this cloud function
object involves the accumulated particle mass and the mass flow rate passing through the surface.
Optionally, counted particles can be removed from the simulation.

Figure 118: A set of polygons has been defined to count and remove traversing particles. In this case of a cylinder
in laminar cross-flow, particles are inserted through the inlet patch. The ParticleCollector cloud function object
was set to remove all counted particles, which is clearly visible in this snapshot.

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 Part V
Solver
41 Solution Algorithms
The solution of the Navier-Stokes equations require solving the coupled equations of velocity and pressure fields.
There are several solution algorithms that try to decouple the equations and compute the velocity and pressure
separately. In order to decouple the computation of velocity and pressure, a predictor-corrector strategy is
followed. This approach is referred to in literature on numerical methods as segregated solution.
The alternative to solving for velocity and pressure in a segregated fashion is to solve for the fully coupled –
also referred to as block coupled – equation system. In general, the momentum equation yields three equations
for the three velocity components and the pressure equation, which is derived from the continuity equation,
yields an equation for pressure. Instead of solving each of the four discretized equations individually, the fully
coupled set of equations could also be solved for. This translates a possible improvement in converge rate,
however, it also encompasses a much larger memory requirement and an altered convergence behaviour.
This section will deal with the segregated solution methods, as they are the most commonly used. In the
last sub-section we will briefly discuss coupled methods.

41.1 SIMPLE
Figure 119 shows the flow chart of the SIMPLE algorithm. The SIMPLE algorithm predicts the velocity and
then corrects both the pressure and the velocity. This is repeated until a convergence criteria is reached. The
labels in Figure 119 are related to the terminology used in the source code of the simpleFoam solver. The
solution procedure can be described as follows
1. Check if convergence is reached – simple.loop()
2. Predict the velocities using the momentum predictor– UEqn.H
3. Correct the pressure and the velocities– pEqn.H

4. Solve the transport equations for the turbulence model136 – turbulence->correct()

5. Go back to step 1
In OpenFOAM the SIMPLE algorithm is used for steady-state solvers.

41.1.1 Predictor
The predictor of simpleFoam is a momentum predictor.

1 // Momentum predictor
2 tmp < fvVectorMatrix > UEqn
3 (
4 fvm :: div ( phi , U )
5 + turbulence - > divDevReff ( U )
6 ==
7 sources ( U )
8 );
9
10 UEqn () . relax () ;
11
12 sources . constrain ( UEqn () ) ;
13
14 solve ( UEqn () == - fvc :: grad ( p ) ) ;

Listing 279: Predictor in UEqn.H of simpleFoam

136 In case of a laminar simulation an empty function is called. Turbulence is modelled in OpenFOAM in a very generic way.

Therefore, a laminar simulation uses the laminar turbulence model.

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 Start of time step

f alse
simple.loop() End of time step

true

UEqn.H

pEqn.H

turbulence->correct()

Figure 119: Flow chart of the SIMPLE algorithm

41.1.2 Corrector
The corrector is used to correct the pressure field by using the predicted velocity. This corrected pressure is
used to correct the velocities by solving the continuity equation.
The non-orthogonal pressure corrector loop is necessary only for non-orthogonal meshes [52].

p . boundaryField () . updateCoeffs () ;

volS calarFie ld rAU (1.0/ UEqn () . A () ) ;

U = rAU * UEqn () . H () ;
UEqn . clear () ;

phi = fvc :: interpolate (U , " interpolate ( HbyA ) " ) & mesh . Sf () ;

adjustPhi ( phi , U , p ) ;

// Non - orthogonal pressure corrector loop

while ( simple . c o r r e c t N o n O r t h o g o n a l () )
{
fvSc alarMatr ix pEqn
(
fvm :: laplacian ( rAU , p ) == fvc :: div ( phi )
);
pEqn . setReference ( pRefCell , pRefValue ) ;

pEqn . solve () ;

if ( simple . f i n a l N o n O r t h o g o n a l I t e r () )
{
phi -= pEqn . flux () ;
}
}

# include " c ontinuit yErrs . H "

// Explicitly relax pressure for momentum corrector

p . relax () ;

// Momentum corrector
U -= rAU * fvc :: grad ( p ) ;
U . c o r r e c t B o u n d a r y C o n d i t i o n s () ;
sources . correct ( U ) ;

Listing 280: Corrector in pEqn.H of simpleFoam

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41.2 PISO
The PISO algorithm also follows the predictor-corrector strategy. Figure 120 shows the flow chart of the PISO
algorithm. The velocity is predicted using the momentum predictor. Then, the pressure and the velocity
is corrected until a predefined number of iterations is reached. Afterwards, the transport equations of the
turbulence model are solved.

Start of time step

UEqn.H

true
PISO loop pEqn.H

f alse

turbulence->correct()

End of time step

Figure 120: Flow chart of the PISO algorithm

41.3 PIMPLE
The PIMPLE algorithm, which is a combination of the SIMPLE and PISO algorithms, is discussed further in
Sections 42 and 42.2.

41.4 Block-coupled solution

The block-coupled approach is something completely different than the aforementioned segregated algorithms.
In block-coupled solutions all equations (three equations for velocity and one for pressure) are solved at the
same time. This requires the construction of a fully coupled, discretised equation system for all four variables.
Thus, block-coupled solvers have a much larger memory footprint than sequential solvers.

41.4.1 Block-coupled solvers

The foam-extend project https://foam-extend.sourceforge.io/, at the time of writing, distributes two
solvers using the block-coupled solution approach.

blockCoupledScalarTransportFoam
This solver is derived from the standard scalarTransportFoam solver and solves the transport of two coupled
passive scalars.

∇· (uT ) + ∇· (DT ∇T ) = α (Ts − T ) (65)

∇· (DT s ∇Ts ) = α (T − Ts ) (66)

pUCoupledFoam
This solver is a steady state solver for incompressible, turbulent single phase flow. This solver solves for velocity
and pressure simultaneously.

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42 pimpleFoam
pimpleFoam is a transient incompressible solver using the PIMPLE alogorithm, which is a combination of PISO
and SIMPLE. The solver is described in the file pimpleFoam.C as follows:

Large time-step transient solver for incompressible, flow using the PIMPLE
(merged PISO-SIMPLE) algorithm.

Turbulence modelling is generic, i.e. laminar, RAS or LES may be selected.

42.1 Governing equations

42.1.1 Continuity equation
The general continuity equation reads as follows:

∂ρ
+ ∇ · (ρu) = 0 (67)
∂t
we now assume incompressible fluids: ρ = const

∇·u = 0 (68)

or in alternative notation

div(u) = 0 (69)
∂ui
=0 (70)
∂xi

42.1.2 Momentum equation

Departing from the Navier-Stokes equations, the momentum equation of pimpleFoam are derived.

∂ρu
+ ∇(ρuu) + ∇ · τ = −∇p + g (71)
∂t
because we assume a constant density we can divide by ρ
∂u 1 ∇p g
+ ∇(uu) + ∇ · τ = − + (72)
∂t ρ ρ ρ
The last term is defined a general source term
∂u 1 ∇p
+ ∇(uu) + ∇ · τ = − +Q (73)
∂t ρ ρ
τ p
the shear stresses and the pressure are denoted by new symbols: ρ = Ref f und ρ =p

∂u
+ ∇(uu) + ∇ · Ref f = −∇p + Q (74)
∂t
The Boussinesq hypothesis allows us to add the Reynolds stresses to the shear stresses. This stress tensor
– containing shear as well as Reynolds stresses – is denoted Ref f , the effective stress tensor. Both RAS as well
as LES turbulence models are based on the Boussinesq hypothesis.

Ref f = −ν ef f ∇u + (∇u)T


(75)
 
ef f ef f ∂ui ∂uj
Rij = −ν + (76)
∂xj ∂xi

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The trace of τ fulfills the continuity equation for incompressible fluids
 
ef f ∂ui
tr(Ref f ) = Rii = −2ν ef f =0 (77)
∂xi
∂ui
= ∇·u = 0 (78)
∂xi

Therefore, we can replace Ref f with the deviatoric part of Ref f

1
Ref f = dev(Ref f ) + tr(Ref f )I (79)
| {z }
deviatoric part
|3 {z }
hydrostatic part
1
dev(Ref f ) = Ref f − tr(Ref f ) I (80)
3 | {z }
=0

Therefore, the momentum equation can be rewritten

∂u
+ ∇(uu) + ∇ · dev(Ref f ) = −∇p + Q


(81)
∂t | {z }
=div(dev(Ref f ))

Finally, we use Eq. (75)

Ref f = −ν ef f ∇u + (∇u)T


(75)

to gain
∂u
+ ∇(uu) + ∇ · dev(−ν ef f ∇u + (∇u)T ) = −∇p + Q



(82)
∂t

42.1.3 Implementation
The momentum equation is implemented in the file UEqn.H. The first two terms of Eq. (82) can easily be
identified in the source code in Listing 281.
The first term is the local derivative of the momentum – due to the incompressibility of the fluid, the density
was eliminated – can be found in line 5 of Listing 281. Here, the instruction in the source code reads very much
the same as the mathematical notation.

∂u
⇔ fvm::ddt(U)
∂t
The second term of Eq. (82) is the convective transport of momentum. The use of the identifier phi should
not lead to confusion. In order to read the equations from the source code, phi can be replaced with U without
changing the meaning of the equations. The reason why phi is used in the source code lies in the solution
procedure. See Section 64 for a detailled discussion about phi.

∇(uu) ⇔ fvm::div(phi, U)
| {z }
div(uu)

The third term of Eq. (82) is the diffusive momentum transport term. Diffusive momentum transport is
caused by the laminar viscosity as well as turbulence. Therefore, the turbulence model handles this term. See
line 7 of Listing 281.

∇ · dev(Ref f )


⇔ turbulence->divDevReff(U)
| {z }
=div(dev(Ref f ))

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 The terms on the rhs of Eq. (82) are the pressure gradient and the source term.

−∇p ⇔ -fvc::grad(p))
| {z }
=−grad p

Q ⇔ sources(U)

1 // Solve the Momentum equation

2
3 tmp < fvVectorMatrix > UEqn
4 (
5 fvm :: ddt ( U )
6 + fvm :: div ( phi , U )
7 + turbulence - > divDevReff ( U )
8 );
9
10 UEqn () . relax () ;
11
12 sources . constrain ( UEqn () ) ;
13
14 volS calarFie ld rAU (1.0/ UEqn () . A () ) ;
15
16 if ( pimple . m o m e n t u m P r e d i c t o r () )
17 {
18 solve ( UEqn () == - fvc :: grad ( p ) + sources ( U ) ) ;
19 }

Listing 281: The file UEqn.H of pimpleFoam

42.2 The PIMPLE Algorithm – or, what’s under the hood?

This Section deals with the way pimpleFoam and twoPhaseEulerFoam, which also uses the PIMPLE algo-
rithm, work. Therefore, we examine the implementation of pimpleFoam. Listing 282 shows the main loop of
pimpleFoam.
The first instruction is the loop over all time steps. Then there are some operations – the three #include
instructions – concerning time step control. After incrementing the time step (Line 7), the PIMPLE loop comes
(from Line 10 onwards).
Inside this loop, first the momentum equation is solved (Line 12), then the pressure correction loop is entered
(Line 17).
At the end of the PIMPLE loop the turbulent equations137 – if there are any present138 – are solved (Line
22). At the end of each time step the data is written.

1 while ( runTime . run () )

2 {
3 # include " r e a d T i m e C o n t r o l s . H "
4 # include " CourantNo . H "
5 # include " setDeltaT . H "
6
7 runTime ++;
8
9 // --- Pressure - velocity PIMPLE corrector loop
10 while ( pimple . loop () )
11 {
12 # include " UEqn . H "
13
14 // --- Pressure corrector loop
15 while ( pimple . correct () )
16 {
17 # include " pEqn . H "
18 }
19

137 In case of a k- model, there are two transport equations to be solved. Other turbulence models require the solution of less or

none transport equation.

138 In case of a laminar simulation, no operation is carried out.

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20 if ( pimple . turbCorr () )
21 {
22 turbulence - > correct () ;
23 }
24 }
25
26 runTime . write () ;
27 }

Listing 282: The main loop of pimpleFoam

Figure 121 shows the flow chart of the PIMPLE algorithm. This algorithm is executed every time step. If the
PIMPLE loop is entered only once, then the algorithm is essentially the same as the PISO algorithm. Listing
289 draws this conclusion from the code itself.

Start of time step

f alse
pimple.loop() End of time step

true

UEqn.H

true
pimple.correct() pEqn.H

f alse

f alse
turbCorr()

true

turbulence->correct()

Figure 121: Flow chart of the PIMPLE algorithm

42.2.1 readTimeControls.H
In line 3 of Listing 282 the file readTimeControls.H is included to the source code using the #include prepro-
cessor macro. This is a very common way to give the code of OpenFOAM structure and order. Code which is
used repeatedly is outsourced into a seperate file. This file is then included with the #include macro. Thus,
code duplication is prevented. The file readTimeControls.H might be included into every solver that is able to
use variable time steps. If this code was not outsourced into a seperate file, this code would be found in every
variable time step solver. Maintaining this code, would be tiresome and prone to errors.
Listing 440 shows the contents of readTimeControls.H. The first instruction reads from controlDict the
adjustTimeStep parameter. If there is no entry matching the name of the parameter ("adjustTimeStep"), then

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1 const bool a djustTim eStep =
2 runTime . controlDict () . l oo ku p Or De fa u lt ( " ad justTime Step " , false ) ;
3 scalar maxCo =
4 runTime . controlDict () . lookupOrDefault < scalar >( " maxCo " , 1.0) ;
5 scalar maxDeltaT =
6 runTime . controlDict () . lookupOrDefault < scalar >( " maxDeltaT " , GREAT ) ;

Listing 283: The content of readTimeControls.H

a default value is used. So, omitting the parameter adjustTimeStep in controlDict will result in a simulation
with a fixed time step.

This is a very straight forward example of determining the behaviour of a solver using only the source code.
In this case the names of the source file as well as variable and function names are rather self explaining. In
other cases one has to dig deeply into the code to learn about what a certain command does.

42.2.2 pimpleControl
Examining the files pimpleControl.H and pimpleControl.C will generate some knowledge of the inner life of
pimpleFoam.

Solution controls
Listings 284 and 285 show parts of pimpleControl.H and pimpleControl.C. Listing 284 shows the declaration
of protected139 data in pimpleControl.H.

1 // Protected data
2 // Solution controls
3 // - Maximum number of PIMPLE correctors
4 label nCorrPIMPLE_ ;
5
6 // - Maximum number of PISO correctors
7 label nCorrPISO_ ;
8
9 // - Current PISO corrector
10 label corrPISO_ ;
11
12 // - Flag to indicate whether to only solve turbulence on final iter
13 bool t u r b O n F i n a l I t e r O n l y _ ;
14
15 // - Converged flag
16 bool converged_ ;

Listing 284: Protected data in pimpleControl.H

1 void Foam :: pimpleControl :: read ()

2 {
3 s ol ut io n Co nt ro l :: read ( false ) ;
4
5 // Read solution controls
6 const dictionary & pimpleDict = dict () ;
7
8 nCorrPIMPLE_ = pimpleDict . lookupOrDefault < label >( " n O u t e r C or r e c t o r s " , 1) ;
9
10 nCorrPISO_ = pimpleDict . lookupOrDefault < label >( " nCorrectors " , 1) ;
11
12 t u r b O n F i n a l I t e r O n l y _ = pimpleDict . lookupOrDefault < Switch >( " t u r b O n F i n a l I t e r O n l y " , true ) ;
13 }

Listing 285: Read solution controls in pimpleControl.C

139 Most programming languages provide access specifiers to specify the visibility of variables. The keyword protected means,

that the variables can be accessed only inside the class pimpleControl and all classes inherited from pimpleControl.

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 Reading the code we can see which keyword in the PIMPLE dictionary – it is a part of the fvSolution dictionary
(see Section 11.5) – is connected to which variable in the code. Three of the protected variables of Listing 284
are assigned in Listing 285. One of them has the same name in both the code and the dictionary. The other
two have different names.

Pitfall: no sanity checks

The two variables nCorrPimple and nCorrPiso control the solution algorithm. If the corresponding entry in
the PIMPLE dictionary in fvSolution is missing, then default values are used, see Section 57.3 for details behind
the method lookupOrDefault(). However, the user can provide any number in fvSolution as long as it is
legal140 . Thus, a zero or negative number is a legal entry from the source codes point of view. With respect to
the solution algorithm a zero or negative entry makes no sense at all.

The connection between keywords and the algorithm

The keyword nOuterCorrectors translates – with the help of Listing 285 to the variable nCorrPIMPLE_. This
variable controls how often the PIMPLE loop is traversed. Listing 286 shows parts of the definition of the
function loop() of the class pimpleControl. The return value of this function decides whether the PIMPLE
loop is entered or not. In line 5 of Listing 286 an internal counter is incremented – the ++ operator of C++
adds 1 to the variable the operator is applied to. Afterwards, the internal counter is compared to the value
of nCorrPIMPLE_. If this internal counter is then equal to the sum of nCorrPIMPLE_ + 1, then the function
loop() returns false.
The internal counter is initialised to the value of 0. Listing 287 shows the constructor of the class solutionControl.
The class pimpleControl is derived from solutionControl. So, every instance of pimpleControl has an inter-
nal counter corr_ inherited from solutionControl. Line 9 of Listing 287 how the counter corr_ is initialised
to zero.

1 bool Foam :: pimpleControl :: loop ()

2 {
3 read () ;
4
5 corr_ ++;
6
7 /* code removed for the sake of brevity */
8
9 if ( corr_ == nCorrPIMPLE_ + 1)
10 {
11 if ((! r e s id u a l C o n t r o l _ . empty () ) && ( nCorrPIMPLE_ != 1) )
12 {
13 Info < < algo rithmName _ << " : not converged within "
14 << nCorrPIMPLE_ << " iterations " << endl ;
15 }
16
17 corr_ = 0;
18 mesh_ . data :: remove ( " finalIt eration " ) ;
19 return false ;
20 }
21
22 /* code continues */

Listing 286: Some content of pimpleControl.C

1 Foam :: so l ut io nC o nt ro l :: s o lu ti on C on tr ol ( fvMesh & mesh , const word & algorithmName )

2 :
3 mesh_ ( mesh ) ,
4 r e s i d u a l C o n tr o l _ () ,
5 algo rithmNam e_ ( algorithmName ) ,
6 nNonOrthCorr_ (0) ,
7 m o m e n t u m P r e d i c t o r _ ( true ) ,
8 transonic_ ( false ) ,
9 corr_ (0) ,
10 corrNonOrtho_ (0)
11 {}
140 See Section 57.4.2 for details on the label datatype.

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 Listing 287: The constructor of the class solutionControl in solutionControl.C

The keyword nCorrectors translates – with the help of Listing 285 to the variable nCorrPISO_. This
variable controls how often the PISO loop – or the corrector loop – is traversed. Listing 284 shows, that there
are two variables related to the PISO loop, nCorrPISO_ and corrPISO_. The first variable is the limit and the
second is the counter.
nCorrPISO_ is read from the fvSolution dictionary by the use of the nCorrectors keyword. This number
tells the solver, how many times the corrector loop should be traversed. The corrector loop is a feature of the
PISO algorithm. Hence, the maximum number of corrector loop iterations is called nCorrPISO_.
The variable corrPISO_ is declared in the constructor of the class pimpleControl, see Listing 289. There
the variable is initialised to zero.
Listing 288 shows the definition of the function correct() of the class pimpleControl. The return value of
this function controls if the corrector loop is entered. In line 3 the counter corrPISO_ is incremented every time
this function is called. In line 10 the value of the counter is compared to the maximum number of corrector
loop iterations.

1 inline bool Foam :: pimpleControl :: correct ()

2 {
3 corrPISO_ ++;
4
5 if ( debug )
6 {
7 Info < < alg orithmNam e_ << " correct : corrPISO = " << corrPISO_ << endl ;
8 }
9
10 if ( corrPISO_ <= nCorrPISO_ )
11 {
12 return true ;
13 }
14 else
15 {
16 corrPISO_ = 0;
17 return false ;
18 }
19 }

Listing 288: The inline function correct() in pimpleControlI.H

PIMPLE or PISO algorithm

Listing 289 shows parts of the code of the constructor of the class pimpleControl. At first some data fields are
set to initial values. Then the read() function is called, this function is shown in Listing 285. After reading the
solution controls the variable nCorrPIMPLE_ is tested. If this value is equal to one, then the solution algorithm
equates the PISO algorithm. In this case an according message is printed to the Terminal.

1 Foam :: pimpleControl :: pimpleControl ( fvMesh & mesh ) :

2 s ol ut io n Co nt ro l ( mesh , " PIMPLE " ) ,
3 nCorrPIMPLE_ (0) ,
4 nCorrPISO_ (0) ,
5 corrPISO_ (0) ,
6 t u r b O n F i n a l I t e r O n l y _ ( true ) ,
7 converged_ ( false )
8 {
9 read () ;
10
11 if ( nCorrPIMPLE_ > 1)
12 {
13 /* code removed for shortness of listing */
14 }
15 else
16 {
17 Info < < nl << algor ithmName _ << " : Operating solver in PISO mode " << nl << endl ;
18 }

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19 }

Listing 289: Constuctor of pimpleControl in pimpleControl.C

42.2.3 Residual control of the outer PIMPLE-loop

The keyword nOuterCorrectors controls the number of outer-loop iterations used for each time step by the
PIMPLE algorithm. In addition to the fixed number nOuterCorrectors, the number of outer-loop iterations can
also be controlled by the residuals of the actual solution. If this residual-control is used, then nOuterCorrectors
sets the upper limit for outer-loop iterations, if the specified tolerance for the residuals is met with less iterations,
then the outer-loop is considered converged.

A note on OpenFOAM-6
With OpenFOAM-6141 the residual-control framework of the PIMPLE solution control class was reorganized,
making it consistent with the SIMPLE solution control class. With this changes, residualControl acts on
the simulation as a whole, whereas the new outerCorrectorResidualControl manages the outer-loop of the
PIMPLE algorithm.

PIMPLE
{
// ...

outerCorrectorResidualControl
{
p_rgh
{
relTol 0;
tolerance 0.0001;
}
}
}

Listing 290: outerCorrectorResidualControl

141 https://github.com/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-dev/commit/4c8122783aedaa7dadf0486163a98350e625db32#

diff-13b1708e0fc8512ad44fa3edd4175459

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 43 rhoPimpleFoam
43.1 General remarks
rhoPimpleFoam is a compressible, single-phase solver.

43.2 Solution algorithm

rhoPimpleFoam uses, as the name indicates, the PIMPLE algorithm.

43.3 Governing equations

43.3.1 Density
The solver rhoPimpleFoam is a pressure-based solver, which solves for the velocity and the pressure field. The
alternative would be a density-based solver, which solves for velocity and density. However, density-based
solvers are quite rare in OpenFOAM, as the only solver known to the author is rhoCentralFoam.
For the density there are two options: either compute the density from the continuity equation; or compute
it from the pressure via the thermodynamic model, i.e. the equation of state. These two options are controlled
by the keyword SIMPLErho in the PIMPLE dictionary of the file fvSolution.

Solving the continuity equation

In Listing 291 the continuity equation is shown. This equation is solved, when the keyword SIMPLErho is set to
false.

1 {
2 fvSc alarMatr ix rhoEqn
3 (
4 fvm :: ddt ( rho )
5 + fvc :: div ( phi )
6 ==
7 fvOptions ( rho )
8 );
9
10 fvOptions . constrain ( rhoEqn ) ;
11
12 rhoEqn . solve () ;
13
14 fvOptions . correct ( rho ) ;
15 }

Listing 291: The continuity equation in the file rhoEqn.H

Computing the density via the equation of state

The other option to compute the density is to compute it via the equation of state. This option is used when
the keyword SIMPLErho is set to true.
Below, the equation of state for a perfect gas is shown.

p
ρ= (83)
RT
In the example of a perfect gas, using the equation of state has the advantage that the density is computed
from the pressure and the temperature, which have already been computed.
This option was described in the relevant commit message142 as follows:
With this option the density is updated from thermodynamics rather than continuity after the
pressure equation which is better behaved if pressure is relaxed and/or solved to a loose relative
tolerance.
142 https://github.com/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-dev/commit/79ff91350ef6092b2dd864029a6023bec2b66b50

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 44 twoPhaseEulerFoam
This section is valid for OpenFOAM-2.0 til OpenFOAM-2.2.

44.1 General remarks

twoPhaseEulerFoam is a solver for two-phase problems. According to the CFD-Online Forum (http://www.
cfd-online.com/Forums/openfoam/) this solver as well as bubbleFoam is based on the PhD thesis of Henrik
Rusche [56]. In the course of an update of OpenFOAM-2.1.x in July 2012 the solution algorithm of the continuity
equation was changed.

44.1.1 Turbulence
twoPhaseEulerFoam can only use the k- turbulence model. This model is so to say hardcoded and can only be
turned on or off.

44.1.2 Kinetic theory

twoPhaseEulerFoam can make use of the kinetic theory for granular simulations, e.g. air flowing through a bed
of small particles. This model can also be turned on or off.
In the following sections kinetic theory is ignored for the reason of keeping listings and explanations short.

44.2 Solver algorithm

twoPhaseEulerFoam is based on the PIMPLE algorithm. However, there are some modifications necessary for
solving two-phase problems. Listing 292 shows the main part of this solver. The first two lines inside the main
loop (pimple.loop()) differ from pimpleFoam. These lines deal with the two-phase continuity equation and
the inter-phase momentum exchange coefficients.
Next, in line 6, comes the momentum predictor It contains the momentum equations for both phases and
solves them subsequently, thus the filename UEqns.H.
After the predictor comes the corrector. The corrector is in fact a corrector loop. Inside this loop
(pimple.correct()) the correction of pressure and velocity is computed. Inside the corrector loop (line 15)
there is also a conditional second call of the continuity equation. The condition consists of two boolean state-
ments. The first is a boolean variable, which is set in a dictionary by the user. The second is generated by the
solution control.
After the corrector loop the total time derivatives of the velocities are calculated. Finally, the turbulent
transport equations are solved. In this case it is the k- model that is called explicitly (line 23).

1 // --- Pressure - velocity PIMPLE corrector loop

2 while ( pimple . loop () )
3 {
4 # include " alphaEqn . H "
5 # include " l iftDragC oeffs . H "
6 # include " UEqns . H "
7
8 // --- Pressure corrector loop
9 while ( pimple . correct () )
10 {
11 # include " pEqn . H "
12
13 if ( correctAlpha && ! pimple . finalIter () )
14 {
15 # include " alphaEqn . H "
16 }
17 }
18
19 # include " DDtU . H "
20
21 if ( pimple . turbCorr () )
22 {
23 # include " kEpsilon . H "

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24 }
25 }

Listing 292: The main loop of twoPhaseEulerFoam

Figure 122 shows the flow chart of all operations that are performed during one time step.

Start of time step

f alse
pimple.loop() End of time step

true

alphaEqn.H

liftDrag.H

UEqn.H

true
pimple.correct() pEqn.H

f alse

DDtU.H
correctAlpha() f alse
& !finalIter()
f alse
turbCorr() true

alphaEqn.H
true

kEpsilon.H

Figure 122: Flow chart of the main loop of twoPhaseEulerFoam

44.2.1 Continuity
The continuity equation is implemented in the file alphaEqn.H.

Second call
In line 15 of Listing 292 the continuity equation is called again inside an if-statement. The condition depends
on two boolean expressions.

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 The first, correctAlpha, is controlled by the fvSolution dictionary. Assigning a value to this keyword – the
keyword has the same name as the boolean variable in the source code – is mandatory. The reading operation
of this keyword from the dictionary can be found in the source file readTwoPhaseEulerFoamControls.H and is
shown in Listing 293.
Three keywords are looked up from the fvSolution dictionary. All of them are related to the solving
algorithm for the continuity equation. Those entries are read from the dictionary by invoking the function
lookup(). See Section 57.3 for a detailed discussion about looking up keywords from dictionaries.

1 # include " r e a dT i m e C o n t r o l s . H "

2
3 int nAlphaCorr ( readInt ( pimple . dict () . lookup ( " nAlphaCorr " ) ) ) ;
4 int n Al ph aS u bCyc le s ( readInt ( pimple . dict () . lookup ( " nA lp ha S ub Cy cl e s " ) ) ) ;
5 Switch correctAlpha ( pimple . dict () . lookup ( " correctAlpha " ) ) ;

Listing 293: The content of readTwoPhaseEulerFoamControls.H

The second boolean expression controlling the second call in line 15 of Listing 292 is controlled by the number
of iterations of the PIMPLE loop. See Section 42.2 for a discussion about the PIMPLE algorithm.
The expression pimple.finalIter() is true when the last iteration of the PIMPLE algorithm is entered.
Therefore, the expression !pimple.finalIter() is true if, and only if, the value of nOuterCorrectors or
nCorrPIMPLE_ is greater than one. Because only then, there is more than one PIMPLE iteration and only then,
there is an iteration other than the final one.
If the PIMPLE loop is traversed only once, then alphaEqn.H is not entered a second time.

The file alphaEqn.H

The examination of the file alphaEqn.H results in the flow chart in Figure 123. The corrector loop is traversed
a specified number of times. This number is set by the keyword nAlphaCorr of the fvSolution dictionary. The
corrector loop is a simple for loop.
Inside the corrector loop is a sub-cycle loop. Inside this loop the continuity equation is solved. After the
sub-cycle the volume fraction of the continuous phase is updated. The sub-cycle loop is also traversed a specified
number of times. This number is set by the keyword nAlphaSubCycles of the fvSolution dictionary.
When the corrector loop is not entered anymore, the mixture density is updated.

44.3 Momentum exchange between the phases

44.3.1 Drag
The solver twoPhaseEulerFoam offers a number of drag models. In the sources of twoPhaseEulerFoam there
are this models
• Ergun

• Gibilaro
• GidaspowErgunWenYu
• GidaspowSchillerNaumann
• SchillerNaumann

• SyamlalOBrien
• WenYu
The equations behind this models can be found in [27] or [65].
Drag is considered in the governing equations by the use of the so-called drag-function K. This drag-function
is either computed directly, or it is computed by the use of the drag coefficient Cd . The drag force is the product
of the drag-function and the relative velocity between the phases Ur [27].

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 Start

f alse rho = alpha1*rho1

corrector loop End
+ alpha2*rho2

true

true
sub-cycle solve continuity

f alse

alpha2 = scalar(1)
- alpha1

Figure 123: Flow chart of the operations in alphaEqn.H

Schiller-Naumann drag
We use the Schiller-Naumann drag model as an expample to demonstrate how OpenFOAM calculates the drag
force. This drag model utilizes a drag coefficient that is a function of the Reynolds number.

(
24


Re 1 + 0.15Re0.687 if Re ≤ 1000
Cd = (84)
0.44 if Re > 1000
3 Ur
K= Cd ρB (85)
4 dA
The drag coefficient is dimensionless, whereas the product of the drag-function K and the relative velocity
has the dimension of a force density.

Ur kg m 1 kg
[K] = [Cd ] · [ρB ] · [ ] = 1· 3 · = 3
dA m s m m s
kg m kgm 1 N
[K · Ur ] = 3 · = 2 · 3 = 3
m s s s m m
Listing 294 shows, how the drag-function is computed by the Schiller-Naumann drag model.

Foam :: tmp < Foam :: volScalarField > Foam :: Sc h il le rN au m an n :: K

(
const volS calarFie ld & Ur
) const
{
volS calarFie ld Re ( max ( Ur * phasea_ . d () / phaseb_ . nu () , scalar (1.0 e -3) ) ) ;

volS calarFie ld Cds

(

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 neg ( Re - 1000) *(24.0*(1.0 + 0.15* pow ( Re , 0.687) ) / Re )
+ pos ( Re - 1000) *0.44
);

return 0.75* Cds * phaseb_ . rho () * Ur / phasea_ . d () ;

}

Listing 294: Calculation of the drag-function in the file SchillerNaumann.H

The drag force contributes to the momentum balance. Probably for numerical reasons, one part of the drag
is considered in the momentum equation and the other part is considered in the pressure equation.

44.3.2 Lift
The lift model of twoPhaseEulerFoam is described in [56]. The lift model computes the lift force on a rigid
sphere in shear flow. The force density is calculated from the relative velocity between the phases and the
vorticity of the mixture.

FL
= CL ρc |Ur × (∇ × Uc )| (86)
VB
mit

Ur = UA − UB
Uc = αUA + (1 − α) UB
| {z }
=β

ρc = αρA + βρB

The lift force is computed in the file liftDragCoeffs.H. The vector field liftCoeff contains the lift force
density.

volV ectorFie ld liftCoeff ( Cl *( beta * rhob + alpha * rhoa ) *( Ur ^ fvc :: curl ( U ) ) ) ;

Listing 295: Berechnung Auftriebskraft; liftDragCoeffs.H

The dimensions of the field liftCoeff is the dimension of a force density.

kg m 1 m kgm 1 N
[lif tCoef f ] = [CL ] · [ρc ] · [Ur × (∇ × Uc )] = 1 · · = 2 · 3 = 3
m3 s m s s m m

44.3.3 Virtual mass

The virtual mass – an accelerating bubble needs not only to accelerate its own mass, it also needs to accelerate
some of the displaced fluid – is considered in the momentum equation.

 
ρB D B UB DA UA
MA,V M = β CV M − (87)
ρA Dt Dt

In the source code, the momentum exchange term due to virtual mass is split into two parts. One part is
included in the rhs of the momentum equation, the other is considered in the lhs. This seperation is probably
for numerical reasons.

UaEqn =
(
( scalar (1) + Cvm * rhob * beta / rhoa ) *
(
fvm :: ddt ( Ua )
+ fvm :: div ( phia , Ua , " div ( phia , Ua ) " )
- fvm :: Sp ( fvc :: div ( phia ) , Ua )
)

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 + /* other terms */
==
/* other terms */
- beta / rhoa *( liftCoeff - Cvm * rhob * DDtUb )
);

Listing 296: Terms including virtual mass in the file UEqns.H

44.4 Kinetic Theory

For the simulation of dense gas-solid particulate flows the particulate phase can be modelled using the kinetic
theory model.

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45 twoPhaseEulerFoam-2.3
This section is valid for OpenFOAM-2.3.
With the release of OpenFOAM-2.3 the two-phase Eulerian solver twoPhaseEulerFoam has seen some major
changes. See the release notes for further details: http://www.openfoam.org/version2.3.0/multiphase.php.

45.1 Physics
The most important change in twoPhaseEulerFoam from version ≤ 2.2.x to 2.3 is that the solver is based on
a completely different set of physical models. In version 2.3 phases are modelled using OpenFOAMs thermo-
physical models. The phases are considered compressible, therefore all simplifications when considering a phase
incompressible do not hold anymore.

45.1.1 Pressure
In twoPhaseEulerFoam-2.3 the pressure is now a real physical pressure. In an incompressible simulation the
absolute value of the pressure has no meaning, only pressure differences count. In a compressible model, the
absolute value of the pressure has an effect, e.g. when using the isothermalDiameter diameter model to
determine the diameter of the dispersed phase elements.
Thus, when migrating a simulation case from OpenFOAM-2.2 or lower to 2.3, check the pressure initial
condition and the boundary conditions.

45.1.2 Temperature
As the new version of the solver uses thermo-physical models for the phases, the user is required to specify not
only the thermo-physical properties of the phases, the user also has to provide initial and boundary conditions
for the temperature of both phases. Thus, two additional fields are present – or need to be present – in the
time directories, e.g. T.air and T.water.

45.2 Naming scheme

The overhaul of twoPhaseEulerFoam in version 2.3 aims for reuseability and generality of the solver code itself
as well as of the case data. A general distinction of data concerning a single phase and data concerning the
whole simulation case can be made.
Case data is named as usual (e.g. fvSchemes, controlDict, g, etc.). Data related to a specific phase is
now stored in files with a filename that consists of two parts. The naming scheme follows the well known
FILENAME.EXTENSION naming scheme. In this case FILENAME denotes the type of information and EXTENSION
denotes the phase itself. This naming scheme is much more general than other naming schemes that are/were
used in OpenFOAM (cf. U1, U2 vs. Uwater, Uair vs. U.air, U.water).
Listing 297 shows the contents of the 0 and constant folders of the bubble column tutorial case. There
we see the FILENAME.EXTENSION naming scheme applied. As each phase has a velocity and a temperature, we
see two files for velocity and temperature. The volume fraction is an exception, as there are only two phase
considered, the volume fraction of water is easily calculated, i.e. alpha.water = 1.0 - alpha.air. As the
pressure is share by all phases, the pressure file has no file-extension. In the constant folder there is also data
that applies to one phase and data that applies to the simulation case. The files g and phaseProperties have
no extensions because they contain no information specific to one phase. The thermophysical properties of the
phases air and water are stored in the appropiate files.
The naming scheme that was introduced with twoPhaseEulerFoam-2.3 is fit to create a material data library.
The was the phases or the phase data is organized within the solver is now independent of the way the phase
data is organized within the case.

user@host :∼/ OpenFOAM / OpenFOAM -2.3. x / tutorials / multiphase / t w o P h a s e E u l e r F o a m / RAS / bubbleColumn$

ls 0 -1
alpha . air
alpha . air . org
epsilon . air
epsilon . water
k . air

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k . water
nut . air
nut . water
p
T . air
Theta
T . water
U . air
U . water
user@host :∼/ OpenFOAM / OpenFOAM -2.3. x / tutorials / multiphase / t w o P h a s e E u l e r F o a m / RAS / bubbleColumn$
ls constant -1
g
p ha se Pr o pe rt ie s
polyMesh
t h e r m o p h y s i c a l P r o p e r t i e s . air
t h e r m o p h y s i c a l P r o p e r t i e s . water
t u r b u l e n c e P r o p e r t i e s . air
t u r b u l e n c e P r o p e r t i e s . water

Listing 297: Content of the 0 and constant folders of the bubble column tutorial case of twoPhaseEulerFoam
in OpenFOAM-2.3.x

45.3 Solver capabilities

Not only the naming scheme is more general in version 2.3, also the solver itself is more generalized.
Compressibility all phases are treated as compressible. In the file thermophysicalProperties the behaviour
of a phase can be specified.
Energy equation twoPhaseEulerFoam solves an energy equation for all phases. This can not be turned off.
Phase interaction has been extended. A great number of models specific for gas-liquid systems have been
included.
Turbulence Turbulence is treated in a more general way. A number of turbulence models can be used in
contrast to earlier versions of twoPhaseEulerFoam that had kEpsilon hard-coded.

45.4 Turbulence models

twoPhaseEulerFoam-2.3 uses a whole new class of turbulence models. As the governing equations of twoPhaseEuler-
Foam – namely the momentum equation – aren’t phase intensive anymore, also the governing equations of the
turbulence model are formulated in their general multi-phase form143 .
This limits the choice of turbulence models to a small number of multi-phase turbulence models. Listings
298 and 299 show the list of available turbulence models at the time of writing (May 2014).

Valid RASModel types :

6
(
LaheyKEpsilon
continuousGasKEpsilon
kEpsilon
kineticTheory
m ix tu re K Ep si lo n
phasePressure
)

Listing 298: Valid RAS turbulence models of twoPhaseEulerFoam.

Valid LESModel types :

5
(
NicenoKEqn
143 http://www.openfoam.org/version2.3.0/multiphase.php

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 Smagorinsky
S m a g o r i n s k y Zh a n g
continuousGasKEqn
kEqn
)

Listing 299: Valid LES turbulence models of twoPhaseEulerFoam.

45.4.1 Naming scheme

One feature of the multi-phase turbulence model framework is that the additional turbulent viscosity is now
named nut, regardless of whether a RAS or an LES model is used. This is possible, since both additional
viscosities stem from the application of the Boussinesq-hypothesis.
In single-phase simulations an LES turbulence model works with the field nuSgs, whereas a RAS model uses
nut. See textbooks on CFD for the theory behind RAS and LES turbulence models and the origin and meaning
of νt and νsgs [37]. Sections 62 and 63 cover the incompressible k −  model respectively some basics on LES
turbulence models.

45.4.2 kEpsilon
Listing 300 shows the governing equations of the compressible multi-phase formulation of the k −  model. The
governing equations are largely equivalent to the compressible formulation of the single-phase k −  model. The
formulation deviates from the compressible single-phase formulation in two aspects. First, the convective term
is corrected with the continuity error, see Lines 5 and 18. Furthermore, there is an additional source term on
the RHS, see Lines 11 and 24.

1 tmp < fvScalarMatrix > epsEqn

2 (
3 fvm :: ddt ( alpha , rho , epsilon_ )
4 + fvm :: div ( alphaRhoPhi , epsilon_ )
5 - fvm :: Sp ( fvc :: ddt ( alpha , rho ) + fvc :: div ( alphaRhoPhi ) , epsilon_ )
6 - fvm :: laplacian ( alpha * rho * DepsilonEff () , epsilon_ )
7 ==
8 C1_ * alpha * rho * G * epsilon_ / k_
9 - fvm :: SuSp (((2.0/3.0) * C1_ + C3_ ) * alpha * rho * divU , epsilon_ )
10 - fvm :: Sp ( C2_ * alpha * rho * epsilon_ / k_ , epsilon_ )
11 + epsilonSource ()
12 );
13
14 tmp < fvScalarMatrix > kEqn
15 (
16 fvm :: ddt ( alpha , rho , k_ )
17 + fvm :: div ( alphaRhoPhi , k_ )
18 - fvm :: Sp ( fvc :: ddt ( alpha , rho ) + fvc :: div ( alphaRhoPhi ) , k_ )
19 - fvm :: laplacian ( alpha * rho * DkEff () , k_ )
20 ==
21 alpha * rho * G
22 - fvm :: SuSp ((2.0/3.0) * alpha * rho * divU , k_ )
23 - fvm :: Sp ( alpha * rho * epsilon_ / k_ , k_ )
24 + kSource ()
25 );

Listing 300: Governing equations of the kEpsilon turbulence model.

45.4.3 LaheyKEpsilon
The LaheyKEpsilon turbulence model is a derivation of the standard kEpsilon turbulence model, see Listing
301. The LaheyKEpsilon turbulence model is an extension of the standard k −  model to account for the effect
of the dispersed phase on the turbulence of the continuous phase. This effect is referred to as bubble induced
turbulence (BIT).
There are essentially two ways to account for BIT. One follows the idea of Sato and Sekoguchi [57], there
an additional viscosity models the effect of the increased turbulence caused by the wakes of the bubbles. The

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 other approach is based on the work of Pfleger and Becker [53]. They included additional source terms in the
transport equations for k and .
The Lahey model uses with its standard coefficients both approaches.

1 template < class BasicTurbulenceModel >

2 class LaheyKEpsilon
3 :
4 public kEpsilon < BasicTurbulenceModel >
5 {
6 /* class definition */
7 }

Listing 301: The first lines of the LaheyKEpsilon turbulence model definition.

Pitfall: the other phase

When using the LaheyKEpsilon model for one phase phase, the other phase is not allowed to be modelled
as laminar. Listing 302 shows the method phaseTransferCoefficient() of the LaheyKEpsilon turbulence
model. In Line 13 of Listing 302 we find the function call gasTurbulence.k() in the denominator. If laminar
is chosen as turbulence model for the other phase, then the method k() of the laminar turbulence model is
called. Listing 303 shows the definition of this method. We easily see, that the zero return value will cause
problems in the phaseTransferCoeff() method of the LaheyKEpsilon turbulence model.

1 template < class BasicTurbulenceModel >

2 tmp < volScalarField >
3 LaheyKEpsilon < BasicTurbulenceModel >:: p h a s e T r a n s f e r C o e f f () const
4 {
5 const volVectorFie ld & U = this - > U_ ;
6 const alphaField & alpha = this - > alpha_ ;
7 const rhoField & rho = this - > rho_ ;
8 const tu rbul e nc eM od el & gasTurbulence = this - > gasTurbulence () ;
9 return
10 (
11 max ( al ph a In ve rs i on _ - alpha , scalar (0) )
12 * rho
13 * min ( gasTurbulence . epsilon () / gasTurbulence . k () , 1.0/ U . time () . deltaT () )
14 );
15 }

Listing 302: The method phaseTransferCoeff() of the LaheyKEpsilon turbulence model.

1 template < class BasicTurbulenceModel >

2 Foam :: tmp < Foam :: volScalarField >
3 Foam :: laminar < BasicTurbulenceModel >:: k () const
4 {
5 return tmp < volScalarField >
6 (
7 new volScala rField
8 (
9 IOobject
10 (
11 IOobject :: groupName ( " k " , this - > U_ . group () ) ,
12 this - > runTime_ . timeName () ,
13 this - > mesh_ ,
14 IOobject :: NO_READ ,
15 IOobject :: NO_WRITE
16 ),
17 this - > mesh_ ,
18 d i m e n s i o n e d S c a l a r ( " k " , sqr ( this - > U_ . dimensions () ) , 0.0)
19 )
20 );
21 }

Listing 303: The method k() of the laminar turbulence model.

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Pitfall: the dispersed phase
It is not possible to assign the LaheyKEpsilon turbulence model to the dispersed phase, either to the dispersed
phase alone or to both phases. In any case the attempt to do so results in a segmentation fault when first using
the turbulence model at the initialisation of the simulation case. The reason for this is not entirely known to
the author.

45.4.4 mixtureKEpsilon
Usage
The k −  model is computed for the mixture, i.e. the transport equations are solved for using the mixture
properties. Thus, the solution variables are named km and epsilonm, see Listing 304.

DILUPBiCG : Solving for epsilonm , Initial residual = 0.0114325 , Final residual = 2.79117 e -09 ,
No Iterations 2
DILUPBiCG : Solving for km , Initial residual = 0.0078252 , Final residual = 6.13173 e -09 , No
Iterations 2

Listing 304: Solver output of twoPhaseEulerFoam using the mixtureKEpsilon turbulence model.

In order to use the mixture k − model, it needs to be specified in both turbulenceProperties files. Listing
305 shows the resulting error message when mixtureKEpsilon is specified for only one of the phases. As the
turbulence model for the mixture applies to both phases, it needs to be specified for both phases.

--> FOAM FATAL ERROR :

lookup of t u r b u l e n c e P r o p e r t i e s . water from objec tRegistr y region0 successful

but it is not a mixtureKEpsilon , it is a LaheyKEpsilon

From function objectR egistry :: lookupObject < Type >( const word &) const
in file / home / user / OpenFOAM / OpenFOAM -2.3. x / src / OpenFOAM / lnInclude / o b j e c t R e g i s t r y T e m p l a t e s .
C at line 181.

FOAM aborting

Listing 305: Solver output of twoPhaseEulerFoam when the mixtureKEpsilon turbulence model is specified for
only one of the two phases.

Theory
The governing equations of the mixture k− model can be found in the sources at \$FOAM_SRC/TurbulenceModels/
phaseCompressible/RAS/mixtureKEpsilon and in [12]. The biggest difference between the equations stated
in [12] and the code of mixtureKEpsilon can be found in the Lines 5 and 18 of Listing 306. There, the con-
tinuity equation of the mixture appears on the of the governing equations. This minor difference between the
formulation of the equation can be resolved in two steps. First, we take a look on the first two terms of the
governing equations in [12] (local derivative and convective term), see Eqns. (88) to (91).

∂ρm m
+ ∇ · (ρm um m ) + . . . (88)
∂t
∂m ∂ρm
ρm + m + m ∇ · (ρm um ) + ρm um · ∇m + . . . (89)
∂t ∂t 
∂m ∂ρm
ρm + m + ∇ · (ρm um ) +ρm um · ∇m + . . . (90)
∂t ∂t
| {z }
=0
∂m
ρm + ρm um · ∇m + . . . (91)
∂t
In order to derive equations equivalent to the code implemented in OpenFOAM, we begin with Eq. (91) and
use the product rule of differentiation, cf. Eqns. (88) and (89).

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 ∂m
ρm + ρm um · ∇m + . . . (91)
∂t
∂ρm m ∂ρm
− m + ∇ · (ρm um m ) − m ∇ · (ρm um ) + . . . (92)
∂t ∂t  
∂ρm m ∂ρm
+ ∇ · (ρm um m ) − m + ∇ · (ρm um ) + . . . (93)
∂t ∂t

Eq (93) is now equivalent to the first terms of the  equation of Listing 306. The exact reason why this formu-
lation was chosen is unknown to the author, a probable reason might be a better numerical behaviour.

1 tmp < fvScalarMatrix > epsEqn

2 (
3 fvm :: ddt ( rhom , epsilonm )
4 + fvm :: div ( phim , epsilonm )
5 - fvm :: Sp ( fvc :: ddt ( rhom ) + fvc :: div ( phim ) , epsilonm )
6 - fvm :: laplacian ( DepsilonEff ( rhom * nutm ) , epsilonm )
7 ==
8 C1_ * rhom * Gm * epsilonm / km
9 - fvm :: SuSp (((2.0/3.0) * C1_ ) * rhom * divUm , epsilonm )
10 - fvm :: Sp ( C2_ * rhom * epsilonm / km , epsilonm )
11 + epsilonSource ()
12 );
13
14 tmp < fvScalarMatrix > kmEqn
15 (
16 fvm :: ddt ( rhom , km )
17 + fvm :: div ( phim , km )
18 - fvm :: Sp ( fvc :: ddt ( rhom ) + fvc :: div ( phim ) , km )
19 - fvm :: laplacian ( DkEff ( rhom * nutm ) , km )
20 ==
21 rhom * Gm
22 - fvm :: SuSp ((2.0/3.0) * rhom * divUm , km )
23 - fvm :: Sp ( rhom * epsilonm / km , km )
24 + kSource ()
25 );

Listing 306: Governing equations of the mixtureKEpsilon turbulence model.

The basic relations between the turbulent quantities of the mixture and the turbulence quantities of the
individual phases are based on the turbulence response coefficient Ct , which is the ratio between the r.m.s.
values of the velocity fluctuations of the dispersed and the continuous phase [12].

Ud0
Ct = (94)
Uc0

with this coefficient, we can now express the following relations, which we can find in the file mixtureKEpsilon.C

ρm = αc ρc + αd ρd (95)
ρm
Cc2 = (96)
αc ρc + Ct2 αd ρd
kc = Cc2 km (97)
2
kd = C − t kc (98)
c = Cc2 m (99)
d = Ct2 c (100)
2
km
νt = C µ (101)
m
νc,ef f = νc + νt (102)
νc
νd,ef f = νd + Ct2 νt (103)
νd

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 What remains to clarify is how the turbulence response coefficient Ct is determined. OpenFOAM imple-
ments the model proposed by Issa [36] and validated by Hill [28] [56, 12]. Furthermore, the turbulence response
coefficient is modified to account for the influence of the dispersed phase’s volume fraction αd , see e.g. [56, 12].

3+β
Ct,0 = (104)
1 + β + 2ρd/ρc
2Ad L2e
β= (105)
ρc νc Ret
U 0 Le
Ret = c (106)
νc
3/2
kc
Le = Cµ (107)

r c
2kc
Uc0 = (108)
3
Ct (αd ) = 1 + (Ct,0 − 1)e−f (αd ) (109)
f (αd ) = 180αd − 4.71·103 αd2 + 4.26·104 αd3 (110)

45.4.5 SmagorinskyZhang LES

The SmagorinskyZhang turbulence model is a zero equation LES turbulence model. This turbulence model
corrects the turbulent viscosity by a contribution due to bubble induced turbulence (BIT) [71]. As there is no
use of turbulent quantities of the other phase, there is no limitation in turbulence model choice for the other
phase.

45.4.6 NicenoKEqn LES

The NicenoKEqn turbulence model is an LES model which solves a transport equation for the unresolved
turbulent kinetic energy kSGS . Similar to the model of Lahey, the model of Niceno is able to account for effects
of bubble induced turbulence. This is done through an additional viscosity and/or an additional source term in
the transport equation for the turbulent kinetic energy.
Similar to the Lahey model, the Niceno model accesses turbulent quantities of the other phase, for this
reason it is not possible to model the other phase as a laminar phase. As we can see in Line 13 of Listing 307,
the Niceno model takes the square root of the gas phase’s turbulent kinetic energy, when computing the phase
transfer coefficient. The method k() of the laminar turbulence models returns zero for the turbulent kinetic
energy. This triggers a floating point exception (FPE).

1 template < class BasicTurbulenceModel >

2 tmp < volScalarField >
3 NicenoKEqn < BasicTurbulenceModel >:: p h a s e T r a n s f e r C o e f f () const
4 {
5 const volVectorFie ld & U = this - > U_ ;
6 const alphaField & alpha = this - > alpha_ ;
7 const rhoField & rho = this - > rho_ ;
8 const tu rbul e nc eM od el & gasTurbulence = this - > gasTurbulence () ;
9 return
10 (
11 max ( al ph a In ve rs i on _ - alpha , scalar (0) )
12 * rho
13 * min ( this - > Ce_ * sqrt ( gasTurbulence . k () ) / this - > delta () , 1.0/ U . time () . deltaT () )
14 );
15 }

Listing 307: The method phaseTransferCoeff() of the Niceno turbulence model.

45.4.7 Pitfall: phase inversion

Phase inversion is the situation when the volume fraction of the continuous phase vanishes in some regions. As
almost all terms of the governing equations are weighted with the volume fraction alpha, a vanishing volume
fraction can lead to serious numerical problems.

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Solution via model choice
The following example demonstrates the problems which may be faced when dealing with phase inversion. An
air-water bubble column is modelled including some of the air above the water surface. Figure 124 shows the
air volume fraction within the bubble column.
When mixtureKEpsilon is selected as turbulence model, the volume fraction is not included in the governing
equation, so phase inversion poses no big problem, see Listing 306 or Eq. (93).
When kEpsilon is selected for the liquid phase, the volume fraction in the governing equations is the volume
fraction of the liquid phase. This volume fraction vanishes above the water surface. Thus, in parts of the domain
the solution of the governing equations faces numerical problems. The governing equations can still be solved in
this case, but preconditioning the resulting matrix equation fails. Preconditioning is a step that is intended to
improve the iterative solution of the resulting matrix equation. In the case of the kEpsilon turbulence model
for the liquid phase, the only way to avoid crashing the simulation is to use a CG-solver with no preconditioning.
The GAMG-solver and the smooth solver fail completely.

Figure 124: Air volume fraction of the bubble column. Initial field (left) and solution at t = 10 s (right).

Table 7 lists possible model choices for two-phase simulations including phase-inversion.

Liquid Gas constraints / remarks

kEpsilon laminar solver: PBiCG, preconditioner: none
mixtureKEpsilon mixtureKEpsilon
Lahey continuousKEqn
SmagorinskyZhang laminar no issue, since SmagorinskyZhang is a zero-equation model
Niceno laminar solver: PBiCG, preconditioner: none
Niceno continuousKEqn

Table 7: Turbulence model combinations for phase-inversion cases.

Solution via phaseLimitStabilization

With OpenFOAM-6144 an fvOption source was introduced to specifically, numerically stabilize transport equa-
tions when the phase fraction falls below a certain threshold. This source adds an implicit source term to a
transport equation for all cells in which the phase fraction falls below a certain limit. This fvOption is further
discussed in Section 39.3.2.
144 https://openfoam.org/release/6/

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 In our example, we can use the phaseLimitStabilization fvOption to stabilize the transport equations for the
turbulence fields. This way, we can also eliminate, or alleviate, the problems caused by phase inversion, as in
all regions with a vanishing phase fraction, the phaseLimitStabilization source prevents the transport equations
from becoming ill-posed.

45.5 Energy equation

In OpenFOAM-2.3 the twoPhaseEulerFoam solver incorporates the functionality of compressibleTwoPhaseEuler-
Foam 145 . Accounting for compressibility necessitates the solution of the energy equation. The solving of the
energy equation requires the specification of additional discretisation schemes and a solver in fvSchemes and
fvSolution. Depending on the simulation parameters the energy equation is solved in terms of the enthalpy h
or internal energy e.
The energy equation is formulated in a generic form in terms of he. The actual decision to solve for h or e
is made at run-time after the thermophysical properties of the two phases have been read.
Besides the internal energy or enthalpy the energy equation involves also the kinetic energy K, which is in
fact a specific kinetic energy. Listing 308 shows how this kinetic energy is computed. This source code translates
into the following mathematical relation.

1 2
Ki = |Ui | (111)
2

Info < < " Creating field kinetic energy K \ n " << endl ;
volS calarFie ld K1 ( IOobject :: groupName ( " K " , phase1 . name () ) , 0.5* magSqr ( U1 ) ) ;
volS calarFie ld K2 ( IOobject :: groupName ( " K " , phase2 . name () ) , 0.5* magSqr ( U2 ) ) ;

Listing 308: Definition of the kinetic energy field in the file createFields.H of twoPhaseEulerFoam.

The solution of the energy equation can not be deactivated. Even if thermophysical parameters are chosen
to represent incompressible phases, the energy equation will be solved each time step.

45.5.1 Governing equations

Listing 309 shows the energy equation for one phase. In Line 3 we see the local derivative and the convection
term of the generic internal energy/ enthalpy he. In Line 5 is the local derivative and the convection term of
the specific kinetic energy K.
In the Lines 4 and 6 we see a correction for the continuity error. See Section 60.3 for a detailed discussion.
From Lines 8 to 10 we see the term regarding the mechanical work done. Here we see a conditional expression
depending whether the equation is solved for internal energy or enthalpy. All other terms in the equation are
formulated generically. Besides the use of the abstract he, which is internal energy or enthalpy, the use of the
variable Cpv is also a characteristic of this generic formulation. This variable stands for either the heat capacity
at constant pressure or the heat capacity at constant volume.
Lines 12 to 17 contain the diffusive heat flux. Line 19 represents the heat flux between the two phases. Line
22 contains possible heat sources.
Lines 20 and 21 can be considered a numerical trick. If we ignore the fvm::Sp() for a while and add the
terms of the two lines, we see that they add up to zero. Adding zero is mathematically allowed. If we do
not ignore the fvm::Sp(), we need to find out, what is happening. fvm::Sp() is an implicit source term, i.e.
the contribution of this term goes into the system matrix of the resulting linear equation system. An implicit
source term not only contributes to the system matrix, these terms go into the diagonal entries of the system
matrix. When solving linear equation systems iteratively, it is preferable to work on a diagonally dominant
system matrix [37]. Exactly, this is achieved by the Lines 20 and 21. The term in Line 21 adds to the diagonal
of the system matrix, whereas the term of Line 20 adds to the right hand side of the ensuing linear equa-
tion system. As both sides of the equation have been equally treated, nothing was done wrong mathematically.
However, as diagonal dominance is numerically a good thing, the convergence behaviour was probably improved.

1 fvSc alarMatr ix he1Eqn

2 (
3 fvm :: ddt ( alpha1 , rho1 , he1 ) + fvm :: div ( alphaRhoPhi1 , he1 )
145 http://www.openfoam.org/version2.3.0/multiphase.php

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4 - fvm :: Sp ( contErr1 , he1 )
5 + fvc :: ddt ( alpha1 , rho1 , K1 ) + fvc :: div ( alphaRhoPhi1 , K1 )
6 - contErr1 * K1
7 + (
8 he1 . name () == thermo1 . p h a s e P r o p e r t y N a m e ( " e " )
9 ? fvc :: ddt ( alpha1 ) * p + fvc :: div ( alphaPhi1 , p )
10 : - alpha1 * dpdt
11 )
12 - fvm :: laplacian
13 (
14 fvc :: interpolate ( alpha1 )
15 * fvc :: interpolate ( thermo1 . alphaEff ( phase1 . turbulence () . mut () ) ) ,
16 he1
17 )
18 ==
19 h e a t T r a n s f e r C o e f f *( thermo2 . T () - thermo1 . T () )
20 + h e a t T ra n s f e r C o e f f * he1 / Cpv1
21 - fvm :: Sp ( h e a t T r a n s f e r C o e f f / Cpv1 , he1 )
22 + fvOptions ( alpha1 , rho1 , he1 )
23 );

Listing 309: Energy equation in the file EEqns.H of twoPhaseEulerFoam.

45.6 Momentum equation

Due to the changes on the modelling side and some restructuring, the momentum equation has a different form
compared to previous versions of this solver.
The most general form of the momentum conservation equation for two-phase flow is as follows146

∂αq ρq uq X X
+ ∇ · (αq ρq uq uq ) − ∇ · τq = Fq,i + Kpq,i (up − uq ) (112)
∂t i i

with
Kpq,i = −Kqp,i
Kqq,i = 0

45.6.1 Units
Now we shall take a short look on the units of this equation. Each term of the equation has to have the same
unit. We take the local derivative to determine the unit of all terms in this equation.
 
∂αq ρq uq 1 kg m 1 kg m N
= 3
= 3 2 = 3 (113)
∂t sm s m | {z
s } m
N

We see that all terms of the momentum equation have the unit of a force density. On the RHS of the
momentum equation we have two kinds of source terms.
The first kind of source terms – Fi – can be referred to as body forces, e.g. the gravitational force. This is
consistent with our observation, that this terms have the unit of a force density.

N kg !
= 2 2
[Fi ] = (114)
m3 m s
The second kind of source terms – Kpq,i (up − uq ) – are phase interaction terms. This terms are the product
of a coefficient Kpq,i with the relative velocity uR = up − uq . Such a phase interaction term might be due to
drag. Now we determine the unit of the interphase momentum exchange coefficient Kpq,i .

! N 1 kg m
[Kpq,i (up − uq )] = 3
= (115)
m s m3 s
kg
[Kpq,i ] = 3 (116)
m s
146 The phase q is the considered phase and phase p denotes the other phase.

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 45.6.2 Implemented equations
Listing 310 shows one of the momentum conservation equations. On Line 3 we see the local derivative and the
convective term. The origin of the term in Line 4 is explained in 60.3. On Line 5 we see a term stemming from
the MRF approach. On Line 6 is the momentum diffusion.
On the RHS there are a number of force terms. Although, they are named *Force, they are in fact force
density terms. On Line we see a part of the drag force. The force due to gravity and the other part of the drag
are considered in the pressure equation [56].

1 U1Eqn =
2 (
3 fvm :: ddt ( alpha1 , rho1 , U1 ) + fvm :: div ( alphaRhoPhi1 , U1 )
4 - fvm :: Sp ( contErr1 , U1 )
5 + mrfZones ( alpha1 * rho1 + virtualMassCoeff , U1 )
6 + phase1 . turbulence () . divDevRhoReff ( U1 )
7 ==
8 - liftForce
9 - wallLubricationForce
10 - turbulentDispersionForce
11 - v i r t u a l M a s sC o e f f
12 *(
13 fvm :: ddt ( U1 )
14 + fvm :: div ( phi1 , U1 )
15 - fvm :: Sp ( fvc :: div ( phi1 ) , U1 )
16 - DDtU2
17 )
18 + fvOptions ( alpha1 , rho1 , U1 )
19 );
20 U1Eqn . relax () ;
21 U1Eqn += fvm :: Sp ( dragCoeff , U1 ) ;
22 fvOptions . constrain ( U1Eqn ) ;

Listing 310: The code of the momentum conservation equation of phase 1 of twoPhaseEulerFoam in UEqns.H

The interfacial momentum exchange terms are computed prior to the construction of the momentum equa-
tion. Listing 311 shows the relevant lines of the file Ueqns.H. Wee see that the momentum exchange terms are
provided by some methods. We know that the variable fluid is of the type twoPhaseSystem. Thus, the meth-
ods called to compute the momentum exchange terms are methods of the class twoPhaseSystem, see Section
35.2.1.

1 volS calarFie ld dragCoeff ( fluid . dragCoeff () ) ;

2
3 volS calarFie ld v i r t u a l M a s s C o e f f ( fluid . v i r t u a l M a s s C oe f f () ) ;
4 volV ectorFie ld liftForce ( fluid . liftForce () ) ;
5 volV ectorFie ld w a l l L u b r i c a t i o n F o r c e ( fluid . w a l l L u b r i c a t i o n F o r c e () ) ;
6 volV ectorFie ld t u r b u l e n t D i s p e r s i o n F o r c e ( fluid . t u r b u l e n t D i s p e r s i o n F o r c e () ) ;

Listing 311: The definition of the interfacial momentum exchange force terms of the momentum conservation
equations of twoPhaseEulerFoam in UEqns.H

45.7 Interfacial interaction

45.7.1 Blending
The interfacial momentum exchange models need to work over the whole range of flow situations. These range
from α1 = 0 to α1 = 1. In order to well-posedness of the governing equations special care needs to be taken for
the case of phase inversion.
There are three options for blending available: none, linear and hyperbolic.

// create x

if ( model_ . valid () )
{
x () += model_ - > K () *( f1 () - f2 () ) ;

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}

if ( model1In2_ . valid () )
{
x () += model1In2_ - > K () *(1 - f1 ) ;
}

if ( model2In1_ . valid () )
{
x () += model2In1_ - > K () * f2 ;
}

// other code

return x ;

Listing 312: The application of blending; part of the method K() in BlendedInterfacialModel.C

No Blending
The blending model none, which is defined in the files noBlending.H and noBlending.C, is quite instructive.
This blending model, which is essentially a non-model, returns the blending factors f1 and f2 as it is demanded
by the base class of all blending models.
As there is no blending with the none blending model, the user needs to specify which phase is the contin-
uous phase. In twoPhaseEulerFoam-2.3 there is no implicit assumption on which phase is the dispersed and
which is continuous. Listing 313 shows how the none blending model is selected. There we also see the explicit
specification of the continuous phase.

blending
{
default
{
type none ;
c on ti nu ous Ph as e water ;
}
}

Listing 313: Choosing not to use blending as the blending method

Now, we have a look on the blending factors returned by the none model. Listing 314 shows the definition of
the methods f1() and f2(). These methods return a newly created temporary scalar field (volScalarField)
that is in turn created from a constant expression.
In the case of f1(), the constant expression is phase2.name() != continuousPhase\_ which returns a
boolean value. In the case of f2() the corresonding expression is phase1.name() == continuousPhase\_,
which also returns a boolean value. Here, we enter the realm of implicit type conversions147 . Implicit type
conversions are part of the language’s standard. Thus, if we look up the working draft of the C++11standard,
we find the following sentence in the section on Integral promotions:
A prvalue of type bool can be converted to a prvalue of type int, with false becoming zero and
true becoming one.
Thus, we find that the blending factors returned by none are of the values zero or one, which is the set of
values we would expect in this case. If the boolean expressions yield the correct factors can be tried out with a
simple pen-and-paper test. Choose a continuous phase (i.e. phase2 is the continuous phase) and evaluate all ex-
pressions (i.e. determine the values of f1 and f2, and apply these values on the expressions found in Listing 312.).

Foam :: tmp < Foam :: volScalarField > Foam :: bl e nd in gM et h od s :: noBlending :: f1

(
const phaseModel & phase1 , const phaseModel & phase2
) const
{
const fvMesh & mesh ( phase1 . mesh () ) ;
147 See e.g. http://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/language/implicit_cast

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 return
tmp < volScalarField >
(
new volScala rField
(
IOobject ( /* arguments removed */ ) ,
mesh ,
dimensionedScalar
(
"f",
dimless ,
phase2 . name () != c o n t i n u o u s P ha s e _
)
)
);
}
Foam :: tmp < Foam :: volScalarField > Foam :: bl e nd in gM et h od s :: noBlending :: f2
(
const phaseModel & phase1 , const phaseModel & phase2
) const
{
const fvMesh & mesh ( phase1 . mesh () ) ;

return
tmp < volScalarField >
(
new volScala rField
(
IOobject ( /* arguments removed */ ) ,
mesh ,
dimensionedScalar
(
"f",
dimless ,
phase1 . name () == c o n t i n u o u s P ha s e _
)
)
);
}

Listing 314: Computing the blending factors. The arguments of the constructor of the IOobject class have
been removed to save space.

Linear
As we saw from the none model, the blending factors f1 and f2 have two extreme values, i.e. zero and one.
The model name linear suggests that this models yields a linear variation between these two limiting values.
The linear blending model was two model parameters, shown in Listing 315. These represent the limits up
to which a phase can be considered to be fully dispersed, i.e. a clear distinction between dispersed phase and
continuous phase is possible. The second parameter is the limit up to which the phases can be considered partly
dispersed. These two limits are necessary, as the solver is intended to handle phase inversion, i.e. situations in
which one phase is the dispersed phase in only parts of the domain.
The definition of the blending factor f1 is shown in Listing 316. We limit the discussion on f1, as the other
blending factor is defined analogously. The interested reader is encouraged to analyse f2. The code of Listing
316 can be translated into equation (117).


1
 if α ≤ maxFullyDispersedAlpha
α − maxFullyDispersedAlpha
f1 (α) = if α ≤ maxPartlyDispersedAlpha (117)
 maxPartlyDispersedAlpha−maxFullyDispersedAlpha
0 if α > maxPartlyDispersedAlpha


// - Maximum fraction of phases which can be considered fully dispersed

HashTable < dimensionedScalar , word , word :: hash >
maxFullyDispersedAlpha_ ;

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 // - Maximum fraction of phases which can be considered partly dispersed
HashTable < dimensionedScalar , word , word :: hash >
maxPartlyDispersedAlpha_ ;

Listing 315: Model parameters of the linear blending model; declaration in the file linear.H

Foam :: tmp < Foam :: volScalarField > Foam :: bl e nd in gM et h od s :: linear :: f1

(
const phaseModel & phase1 , const phaseModel & phase2
) const
{
const d i m e n s i o n e d S c a l a r
maxFullAlpha ( m a x F u l l y D i s p e r s e d A l p h a _ [ phase1 . name () ]) ;
const d i m e n s i o n e d S c a l a r
maxPartAlpha ( m a x P a r t l y D i s p e r s e d A l p h a _ [ phase1 . name () ]) ;

return
min
(
max
(
( phase1 - maxFullAlpha )
/( maxPartAlpha - maxFullAlpha + SMALL ) ,
scalar (0.0)
),
scalar (1.0)
);
}

Listing 316: Computing the linear blending factor f1 in the file linear.C

f1

1.0

0.8

0.6

0.4

0.2

α
0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0

Figure 125: The value of f1 over α; model parameters are set to maxFullAlpha = 0.3 and maxPartAlpha = 0.5;
these settings are taken from the bubble column tutorial case of twoPhaseEulerFoam.

Hyperbolic
The hyperbolic blending model offers a continuous function for the blending factor for the whole range of the
dispersed phase’s volume fraction, see Figure 126. Again, we analyse only the definition of f1 and leave the
reader the opportunity to follow the argument made, with the definition of f2.
The hyperbolic blending model needs in total three model parameters. The parameter transitionAlphaScale
controls how steep the transition between 0 and 1 is. The other two parameters are maxDispersedAlpha for
each phase. At this parameter the blending function (118) has the value 1/2.

  
1 4(α − maxDispersedAlpha
f1 (α) = 1 + tanh ) (118)
2 transitionAlphaScale

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 f1

1.0

0.8

0.6

0.4

0.2

α
0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0

Figure 126: The value of f1 over α; model parameters are set to maxDispersedAlpha = 0.6 and
transitionAlphaScale = 0.4;

45.8 Interfacial momentum exchange

45.8.1 Drag
Units
From viewing the governing equations we saw, that the drag term consists of a coefficient and the relative
velocity between the phases.

Fdrag = Kpq,drag (up − uq ) (119)

We find the same structure in the terms of the implemented equations. The Listing below shows one part
of the drag term – as the drag term consists of the coefficient and a velocity difference, we can split the term
up into two contributing parts.

U1Eqn += fvm :: Sp ( dragCoeff , U1 ) ;

As we know from our considerations about the units of the terms of the momentum equation, the drag force
contribution in general needs to have the unit of a force density. Thus, we determined the unit of the coefficient,
see Eqn. (116).

! kg
[dragCoeff] = (120)
m3 s
By having a close look on the base class for the drag models, we can check the unit of the coefficient. The
base class of the drag model has a static data member that carries the information about the unit of the provided
coefficient. In fact, all interfacial momentum exchange models have such a member. In the header file of the
base class for the drag models, a constant static member148 dimK is declared.

// - Coefficient dimensions
static const dimensionSet dimK ;

In the implementation file, the static data member is initialised to the appropriate value. In Section 9 we
reviewed OpenFOAMs feature to provide physical units. There we can see, that the order of units in a
dimensionSet is [kg m s K mol].

const Foam :: dimensionSet Foam :: dragModel :: dimK (1 , -3 , -1 , 0 , 0) ;

Thus, we see, that the drag force coefficient has indeed the unit we derived from our earlier considerations.
148 A static data member of a class exists only once for all instances of this class, i.e. regardless of how many actual objects of this

class exist, the data member exists only once. This makes perfect sense for common properties such as the unit of the coefficient,
which is the same for all drag models.

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 Returning the output
Other than the drag models of prior versions of twoPhaseEulerFoam (version 2.2 and below), the drag models in
twoPhaseEulerFoam-2.3 return the product of drag coefficient CD and the Reynolds number Re. Consequently,
the method returning the output of the individual drag models is named CdRe().
The drag model itself, i.e. the base class returns the drag force coefficient K. This drag force coefficient is
provided by the method K() which is a method of the base class dragModel. The base class also has a pure
virtual method named CdRe(). Pure virtual means that derived classes need to implement this method and that
we are unable to create an instance of the base class itself. We only can create instances of one of the derived
classes. As a derived class must implement all pure virtual methods, we are guaranteed that these methods
actually exist. The Listings 317 and 318 show the relevant parts of code of the class dragModel. The method
K() calls the method CdRe(), see Line 5 of Listing 318.

1 // - Drag coefficient
2 virtual tmp < volScalarField > CdRe () const = 0;
3
4 // - The drag function K used in the momentum equation
5 // ddt ( alpha1 * rho1 * U1 ) + ... = ... K *( U1 - U2 )
6 // ddt ( alpha2 * rho2 * U2 ) + ... = ... K *( U2 - U1 )
7 virtual tmp < volScalarField > K () const ;

Listing 317: The declaration of the methods K() and CdRe() in dragModel.H

1 Foam :: tmp < Foam :: volScalarField > Foam :: dragModel :: K () const

2 {
3 return
4 0.75
5 * CdRe ()
6 * max ( pair_ . dispersed () , re sidualAl pha_ )
7 * swarmCorrection_ - > Cs ()
8 * pair_ . continuous () . rho ()
9 * pair_ . continuous () . nu ()
10 / sqr ( pair_ . dispersed () . d () ) ;
11 }

Listing 318: The definition of the method K() in dragModel.C

If we translate Listing 318 into math we yield

3 ρC ν C
K= CD Re αCS 2 (121)
4 dB

Now, we insert the definition of the bubble Reynolds number

3 dB UR ρC νC
K= CD αCS 2 (122)
4 νC dB
3 ρC
K = αCS CD UR (123)
4 dB
If we now take a look on the units
 
ρC kg 1 m kg
[K] = UR = 3 = 3 (124)
dB m m s m s

Again, we find the proper physical unit for the drag force coefficient.
Here we show the definition of the method CdRe() from the class SchillerNaumann as an example since the
Schiller Naumann drag model is well known.

1 Foam :: tmp < Foam :: volScalarField > Foam :: dragModels :: S ch i ll er Na u ma nn :: CdRe () const
2 {
3 volS calarFie ld Re ( pair_ . Re () ) ;
4
5 return

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6 neg ( Re - 1000) *24.0*(1.0 + 0.15* pow ( Re , 0.687) )
7 + pos ( Re - 1000) *0.44* max ( Re , residualRe_ ) ;
8 }

Listing 319: The relevant lines of code in SchillerNaumann.C

Swarm correction
The drag models offer swarm correction of the drag force, since it is observed that swarms of bubbles behave
different from single bubbles. At the time of writing (September 2014) there are two choices.

noSwarm This model simply returns unity when swarmCorrection_->Cs() is called.

TomiyamaSwarm This model computes the swarm correction factor according to [63].
The Tomiyama swarm correction factor depends on the bubble volume fraction α and a model parameter l.

CS,T omiyama = (1 − α)3−2l (125)

Both swarm correction models are derived from an abstract base class swarmCorrection. Thus the frame-
work is ready for future extension of model choice.

45.8.2 Lift
The lift force on a dispersed phase element (DPE) is defined as

FL = CL αρC (UR × (∇ × U)) (126)

with

CL lift force coefficient

α volume fraction of the dispersed phase
ρC density of the continuous phase
UR relative velocity between the phases
U mixture velocity

Units
In contrast to the drag model, the lift model provides the actual force term for the governing equations. The
base class of the lift models declares a static consant data member dimF for storing the unit of the force term
computed by the list model.

// - Force dimensions
static const dimensionSet dimF ;

In the implementation file liftModel.C the static data member is initialized and it has indeed the unit of
a force density. Note: the order of units in a dimensionSet is [kg m s K mol].

! N kg
[Fi ] = 3
= 2 2 (114)
m m s

const Foam :: dimensionSet Foam :: liftModel :: dimF (1 , -2 , -2 , 0 , 0) ;

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 Returning the output
The general computation of the lift force is done – similar to the drag models – within the method F() of the
base class. The base class calls the method Cl() of the concrete lift model for the lift force coefficient. This is
similar to the method K() of the drag model base class calling the method CdRe() of the concrete drag model
classes.
The method F() of the base class returns the force density field due to the lift force.

1 // - Lift coefficient
2 virtual tmp < volScalarField > Cl () const = 0;
3
4 // - Lift force
5 virtual tmp < volVectorField > F () const ;

Listing 320: The declaration of the methods F() and Cl() in liftModel.H

1 Foam :: tmp < Foam :: volVectorField > Foam :: liftModel :: F () const

2 {
3 return
4 Cl ()
5 * pair_ . dispersed ()
6 * pair_ . continuous () . rho ()
7 *(
8 pair_ . Ur () ^ fvc :: curl ( pair_ . continuous () . U () )
9 );
10 }

Listing 321: The definition of the method F() in liftModel.H

The actual lift force coefficient is provided by the concrete lift force model. Again, analogue to the drag
model classes, the base class for the lift models declares the pure virtual method Cl(). This means, every lift
model derived from the base class has to implement Cl() and we are not able to create an instance of the base
class itself. Thus, the existance of the method Cl() is guaranteed. The implementation of Cl() is the remaining
degree of freedom for the individual lift force models.
There are several choices available to the user:
noLift this model returns a zero field when either F() or Cl() is called. This class overwrites the method
F() which is inherited from the base class with its own implementation. Thus, when F() is called,
the implementation of the class noLift is called, i.e. noLift::F(). All other lift force models do not
implement F(), thus, liftModel::F() is called.
constantCoefficient this model is the easiest implementation of a lift force model. The constant lift force coef-
ficient CL is provided by the user. Cl() simply returns this value in the form of the appropriate data type,
i.e. the coefficient provided by the user is a dimensionless number (declared as const dimensionedScalar Cl_;),
however, the method Cl() returns a volScalarField.
lift force model X there are several models available that compute the lift force coefficient from flow proper-
ties.

45.8.3 Virtual mass

The class structure for the virtual mass models follow the example of the drag and lift models. There is an
abstract base class providing a method F() for the force term FV M due to virtual mass. The force term due to
virtual mass if defined as

FV M = CV M αρC (127)

with

CV M virtual mass coefficient

α volume fraction of the dispersed phase
ρC density of the continuous phase

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 The derived classes provide the virtual mass coefficient CV M via the method Cvm(). The user has the choice
between:

noVirtualMass this class returns zero when F() is called. This model overwrites the method F() with its
own implementation returning a zero field. All other classes make use of the base classes implementation
of F() which all derived classes inherited. The method Cvm() also returns a zero field.

Foam :: tmp < Foam :: volScalarField >

Foam :: v i r t u a l M a s s M o d e l s :: noVirtualMass :: K () const
{
return Cvm () * d i m e n s i o n e d S c a l a r ( " zero " , dimDensity , 0) ;
}

constantVirtualMassCoefficient this class computes the contribution due to virtual mass based on a con-
stant virtual mass coefficient CV M which is provided by the user.
Lamb this model computes the virtual mass coefficient CV M depending on the aspect ratio of the dispersed
phase elements. With the help of aspect ratio models a particle shape different from spheres and even
shape variation can be modelled within some limits.

45.8.4 Aspect ratio models

When dealing with non-spherical bubbles or particles, the shape has to be considered in the interfacial momen-
tum exchange models. One way of dealing with this situation is to formulate those models to incorporate the
aspect ratio of the dispersed phase elements.
Here, the aspect ratio models come into play. These compute the aspect ratio of the dispersed phase elements
depending on material and possibly flow properties. However, the influence of shape can also be considered
using other approaches.
The aspect ratio is used in the TomiyamaAnalytic drag model and the Lamb virtual mass model. The inter-
ested reader can find this out by invoking the following commands.

cd $FOAM_APP / solvers / multiphase / t w o P h a s e E u l e r F o a m / i n t e r f a c i a l M o d e l s

find - name *. C | xargs grep ’ pair_ . E () ’

The second command is a combination of a find command and a grep command. find finds all files with the
file extension .C and grep searches this files for the pattern pair_.E(). This pattern is the function call which
returns the aspect ratio E of a phase pair.

45.8.5 Wall lubrication

The wall lubrication force pushes bubbles away from the walls. The class structure is similar to the aforemen-
tioned models. There is an abstract base class and derived classes implementing a specific model. The base
class declares the pure virtual method F() which returns the force term due to wall lubrication. The derived
class have to implement this method.
There is a derived class named noWallLubrication which simply implements the method F() in way to
return a zero field. There are also three models computing the wall lubrication force.

45.8.6 Turbulent dispersion

Turbulent dispersion describes the effect of turbulent motion of the liquid phase on the gas phase. The models
are also derived from an abstract base class. There is a class named noTurbulentDispersion which returns a
zero field for the force term and there are a number of classes implementing individual models. The base class
declares the method F() as a pure virtual method. This means there is no generic formulation as in the case of
the drag or lift models.

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 constantTurbulentDispersionCoefficient
The constant coefficient model implements the following model for the force due to turbulent dispersion.

FT D = CT D αρC kC ∇α (128)
with
CT D turbulent dispersion coefficient
α volume fraction of the dispersed phase
ρC density of the continuous phase
kC kinetic turbulent energy of the continuous phase

Burns
The Burns model implements the following model for the force due to turbulent dispersion.
 
νC,t α
FT D = KDrag ∇α 1 + (129)
σ 1−α
with
KDrag drag force coefficient due to drag
α volume fraction of the dispersed phase
νC,t turbulent viscosity of the continuous phase
σ surface tension
Note that Kdrag is not evaluated by calling method K() of the class dragModel. Listing 322 shows the actual
code that computes the force term of the Burns model.
The reason for computing the drag force coefficient K “by hand” rather than calling dragModel::K() might
be the run-time. By not calling K() we can save one virtual function call149 . The operations to compute K
have to be done anyway, so there is a net saving of one virtual function call.

1 Foam :: tmp < Foam :: volVectorField >

2 Foam :: t u r b u l e n t D i s p e r s i o n M o d e l s :: Burns :: F () const
3 {
4 const fvMesh & mesh ( pair_ . phase1 () . mesh () ) ;
5 const dragModel &
6 drag
7 (
8 mesh . lookupObject < dragModel >
9 (
10 IOobject :: groupName ( dragModel :: typeName , pair_ . name () )
11 )
12 );
13
14 return
15 - 0.75
16 * drag . CdRe ()
17 * pair_ . dispersed ()
18 * pair_ . continuous () . nu ()
19 * pair_ . continuous () . turbulence () . nut ()
20 /(
21 sigma_
22 * sqr ( pair_ . dispersed () . d () )
23 )
24 * pair_ . continuous () . rho ()
25 * fvc :: grad ( pair_ . continuous () )
26 *(1.0 + pair_ . dispersed () / max ( pair_ . continuous () , residu alAlpha_ ) ) ;
27 }

Listing 322: The definition of the method F() in the file Burns.C

149 Virtual function calls are considered to be more expensive in terms of run-time than direct function calls, since the correct

function to call has to determined at run-time [25].

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Gosman
The Gosman model implements the following model for the force due to turbulent dispersion.

νC,t
FT D = KDrag ∇α (130)
σ

45.9 MRF method - avoiding errors

The MRF method can be used to simulate stirred vessels. By the time of writing, this is the only way to do
so with the Eulerian multiphase solvers, since none of the Eulerian solvers has dynamic mesh capabiltiy. The
basics behind the MRF method are discussed in Section 66.

45.9.1 Inlet boundaries and MRF zones

The MRF method corrects the velocities at the boundaries within the MRF zone. Thus, if a gas inlet BC is
placed within the MRF zone, the simulation takes an unintended route. In Figure 127 we see the outcome of a
gas inlet boundary placed within an MRF zone. Note, the tangential alignment of the velocity vectors on the
right image. The initial inlet definition (visible on the left image) is overridden by the MRF’s constraint.

Figure 127: Velocity vectors of the gaseous phase at the inlet boundary (red vectors) in an aerated stirred tank.
That the gas inlet boundary lies within the MRF zone. On the left, we see the initial condition and on the right
we see the boundary condition after the constraints by the MRF method have been applied.

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 46 reactingTwoPhaseEulerFoam
With the release of OpenFOAM-3.0.0150 in 2015 the solvers reactingTwoPhaseEulerFoam and reactingMul-
tiphaseEulerFoam were introduced. These solvers feature expanded modelling capabilities compared to the
ancestors twoPhaseEulerFoam and multiphaseEulerFoam. These two solvers are one of the results of a collabo-
ration of companies from the chemical and process industries, and the makers of OpenFOAM151 .
reactingTwoPhaseEulerFoam and reactingMultiphaseEulerFoam form the reactingEulerFoam family of Euler-
Euler solvers. These two solvers use a largely common code base for underlying models, such as phase-models,
interfacial momentum-transfer models and interfacial composition models. Many of the developments that went
into the evolution of the twoPhaseEulerFoam solver from OpenFOAM-2.2 and earlier to OpenFOAM-2.3 have
been continued and led to a further generalization of the code base.
Since both solvers derive from a largely common code base, this section mostly applies to both reactingT-
woPhaseEulerFoam and reactingMultiphaseEulerFoam.

46.1 Solver basics

This solver uses the PIMPLE algorithm for solving the governing equations for the two-phase flow.

46.2 Phase modelling

The code base of the phase modelling library is a good example of the principles of encapsulation, abstraction
and generic programming at work.

46.2.1 Phase model classes

There is a number of phase-model template classes, each implementing a different aspect of multi-phase mod-
elling, e.g. momentum-transfer, heat-transfer, etc.. Thus, for a specific model a number of these templates has
to be nested in a similar fashion as Lagrangian particle models are constructed by plugging template classes
into each other.
The class templates, which provide modelling of a certain aspect, can also have an opposite twin-implementation.
This allows to construct phase models which either include a certain aspect, or not, by selecting a certain set
of templates at compile-time. One example for such a twin-implementation is the aspect of reactions. A phase
can either be a reacting one, or an inert one. Thus, there are two template classes dealing with reactions: the
templates InertPhaseModel and ReactingPhaseModel. The name of the template class is quite suggestive to
as how each class implements this aspect.

phaseModel
This is the base class for all phase models, and it defines the behaviour of a phase. This class is itself derived
from the class volScalarField. Thus, the phase model is its own volume fraction field. This class holds very
little data, apart from the phase’s index, its name and a pointer to the phase’s diameter model.
However, this class defines a large number of abstract methods, which the various template classes need to
implement.

MovingPhaseModel
This class template provides the functionality and the data for a moving phase, i.e. it holds the velocity field
and the flux fields. This class also provides a momentum equation for the phase. This class also holds a pointer
to the turbulence model.

1 template < class BasePhaseModel >

2 Foam :: tmp < Foam :: fvVectorMatrix >
3 Foam :: MovingPhaseModel < BasePhaseModel >:: UEqn ()
4 {
5 const volS calarFie ld & alpha = * this ;
6 const volS calarFie ld & rho = this - > thermo () . rho () ;
7

150 https://openfoam.org/release/3-0-0/
151 https://openfoam.org/chemical-process-engineering/

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8 return
9 (
10 fvm :: ddt ( alpha , rho , U_ )
11 + fvm :: div ( alphaRhoPhi_ , U_ )
12 + fvm :: SuSp ( - this - > c on t in ui ty E rr or () , U_ )
13 + this - > fluid () . MRF () . DDt ( alpha * rho , U_ )
14 + turbulence_ - > divDevRhoReff ( U_ )
15 );
16 }

Listing 323: Constructing the momentum equation of a moving phase in the class MovingPhaseModel

The momentum equation provided by this class template bears a striking resemblance to the momentum
equation of a compressible solver. If we compare the Listings 323 and 324, we recognize the four of the five
terms from Listing 323 as the RHS of the momentum equation of Listing 324. The only difference is, that the
terms of the multi-phase momentum equation contain the volume fraction field alpha, which takes a uniform
value of 1 in the single-phase solver.

1 tmp < fvVectorMatrix > tUEqn

2 (
3 fvm :: ddt ( rho , U )
4 + fvm :: div ( phi , U )
5 + MRF . DDt ( rho , U )
6 + turbulence - > divDevRhoReff ( U )
7 ==
8 fvOptions ( rho , U )
9 );

Listing 324: Constructing the momentum equation of a compressible, single-phase solver, on the example of
rhoPimpleFoam

As the list of options is read and created by the solver, the phase model is oblivious to the presence of any
options. Thus, there are no calls to the fvOptions framework within the phase models. This is a task for the
solver to deal with options from the fvOptions framework.

AnisothermalPhaseModel
This class template provides the data and the methods necessary to implement energy transfer, i.e. an energy
equation.

IsothermalPhaseModel
This class is the counterpart of the AnisothermalPhaseModel, it implements all abstract methods associated
with the transport of thermal energy in a trivial manner.

MultiComponentPhaseModel
This template class provides the data and methods associated with species transport within a phase, e.g. the
gas phase consisting of several gases.

PurePhaseModel
This template class is used for phases that consist of a single species. Thus there is no need to solve species trans-
port equations. Hence, this class template implements all abstract methods defined in the base class phaseModel
in a trivial manner, e.g. it returns an empty list of mass fractions when the method phaseModel::Y() is called,
which is intended to return the species mass fractions.

InertPhaseModel
This template class is used for non-reactive phases, and it implements all methods dealing with reactions in a
trivial way. Thus, it returns zero for the heat release rate and the mass transfer rate.

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 ReactingPhaseModel
This template class is used for reactive phases. Thus, the heat release rate and the mass transfer rate are
computed by the underlying reaction model and returned.

46.2.2 Phase system classes

46.2.3 Solution
Phase transport
Solving the transport equation for a phase is handled by the concrete phase system class, e.g. by twoPhaseSystem
in the case of reactingTwoPhaseEulerFoam. This is implemented by the method solve() of the phase system
class.

Momentum, energy and species transport

Solving the momentum, energy and species transport equations is handled by the solvers itself. The phase
models and the phase system models provide the transport equations and transfer terms.
In Listing 325 we see a snippet of reactingTwoPhaseEulerFoam’s source code, which deals with the construc-
tion of the momentum equation for one phase. This is also an example of the interaction of phase models and
phase system models. The LHS of the momentum equation is provided by the phase model, note the call to
phase1.UEqn(). This call is actually implemented in the template MovingPhaseModel, which we see in Listing
323. This template class provides the local derivative, the convective term, a phase-conservation correction, a
correction from the MRF framework and the momentum diffusion term.
The RHS of the momentum equation in Listing 325 is a momentum transfer term and a contribution from
the fvOptions framework. The momentum transfer term is provided by the phase system model.

1 U1Eqn =
2 (
3 phase1 . UEqn ()
4 ==
5 * m o m e n t u m T r a n s f er [ phase1 . name () ]
6 + fvOptions ( alpha1 , rho1 , U1 )
7 );
8 U1Eqn . relax () ;
9 fvOptions . constrain ( U1Eqn ) ;
10 fvOptions . correct ( U1 ) ;

Listing 325: Constructing the momentum equation of the first phase in reactingTwoPhaseEulerFoam

46.3 Turbulence modelling

reactingTwoPhaseEulerFoam supports per-phase turbulence modelling, which also allows to treat a phase as
laminar, as laminar modelling can be seen as a special case of turbulence modelling. By setting both phases to
mixtureKEpsilon, a turbulence model for the mixture can be solved, with this specific model being the only
option. Thus, all modelling strategies discussed in Section 35.3.1 are available with this solver.

46.4 Interfacial momentum exchange

47 multiphaseEulerFoam
multiphaseEulerFoam is an Eulerian solver for n phases. This solver differs in some points from the solver
twoPhaseEulerFoam.

47.1 Fields
The naming scheme of the fields differs from other multiphase solvers. multiphaseEulerFoam directly uses names
(e.g. Uair, Uwater, Uoil, etc.).

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47.1.1 alphas
A specialty of multiphaseEulerFoam is the field alphas. This field does not represent the volume fraction of
a certain phase and is therefore not bounded by 0 and 1. This field is used to represent all phases in a single
scalar field. alphas is computed by summing up the products of phase index and phase fraction.

n−1
X
alphas = i ∗ αi (131)
i=0

Because alphas is computed quantity, the file alphas can be missing in the 0 -directory.

47.2 Momentum exchange

The parameters for the momentum exchange, e.g. the drag model, need to be specified pair-wise.

47.2.1 drag

drag
(
( air water )
{
type blended ;

air
{
type S ch il le r Na um an n ;
r e s i d u a l P h a s e F r a c t i o n 0;
residualSlip 0;
}

water
{
type S ch il le r Na um an n ;
r e s i d u a l P h a s e F r a c t i o n 0;
residualSlip 0;
}

r e s i d u a l P h a s e F r a c t i o n 1e -2;
residualSlip 1e -2;
}

/* further d e f i n i t i o n s */

Listing 326: Pair-wise definition of the drag model in the file transportProperties

47.2.2 virtual mass

The coefficients for considering virtual mass must also be specified pair-wise. Listing 327 shows how the coeffi-
cients for virtual mass are specified in the damBreak tutorial.

virtualMass
(
( air water ) 0.5
( air oil ) 0.5
( air mercury ) 0.5
( water oil ) 0.5
( water mercury ) 0.5
( oil mercury ) 0.5
);

Listing 327: Pair-wise definition of Coefficients for virtual mass in the file transportProperties

47.2.3 lift force

Currently (OpenFOAM 2.1.1) there is no lift model in multiphaseEulerFoam.

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48 driftFluxFoam
driftFluxFoam is a solver of OpenFOAM to simulate e.g. settling of disperse particles in a liquid. driftFluxFoam
is the successor of settlingFoam, which has been discontinued with the release of OpenFOAM-2.3.1152 .
settlingFoam was used by Brennan [14] in his thesis, which contains a lot of information on deriving the
drift flux model from the Eulerian two-fluid model equations. The header of driftFluxFoam describes this
solver as follows:
Solver for 2 incompressible fluids using the mixture approach with the drift-flux approximation for
relative motion of the phases.
Used for simulating the settling of the dispersed phase and other similar separation problems.

driftFluxFoam complys with the generic solver design of OpenFOAM, thus this solver can use all available
turbulence models. It also can use the MRF method and the fvOptions framework.

48.1 Governing equations

The governing equations for the mixture are derived from the two-fluid model [14, 33].

48.1.1 Mixture continuity equation

The mixture continuity equation can be easily derived by adding the continuity equations of the two phases:

∂αk ρk
+ ∇· (αk ρk uk ) = 0 (132)
∂t
with the constitutive relations

ρm = α1 ρ1 + α2 ρ2 (133)
ρm um = α1 ρ1 u1 + α2 ρ2 u2 (134)

we gain
∂ρm
+ ∇· (ρm um ) = 0 (135)
∂t

48.1.2 Mixture momentum equation

Derivation from literature
The derivation of the mixture momentum equation is analogous to the derivation of the mixture continuity
equation. Therefore, we skip the general derivation and refer the interested reader to the appropriate liter-
ature [14, 33]. In this section, we want to focus on the derivation of the specific equations implemented in
driftFluxFoam.
We start from the derivation given in the appendix of Brennan [14]:

∂ρm um  X 
+ ∇· (ρm um um ) = −∇pm + ∇· τ + τt − αk ρk ukm ukm + ρm g + Mk (136)
∂t
P
we pay special attention to the diffusion stress αk ρk ukm ukm , which represents momentum diffusion due to
the relative motion between the phases.
X
αk ρk ukm ukm = α1 ρ1 u1m u1m + α2 ρ2 u2m u2m (137)

For convenience we introduce the symbol τdm for the diffusion stress
X
τdm = αk ρk ukm ukm (138)
152 http://www.openfoam.org/version2.3.1/

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 with ukm , the velocity of the phase k relative to the mixture’s centre of mass; ukm is also referred to as diffusion
velocity of the phase k

ukm = uk − um (139)

Ishii and Hibiki [33] states a relation between the diffusion velocities of the two phases:

α1 ρ1 u1m + α2 ρ2 u2m = 0 (140)

Thus, we can eliminate u1m from the diffusion stress τdm

 2
α2 ρ2 2 2
τdm = α1 ρ1 u2m + α2 ρ2 u2m (141)
α 1 ρ1
 
2 α2 ρ2
τdm = α2 ρ2 u2m +1 (142)
α1 ρ1
 
2 α2 ρ2 + α1 ρ1
τdm = α2 ρ2 u2m (143)
α1 ρ1
 
2 ρm
τdm = α2 ρ2 u2m (144)
α1 ρ1
α2 ρ2 2
τdm = ρm u (145)
α1 ρ1 2m

Implementation
From the source code in Listing 328 we see the diffusion stress an the fourth term on the LHS of the momentum
equation.

1 fvVe ctorMatr ix UEqn

2 (
3 fvm :: ddt ( rho , U )
4 + fvm :: div ( rhoPhi , U )
5 + MRF . DDt ( rho , U )
6 + fvc :: div ( UdmModel . tauDm () )
7 + turbulence - > divDevRhoReff ( U )
8 ==
9 fvOptions ( rho , U )
10 );

Listing 328: The momentum equation of driftFluxFoam

Next, we take a look at the implementation of the diffusion stress.

1 tmp < volSymmTensorField > Foam :: r e l a t i v e V e l o c i t y M o d e l :: tauDm () const

2 {
3 volS calarFie ld betac ( alphac_ * rhoc_ ) ;
4 volS calarFie ld betad ( alphad_ * rhod_ ) ;
5
6 // Calculate the relative velocity of the continuous phase w . r . t the mean
7 volV ectorFie ld Ucm ( betad * Udm_ / betac ) ;
8
9 return tmp < volSymmTensorField >
10 (
11 new v o l S y m m T e n s o r F i e l d
12 (
13 " tauDm " ,
14 betad * sqr ( Udm_ ) + betac * sqr ( Ucm )
15 )
16 );
17 }

Listing 329: The diffusion stress of driftFluxFoam computed by the relativeVelocityModel

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 And now, we translate the source code into some math:

2 2
τbm = βd udm + βc ucm (146)
with
βd = α d ρ d (147)
βc = αc ρc (148)
βd
ucm = udm (149)
βc
we gain
 2
2 βd 2
τbm = βd udm + βc udm (150)
βc
 
2 βd
τbm = βd udm 1 + (151)
βc
 
2 α d ρd
τbm = αd ρd udm 1 + (152)
αc ρc
 
2 α ρ
c c + αd ρd
τbm = αd ρd udm (153)
αc ρc
2 ρm
τbm = αd ρd udm (154)
αc ρc
αd ρd 2
τbm = ρm u (155)
αc ρc dm
We notice, that (155) derived from the source code, equals (145), derived from literature with phase 2 being
the disperse phase d.

Relative velocity
The diffusion velocity udm and the drift velocity udj are linked by a constitutive relation:

ρ1
udm = udj (156)
ρm
We find this relation also in the source code in Listings 334 and 335. Ishii and Hibiki [33] state, that in the
case of dispersed two-phase flow the drag correlation should be expressed in terms of the drift velocity udj .
The relative velocity models provide a method that returns udm , however, in the source code of the Listings
334 and 335 we find relation (156) translated into C++. There, the expression for udm consists of the density
ratio and a relation for the drift velocity, which links the terminal velocity of a single particle and the volume
fraction of the disperse phase.

48.2 incompressibleTwoPhaseInteractingMixture
The class incompressibleTwoPhaseInteractingMixture serves as the transport model for driftFluxFoam.
This class holds all the information of the two phases and provides the mixture quantities. driftFluxFoam
solves the momentum and pressure equations for the mixture. Thus, this solver is in between a single-phase
solver and a full two-fluid solver such as twoPhaseEulerFoam.
Via this transport model, the mixture quantities propagate to the turbulence model, since the turbulence
model receives a transport model class as template parameter at construction. This is one example for the
versatility of the new, templated turbulence modelling framework. The precursor settlingFoam had a hard-
coded k −  turbulence model. Also the viscosity model was kind of hard-coded.

48.3 Mixture viscosity models

Settling equippment is often operated with solids concentrations at which the presence of the solid particles
affect fluid properties. Besides using the mixture density, a mixture viscosity also has to be used.

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 48.3.1 mixtureViscosityModel
The class mixtureViscosityModel is the abstract base class for the actual viscosity models. This class serves a
similar purpose as the base class for the single-phase viscosity models viscosityModel located in $FOAM_SRC/
transportModels/incompressible/viscosityModels/viscosityModel. These two base classes are rather
similar and there are only slight differences in their implementations.

48.3.2 slurry
The slurry mixture viscosity model is a correction for the Newtonian viscosity with reference to Thomas [62].

µ = µc 1 + 2.5αd + 10.05αd2 + 0.00273 e16.6 α

(157)
The source code computing the mixture viscosity is a direct translation of the math above into C++.

1 Foam :: tmp < Foam :: volScalarField >

2 Foam :: m i x t u r e V i s c o s i t y M o d e l s :: slurry :: mu ( const vol ScalarFi eld & muc ) const
3 {
4 return
5 (
6 muc *(1.0 + 2.5* alpha_ + 10.05* sqr ( alpha_ ) + 0.00273* exp (16.6* alpha_ ) )
7 );
8 }

Listing 330: The calculation of the mixture viscosity by the slurry mixture viscosity model.

48.3.3 plastic
The plastic viscosity model is based on a generic viscosity model (158) for liquids exhibiting plastic behaviour.

τ = aC b α (158)
The plastic model implemented in driftFluxFoam translates to:
µ = min [µc + k ∗ (10n α − 1) , µmax ] (159)
Listing 331 shows the source code computing the mixture viscosity. The -1 in the second term ensures, that
we retain the laminar viscosity of the continuous phase in the case the dispersed volume fraction vanishes, since
anything to the power of zero equals one.

1 Foam :: tmp < Foam :: volScalarField >

2 Foam :: m i x t u r e V i s c o s i t y M o d e l s :: plastic :: mu ( const v olScalar Field & muc ) const
3 {
4 return min
5 (
6 muc
7 + plasticViscosityCoeff_
8 *(
9 pow
10 (
11 scalar (10) ,
12 p l a s t i c V i s c o s i t y E x p o n e n t _ * alpha_
13 ) - scalar (1)
14 ),
15 muMax_
16 );
17 }

Listing 331: The calculation of the mixture viscosity by the plastic mixture viscosity model.

48.3.4 BinghamPlastic
BinghamPlastic is a Bingham plastic model.

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 48.4 Relative velocity models - hindered settling
In this section we use the symbol v for the velocity to follow the notation of Brennan [14] as well as the source
code of OpenFOAM.

48.4.1 The base class

The base class holds the data common to the derived models. The base class holds the private field Udm_ for
the diffusion velocity udm and declares an abstract method correct(). The method correct() is used by the
derived classes to compute the diffusion velocity Udm_.
The method Udm() of the base class simply returns Udm_, and the method tauDm() returns the diffusion
stress computed from the diffusion velocity.

The diffusion velocity

The class for the relative velocity model holds a vector field for the diffusion velocity. The internal field values
are determined from the actual model in use, however, the boundary conditions are taken over from the mixture
velocity field.
This, we can read from the source code of the base class. In Listing 332 we see the initializer responsible for
the diffusion velocity.

1 Udm_
2 (
3 IOobject
4 (
5 " Udm " ,
6 alphac_ . time () . timeName () ,
7 alphac_ . mesh () ,
8 IOobject :: NO_READ ,
9 IOobject :: AUTO_WRITE
10 ),
11 alphac_ . mesh () ,
12 d i m e n s i o n ed V e c t o r ( " Udm " , dimVelocity , vector :: zero ) ,
13 mixture . U () . boundaryField () . types ()
14 )

Listing 332: The initializer entry for Udm_ in the constructor of the relativeVelocityModel class.

For the interpretation of Listing 332 we need to dig out the appropriate constructor of the class GeometricField153 .
In Listing 333 we see that the constructor receives five arguments, of which the last has a default value. If we
pass only four arguments, the fifth will be determined from the default value.

1 // - Constructor given IOobject , mesh , dimensioned < Type > and patch types .
2 Geom etricFie ld
3 (
4 const IOobject & ,
5 const Mesh & ,
6 const dimensioned < Type >& ,
7 const wordList & wantedPatchTypes ,
8 const wordList & a c t u a l P a t c h T y p e s = wordList ()
9 );

Listing 333: The signature of the constructor called by the code in Listing 332.

If we compare the arguments of the constructor call of Listing 332 and the signature in Listing 333, we see
that the first argument passed is clearly an IOobject. The second argument is a reference to the mesh itself,
which is obvious from the call to alphac_.mesh() in Listing 332.
The third argument determines the type of the field as well as the initial value. The template parameter
Type determines whether the field is a scalar, a vector or a tensor field. As a dimensionedVector is passed in
Listing 332, Type evaluates to vector154 .
153 Bear in mind, that volVectorField and others are specialisations of the templated class GeometricField.
154 Bear in mind, that dimensionedVector is a specialisation of the templated class dimensioned<Type> and dimensionedVector
is a shorthand for dimensioned<vector>.

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 The fourth argument is a list of patch types, since we passed only one dimensioned value as the third
argument, there has been no information passed on the boundary conditions of the field up to now. By passing
the list of boundary types of the mixture velocity field (mixture.U()), the boundary conditions of the field
Udm_ are specified.
As there is no fifth argument passed in Listing 332, the return value of the call wordList() is used.

48.4.2 simple
The model named simple is similar to the model used by Brennan [14] with attribution to Dahl [19]. This
model is very similar to the Vesilind [67] model (161), Brennan [14] explains the change of the base from the
Euler number e to the base 10 with a closer fit to experimental data gathered by Dahl [19].

vs = v0 10−kα (160)

The implementation of the simple model is more or less a direct translation from math (160) to C++. In
the exponent the maximum of the dispersed volume fraction and zero is taken to avoid numerical trouble from
negative values of the volume fraction. Reversing the sign in an exponent is never a good idea in numerical
simulation.

1 void Foam :: r e l a t i v e V e l o c i t y M o d e l s :: simple :: correct ()

2 {
3 Udm_ = ( rhoc_ / rho () ) * V0_ * pow ( scalar (10) , - a_ * max ( alphad_ , scalar (0) ) ) ;
4 }

Listing 334: The calculation of the dispersed diffusion velocity Udm_ by the simple relative velocity model.

48.4.3 general
The model referred to as general is most probably basedon the model of Takács [61], there is no reference to
any literature in the header file. The Takács [61] model (162) is a so-called double-exponential model based on
the model of Vesilind [67], see (161) [30, 14].

vs = v0 e−nX (161)
−rh X −rp X


vs = v0 e −e (162)

with
vs settling velocity
v0 maximum settling velocity
n model parameter
(163)
rh settling parameter for hindered settling
rp settling parameter for low solids concentration
X suspended solids concentration
The implementation .

1 void Foam :: r e l a t i v e V e l o c i t y M o d e l s :: general :: correct ()

2 {
3 Udm_ =
4 ( rhoc_ / rho () )
5 * V0_
6 *(
7 exp ( - a_ * max ( alphad_ - residualAlpha_ , scalar (0) ) )
8 - exp ( - a1_ * max ( alphad_ - residualAlpha_ , scalar (0) ) )
9 );
10 }

Listing 335: The calculation of the dispersed diffusion velocity Udm_ by the general relative velocity model.

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 48.5 settlingFoam
Here we take a closer look on settlingFoam (of OpenFOAM-2.2.x), which is the predecessor of driftFluxFoam.
By comparing the implementations of these two solvers we can observe the transition of the OpenFOAM source
code base to a more encapsulated approach.

48.5.1 Mixture viscosity

settlingFoam was/is restricted to the plastic or Bingham viscosity models. Listing 336 shows the code of
settlingFoam, which computes the mixture viscosity. This code is located in a source file, which is included
into the body of the PIMPLE loop of the solver.
Thus, for this solver, the treatment of mixture viscosity is not encapsulated. The viscosity models are not
located in separate files and the code of the solver itself contains all the knowledge of the viscosity models.
Extending the solver with one or more mixture viscosity models would entail building an extended if-cascade
within the file correctViscosity.H.

1 {
2 /* compute plastic viscosity */
3 mul = muc +
4 p l a s t i c V i s c os i t y
5 (
6 /* code removed for brevity */
7 );
8
9 if ( BinghamP lastic )
10 {
11 volS calarFie ld tauy = yieldStress
12 (
13 /* see yieldStress . H */
14 );
15 mul =
16 /* compute contribution of yield stress */
17 + mul ;
18 }
19
20 mul = min ( mul , muMax ) ;
21 }

Listing 336: The calculation of the mixture viscosity in the file correctViscosity.H of settlingFoam of
OpenFOAM-2.2.x. Comments added by the author.

48.5.2 Relative velocity models

settlingFoam of OpenFOAM-2.2.x offers the same choice of relative velocity models as driftFluxFoam at the
time of writing. However, implementation-wise we note, that model selection is, again, done in an if-statement
cascade.

1 if ( VdjModel == " general " )

2 {
3 Vdj = V0 *
4 (
5 exp ( - a * max ( alpha - alphaMin , scalar (0) ) )
6 - exp ( - a1 * max ( alpha - alphaMin , scalar (0) ) )
7 );
8 }
9 else if ( VdjModel == " simple " )
10 {
11 Vdj = V0 * pow (10.0 , -a * alpha ) ;
12 }
13 else
14 {
15 FatalErrorIn ( args . executable () )
16 << " Unknown VdjModel : " << VdjModel
17 << abort ( FatalError ) ;
18 }

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19
20 Vdj . c o r r e c t B o u n d a r y C o n d i t i o n s () ;

Listing 337: The calculation of the relative velocity in the file calcVdj.H of settlingFoam of OpenFOAM-2.2.x.

48.5.3 Turbulence
Turbulence in settlingFoam was/is implemented in a similar fashion as in twoPhaseEulerFoam of that time.
Both solvers feature a hard-coded k −  turbulence model, which is adapted to the solvers needs.

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Part VI
Postprocessing
There are two principal possibilities for post processing in OpenFOAM. First, there are tools that are executed
after a simulation has finished. This tools work on the written data of the solution. sample and paraView are
two examples for such tools.
Besides that, there is run-time post processing. Run-time post processing performs certain operations on the
solution data as it is generated. Consequently, run-time post processing allows for a much finer time resolution.
The functions objects – e.g. for calculating forces or force coefficients – are an example for run-time post
processing. The big disadvantage of this method is, that the user has to know the intended post processing
steps before starting a simulation. See http://www.openfoam.com/features/runtime-postprocessing.php
for more information about run-time post processing.

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49 functions
A function objects - in general - are objects, which are used in a similar manner as a function. This main benefit
of function objects is that they can have a permanent state. This state can be used to store data between “calls”
of the function object. A very illustrative example is OpenFOAM’s function object fieldAverage, which computes
the temporal average of fields. This function object needs to update itself with every time step computed and
the current time-averaged fields need to be preserved between “calls” of fieldAverage.
Function objects usually serve one specific purpose, e.g. compute the time average of a field quantity. Thus,
there is a large, ever growing number of function objects available in OpenFOAM. Some of which are listed
below to give an impression of the wide range of tasks currently covered by OpenFOAM’s function objects:
fieldAverage compute the temporal average of field quantities

the fieldValue family compute the spatial average (or other operations) of field quantities
forces compute the forces on a body (surface)
forceCoeffs compute force coefficients, e.g. for drag, lift and torque

sampledSet save the field values of a certain region, e.g. along a line
probes save field values at certain points
streamLine compute streamlines
scalarTransport solve a passive scalar transport equation

codedFunctionObject implement your own function object in a not-entirely-from-scratch framework

The list above is only a small selection of available functions. Check out OpenFOAM’s sources for a complete
overwiew on available function objects155 .

49.1 Stay up to date

Run-time post-processing with function objects is a feature of OpenFOAM which is very much in the realm of
application and daily use, in contrast to the inner workings of the mesh class. Thus, function objects recieve
much attention from the developers in form addition of new function objects, extending the features of existing
function objects or reorganizing and renaming existing function objects.
The first two points (addition and extension) are clearly for the benefit of the users, whereas the latter
one (reorganisation) most probably benefits the developers in reducing code duplication or easing maintenance.
Reorganisation might go hand in hand with renaming of function objects156 . In such a case your might need to
modify the function object definitions of your cases when migrating them to a newer157 version.
Apart from all the other benefits of using the latest version of OpenFOAM, especially when it comes to
function objects, you might be able to save yourself from developing a function object for your needs, if a newer
version of OpenFOAM already contains a function object implementing the functionality you need.

49.2 Definition
Function objects are defined in the file controlDict. There, a function dictionary is created which contains all
necessary informations. Listing 338 shows the basic structure of such a definition.
Every function has a name. This name is stated at the place of the NAME placeholder in Listing 338. This
name is also the name of the folder OpenFOAM creates in the case directory. There, all data generated by the
function object is stored.
155 New users might hate this statement, but the documentation is in the code.
156 Asan illustrative example, the function object for processing field values within a cell set has changed its name from cellSource
(OpenFOAM-3.0) over volRegion (OpenFOAM-4.0) to volFieldValue (OpenFOAM-5.0). This has been done, most probably, to
keep the naming scheme consistent with the underlying class names or make the name descriptive of its task. However, as in many
aspects of life in general, there is no unique, best way to do things. In this case, the function object’s name can describe what it is
or what it does. Both ways are equally valid and there might even be more aspects to choose from.
157 The same is the case for migrating cases to older versions, however, using the current version should be the norm.

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 Each function object also has a type. This type needs to be specified at the place of the TYPE placeholder.
The type needs to be from the list of the available functions. To find out, which functions are available, the
banana-trick 158 can be used. Listing 339 shows the error message that is caused by the banana-trick.
The placeholder LIBRARY marks the place where the name of the library needs to entered. A function object
is not a program that is executeable on its own. It is merely a library that is used by other programs. In
our case, the function objects are called by the solvers. Therefore, the function objects are not compiled into
executeables. The compiler creates libraries when the function objects are compiled. This libraries contain the
functions in a machine readable form.
The keyword enabled is optional. With this keyword function objects can be excluded from execution.

functions
{
NAME
{
type TYPE ;
f u n c t i o n O b j e c t L i b s (" LIBRARY ") ;
enabled true ;
/*
Definition
*/
}
}

Listing 338: Definition of function objects in the file controlDict

--> FOAM FATAL ERROR :

Unknown function type banana

Valid functions are :

13
(
cellSource
faceSource
fieldAverage
fieldCoordinateSystemTransform
fieldMinMax
near WallFiel ds
patchProbes
probes
readFields
sets
streamLine
surfaceInterpolateFields
surfaces
)

Listing 339: Output of the banana-trick; applied to the keyword type

49.3 Control
All function objects are related more or less directly to the base class functionObject, which is defined in the
file $FOAM_SRC/OpenFOAM/db/functionObjects/functionObject/functionObject.H. This class defines the
smallest common behaviour of all function objects. Thus, it may pay off to study this class, as all we learn from
it applies to all function objects.

49.3.1 Time control

The stages of function objects
Some OpenFOAM function objects might have some internal state which needs to be updated, whereas others
might have no need for an internal state. Simple function object, which write selected data to disk might fall
158 If OpenFOAM expects a keyword from a limited set of allowed keywords, stating an invalid keyword usually causes OpenFOAM

to print the list of allowed entries.

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under the latter category, e.g. the function object surfaceRegion from the fieldValue family of function
objects simply writes the data from specified patches to disk. This is done only at write time.
On the other hand, function objects might need to compute data from the solution data and thus need an
internal state, e.g. the fieldAverage function object needs to continuously update its internal fields for the
temporal averages, even if it writes them less frequently to disk.
Thus, the operational stages of a function object are divided in execute (for updating its internal state) and
write (for writing data, and computing to-be-written-data, which is not an internal state).

Execution & write control

The attributes of function objects for when-to-write are writeControl and writeInterval, in older versions
of OpenFOAM these were outputControl and outputInterval. These control when and how often the data
from the function object is written to disk.
A similar pair of controls (executeControl and executeInterval) exists for controlling when the function
object is executed, i.e. its internal state is updated.
Note, that while can use the setting writeInterval adjustableRunTime; for the write interval of the
functionObject, we need to ensure that the same setting is made for the simulation in general. If the simulation
uses the setting writeInterval runTime;, then the setting of the functionObject is over-ruled.

Enablement
The enabled flag controls whether the function object is enabled. This takes a boolean value and control
whether to execute the function object or not. This might be useful for testing or debugging simulation cases.
This flag allows you to define function objects and stop them from being used without deleting them from
controlDict. A rather brute-force alternative to this flag, from the case file editing perspective, would be to
comment the function object definition. However, changing the flag from on to off and vice-versa requires less
characters changed than commenting and uncommenting159 .
The pair timeStart and timeEnd control when to begin using a function object and when to stop. These
controls are optional and are in most cases omitted. The default behaviour, when these controls are omitted, is
to execute function objects from the start of the simulation and to execute them until the simulation finishes.
In fact, the default values are a negative, ridiculously large number160 for timeStart and a ridiculously large
number for timeEnd. Thus, no reasonable simulation will start before the default value of timeStart or run
any longer than the default value of timeEnd. This way, there is no need for conditional statements, a simple
comparison against the current time suffices.

49.3.2 Region control

The region keyword controls to which mesh region the function object applys. This can be omitted in all cases
with only one mesh region, as stating the mesh region is superfluous. However, there are cases in OpenFOAM
with more than one mesh region, such as conjugated heat transfer simulations. In this case we have one mesh
(region) for the fluid region and one mesh (region) for the solid parts of our domain to solve for heat transfer.
In this case we can use a function object to log the average temperature of both the fluid and the solid regions.
Thus, we specify two function objects to evaluate the volumetric average temperature, however, we need to
specify the region for which the function objects are to be executed.
The (abstract161 ) base class responsible for selecting a mesh region to operate on is regionFunctionObject.
A number of function objects are derived more or less directly from regionFunctionObject. Among these are
function objects of the fieldValues family as well as fieldMinMax and fieldAverage.

49.4 probes
The function probes saves the values of certain field quantities at specific points in space. Listing 340 shows an
example of the definition of a probes function object.
159 Admittedly, with the use of multi line comments (/* no comment */), the amount of changed characters is four, compared to

one or two when using the enabled flag. Potential savings are minuscule.
160 The source code of the scalar class defines a static variable VGREAT, which is close to the maximum representable floating point

number. VGREAT and similar static variables are frequently used for initialisation of variables.
161 The class regionFunctionObject inherits two pure virtual methods from its base class functionObjecttexttt which it does

not implement. Thus, regionFunctionObject is an abstract class.

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 This function object is of the type probes. The name of the function object is probes1. The data generated
by this function is stored in the directory probes1. This directory contains a sub-directory. The name of
this sub-directory corresponds to the time at which the simulation is started. This prevents files from being
overwritten in case a simulation is continued at some point in time.
Figure 128 shows the directory tree after a simulation ended. There, the folder probes1 contains a sub-
directory named 0. This is the time the simulation started. The 0 folder contains the files p and U.
The keywords outputControl and outputInterval are optional. They control – as their names suggest –
the way the data is written to the hard drive.
fields contains the names of the fields that are of interest. probeLocations contains a set of points. The
data of a specified field is computed for this locations and written to a file. The name of this file is the fields of
interest. Listing 340 will result in two files. The file p contains the values of the pressure for all locations, the
file U will contain the values of the velocity at all locations.
The function probes is contained in the file libsampling.so. This information can be gained from the
tutorials. See Section 67.3 for more information about how to search the tutorials for specific information.

functions
{
probes1
{
type probes ;
f u n c t i o n O bj e c t L i b s (" libsampling . so ") ;
enabled true ;
outputControl timeStep ;
outp utInterv al 1;

fields
(
p
U
);

prob eLocatio ns
(
( 0.0254 0.0253 0 )
( 0.0508 0.0253 0 )
);
}
}

Listing 340: The definition of probes in the file controlDict

caseDirectory
0
More time steps
constant
polyMesh
probes1
0
p
U
system

Figure 128: A part of the directory tree after the simulation ended

49.4.1 Pitfalls
Probe location outside the domain
If the probe location is outside of the domain OpenFOAM will issue a warning message and continue with the
simulation.

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--> FOAM Warning :
From function findElements :: findElements ( const fvMesh &)
in file probes / probes . C at line 102
Did not find location (0.075 0 0.48) in any cell . Skipping location .

Listing 341: probe location outside of the domain

Unknown or non-existent field

If the probes dictionary contains fields that are not present to be probed, then no warning or error message will
be issued. OpenFOAM simply continues computation. If the dictionary contains no valid fields to be probed,
then the probe function will not be executed. Consequently no folder for storing the data will be created.

Using probes with moving mesh

When we use probes, OpenFOAM searches the mesh for the cells containing the specified probe locations. More
specifically, it determines the cell indices of the cells containing the probe locations. Thus, OpenFOAM can
easily obtain the cell value of the probed field. In essence a field in OpenFOAM is a list of values, and the cell
index is used to navigate the list.
However, when we use moving meshes, the cell index related to a certain point in space may change over
time, e.g. when probing a point within a rotating mesh region. Consequently, everytime the mesh is updated,
we need to ensure that the cell indices of the probed are updated as well.
In OpenFOAM probes have a boolean flag (fixedLocations) controlling this updating of the cell indices.
By default, this flag is set to true, meaning that no updating is required. Below, in Listing 342, we see the
description of this flag from the header file probes.C.

// - Fixed locations , default = yes

// Note : set to false for moving mesh calations where locations
// should move with the mesh
bool f ix ed Lo c at io ns _ ;

Listing 342: Description of the fixedLocations boolean flag in probes.H

When using moving meshes, add the fixedLocations flag to your probesDict, as shown in Listing 343
below.

fields
(
...
)

prob eLocatio ns
(
...
)

// add this for cases using moving meshes

fixe dLocatio ns false ;

Listing 343: Add the fixedLocations flag to the probesDict when using probes with moving meshes

49.5 fieldAverage
fieldAverage computes time-averaged fields. Listing lst:fieldAverageControlDict shows an example of how this
function is set up.

functions
{
fieldAverage1
{
type fieldAverage ;

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 f u n c t i o n O bj e c t L i b s ( " l i b f i e l d F u n c t i o n O b j e c t s . so " ) ;
enabled true ;
outputControl outputTime ;
fields
(
Ua
{
mean on ;
prime2Mean off ;
base time ;
}
);
}
}

Listing 344: Definition of a fieldAverage function object in the file controlDict

The fieldAverage function object can be provided with a averaging window size and name to compute a
sliding average. In this case, the resulting averaged field bears the window name as a file name suffix besides
the field name and the suffix Mean. With this feature, multiple averages of a field can be computed. Listing 345
shows two averages of the field U.water.
If no window is specified, fieldAverage computes the average from the start time of the function object. The
resulting field bears the name of the to-be-averaged field and the suffix Mean. If a window size and a window
name is specified, the resulting field’s name is extended with the window name.

U . water U . waterMean U . waterMean_w1

Listing 345: Multiple averages of the field U.water

49.6 faceSource
49.6.1 Average over a plane
faceSource extracts data from surfaces (faces). Listing 346 shows how the average of a field quantity over a
cutting plane is set up.

functions
{
faceObj1
{
type faceSource ;
f u n c t i o n O bj e c t L i b s (" l i b f i e l d F u n c t i o n O b j e c t s . so ") ;
enabled true ;
outputControl outputTime ;

// Output to log & file ( true ) or to file only

log true ;

// Output field values as well

valueOutput false ;

// Type of source : patch / faceZone / sampledS urface

source sample dSurface ;

sampledSurfaceDict
{
// Sampling on triSurface
type cuttingPlane ;
planeType point AndNorma l ;
pointAndNormalDict
{
basePoint ( 0 0 0.3 ) ;
normalVector ( 0 0 1 ) ;
}
interpolate true ;
}

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 // Operation : areaAverage / sum / we ig ht e dA ve ra g e ...
operation areaAverage ;
fields
(
alpha
);
}
}

Listing 346: Definition of a faceSource function object in the file controlDict

49.6.2 Compute volumetric flow over a boundary

Listing 347 shows the definition of a function object that is used to compute the volumetric flow over a boundary
face. The key points for this are the definition of a weight field and the use of the summation operation. The
weight field is automatically applied to the processed field, there is no need to specifically an operation such as
weightedSum. If no weight field is defined, no weight field is used.

functions
{
faceIn
{
type faceSource ;
f u n c t i o n O b j e c t L i b s (" l i b f i e l d F u n c t i o n O b j e c t s . so ") ;
enabled true ;
outputControl timeStep ;
log true ;
valueOutput false ;
source patch ;
sourceName spargerInlet ;
surfaceFormat raw ;
operation sum;
weightField alpha1;

fields
(
phi1
);
}
}

Listing 347: Definition of a faceSource function object in the file controlDict

49.6.3 Pitfall: valueOutput

The option valueOutput writes the field values on the sampled surface to disk. This can lead to massive disk
space usage when setting outputControl to timeStep. In this case the field values are written for every time
step. The option valueOutput should be disabled unless it is really needed.
Figure 129 shows the contents of the postProcessing folder after two time steps have been written to disk.
For each sampled field the field values on the sampled patch are written to disk in files in the surface folder.

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 postProcessing
faceObj1
0
faceSource.dat
surface
0.1
phi_patch_outlet.raw
p_patch_outlet.raw
U_patch_outlet.raw
0.2
phi_patch_outlet.raw
p_patch_outlet.raw
U_patch_outlet.raw

Figure 129: The content of the postProcessing folder

49.7 cellSource
The cellSource function object acts on all cells of the mesh or on the cells of a cellZone.
Listing 348 shows the definition of a cellSource function object. In this case, a part of the domain is contained
in the cellZone left. The function object calculates the volume-average value of the volume fraction of air. The
keyword valueOutput is set to the value false and marked as evil by the comment for reasons explained in
Section 49.6.3.

1 functions
2 {
3 a ir Co nt e nt _l ef t
4 {
5 type cellSource ;
6 f u n c t i o n O b j e c t L i b s ( " l i b f i e l d F u n c t i o n O b j e c t s . so " ) ;
7 enabled true ;
8 outputControl timeStep ;
9 log true ;
10 valueOutput false ; // evil
11 source cellZone ;
12 sourceName left ;
13 operation volAverage ;
14
15 fields
16 (
17 alpha . air
18 );
19 }
20 }

Listing 348: A usage example of the cellSource function object

49.8 readFields
If we want to post-process a case, which we computed with a custom solver that created custom fields, and the
post-processing involves these custom fields, it is very likely that OpenFOAM will complain of those fields not
being present in the database when we run our post-processing function objects. That’s when readFields comes
into play.
The description in the header files reads:
Reads fields from the time directories and adds them to the mesh database for further post-
processing.
This function object serves the purpose to read specified fields, and add those to the database. Thus, adding
this function object to our post-processing function objects allows us to post-process any custom fields with
OpenFOAM’s standard function objects.

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 49.9 writeObjects
If we want to post-process fields, that are not written by default, then we can tell OpenFOAM to write specified
fields to disk. The description of the header file for this function object states:
Allows specification of different writing frequency of objects registered to the database.

49.10 Execute C++ code as functionObject

OpenFOAM makes it possible to execute C++ code as a functionObject162 . This feature is disabled by default.
To activate it a flag has to be changed. This is done for a single user in ~/.OpenFOAM/$WM_PROJECT_VERSION/controlDict
or system wide in $WM_PROJECT_DIR/etc/controlDict. In one of these files the flag shown in Listing 349 has
to be set to one. It can be, that the first of these files does not exist, i.e. there are no user specific settings.
The question of precedence (User setting over system wide setting) has not been pursued by the author.
Listing 350 shows an example of this feature. The field quantities U 1, U 2 and p are read in and some
calculated values are printed to the Terminal.

// Allow case - supplied C ++ code (# codeStream , c od ed F ix ed Va l ue )

allowSystemOperations 1;

Listing 349: Allow case-supplied C++ code

1 extraInfo
2 {
3 type coded ;
4 f u n c t i o n O b j e c t L i b s ( " l i b u t i l i t y F u n c t i o n O b j e c t s . so " ) ;
5 redirectType average ;
6 code
7 #{
8 const volVectorFie ld & U1 = mesh () . lookupObject < volVectorField >( " U1 " ) ;
9 const volVectorFie ld & U2 = mesh () . lookupObject < volVectorField >( " U2 " ) ;
10 Info << " max U1 = " << max ( mag ( U1 ) ) . value () << " , U2 = " << max ( mag ( U2 ) ) . value () << endl ;
11 const volScalarFie ld & p = mesh () . lookupObject < volScalarField >( " p " ) ;
12 Info << " p min / max = " << min ( p ) . value () << " , " << max ( p ) . value () << endl ;
13 #};
14 }

Listing 350: Define a functionObject using C++

When the solver is invoked, the so called coded functionObject is compiled on the fly. Listing 351 shows a
portion of the solver output. Between the entry into the time loop and the first calculations, the code is read
from controlDict and pasted into a template of a coded functionObject.

Starting time loop

Using dynamicCode for func tionObje ct extraInfo at line 69 in "/ home / user / OpenFOAM / user -2.1. x /
run / t w o P h a s e E u l e r F o a m / bubbleColumn / system / controlDict :: functions :: extraInfo "
Creating new library in " dynamicCode / average / platforms / li nu x 64 Gc c DP Op t / lib /
l i b a v e r a g e _ 7 3 1 f e d 8 6 8 e d c 5 a 1 d 7 5 9 8 8 8 0 8 6 4 9 a c 8 7 4 c f 0 0 e 0 4 4 . so "
Invoking " wmake -s libso / home / user / OpenFOAM / user -2.1. x / run / t w o P h a s e E u l e r F o a m / bubbleColumn /
dynamicCode / average "
wmak eLnInclu de : linking include files to ./ lnInclude
Making dependency list for source file f u n c t i o n O b j e c t T e m p l a t e . C
Making dependency list for source file F i l t e r F u n c t i o n O b j e c t T e m p l a t e . C
’/ home / user / OpenFOAM / user -2.1. x / run / t w o P h a s e E u l e r F o a m / bubbleColumn / dynamicCode / average /../
platforms / l in ux 6 4G cc D PO pt / lib / l i b a v e r a g e _ 7 3 1 f e d 8 6 8 e d c 5 a 1 d 7 5 9 8 8 8 0 8 6 4 9 a c 8 7 4 c f 0 0 e 0 4 4 . so ’ is
up to date .
Courant Number mean : 1.68517 e -05 max : 0.00363
Max Ur Courant Number = 0.00363
Time = 0.001

MULES : Solving for alpha1

Listing 351: On the fly compilation of C++ coded functionObjects

162 The release notes of OpenFOAM-2.0.0 suggest that this feature was introduced with version 2.0.0. See http://www.openfoam.

org/version2.0.0/

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 OpenFOAM creates a directory named dynamicCode in the case directory. There, all files related to the
coded functionObject can be found, source files as well as binaries. Figure 130 shows the directory tree after
OpenFOAM compiled the coded functionObject.

caseDirectory
0
constant
polyMesh
dynamicMesh
average
lnInclude
Make
linux64GccDPOpt
platforms
linux64GccDPOpt
libs
system

Figure 130: Directory tree after compilation of a coded functionObject

49.11 wallHeatFlux
The wallHeatFlux function object can be used to determine the wall heat flux. By default, wallHeatFlux
computes the wall heat flux for all patches of the type wall. Alternatively a list of patches can be passed to
the function object using the patches keyword.

Determining the physical units

In Line 7 of Listing 352, we see that the wall heat flux field is initialized with the physical unit kilogram per
cubic second. In Line 17, we see that the wall heat flux is computed from the product of the thermal diffusivity
for the enthalpy and the gradient of the he-field163 .

[wallHeatFlux] = [alpha] · [he.snGrad()] (164)

kg J 1 1 Ws W
[wallHeatFlux] = · = · = 2 (165)
m s kg m ms m m
The equations above, demonstrate the how to derive the physical unit of the resulting wall heat flux computed
by this function object. Indeed, the result is Watt per square meter. Note, that the alpha-field is the thermal
diffusivity of the enthalphy164 .

1 tmp < volScalarField > twallHeatFlux

2 (
3 volS calarFie ld :: New
4 (
5 type () ,
6 mesh_ ,
7 d i m e n s i o n e d S c a l a r ( dimMass / pow3 ( dimTime ) , 0)
8 )
9 );
10
11 /* some code removed for brevity */
12
13 forAll ( wallHeatFluxBf , patchi )
14 {
15 if (! wallHeat FluxBf [ patchi ]. coupled () )
163 With compressible solvers, the user can choose to either solve the energy for the specific enthalpy h or the specific internal
energy e. The he-field is a convenient placeholder for either one. Note that the specific enthalpy and the specific internal energy
both have the physical unit of Joule per kilogram.
164 You can find the definition of alpha in the files basicThermo.H and basicThermo.C

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16 {
17 wall HeatFlux Bf [ patchi ] = alphaBf [ patchi ]* heBf [ patchi ]. snGrad () ;
18 }
19 }

Listing 352: The computation of the wall heat flux in wallHeatFlux.C

The wallHeatFlux function object, not only computes the wall heat flux as a field, it also prints the extrema
and the integral-value per patch to the Terminal, and also writes those values into a data file. The integral
value is of course the amount of energy transferred per-patch in terms of Watts.

49.12 Execute functions after a simulation has finished

49.12.1 execFlowFunctionObjects
execFlowFunctionObjects is a post-processing tool of OpenFOAM. This tool allows the user to execute function
objects after a simulation is finished. Normally, function objects are executed during the simulation. However,
in some cases it is useful to apply a function to the data set of a already completed simulation, e.g. for testing
the function.

Defining function objects in a seperate file

Listing 353 shows a file which contains only the definition of a function object. For the sake of clarity, this file
is named functionDict. Defining functions in a seperate file reflects the division of labor in some way. The
file controlDict is controlling the solver, whereas the file functionDict defines the function objects. The file
functionDict can be included into the file controlDict by an #include statement. See Section 11.3.5 for
examples.

FoamFile
{
version 2.0;
format ascii ;
class dictionary ;
location " system ";
object functionDict ;
}
// * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * //

functions
{
probes1
{
type probes ;
f u n c t i o n O b j e c t L i b s (" libsampling . so ") ;
dictionary probesDict ;
}
}

Listing 353: Define functions in a seperate dictionary. The file functionDict

Run execFlowFunctionObejcts
execFlowFunctionObjects has to be told, that the functions are defined in a seperate file. By default, the tool
reads the file controlDict. By using the parameter -dict the user can specify an alternative file containing
the function dictionary.

e x e c F l o w F u n c t i o n O b j e c t s - noFlow - dict functionDict

Listing 354: Invokation of execFlowFunctionObjects

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50 sample
sample is a simple post processor. This tool is controlled by the file sampleDict. sample extracts data from
the solution of a specific region. sample can extract data from the following geometric regions:
• from one or several points in space

• along a line
• on a face
sample is usually executed after a simulation has finished.

50.1 Usage
The simplest way to use sample is to call the command sample. In this case sample looks for a file named
sampleDict located in the system directory. With the -dict an alternative file with a different name can be
specified. However, this file has to reside in the system directory.
By default sample operates on all time steps. The option -latestTime can be used to sample only the latest
solution data. The option -time can be used to specify a certain time or a time range to operate on.
Specifying a limited number of time steps to perform sampling on significantly reduces the time needed for
this operation. The disk space used by the data generated by sample is usually in the order of up to a few
megabytes. Therefore saving hard disk space is not an issue when using sample.

50.2 sampleDict
The file sampleDict controls what and where data is to be sampled.

50.2.1 Output format

There are 6 possible output formats (csv, gnuplot, jplot, raw, vtk, xmgr). The difference between the listed
formats is the way how the data is organised inside the file.
sample creates one file for scalar quantities and one for vector quantities. The names of the data files
are built from the names of the sampled fields, the output format and the name of the geometric set. E.g.
lineXuniform_Ua_Ub.csv, this file contains the velocity fields Ua and Ub along the line lineXuniform. The
data format of the sampled data is comma seperated values (csv).

50.2.2 Fields
The fields that are to be sampled are listed in the list fields.
Invalid entries are ignored, without any warning message. In the example of Listing 355 the list of fields
contains the name banana. However, there is no field named banana, so sample will simply ignore this entry –
sample will not issue any warning or error message. Thus, a typo in the sampleDict is not that easy to find.
sample reports no warning but the intended field is not sampled. Always double check the entries in the fields
sub-dictionary for typos, especially when sampling fields with composite names, e.g. U2Mean or U2Prime2Mean.

// Fields to sample .
fields
(
alpha
banana
Ua
Ub
);

Listing 355: Fields to sample in the file sampleDict

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50.2.3 Geometric regions
The geometric regions on which sample can operate are
sets A set can contain one or several points or a line. Along a line, points can be distributed in an equidistant
fashion.

surfaces A surface can be defined in several ways. Possible are, among others, cutting planes or iso-surfaces.

50.2.4 Pitfalls
Missing keywords
If the keywords sets and surfaces are missing in sampleDict, sample will run without producing any error mes-
sages or any data. If in Listing 356 the word banana would be replaced by sets and orange by surfaces, sample
would work as expected. If sample is called with a sampleDict like in Listing 356, sample produces no data and
issues no warning.

setFormat raw ;

surfaceFormat vtk ;

formatOptions
{
ensight
{
format ascii ;
}
}

i n t e r p o l a t i o n S c h e m e cellPoint ;

fields
(
p
U
);

banana
(
lineX1
{
type uniform ;
axis distance ;
start (0.0015 0.5027 0.05) ;
end (0.0995 0.5027 0.05) ;
nPoints 20;
}
);

orange
(
);

Listing 356: Not working example of sampleDict

Faulty line definition

If the data along a line is to be sampled and the definition of the line is errorneous so that the line is outside
the domain, sample will issue a warning message. Listing 357 shows an example of such a warning message.
However, sample will not report an error and it will finish its run. So, when the output of sample is not checked,
this might go unnoticed.

--> FOAM Warning :

From function sampledSets :: c o m b i n e S a m p l e d S e t s (..)
in file sampledSet / sampledSets / sampledSets . C at line 102

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 Sample set lineX0 has zero points .

Listing 357: Warning message of sample due to a faulty line definition

Insufficient write precision

In the OpenFOAM tutorials, the majority of cases use a write precision of 6 digits, which should be sufficient
in most cases. However, in certain instances, a greater number of digits may be required.
When we are sampling the pressure field, it depends on whether we are using an incompressible or a com-
pressible solver, for the 6 digits of write precision to be adequate or not. An incompressible solver uses a
pressure field, which is divided by the fluid density. Furthermore, for incompressible solvers, the absolute value
of the pressure is irrelevant. Thus, many cases use 0 as their reference or ambient pressure, e.g. at an outlet.
With compressible solver, on the other hand, we use the pressure field and the absolute value of the pressure
is relevant. Thus, the pressure field has, in many cases, the ambient pressure is 100000 Pa. This is where the
write precision comes into the picture. In Listing 358 we see the result of sampling the pressure of a compress-
ible case, when using a write precision of 6 digits. The reference pressure of 100000 Pa nearly drowns-out all
information on the pressure variation in this case, as the 6 digits are nearly completely used-up to represent the
ambient pressure. The little variations within the solution domain can not be fully resolved due to a lack of digits.

x,p
0 ,100001
0.00055 ,100001
0.0011 ,100001
0.00165 ,100001
0.0022 ,100001
0.00275 ,100001
...

Listing 358: Sampling the pressure field of a compressible case with a write precision of 6 digits.

Even worse is the result when using only 5 digits. In this case, see Listing 359, OpenFOAM switches to
scientific notation, and is only able to represent the ambient pressure. The small variation of pressure is now
completely lost.

x,p
0 ,1 e +05
0.00055 ,1 e +05
0.0011 ,1 e +05
0.00165 ,1 e +05
0.0022 ,1 e +05
0.00275 ,1 e +05
...

Listing 359: Sampling the pressure field of a compressible case with a write precision of 5 digits.

Using a sufficient number of digits ensures that the pressure variation within the solution domain can be
sampled and processed further.

x,p
0 ,100001.1161
0.00055 ,100001.116
0.0011 ,100001.1153
0.00165 ,100001.1145
0.0022 ,100001.1134
0.00275 ,100001.1123
...

Listing 360: Sampling the pressure field of a compressible case with a write precision of 10 digits.

Choosing a sufficient number of digits seems like really obvious solution. So, when do we run into the
problem of sampling data with an insufficient number of digits? When we run a simulation using the binary
write format for the field data. In this case, the pressure field is written to disk in binary format, with maximum
precision. However, the sampled data will always be written to disk in ascii format. This is when we run into

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the troubles discussed in this section. When we simply do not care about the number of digits, because we feel
save by using the binary format.

50.3 Update OpenFOAM-4

The post processing utility sample and others have been superseded by the tool postProcess, which bundles
post processing tasks. Fortunately, not all is lost. All utilities that are superceded by postProcess issue a
warning message about them being obsolete now. However, this message contains very helpful information on
how to proceed. In the case of sample, existing sampleDicts can be used further with little modification.

sample has been superceded by the postProcess utility :

postProcess - func sample

To re - use existing ’ sampleDict ’ files simply add the following entries :

type sets ;
libs (" libsampling . so ") ;
and run
postProcess - func sampleDict

Listing 361: Warning message in OpenFOAM-4 when trying to use sample

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51 ParaView
ParaView is a graphical post-processor. This program is called by invoking the command paraFoam. paraFoam
is a script that calls ParaView with additional OpenFOAM libraries.

51.1 Reader’s choice

Post-processing OpenFOAM cases offers the choice between two variants, i.e. we can choose between the native
OpenFOAM-reader of ParaView, and OpenFOAM’s reader module. In general, both readers are equivalent, yet
there are some differences between those two.
For this document, OpenFOAM’s reader is generally used, unless when explicitely mentioning the native
reader.

51.1.1 OpenFOAM’s reader

OpenFOAM’s reader is used when we launch ParaView using the paraFoam command. paraFoam is actually a
script, which launches ParaView with the appropriate libraries.
From observation, we see that when we run the paraFoam command, a file gets created named CASE_NAME.OpenFOAM.
When ParaView is closed again, this file is automatically removed. The important bit of this file, which we
refer to as the case-file, is the file extension. The file itself is an empty file.
Thus, in order to use ParaView with OpenFOAM’s reader module, we can simply create a file with the
*.OpenFOAM file extension165 , open ParaView and open this file using the File Open menu.
The OpenFOAM reader module pre-dates the native reader and supports only serial or reconstructed cases.
The OpenFOAM reader is considered to support all of OpenFOAM’s features166 .

Figure 131: Launching ParaView with OpenFOAM’s reader for OpenFOAM cases.

51.1.2 Native reader

If we launch ParaView, we can’t simply use the File Open menu to open an OpenFOAM case. Thus, in order
to open an OpenFOAM case, we need to create a case-file with a *.foam file extension. This file can then be
opened using the File Open menu, which causes ParaView to use its native reader for OpenFOAM cases.
165 E.g. using the command: touch foo.OpenFOAM
166 https://www.openfoam.com/documentation/user-guide/paraview.php

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Decomposed cases
One major advantage of the native reader is, that it is fully parallelized. Thus, we can post-process decomposed
cases without prior reconstruction of the case. Thus, we can avoid the duplication of data when post-processing
an ongoing case. Figure 132 shows a screenshot, when opening a case-file for the native reader. In the properties
panel on the left, there is a drop-down menu, which shows the setting Reconstructed Case in Figure 132. This
setting can be changed to Decomposed Case, in order to read the parallelized case data.
The native ParaView reader is considered to potentially encounter problems with complex dictionary input.

Figure 132: Launching ParaView with its native reader for OpenFOAM cases.

Multi-region cases
Another neat feature of the native reader is that it recognizes multi-region cases. Thus, by simply opening a
*.foam file, the reader automatically reads-in the individual regions of the case. See Figure 133 for an example.

Figure 133: Using ParaView with its native reader to read a multi-region OpenFOAM case.

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Pitfall: decomposed multi-region cases with constant/polyMesh still being present
One instance, the native reader struggles is when the mesh of a multi-region case has been created from a
single-region mesh, and the initial mesh is still around. When such a case is decomposed, then the native
reader will encounter the initial single-region mesh and the individual region-meshes in the constant directory,
however, in the processor* directories, only the region-meshes are present.
In Listing 134 shows the directories of a case that triggers the problem described above. The mesh of this
case has been created by subsequent execution of blockMesh, topoSet and splitMeshRegions; which created
the initial mesh, created cellZones and split the mesh into regions according to the cellZones. Since there is no
way to decompose both the initial mesh and the region-meshes, which would by the way make no sense at all,
we need to remove the initial mesh in constant/polyMesh for the native reader to work properly.

.
0.org
heater
region1
constant
heater
polyMesh
polyMesh
region1
polyMesh
processor0
constant
heater
region1
processor1
constant
heater
region1
system
heater
region1

Figure 134: The case directories of a decomposed, multi-region case with the initial mesh still present. This
directory tree was generated by calling the following command from the case directory: tree -L 3 -d

51.2 View the mesh

Besides viewing and post-processing simulation results, ParaView can be used to view only the mesh. E.g.
when refining a mesh it is important to check neighbouring blocks for the transition of mesh fineness.
When no fields are selected, paraView only reads the mesh information. Therefore, it is possible to view
the mesh without the rest of the case properly set up. After the Apply button has been pressed and paraView
has read all the data, the user has to choose from the representation drop-down menu in the toolbar the option
Surface with edges .

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 Figure 135: Select the proper representation to view the mesh

51.2.1 Sort-of-pitfall: cell shape representation

When examining meshes, we would like to get the cell shapes correctly represented. However, there seems to
be an issue with ParaView’s ability to display various cell shapes. Figure 136 shows an example in which the
cell shape is not represented correctly. By default, ParaView seems to decompose polyhedrals into hexahedra,
tetrahedra and other simple shapes.
Thus, the image shown in Figure 136 wrongly suggests a mesh consisting of mainly hexahedra, and many
cells being distorted.

Figure 136: Viewing a polyhedral mesh with ParaView’s standard settings.

If we want to correctly display the mesh, we need to check the box labelled Use VTK Polyhedron in the
properties panel. In Figure 131, this is the second box from the top. If we check this box, and read the case,
or check this box and refresh ParaView’s state by clicking on the Apply button, the displayed mesh changes to
the representation shown in Figure 137. Now we can clearly see the polyhedral cell shapes.

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 Figure 137: Viewing a polyhedral mesh with adjusted settings.

The native reader

It is the author’s assumption that the underlying cause of this representation issue has its origins in ParaView
itself, because the native reader of ParaView lacks a comparable option to adjust cell shape representation.
Viewing the mesh with the native reader yields the result shown in Figure 138, which is a comparable represen-
tation as in Figure 136. In both cases, the polyhedra are decomposed into hexahedra and other simple shapes,
yet the decomposition differs a little.

Figure 138: Viewing a polyhedral mesh with ParaView’s native OpenFOAM reader.

51.2.2 Pitfall: default field selection

If a user works on the refinement of the mesh and the definition of boundary conditions has not been made,
then calling ParaView can crash because of its default selection of the pressure field. After pressing the Apply
button ParaView tries to read in all selected fields. In case of a faulty definition of the boundary fields, this
ends in the termination of the program. Listing 362 shows a corresponding error message.

--> FOAM FATAL IO ERROR :

keyword bottom is undefined in dictionary "/ home / user / OpenFOAM / user -2.1. x / run / icoFoam / case01
/0/ p :: boundaryField "

file : / home / user / OpenFOAM / user -2.1. x / run / icoFoam / case01 /0/ p :: boundaryField from line 25 to
line 35.

From function dictionary :: subDict ( const word & keyword ) const

in file db / dictionary / dictionary . C at line 461.

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FOAM exiting

Listing 362: Reading error due missing boundary field definition

51.3 Saving animations

51.3.1 Save as animation - video format
The straight-forward way to save animations in ParaView is to save a view as an animation in the form of a
video file. Simply choose File Save Animation ... from the menu, and select a video format167 when ParaView
asks for a file name.

Figure 139: Selecting the file name for the animation.

51.3.2 Save as animation - individual images

Saving a view from ParaView in the form of a video file may sometimes yield unsatisfactory results, e.g.
dropping individual frames. Hence, we might want an option to create an animation with more control over the
animation-making process.
For this, we save the animation from ParaView as a sequence of individual images, which will be automatically
numbered sequentially by ParaView. From these images, we can then create an animation using a video encoding
software of our choice.

Using FFmpeg
In this example we use FFmpeg, which is a widely available, open source multimedia library. See https:
//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FFmpeg and https://ffmpeg.org for more information. Listing 363 shows an
example of how an animation can be created from the individual images saved by ParaView. Here, we assume
that we saved our view under the file name velField.png, ParaView then automatically inserts sequential
167 ParaView appears to support only the OGV format, at least with the tested versions 5.4.0 and 5.6.0. For the OGV format, see

e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theora or https://www.theora.org.

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numbering. In the call to FFmpeg, we specify a frame rate in frames per second using the -r command line
argument.
With the command line argument -i we specify the input for our animation. Here, we use the file name
we used earlier to save the individual frames, however, we account for the sequential numbering by inserting a
place-holder, i.e. %04d, which stands for a zero-padded integer with a fixed width of 4 characters. FFmpeg will
insert sequential numbers starting from 0.
If we wanted to start our animation from a frame other than the one named velField.0000.png, we can
provide an alternative starting number with the command line argument -start_number.
The last argument of the command in Listing 363 is the name of the resulting video file.

# change to the directory containing the individual images

user@host :∼$ ls
velField .0000. png velField .0012. png velField .0024. png velField .0036. png velField .0048. png
... # output deleted for clarity
user@host :∼$ ffmpeg -r 1 - start_number 19 -i velField .%04 d . png velocityField . ogv

Listing 363: Creating an animation from individual images.

51.4 Case manipulation using ParaView

ParaView offers some tools to manipulate case data, here we shall discuss some of them along with potential
use-cases. This discussion is neither exhaustive nor complete.

51.4.1 Create a tet-mesh and export as VTK

Tetrahedralize filter
The Tetrahedralize filter of ParaView creates a tetrahedralisation of the current mesh, which may consist of any
cell types. The result is an all-tet mesh.

Figure 140: The Tetrahedralize filter of ParaView takes no user input.

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Figure 141: Left: an extruded mesh created from an STL surface mesh. Right: the mesh after tetrahedralisation.

Export VTK
Exporting the tetrahedralized mesh in the VTK format can simply be done in ParaView by selecting the
Tetrahedralize item in the Model Tree and using the Save Data command of the File menu, i.e. select File
Save Data in the menu bar of ParaView. The subsequent dialogue will ask for a format and a file name.
After we have provided a file name and selected the VTK format, we are asked in a subsequent step whether
to write time steps; whether to write the file in ASCII or binary format; and whether to compress the exported
files.

Figure 142: Exporting data from ParaView using the Save Data command from the File menu.

ParaView will export a couple of files from the tetrahedralized mesh. A VTK Multi Block File is written to
the case directory, which is basically a manifest of the other exported files. These files are written into an export-
folder, which has the same name as the Multi Block File with the exception of the file extension. Within this
folder, the other files are written, which contain the volume mesh as well as the patches. In the example shown
in Listing 364 the file exportedVTK_0_0.vtu contains the volume mesh, and the other files contain a patch each.

user@host :∼/ OpenFOAM / user -7/ run / meshing / m e s h M a n i p u l a t i o n $ cat exportedVTK . vtm
< VTKFile type = " v t k M u l t i B l o c k D a t a S e t " version = " 1.0 " byte_order = " LittleEndian " header_type = "
UInt64 " >
< vtkMultiBlockDataSet >
< Block index = " 0 " name = " unzoned " >
< DataSet index = " 0 " name = " internalMesh " file = " exportedVTK / ex po rt ed V TK _0 _0 . vtu " / >
</ Block >
< Block index = " 1 " name = " patches " >
< DataSet index = " 0 " name = " sides " file = " exportedVTK / e xp or te d VT K_ 1_ 0 . vtu " / >
< DataSet index = " 1 " name = " originalPatch " file = " exportedVTK / ex po r te dV TK _ 2_ 0 . vtu " / >
< DataSet index = " 2 " name = " otherSide " file = " exportedVTK / ex p or te dV T K_ 3_ 0 . vtu " / >
</ Block >
</ vtkMultiBlockDataSet >

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 < FieldData >
< DataArray type = " Float64 " Name = " TimeValue " Number OfTuples = " 1 " format = " ascii " RangeMin = " 0 "
RangeMax = " 0 " >
0
</ DataArray >
</ FieldData >
</ VTKFile >
user@host :∼/ OpenFOAM / user -7/ run / meshing / m e s h M a n i p u l a t i o n $ ls exportedVTK
e xp or te d VT K_ 0_ 0 . vtu ex p or te dV T K_ 1_ 0 . vtu ex p or te dV T K_ 2_ 0 . vtu ex p or te dV TK _ 3_ 0 . vtu
user@host :∼/ OpenFOAM / user -7/ run / meshing / m e s h M a n i p u l a t i o n $

Listing 364: The content of the VTK Multi Block File viewed in the Terminal; and the files written into the
export-folder.

Legacy VTK
If we wanted to use the Legacy VTK format for our exported mesh, we need to open the exported file containing
the internal mesh with ParaView again. In our case, we need to open the file exportedVTK_0_0.vtu from the
export folder. This data is then again exported using the Save Data command from the File menu. Now that
we are dealing with pure VTK data, we can select to write the data in the Legacy VTK format.

Figure 143: Export data from ParaView in the Legacy VTK format.

All roads lead to FOAM

With the big number of tools included with OpenFOAM and also the surrounding bits and pieces of software,
you should not be surprised to learn that there is also an alternative way to achive a tetrahedralisation of an
OpenFOAM mesh using completely different tools. See Section 27.10 for an alternative approach.

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52 postProcess
With OpenFOAM-4.0 the function object framework was rewritten. In the course of this rewrite a postProcess
utility was introduced and a postProcess option was added to most of the solvers168 . The postProcess utility
also supersedes certain post-processing utilities, e.g. sample.

52.1 Usage
52.1.1 Pre-configured function objects
There are a number of pre-configured function objects, which are ready to use with postProcess. These
can be found in $FOAM_ETC/caseDicts/postProcessing. They can also be listed using the -list option of
postProcess.

user@host :∼$ postProcess - list

Listing 365: Determine the extrema by magnitude of a velocity field

52.1.2 Passing parameters

Listing 366 shows how to determine the mininum and maximum magnitude of a velocity field.

user@host :∼$ postProcess - fields ’( U . water ) ’ - func " mi nM ax Ma g ni tu de ( U . water ) "

Listing 366: Determine the extrema by magnitude of a velocity field

Listing 367 shows how to process two velocity fields at once, we simply pass the names of the fields in a
comma-separated list.

user@host :∼$ postProcess - fields ’( U . air U . water ) ’ - func " m in Ma xM a gn it ud e ( U . air , U . water ) "

Listing 367: Determine the extrema by magnitude of two velocity fields

In Listing 368 we process a single velocity field and pass additional parameters to the function object. In
this case, we do not want to know the location of the minimum and maximum velocity magnitude.

user@host :∼$ postProcess - fields ’( U . air ) ’ - func " m in Ma xM a gn it ud e ( U . air , location = off ) "

Listing 368: Determine the extrema by magnitude of a velocity field with no location
After running our function objects, we see that data was written into the postProcessing directory. We note
that the folder names correspond to the argument passed via the -func option.

user@host :∼$ ls postPro cessing

m in Ma xM a gn it ud e ( U . air , location = off ) m in M ax Ma gn it u de ( U . air , U . water )

Listing 369: The contents of the postProcessing directory after running two function objects from the above
listings

52.1.3 Post-processing decomposed cases

We can run postProcess in parallel in the same way we run a solver in parallel. This allows us to post-process
a case, which has not been reconstructed.

mpirun - np 4 postProcess - parallel

Listing 370: Run postProcess in parallel, i.e. post-process a decomposed case.

168 Counting the solvers with find $FOAM_SOLVERS -name ’files’ | xargs grep ’EXE’ | wc yielded a number of 82 solvers, of

which 73 included the postProcess.H header file, which provided the postProcess option. The second number was determined with
the following command: find $FOAM_SOLVERS -name ’*.C’ | xargs grep ’\#include[[:space:]]\"postProcess.H\"’ | wc.

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Part VII
External Tools
Besides paraView, there are a number of other useful tools, which do not come from the OpenFOAM Foundation.
This section will cover such tools.

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53 pyFoam
pyFoam is a collection of useful Python169 scripts. These scripts are mostly written to serve one specific task.
Further information can be found at http://openfoamwiki.net/index.php/Contrib_PyFoam.

53.1 Installation
The installation of pyFoam is described at http://openfoamwiki.net/index.php/Contrib_PyFoam#Installation.
The major prerequisite for the use of pyFoam is, that a Python interpreter is installed. To check if a Python
interpreter is installed on the system, simply type python --version in the Terminal. If a version number is
displayed, like Python 2.7.3, then Python is installed. Otherwise, the operating system would display an error
message, stating that the command python can not be found.
Further information about Python are found at http://python.org/ and http://docs.python.org/.

53.2 pyFoamPlotRunner
The script pyFoamPlotRunner starts a simulation and plots the residuals like Fluent would do.

user@host :∼/ OpenFOAM / user -2.1. x / run / t w o P h a s e E u l e r F o a m / columnCase$ p y Fo a m P l o t R u n n e r . py

twoPhaseEulerFoam

Listing 371: Calling pyFoamPlotRunner

53.2.1 Plotting options

Listing 372 shows the plotting options offered by pyFoam.

What to plot
------------
Predefined quantities that the program looks for and plots

--no - default Switch off the default plots ( linear , continuity and
bound )
--no - linear Don ’ t plot the linear solver convergence
--no - continuity Don ’ t plot the continuity info
--no - bound Don ’ t plot the bounding of variables
-- with - iterations Plot the number of iterations of the linear solver
-- with - courant Plot the courant - numbers of the flow
-- with - execution Plot the execution time of each time - step
-- with - deltat ’ Plot the timestep - size time - step
-- with - all Switch all possible plots on

Listing 372: Plotting flags of the pyFoamPlot* utilities

53.3 pyFoamPlotWatcher
The script pyFoamPlotWatcher is intended to visualize solution data (e.g. residuals, time steps, Courant number,
etc.) after the simulation has finished. This requires that the solver output is written into a file, see Section
12.1.1. pyFoamPlotWatcher does essentially the same job as pyFoamPlotRunner with the difference that the
former tool is for finished simulations and the latter monitors a running simulation. So the description of the
features of pyFoamPlotWatcher holds also true for pyFoamPlotRunner.
user@host :∼/ OpenFOAM / user -2.1. x / run / t w o P h a s e E u l e r F o a m / columnCase$ p y F o a m P l o t W a t c h e r . py LOGFILE

Listing 373: Calling pyFoamPlotWatcher

By default pyFoamPlotWatcher plots the curves of the residuals, continuity information and bounded vari-
ables. With options several other curves can be plotted (e.g. time step, iterations, Courant number, etc.). With
regular expressions user specified data can be extracted from the log file.
169 Python is an interpreted programming language.

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 Listing 374 shows the invokation of pyFoamPlotWatcher to plot additionally to the default selection also the
Courant number. The processing of the solver output stored in the file LOGFILE is limited with the option --end
with a specific value – 0.1 s in this case. There is also a --start option. The plot created by the command in
Listing 374 is shown in Figure 144.

p y F o a m P l o t W a t c h e r . py LOGFILE -- end =0.1 -- with - courant

Listing 374: Calling pyFoamPlotWatcher with some options

Figure 144: The Courant number plotted with pyFoamPlotWatcher.

53.3.1 Custom regular expressions

With regular expressions pyFoamPlotWatcher can extract arbitrary data from the solver output. This section
elaborates this feature by the example of plotting the Courant number based on the relative velocity of a
two-phase solver.

General information
pyFoamPlotWatcher has no option to display the history of the Courant number based on Ur, the relative velocity
between the phases. Listing 375 shows some lines of the solver output of the two-phase solver twoPhaseEuler-
Foam. The line in red displays the Courant number based on the relative velocity Ur. The line above the
red colored line displays the Courant number based on the mixture velocity, see Section 57.6.4 and 57.6.4
for information on the definition of the Courant number and the Courant number of the two-phase solver
twoPhaseEulerFoam.

DILUPBiCG : Solving for k , Initial residual = 0.000824921 , Final residual = 1.47595 e -06 , No
Iterations 2
ExecutionTime = 70870.7 s ClockTime = 71186 s

Calculating averages

Courant Number mean : 0.103485 max : 0.422517

Max Ur Courant Number = 0.448791
deltaT = 0.00380929
Time = 72.5848

MULES : Solving for alpha1

MULES : Solving for alpha1

Listing 375: Some lines of the solver output of twoPhaseEulerFoam

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Extracting the information
To extract the information from the log file we need to create a file containing the regular expression.

{" expr ":" Max Ur Courant Number = (% f %) " ," name ":" UrCoNum "}

Listing 376: The file customRegexp

If pyFoamPlotWatcher finds a file named customRegexp in the case directory, this file will be processed
automatically. If the file containing the regular expression has another name or is located inanother place the
option --regexp-file=REG_EXP_FILE can be used to specify the path to that file.
Listing 376 contains comma seperated entries ("expr" and "name"). The values are seperated by a colon
from the name of the entries (e.g. "name":"UrCoNum"). The first entry contains the regular expression to
extract the data. The second provides the name of the extracted data, but this entry can be omitted.

Figure 145: The Courant number based on the relative velocity plotted with pyFoamPlotWatcher

The absurdly high value of the Courant number indicates that the simulation did not go well. The need
for plotting the Courant number based on Ur emanated from a trouble-shooting episode. Thus this section was
written to preserve the gained knowledge.

53.3.2 Custom regular expression revisited

The plotting utilities of pyFoam (pyFoamPlotRunner and pyFoamPlotWatcher) accept custom regular expres-
sions also in a different format than the format of Listing 376. This new format was introduced with version 0.5.3.
See http://openfoamwiki.net/index.php/Contrib_PyFoam#Plotting_with_customRegexp-files for fur-
ther information. The new format looks resembles an OpenFOAM dictionary.
Listing 377 shows an example of the solver output that will be post-processed. The goal is to draw curves of
the quantities of the red line. Listing 378 shows the corresponding regular expression. The plotting utilities of
pyFoam offer the --dump-custom-regegexp option to generate the custom regular expression in the new format
from the old format. Listing 379 is the result of this operation.

DILUPBiCG : Solving for beta , Initial residual = 0.000307666 , Final residual = 7.36162 e -08 , No
Iterations 2
DILUPBiCG : Solving for T , Initial residual = 0.000514273 , Final residual = 2.57279 e -07 , No
Iterations 1
Concentration = 0.0509085 Min T = 0.00498731 Max T = 0.218343
Bubble load = 0.00623198 Min beta = 0 Max beta = 0.0677904
Time = 19.96

Listing 377: Some lines of the solver output to post-process

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{" expr ":" Concentration = (% f %) Min T = (% f %) Max T = (% f %) " ," name ":" Concentration " ," titles
":[" avg " ," min " ," max "]}

Listing 378: The custom regular expression in the odl format

Custom01
{
accumulation first ;
enabled yes ;
expr " Concentration = (% f %) Min T = (% f %) Max T = (% f %) ";
name C u s t o m 0 1 _ C o n c e n t r a t i o n ;
persist no ;
raisit no ;
theTitle " Custom 1 - Concentration ";
titles
(
avg
min
max
);
type regular ;
with lines ;
xlabel " Time [ s ]";
}

Listing 379: The custom regular expression in the new format

53.3.3 Special treatment of certain characters

Note that the solver output we processed so far contained no parentheses. The parentheses are interpreted by
the regular expression. In order to deal with parentheses in the solver output they need to be escaped properly.
The same is true for brackets. So the following example is also valid, when brackets are contained in the solver
output that is to be processed with regular expressions.
Listing 380 shows some lines of solver output of twoPhaseEulerFoam. The line marked in red contains
parentheses. In order to post-process these lines with regular expressions these parentheses need to be escaped
in the regular epxression. Listing 381 shows the corresponding regular expression. Note the escaped parentheses
marked in red.

Time = 19.9957

MULES : Solving for alpha1

MULES : Solving for alpha1
Dispersed phase volume fraction = 0.0168317 Min(alpha1) = 3.92503e-87 Max(alpha1) = 0.2
GAMG : Solving for p , Initial residual = 9.46269 e -05 , Final residual = 1.65711 e -06 , No
Iterations 1
time step continuity errors : sum local = 2.08826 e -05 , global = 4.51574 e -08 , cumulative =
-0.0334048

Listing 380: Some lines of the solver output of twoPhaseEulerFoam

{" expr ":" Dispersed phase volume fraction = (% f %) Min\(alpha1\) = (% f %) Max\(alpha1\) = (% f %)

" ," name ":" Volume fraction " ," titles ":[" avg " ," min " ," max "]}

Listing 381: The regular expression to extract the information about the volume fraction

Not only the parentheses have a special meaning in regular expressions. An internet search170 or detailed
knowledge on regular expressions will yield the knowledge which characters have to be escaped.

53.3.4 Ignoring stuff

Listing 381 extracts three numbers from the line marked in Listing 380. Using this regular expression plots all
three curves. If we are interested in only the first number – the average volume fraction – we replace the second
and third (%f%) with a .+ to ignore the second and third number. In this special case this seems an overkill
170 E.g. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/399078/what-special-characters-must-be-escaped-in-regular-expressions

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– we could also delete parts of the expression since we are only interested in the first number – but if we are
interested in the first and the third number, then we need to ignore the second number.

53.3.5 Producing images

The Figures 144 and 145 are screenshots of the images plotted by pyFoamPlotWatcher. However, there is the
option --hardcoded that tells the pyFoam plot utilities to save the plots on the disk. By default a PNG image
is produced but with the option --format-of-hardcopy=HARDCOPYFORMAT other formats can be chosen.
Figure 146 shows the plot produced by the regular expression of Listing 381.

Custom 1 - Volume fraction

0.025
avg

0.02

0.015

0.01

0.005

0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
Time [s]

Figure 146: The average volume fraction plotted with pyFoamPlotWatcher and a custom regular expression

53.3.6 Writing data

Producing images is often not enough for post-processing. The option --write-files causes pyFoam to write
the extracted data to the hard drive. Thus the extracted data can be processed by other programs.

53.3.7 Case analysis

The option --with-all generate a number of plots that can be helpful to examine the performance of simulation
case. See Listing 372 for an explanation of the available plots.

Figure 147: The execution time plotted over time with pyFoamPlotWatcher. The occasional writing of the data
to harddisk are clearly visible as spikes in the execution time.

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53.4 pyFoamClearCase
As the name implies, pyFoamClearCase cleans the case directory. This script deletes all time directories save
the 0 directory. By the use of command line options, a finer control of the actions of pyFoamClearCase is
possible. Some of these options are:
–keep-last keep the last time step
–keep-regular keep all time steps
–after=T delete all time steps for t > T
–remove-processor delete the processor* directories
The script is invoked by typing its name in the Terminal. Listing 382 shows how this script is executed. The
options cause pyFoamClearCase to keep the last time directory and to remove all processor* folders.

p yF oa mC l ea rC as e . py . -- keep - last -- remove - processor

Listing 382: Calling pyFoamClearCase

Note the file ending .py after the name of the script. This ending indicates, that the script is written in Python.
It also indicates, that pyFoamClearCase is an executable script rather than a program on its own.

53.5 pyFoamCloneCase
This script is used to copy a case. By default the 0, the constant and the system directory are copied. Addi-
tionally, there are various command line arguments to control the operation of the script, e.g. copy also the
latest time step or the processor* directories.

53.6 pyFoamDecompose
This script is used to decompose the computational domain. Other than the tool decomposePar, this script
does not need an existing decomposeParDict. This script receives command line arguments, generates the
decomposeParDict and calls decomposePar.
In Listing 383 the script is called with two arguments. The first argument is the path to the case directory.
In this case the dot refers to the currect directory. The second argument is the number of sub-domains. From
this arguments, pyFoamDecompose creates a decomposeParDict. The first argument is necessary to tell the
script where to save the newly created file. The second argument is the most fundamental information for
domain decomposition – the number of sub-domains.
There is a large number of additional arguments which allow to exert more control over the way the domain
is decomposed.

p yF oa mD e co mp os e . py . 4

Listing 383: Invokation of pyFoamDecompose

Listing 384 contains the decomposeParDict created by the command of Listing 383.

// * * * * * * * * * //
FoamFile
{
version 0.5;
format ascii ;
root " ROOT " ;
case " CASE " ;
class dictionary ;
object nix ;
}
method scotch ;
n u m b e r O f S u b d o m a i n s 4;
scotchCoeffs

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{
}

Listing 384: The file decomposeParDict generated by pyFoamDecompose decomposeParDict

The output of pyFoamDecompose is stored in the file Decomposer.logfile.

53.7 pyFoamDisplayBlockMesh
If there is a problem with mesh topology and one isn’t able to find the error in the blockMeshDict, this tool
can be of great help. pyFoamDisplayBlockMesh does exactly what the name of the tool suggests. It reads
blockMeshDict and displays the topology of the mesh. One might think, that that’s exactly what is described in
Section 15.6.2 (display the blocks with paraView). However, if the definition of the mesh is erroneous, blockMesh
will not create a mesh and paraView is therefore not able to display the blocks.
pyFoamDisplayBlockMesh is a tool that allows the user to visualise a faulty mesh. This is of great help
to find e.g. an error in the block definition, especially when there are more than one blocks. In Figure 148 a
screenshot of the GUI of this tool is shown. In the main panel the vertices and the edges are displayed. With
the two sliders below single blocks as well as patches can be marked and coloured. The local axes of a single
block are displayed as tubes labelled with the corresponding names of the axes.
The blocks shown in Figure 148 have a faulty definition, so blockMesh produces an error message instead of
creating a mesh. With the help of this tool, the cause for the error is easily found. The marked block should
be in the right part of the geometry, so vertex number 5 should not be part of this block.

Figure 148: Screenshot of pyFoamDisplayBlockMesh

Right of the main panel the output of the standard meshing utilities blockMesh and checkMesh can be
displayed (not shown in the picture). These utilities can be executed from the menu of this tool. Moreover, the
blockMeshDict can be edited with this tool.

53.8 pyFoamCaseReport
The tool pyFoamCaseReport generates a summary of the simulation case. The amount of information displayed
can be controlled by command line flags. Listing 385 shows how to create a full summary of a case. However,
the full information lies within the dictionaries of the case. This tool provides only selected information.

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p y F o a m C a s e R ep o r t . py -- full - report .

Listing 385: Create a summary of the case with pyFoamCaseReport

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54 swak4foam
The name swak4foam comes from SWiss Army Knife for Foam. swak4foam evolved from a collection of tools
like groovyBC, funkySetFields and simpleFunctionObjects. The documentation of swak4foam is located at http:
//openfoamwiki.net/index.php/Contrib/swak4Foam.

54.1 Installation
To install swak4foam one needs to download the source code and compile them. The source code of swak4foam
is managed by the use of a subversion 171 repository. Listing 386 shows how the source code is downloaded
by subversion. The first command changes the working directory of the terminal to ~/OpenFOAM. The second
command creates a directory named swak4foam. The third command changes the working directory of the
terminal to the newly created folder and the last commands actually downloads the source code to the current
directory.

cd ∼/ OpenFOAM
mkdir swak4foam
cd swak4foam
svn checkout https :// openfoam - extend . svn . sourceforge . net / svnroot / openfoam - extend / trunk /
Breeder_2 .0/ libraries / swak4Foam /

Listing 386: Installation of swak4foam

After downloading, the sources need to be compiled by calling Allwmake.

54.2 simpleSwakFunctionObjects
simpleSwakFunctionObjects is an extension of simpleFunctionObjects. The functions of this library are used to
post process data and extend functionality of OpenFOAM.

54.2.1 Extrema of a field quantity

If only the extrema of a field quantity are of interest, the tools of OpenFOAM (probes, sample) are of little use.
One way of solving this problem could be, to modify the solver to write the extrema to the standard output.
In Listing 387 some line of the standard output of twoPhaseEulerFoam are shown. This solver prints the mean
value as well as the extrema of the volume fraction of the dispersed phase. The corresponding lines of source
code can serve as a blueprint for a solver modification.
However, if the user is not inclined to modify and compile OpenFOAM solvers, simpleSwakFunctionObjects
provide the solution.

DILUPBiCG : Solving for alpha , Initial residual = 3.48391 e -05 , Final residual = 2.94111 e -12 ,
No Iterations 2
Dispersed phase volume fraction = 0.00824276 Min ( alpha ) = -1.66816 e -19 Max ( alpha ) = 0.6
DILUPBiCG : Solving for alpha , Initial residual = 3.71563 e -07 , Final residual = 8.16115 e -14 ,
No Iterations 2
Dispersed phase volume fraction = 0.00824276 Min ( alpha ) = -3.31819 e -19 Max ( alpha ) = 0.6

Listing 387: Solver-Ausgabe von twoPhaseEulerFoam

swakExpression
The function to do the job is called swakExpression. This function is part of the library libsimpleSwakFunc-
tionObjects. Listing 388 shows how this function is set up as a function object in the file controlDict. In this
example the minimal value of the field alpha is saved. Notice the statement in last line of the Listing. This
statement tells the solver to use the specified library. This library contains the function swakExpression. See
Section 11.3.3 for further information about using external libraries.

171 subversion, abbreviated SVN, is a version control software to manage software projects.

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functions
{
minAlpha
{
type swakExpr ession ;
verbose true ;
accumulations ( min ) ;
valueType internalField ;
expression " min ( alpha ) ";
}
}

libs (" l i b s i m p l e S w a k F u n c t i o n O b j e c t s . so ") ;

Listing 388: Definition of the function swakExpression in the file controlDict

Keywords
This section explains the most important keywords of Listing 388.

type specifies the type the function object

verbose a switch that controls whether the generated data is to be printed on the solver output or not. The
data is written into a file anyway.
accumulations allowed entries: {min,max,average,sum}. Quote from the CFD-Online Forum172 : accumu-
lations is only needed if you need ”a single number” to print to the screen. For instance if you use a
swakExpression-FO to print the maximum and minimum of your field to the screen.
valueType defines the type of the geometric region on which the function is applied. Allowed entries:
{internalField cellSet faceZone patch faceSet set surface cellZone}
expression defines the quantity that is sought for. This can be a simple statement or a formula computing a
quantity.

172 http://www.cfd-online.com/Forums/openfoam/103504-swak4foam-calculating-velocity-transformations.html

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55 blockMeshDG
blockMeshDG is a modification of the meshing tool blockMesh to allow for double grading. Double grading
means, that the ratio between the discretisation length of the middle and the ends of an edge is prescribed.
This tool was developed by some users of OpenFOAM and is was published in the CFD-Online OpenFOAM
Forum (http://www.cfd-online.com/Forums/openfoam/70798-blockmesh-double-grading.html). There
is also a page in the OpenFOAM Wiki (http://openfoamwiki.net/index.php/Contrib_blockMeshDG).

Notice
This topic is outdated, as blockMesh of standard OpenFOAM already includes a feature for the discussed
purpose. This was introduced with OpenFOAM-3.0173 .

55.1 Installation
The downloaded source code is ready for compilation after unpacking. All necessary entries have already been
made to prevent the new utility to collide with the standard utilities of OpenFOAM. The make script creates
an executable named blockMeshDG.

55.2 Usage
To discern between normal grading and double grading, the expansion ratio needs to be negative for double
grading174 . A positive entry causes normal grading to be applied just like it is the case with the standard utility.

55.3 Pitfalls
55.3.1 Uneven number of cells
blockMeshDG obviously has a problem with an uneven number of cells. Figure 149 shows the resulting mesh,
when 15 cells are used for the double graded edge. In this case, although the mesh is of bad quality, checkMesh
reports no error. However, the output of checkMesh contains some indications that something is not alright.
Listing 389 shows some lines of the output of checkMesh. The very high aspect ratio is an indicator that
something is wrong with the mesh. Also the fact that the minimum and maximum values of face area or cell
volume differ by up to three orders of magnitude should lead to the same conclusion. Unfortunately, checkMesh
issues not even a warning message.

Checking geometry ...

Max aspect ratio = 81 OK .

Minimum face area = 3.8395 e -08. Maximum face area = 1.68746 e -05. Face area magnitudes OK .
Min volume = 9.59875 e -11. Max volume = 4.21864 e -08. Total volume = 4.92214 e -05. Cell
volumes OK .
Mesh non - orthogonality Max : 42.2304 average : 11.7938
Non - orthogonality check OK .
Min / max edge length = 3.079 e -05 0.00508035 OK .

Listing 389: Some output of checkMesh

So far, the only solution to this problem is to use an even number of cells.

173 https://openfoam.org/release/3-0-0/
174 A negative entry unequal to unity causes blockMesh to crash with a floating point exception. Therefore, using negative entries

for double grading does not alter the standard behaviour.

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 Figure 149: Double grading problem

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 Part VIII
Source Code & Programming
56 Understanding some C and C++
In this Section some features of the C++ programming language are discussed.

56.1 Definition vs. Declaration

In C and C++ there is the destinction between the declaration and the definition of a variable. Briefly explained,
declaring a variable only tells the compiler that the variable exists and has a certain type. The declaration does
not specify what the variable actually is.
A definition also tells the compiler what exactly a variable is. This does not necessarily mean that the
variable is assigned a value.
Further information on that matter can be found in [59, 39] or http://www.cprogramming.com/declare_
vs_define.html.

56.1.1 A classy example

In Listing 390 we define the class phaseInterface, i.e. we tell the compiler what the class looks like (data
members, methods, etc.). Within the class phaseInterface we want to use the class phaseModel. This class
already exists and is defined elsewhere, so there is no need for us to repeatedly define the class phaseModel.
Creating our own definition of phaseModel would be useless and stupid.
To be able to use the existing class phaseModel we need to introduce this class to the compiler. In Line 4
of Listing 390 we do exactly this. We tell the compiler, that there is a class named phaseModel, that is all the
information needed by now. This is sometimes referred to as forward declaration.
When we compile our class we need to make sure that we include the definition of phaseModel, e.g. via
linking to the library in which phaseModel is defined.

1 namespace Foam
2 {
3
4 class phaseModel ;
5
6 class phas eInterfa ce
7 {
8 // lots of C ++ code
9 };
10
11 }

Listing 390: Declaration and definition of classes

56.2 Namespaces
Namespaces are a feature of C++ to support a logical structure within the program. The basic idea behind
namespaces put in simple words is to keep things (variables and functions) visible where they need to be visible.
Like any other method of keeping things neat and tidy you could also survive without namespaces. However,
to loosely quote Prof. Jasak, one of the founders of OpenFOAM: OpenFOAM is an example of how to make
proper use of C++. Therefore, we have a closer look on namespaces in OpenFOAM.
General information about the concept of namespaces can be found here:
• http://www.cplusplus.com/doc/tutorial/namespaces/
• http://www.cprogramming.com/tutorial/namespaces.html

• http://www.learncpp.com/cpp-tutorial/711-namespaces/
Some OpenFOAM specific aspects related to namespaces are discussed in Section 57.2.

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56.3 const correctness
The const keyword has several uses and using const has some implications.

56.3.1 Constant variables

This is the most easy part. Any variable can be declared constant by using the const keyword. This can
precede the datatype or the variable name. Both lines in Listing 391 are correct statements.

const int limit = 5;

int const answer = 42;

Listing 391: Constant variables

56.3.2 Constants and pointers

Pointing to a constant
A pointer can be used to point to a constant variable. The pointer itself is not constant and therefore change-
able. However, the keyword const has to be used when declaring a pointer pointing to a constant variable.
However, a pointer pointing to a constant can also point to a non-constant variable.

int const constVar1 = 42;

const int constVar2 = 13;
int variable = 11;

const int * pointer = & constVar1 ;

std :: cout << " The pointer points to " << * pointer << std :: endl ;

// change the pointer

pointer = & constVar2 ;

std :: cout << " The pointer points to " << * pointer << std :: endl ;

// point to a non - constant

pointer = & variable ;

std :: cout << " The pointer points to " << * pointer << std :: endl ;

Listing 392: Pointing to constant variables

The pointer points to 42

The pointer points to 13
The pointer points to 11

Listing 393: Output of Listing 392

A constant pointer
A pointer can be constant regardless of the variable it points to. So, the address stored in the pointer can not
be changed, the pointer will always point to the same variable. However, the variable itself can be altered.
Listing 394 shows an example.

int variable = 11;

int * const constPointer1 = & variable ;

std :: cout << " The constant pointer points to " << * constPointer1 << std :: endl ;

variable = 79;

std :: cout << " The constant pointer points to " << * constPointer1 << std :: endl ;

Listing 394: Using constant pointers

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The constant pointer points to 11
The constant pointer points to 79

Listing 395: Output of Listing 394

A constant pointer to a constant

It is also possible to create a constant pointer pointing to a constant variable.
However, the last line of Listing 396 seems a bit unlogical but it isn’t. To get the meaning of this line
correctly, we need to read the left hand side of the assignment from right to left. First of all constpointer4
is the name of the new variable. Secondly, int* const tells the compiler that the new variable is a constant
pointer to an integer. This means, that the pointer itself – the location it points to – can not be changed. The
last statement const at the very beginning of the line, means, that the variable the pointer points to can not
be changed. However, variable is not a constant, so it can be altered anyway. The last line of Listing 396
does not change the nature of the variable variable, but it restricts the pointer to read-only operations. So,
variable can be changed, but not using constPointer4.

int const constVar1 = 42;

int variable = 11;

const int * const constPointer2 = & constVar1 ;

const int * const constPointer4 = & variable ;

Listing 396: A constant pointer to a constant

56.4 Function inlining

Motivation
Functions that carry out only a small number of operations are not very efficient, because the function call
might take more time than the execution of all the operations. Especially if such a function is often called, the
performance of the program suffers. However, writing functions is a good way to keep the code tidy.
On the one hand, functions enable the programmer to seperate code in a logical way. Code that is written
for a specific task is outsourced into a function with a hopefully meaningful name. This improved readability
and maintainability of the code.
One the other hand is writing functions a proper way to avoid code redundancy. Tasks that are carried out
repeatedly are best put into a function. Therefore, the code has to be written only once and the function can
be used wherever it is necessary.

The inline statement

The solution for this conflict is function inlining. The inline statement allowes the compiler to replace the
function call with the function body, i.e. the operations performed by the function. This enables the programmer
to keep the code tidy without the disadvantage of wasting time for time consuming function calls.
Listing 397 shows the definition of an inline function. The function body contains only two logical oper-
ations. The inline statement precedes the data type of the return value. So, writing inline functions is not
different than writing ordinary functions.

inline bool Foam :: pimpleControl :: finalIter () const

{
return converged_ || ( corr_ == nCorrPIMPLE_ ) ;
}

Listing 397: The definition of an inline function

The use of the inline statement does not guarantee that the compiler replaces the function call. This depends
on the compiler and the compiler settings.

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 OpenFOAM specifics
The OpenFOAM Code Style Guide (http://www.openfoam.org/contrib/code-style.php) demands from
programmers to seperate the definition of inline and non-inline functions.

Use inline functions where appropriate in a separate classNameI.H file.

Listing 398 shows the contents of the folder pimpleControl. Dividing the code of a program or a module
into *.C and the *.H file is the common way to seperate declarations from the rest of the program. The *.dep
file is generated by the compiler during compilation. The fourth file in the folder is a second header file as
demanded by the Code Style Guide. Listing 397 is a part of pimpleControlI.H.

pimpleControl . C pimpleControl . dep pimpleControl . H pi mpleCont rolI . H

Listing 398: Content of the folder pimpleControl

56.5 Constructor (de)construction

In object oriented programming (OOP) everything is an object. All object are created by a constructor and if
necessary destroyed by a destructor.

56.5.1 General syntax

The constructor is a method of a class like any other function or method175 . However, the constructor is bound
to comply some rules.
• The constructor always has the same name as its class

• The constructor has no return value

Listing 399 shows a simple class describing a point in a two-dimensional domain. This class has two construc-
tors. The first constructor receives no arguments and initialises the member variables with zero. The second
constructor receives two integer variables as arguments and uses this variables to initialize the member variables
xPos and yPos.
Writing two or more constructors is possible because C++ supports function overloading. This means there
can be several functions with the same name differing in the input arguments.

1 class Point
2 {
3 int xPos ;
4 int yPos ;
5
6 public :
7 Point ()
8 {
9 /* constructor code */
10 xPos = 0;
11 yPos = 0;
12 }
13 Point ( int x , int y )
14 {
15 xPos = x ;
16 yPos = y ;
17 }
18 };

Listing 399: A class for a 2D point

175 The terms function and method are used interchangeably. However, the method indicates the use of object oriented program-

ming. The term function is also used in procedural programming and does not automatically indicate the use of OOP.

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 Listing 400 demonstrates hot to create new variables of the type Point. The first line creates a variable of
the type Point. Because no arguments are passed in this line, the first constructor of Listing 399 is called by
the compiler.
The second line creates also a point. The numbers inside the parenthesis are passed to the constructor.
Therefore the second constructor of Listing 399 is called and the member variables are initialised based on the
arguments.

1 Point p1 ;
2 Point p2 (3 , 8) ;

Listing 400: Using the class for a 2D point

56.5.2 Copy-Constructor
The copy constructor is used to create a copy of an object. The C++ compiler will create a default copy con-
structor if the programmer does not write one. However, the default copy constructor has restrictions regarding
the handling of complex classes.

1 Point :: Point ( Point & p )

2 {
3 /* copy constructor code */
4 xPos = p . xPos ;
5 yPos = p . yPos ;
6 }

Listing 401: The copy constructor for the 2D point class

Hiding the copy constructor

A copy constructor can be hidden. Therefore, no copying is allowed. To do so, the copy constructor must be
defined using a private modifier.
Listing 402 shows a simple example of a copy constructor that is declared as private. This means the copy
constructor can only be called from within the class itself, i.e. only within the class Point.
Listing 403 shows an example from within the source code of OpenFOAM. There, the copy constructor of
the class turbulenceModel is hidden by declaring it private.

1 class Point
2 {
3 private :
4 Point ( Point & p ) ;
5 };

Listing 402: Hiding the copy constructor

1 class tu rb ul e nc eM od el
2 :
3 public regIOobject
4 {
5 private :
6 // Private Member Functions
7
8 // - Disallow default bitwise copy construct
9 t ur bu le n ce Mo de l ( const tu r bu le nc e Mo de l &) ;
10
11 /* code continues */

Listing 403: Hiding the copy constructor

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 56.5.3 Initialisation list
A class in C++ can have member variables of any type. Complex classes may need some kind of initialisation
to ensure all variables have a defined state. When an instance of a class is created by the constructor, the
initialisation list contains all statements to initialise member variables of the class.
Listing 404 shows a simple example of a constructor with an initialisation list. Listing 509 in Section 62.2.2
shows an usage example of an initialisation list in the OpenFOAM sources.

1 class Rectangle
2 {
3 Point topLeft ;
4 Point bottomRight ;
5
6 public :
7 Rectangle ()
8 {
9 topLeft = Point () ;
10 bottomRight = Point () ;
11 }
12
13 Rectangle ( Point a , Point b )
14 :
15 topLeft ( a ) ,
16 bottomRight ( b )
17 {
18 /* constructor code */
19 }
20 }

Listing 404: A constructor with an initialisation list

56.6 Object orientation

56.6.1 Abstract classes
See Section 57.10 for a discussion about the implementation of the generic turbulence models in OpenFOAM.
This generic turbulence modelling makes heavy use of abstract classes and inheritance.

56.7 Templates
OpenFOAM makes heavy176 , clever use of templates. Templates are a language feature of C++ that allow for
generic programming. An illustrative example for the use of templates in programming is the implementation
of container classes, e.g. linked lists. Without the use templates, the multiplicity of possible container contents
would force us to implement a vast number of specialized classes, e.g. nodeList, faceList and cellList for
lists of nodes, faces and cells.
Such a problem could be solved by the use of multiple inheritance. This way, we would need to implement
one base class for a list. The specialized classes would then inherit from the base list class and from the class
of the intended content. This solution, however, has several disadvantages [5]. As complexity grows, the path
via multiple inheritance is doomed to become a problem in its own, instead of alleviating or solving the original
problem.
Templates offer us a way to tell a class: use the type T, which can be any type the compiler allows. Thus,
we create one templated container class. Later, when we need to create lists of nodes, faces and cells, we tell
the compiler to substitute T for the concrete types. The compiler then generates the appropriate code. Checks
done by the compiler ensure, that specializing a valid templated class produces little to no surprises.
Listing 405 shows the use of templates. We first implement a generic list. Later, we specialize this list for
the types of nodes, faces and cells. The typedef instruction allows us to define a convenient name. Once this
names are defined, we may even stop being aware that we are using a templated class.

176 The command find $FOAM_SRC -name ’*.[CH]’ | xargs grep ’template’ | wc yields – at the time of writing – 24646 occu-

rances of the word template in $FOAM_SRC. This makes 12323 occurances within the source code itself – remember the presence and
the use of the lnInclude directories.

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template < class T >
class list
{
// define a list of type T
}

typedef list < node > nodeList ;

typedef list < face > faceList ;
typedef list < cell > cellList ;

Listing 405: Templated lists

OpenFOAM follows a similar strategy, who would guess from the top-level code, that volScalarField is in
fact a templated class with three template parameters, see Listing reflst:volScalarField. Besides being a more
convenient name177 we also save a lot of typing effort due to the shorter name178 . The use of type definitions
– typedef statements – is not mere convencience. Using the full specialisation of GeometricField instead
of volScalarField translates to hardcoding. If the developers of OpenFOAM, at some point, decide to base
volScalarField on the class smartScalar instead of scalar, only one line of code needs to be changed instead
of thousands. Thus, the use of typedefs strongs supports code readability and maintainability [5].

typedef GeometricField < scalar , fvPatchField , volMesh > volScala rField ;

Listing 406: The typedef defining volScalarField

56.7.1 Use of templates by OpenFOAM

Since this document is not a book on any specific topic, certain topics are adressed in a manner ranging from
structured to completely random. Templates have already been discussed in a number of sections, mostly de-
scribing the use of templates on specific code examples. Since, there is no fun and varying benefit in restructuring
a large document, we will give pointers to other sections in which templates are discussed:
We discuss the use of templates in Section 32.1 where we compare the implementation of turbulence modelling
in OpenFOAM. There is a non-templated implementation, which was superseded by a templated one starting
from the release of OpenFOAM-2.3.0.
We discuss the use of templates in Section 40 where we take a look at the implementation of Lagrangian
particle tracking with a little excursion to the topic of linked lists.
The use of templates is also discussed in Section 57.3.2 at the example of keyword lookup from dictionary
files.

56.7.2 Do not fear the template

The syntax for templated code is different from the syntax encountered in non-templated code. Here we will
discuss some features of templated code, which may seem mysterious to the novice.

Template template parameter

In the introduction of this section, we stated, that the template parameter T is a placeholder for a concrete
type. However, the template parameter may itself be a templated class. A templated template parameter is
referred to as template template parameter. We could avoid using template template parameters, however, they
help us to avoid code duplication and lead to safer code [5].
The library implementung Lagrangian particle tracking is a very illustrative example of nested templates,
i.e. templated classes being used as template parameters. Furthermore, we observe deriving a class from its
template parameter. Check out Section 40.

177 volScalarField field carries roughly the same essential information as GeometricField<scalar, fvPatchField, volMesh>.
178 We count 15 versus 46 characters. At the time of writing, with the command find $FOAM_SRC -name ’*.[CH]’ | xargs grep
’volScalarField’ | wc we count 8752 occurances of volScalarField in the source code of OpenFOAM-dev at the time of writing.
This leads to an estimated 4376 occurances in the code itself.

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 57 Under the hood of OpenFOAM
This section contains short code examples that in some way explain the behaviour of OpenFOAM in certain
situations. All examples in this section are motivated by other parts of this manual. In some cases the source
code of some applications is examined somewhere else.

57.1 Solver algorithms

See Sections 41, 42 and 44 in Part V.

57.2 Namespaces
57.2.1 Constants
Physics is full of constants. Therefore it would be nice to have a central location in which physical or mathe-
matical constants are defined. OpenFOAM provides constants within the namespace Foam::constant. There
the pre-defined constants are divided into the groups, such as
• electromagnetic

– mu0 - the magnetic permeability of vacuum

– epsilon0 - the electcial permittivity of vacuum

• physicoChemical

– R - the universal gas constant

• mathematical

– pi - π
– e - the Euler number

In Listing 407 it is demonstrated how to access the constant pi within the source code. Listing 408 shows all
the mathematical constants defined in OpenFOAM-2.2.x. From a computational performance point of view it
makes perfect sense to pre-define often used constants such as two pi. Also note that instead of diving pi by 2.0
it is multiplied with 0.5. Mathematically these operations are equivalent, however, in terms of computational
cost the floating point multiplication is to be preferred over the floating point division as it is much faster [1].
Also note that OpenFOAM does not define e and π on its own, it rather uses the constants provided by the
system library. See e.g. http://www.gnu.org/software/libc/manual/html_node/Mathematical-Constants.
html for the mathematical constants provided by the GNU C library (glibc). Thus e and pi are defined by
accessing M_E and M_PI.
Further note that the constants are declared with the const specifier, which is the only sane way to define
constants in C and C++.

1 scalar foo = constant :: mathematical :: pi ;

Listing 407: A useless code example demonstrating the access to π with OpenFOAM’s source code

1 const scalar e ( M_E ) ;

2 const scalar pi ( M_PI ) ;
3 const scalar twoPi (2* pi ) ;
4 const scalar piByTwo (0.5* pi ) ;

Listing 408: The mathematical constants provided by mathematicalConstants.H

In the FOAM-extend the access to e.g. the mathematical constants works the same way. Only the namespace
is named mathematicalConstants instead of constant::mathematical. This is due to the fact that FOAM-
extend is largely based on OpenFOAM-1.6.

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 57.3 Keyword lookup from dictionary
There are generally two kinds of keywords in a dictionary. There are mandatory keywords and optional ones.

57.3.1 Mandatory keywords

When a mandatory keyword is not found in a dictionary, OpenFOAM issues an error message and terminates.
Listing 409 shows the reading operation for three mandatory keywords. The function lookup() can be
examined further in Listing 410.

1 # include " r e a dT i m e C o n t r o l s . H "

2
3 int nAlphaCorr ( readInt ( pimple . dict () . lookup ( " nAlphaCorr " ) ) ) ;
4 int n Al ph aS u bCyc le s ( readInt ( pimple . dict () . lookup ( " nA lp ha S ub Cy cl e s " ) ) ) ;
5 Switch correctAlpha ( pimple . dict () . lookup ( " correctAlpha " ) ) ;

Listing 409: The content of readTwoPhaseEulerFoamControls.H

The code
Line 32 in Listing 410 shows, that the function lookup() simply calls value of lookupEntry(). This method
also calls another method (lookupEntryPtr()) and does the error handling. The error handling routine clearly
shows, that OpenFOAM will terminate in case the keyword wasn’t found (see line 19).

1 const Foam :: entry & Foam :: dictionary :: lookupEntry

2 (
3 const word & keyword ,
4 bool recursive ,
5 bool patternMatch
6 ) const
7 {
8 const entry * entryPtr = lookupE ntryPtr ( keyword , recursive , patternMatch ) ;
9
10 if ( entryPtr == NULL )
11 {
12 Fata lIOError In
13 (
14 " dictionary :: lookupEntry ( const word & , bool , bool ) const " ,
15 * this
16 )
17 << " keyword " << keyword << " is undefined in dictionary "
18 << name ()
19 << exit ( FatalIOError ) ;
20 }
21
22 return * entryPtr ;
23 }
24
25 Foam :: ITstream & Foam :: dictionary :: lookup
26 (
27 const word & keyword ,
28 bool recursive ,
29 bool patternMatch
30 ) const
31 {
32 return lookupEntry ( keyword , recursive , patternMatch ) . stream () ;
33 }

Listing 410: Some content of dictionary.C

57.3.2 Optional keywords

A method that is used to read an optional keyword from a dictionary is usually provided with a default value.
This default value is used in the case that the keyword is non-existent in the dictionary.

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 Listing 411 shows the reading operation for three optional keywords. The read function is called with two
arguments. The first is the keyword and the second is the default value. If the function lookupOrDefault()
finds no entry, then the default value is returned.

1 const bool a djustTim eStep =

2 runTime . controlDict () . l oo ku p Or De fa u lt ( " ad justTime Step " , false ) ;
3 scalar maxCo =
4 runTime . controlDict () . lookupOrDefault < scalar >( " maxCo " , 1.0) ;
5 scalar maxDeltaT =
6 runTime . controlDict () . lookupOrDefault < scalar >( " maxDeltaT " , GREAT ) ;

Listing 411: The content of readTimeControls.H

The code
Listing 412 shows the definition of the function lookupOrDefault(). This function also calls another function
to lookup the keyword – actually it looks for the value assigned to the specified keyword in the dictionary –
and enters a conditional branch. In case the keyword was found, the corresponding value is returned (line 14).
If the keyword was not found, then the default value is returned (line 18).
In Listing 412 the function is defined with four input arguments. However, in Listing 411 this function is
called with only two arguments.
The solution for this contradiction can be found in the file dictionary.H, where this function is declared.
This declaration can also be found in Listing 413. There, in lines 6 and 7, default values for two arguments are
specified. Therefore, the function can be called with only two arguments – with the two arguments that have
no default value179 . If the function is called with all its arguments, the passed argument overrides the default
value.
When declaring a function that uses default values for its arguments, the arguments without default value
must precede the arguments that have a default value. Otherwise, there could be ambiguity.

1 template < class T >

2 T Foam :: dictionary :: l oo ku pO r De fa ul t
3 (
4 const word & keyword ,
5 const T & deflt ,
6 bool recursive ,
7 bool patternMatch
8 ) const
9 {
10 const entry * entryPtr = lookupE ntryPtr ( keyword , recursive , patternMatch ) ;
11
12 if ( entryPtr )
13 {
14 return pTraits <T >( entryPtr - > stream () ) ;
15 }
16 else
17 {
18 return deflt ;
19 }
20 }

Listing 412: Some content of dictionaryTemplates.C

1 template < class T >

2 T l oo k up Or De fa u lt
3 (
4 const word & ,
5 const T & ,
6 bool recursive = false ,
7 bool patternMatch = true
8 ) const ;

Listing 413: Some content of dictionary.H

179 The function could also be called with three argmuents, then the default value of the third argument would be overridden and

the fourth argument would have its default value.

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 57.3.3 Superseding mandatory keywords
In some cases, a base class might demand the presence of a keyword, which some derived classes make use of
and others do not. This creates the situation that a keyword-value pair must be specified, which, depending on
the user’s choice, has an effect or not.
However, as the keyword is demanded by the base class, it remains mandatory, regardless of the derived
class’ behaviour. A derived class can not alter the behaviour of its base class. Thus, in some edge cases a
keyword-value pair has to be provided even though it does nothing.
The decision of how to distribute the necessary data among the base class and its derived classes may not
always be as straight forward. Apart from the two obvious limiting cases: data needed only by one specific
derived class, and data needed by all derived classes; the decision of what data to put where is up to the software
designers.
If a sufficient number of derived classes are very similar to eachother, then an intermediate base class might
be warranted. With an intermediate base class, data common to all classes derived from the intermediate base
class can be handed over to the intermediate base class. However, the class hierarchy of a certain model can
not always exactly reflect the inner logic of data usage of that model family.
In Figure 150 we see such an example of an intermediate base class. The data members shown in the class di-
agram are read by their respective classes as mandatory entries. The base class InjectionModel reads the scalar
massTotal, which is used to determine how many particles to inject. However, some derived injection models
allow for a direct specification of the number of particles, thus rendering the mandatory value for massTotal
moot. In these cases, the injection model issues a warning message informing the user that massTotal has no
effect.

InjectionModel
scalar massTotal_
setPositionAndCell()

patchInjectionBase
word patchName_

PatchInjection
CellZoneInjection ManualInjection PatchFlowRateInjection
TimeFunction1<scalar>
word cellZoneName_ word positionsFile_ word phiName_
flowRateProfile_

Figure 150: Class hierarchy of some injection models for Lagrangian particles. An intermediate base class is
used to reduce code duplication from closely related, yet different injection models.

57.4 OpenFOAM specific datatypes

57.4.1 The Switch datatype
A lot of settings in dictionaries are switches to activate or deactivate a feature. Listing 414 shows the part of
the source code defining all valid values. Inside the source code a switch can only be true or false, as the class
Switch is used as a boolean data type. However, in the dictionaries a switch can have more values – provided
they denote a decision. Human languages usually have more ways of answering a yes-no question, this may be
the motivation for allowing this range of values for switches.

1 // NB : values chosen such that bitwise ’& ’ 0 x1 yields the bool value
2 // INVALID is also evaluates to false , but don ’t rely on that
3 const char * Foam :: Switch :: names [ Foam :: Switch :: INVALID +1] =
4 {
5 " false " , " true " ,
6 " off " , " on " ,

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7 " no " , " yes " ,
8 "n", "y",
9 "f", "t",
10 " none " , " true " , // is there a reasonable counterpart to " none "?
11 " invalid "
12 };

Listing 414: Some content of Switch.C

Listing 415 shows an example of how the Switch datatype can be used in the code. This example reads from
the transportProperties dictionary. If no valid entry named testSwitch is present, then the value of the
switch is set to false. Notice the second argument of the method lookupOrDefault(), it reads Switch(false).
This means, that a new object of the type Switch is created with the boolean value false being passed to the
constructor of the class Switch. This new object of type Switch is then used – if necessary – as default value
for the switch named testSwitch.

1 Switch testSwitch ( t r a n s p o r t P r o p e r t i e s . lookupOrDefault < Switch >( " testSwitch " , Switch ( false ) ) ) ;

Listing 415: Usage example of the Switch datatype

57.4.2 The label datatype

When examining the solution algorithms, like in Section 42.2, counters can be found. OpenFOAM uses a
datatype called label for such counters, e.g. see Listing 284.

The following applies to versions prior to OpenFOAM-3.0

The most obvious datatype for a counter would be the integer datatype int. Listing 416 contains some lines of
the file label.H, where this datatype is defined. Depending on system or compilation parameters, label is of
the type int, long or long long180 .
Listing 416 shows the definition of label in case int is used as the underlying datatype.

1 namespace Foam
2 {
3 typedef int label ;
4
5 static const label labelMin = INT_MIN ;
6 static const label labelMax = INT_MAX ;
7
8 inline label readLabel ( Istream & is )
9 {
10 return readInt ( is ) ;
11 }
12
13 } // End namespace Foam

Listing 416: Some content of label.H

The following applies to versions from OpenFOAM-3.0 onwards

OpenFOAM offers, at the time of writing, essentially two choices for the size of the label datatype: 32 or 64
bit. This, essentially boils down to the decision of whether to use int32_t or int64_t. Since, the data types
int, long and long long only guarantee a minimum size181 , the fixed-width integers182 int32_t or int64_t
are used as a base for the label data type.
The label size can be selected prior to compilation with the compiler option WM_LABEL_SIZE, which can take
the value of 32 or 64. From the compiler option and some pre-processor macros the integer type is constructed.

180 In C as well as in C++ the domain of long is greater or equal than the domain of int. long long was defined in the C99

standard of C and was later introduced to the C++11 standard. The domain of long long is again larger or equal than the domain
of long. The type long long uses at least 64 bit. So it is on 64 bit systems the largest possible datatype. The datatype long can
use – depending on the compiler – 32 or 64 bit. The type long long guarantees the use of 64 bit.
181 See http://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/language/types
182 See http://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/types/integer

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1 # define INT_ADD_SIZE (x ,s , y ) x ## s ## y
2 # define I N T _ A D D _ DE F _ S I Z E (x ,s , y ) INT_ADD_SIZE (x ,s , y )
3 # define INT_SIZE (x , y ) I N T _ A D D _ D E F _ S IZ E (x , WM_LABEL_SIZE , y )
4
5 # if WM_LABEL_SIZE != 32 && WM_LABEL_SIZE != 64
6 # error " label . H : WM_LABEL_SIZE must be set to either 32 or 64 "
7 # endif
8
9 namespace Foam
10 {
11
12 typedef INT_SIZE ( int , _t ) label ;
13
14 /* code removed for brevity */
15
16 }

Listing 417: Some content of label.H

In Listing 417, we see some helper macros, and a sanity check. The sanity check throws an error if the label
size is not 32 or 64. The last line of Listing 417 is the actual typedef for the label data type183 . The macro
INT_SIZE is used via several helper macros and the compiler option WM_LABEL_SIZE to construct a fixed-width
integer data type int32_t or int64_t. The ## operator in the INT_ADD_SIZE macro is used to concatenate the
macro’s arguments184 .

57.4.3 The scalar datatype

Similar, to the integer data type, there is an OpenFOAM-specific floating-point data type, the scalar. A
scalar is depending on the compiler settings either a float or a double. In 2018185 an extended precision double
was added as another option.
The basic floating-point data type float is 32 bits wide186 , i.e. its binary representation takes up 32 bits.
The double type uses twice the number of bits, hence the name double. Using either float or double for
computing is ofter referred to as using single or double precision.
OpenFOAM follows this convention by naming the corresponding compiler option WM_PRECISION_OPTION.
This can have the value SP or DP, for single precision or double precision. The latest addition187 , long double188 ,
can be chosen by the value LP.
Using fixed-width data types, integers as well as floating-point types, makes the application more portable,
e.g. binary result files computed by one computer can be opened and processed on a different computer,
provided that both OpenFOAM installations are based on the same data type size, e.g. 32 bit integers and
double precision floating-points.
Listing 418 shows the definition of the type floatScalar, which refers to the standard data type float.
Analogously, there is also a type doubleFloat, which refers to the standard data type double. By introducing
the type scalar, OpenFOAM’s source code is independent of the floating-point type which is actually used. The
types floatScalar and doubleScalar are intermediaries to aid the selection by the user prior to compilation.
The types floatScalar and doubleScalar are mainly used by low-level code tasked with input and output
(I/O). No applications (solvers and utilities) and no high-level libraries, e.g. turbulence, use these data types.
All high-level code is abstracted from the actual floating-point data type.

1 namespace Foam
2 {
3
4 typedef float floatScalar ;
5
6 /* code removed for brevity */

Listing 418: Some content of floatScalar.H

183 See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typedef
184 See https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/C_Programming/Preprocessor_directives_and_macros
185 See https://github.com/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-dev/commit/d82cc36c5af97e799a82fadf455e06d192ae1e65
186 See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_754
187 See footnote 185
188 See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_double

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 Listing 419 shows the relevant lines of the file scalar.H which defines the type scalar based on the evalua-
tion of WM_SP or WM_DP. Depending on whether WM_SP or WM_DP has been defined, the type scalar refers to
floatScalar or doubleScalar.

1 # if defined ( WM_SP )
2
3 // Define scalar as a float
4 namespace Foam
5 {
6 typedef floatScalar scalar ;
7 /* code removed for brevity */
8 }
9
10 # elif defined ( WM_DP )
11
12 // Define scalar as a double
13 namespace Foam
14 {
15 typedef doubleScalar scalar ;
16 /* code removed for brevity */
17 }
18
19 # endif

Listing 419: Some content of scalar.H

57.4.4 The tmp<> datatype

There is a special class for all temporary data. Because there is no memory management in C++ the programmer
has to delete unused variables. The author assumes that the tmp class for all kinds of temporary data is meant
to distinguish temporary variables from other variables.
The tmp class uses a technique called generic programming.

57.4.5 The IOobject datatype

The class IOobject handles the behaviour of all kinds of data structures. Although, there are no variables of the
type IOobject, understanding some parts of this class will help to understand certain aspects of OpenFOAM.
Listings 420 and 421 show some examples from the sources of the solver twoPhaseEulerFoam. There, the
class IOobject is used in the creation of fields as well as the creation of dictionary objects.
In Listing 420 two volScalarField variables are created. The constructor of the class volScalarField
receives two arguments. In both cases the first argument is an IOobject.
Let us read the arguments of the IOobject constructor call. The first argument is the name of the IOobject.
The two last arguments are the read and write flags.
In the case of the fields alpha1 and alpha2 the read and write flags are different. The field alpha1 is read
at the start of the application. The write flag causes the field alpha1 to be written to disk, whenever the data
is written. The field alpha2 on the contrary is not written to disk and the application also does not try to read
it.
The name of the IOobject is also the name which the application uses as file name. Therefore the field
alpha1 will be written to disk in a file named alpha1. Also when the application tries to read alpha1, it tries
to read from the file alpha1.

1 volS calarFie ld alpha1

2 (
3 IOobject
4 (
5 " alpha1 " ,
6 runTime . timeName () ,
7 mesh ,
8 IOobject :: MUST_READ ,
9 IOobject :: AUTO_WRITE
10 ),
11 mesh
12 );

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13
14 volS calarFie ld alpha2
15 (
16 IOobject
17 (
18 " alpha2 " ,
19 runTime . timeName () ,
20 mesh ,
21 IOobject :: NO_READ ,
22 IOobject :: NO_WRITE
23 ),
24 scalar (1) - alpha1
25 );

Listing 420: Definition of volume fraction fields in createFields.H

Listing 421 shows the definition of an IOdictionary. The constructor of the class IOdictionary receives
also an IOobject as argument. Again, the name of the IOobject is also the name of the file the application
tries to read when reading in the dictionary. Notice also the read flag. This flag causes the application to check
if the file has been modified during run-time. If this is the case, the file will be read again.

1 IOdictionary ppProperties
2 (
3 IOobject
4 (
5 " ppProperties " ,
6 runTime . constant () ,
7 mesh ,
8 IOobject :: MUST_READ_IF_MODIFIED ,
9 IOobject :: NO_WRITE
10 )
11 );

Listing 421: Definition of a dictionary in readPPProperties.H

Read & write flags

In the constructor so called read and write flags are provided as arguments, see e.g. Lines 8 and 9 of Listing
421.
Listing 422 shows the available read/write flags. The flag MUST_READ_IF_MODIFIED was introduced with
OpenFOAM-2.0.0189 . The available read flags offer quite some flexibility.

1 // - Enumeration defining the valid states of an IOobject

2 enum objectState
3 {
4 GOOD ,
5 BAD
6 };
7
8 // - Enumeration defining the read options
9 enum readOption
10 {
11 MUST_READ ,
12 MUST_READ_IF_MODIFIED ,
13 READ_IF_PRESENT ,
14 NO_READ
15 };
16
17 // - Enumeration defining the write options
18 enum writeOption
19 {
20 AUTO_WRITE = 0 ,
21 NO_WRITE = 1
22 };

Listing 422: Definition of the object states and read/write flags of IOobject in IOobject.H
189 http://www.openfoam.org/version2.0.0/runtime-control.php

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 Pitfall: Solving for a NO_READ field
The author stumbled across an interesting error during modifying a solver. This falls into the category copy &
paste error. However, the author wishes to share the experience.
If we like to extend an existing solver with a scalar transport equation, we need to create the field we want
to solve for, in our case a volScalarField. There are plenty of files from which we can copy the relevant code.
Listing 423 shows an example. The name of the field was changed as was the write flag. Since we want to create
colourful images, the write flags needs to be set to AUTO_WRITE. However, no care was taken of the read flag.

1 volS calarFie ld T
2 (
3 IOobject
4 (
5 "T",
6 runTime . timeName () ,
7 mesh ,
8 IOobject :: NO_READ ,
9 IOobject :: AUTO_WRITE
10 ),
11 mesh ,
12 d i m e n s i o n e d S c a l a r ( " zero " , dimensionSet (0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0) , 0.0)
13 );

Listing 423: Creating a field with an IOobject::NO_READ read flag.

After we created out field T, and composed the transport equation for this field (TEqn), we want to solve
this transport equation. However, the call TEqn.solve() yields some unexpected outcome. Listing 424 shows
the error message issued by OpenFOAM.

--> FOAM FATAL ERROR :

v a l u e I n t e r n a l C o e f f s cannot be called for a c a l c u l a t e d F v P a t c h F i e l d

on patch inlet of field T in file "/ home / user / OpenFOAM / user -2.3. x / run / foo / case /0/ T "
You are probably trying to solve for a field with a default boundary condition .

From function calculatedFvPatchField < Type >:: v a l u e I n t e r n a l C o e f f s ( const tmp < scalarField >&)
const
in file fields / fvPatchFields / basic / calculated / c a l c u l a t e d F v P a t c h F i e l d . C at line 154.

FOAM exiting

Listing 424: Error message of OpenFOAM caused by trying to solve for a no-read field.

At first, the message seems counter-intuitive, since we checked the boundary conditions in the file T over
and over. Also changing the boundary conditions does not produce a different outcome.
The error message says, we wanted to solve for a field with default boundary conditions. This is perfectly
true, however, we need to find out why. Since, we created the field with a NO_READ flag, no boundary conditions
were provided. Thus, OpenFOAM assigns default boundary conditions. This is also the case if we leave patches
in the boundaryField dictionary of the files that are read from disk.

Continued Problems
Changing the read flag in Listing 423 alone does not solve the problem. Changing the read flag from NO_READ
to MUST_READ yields the same error message as in Listing 424.
The reason for this are the arguments of the constructor call in Listing 423. If a field is to be read from
disk, we must not pass a value (Line 12 in Listing 423).
For our modified solver to work, we need to remove the argument passed in Line 12 in Listing 423. The
developers of OpenFOAM have forseen this case, thus OpenFOAM issues a warning message, when a value is
passed to a constructor with a MUST_READ or MUST_READ_IF_MODIFIED read flag, see Listing 425.

--> FOAM Warning :

From function GeometricField < Type , PatchField , GeoMesh >:: readIfPresent ()

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Foundation, the producer of the OpenFOAM® software and owner of the OpenFOAM® trademark.
 in file / home / user / OpenFOAM / OpenFOAM -2.3. x / src / OpenFOAM / lnInclude / Geometr icField . C at line
108
read option IOobject :: MUST_READ or M U S T _ R E A D _ I F _ M O D I F I E D suggests that
a read constructor for field T would be more appropriate .

Listing 425: Warning message of OpenFOAM caused by inappropriate constructor arguments concerning read
flags and initial values.

57.4.6 Random stuff

OpenFOAM features a random number generator (RNG). The generated numbers within the sequence itself –
depending on the quality of the algorithm – are close to being random. Random number generators on computers
are also referred to as pseudo-random number generators as they are generally deterministic. Otherwise, nobody
would be able to write code for such random number generators.
The randomness enters the scene in the form of the initial state of the random number generator, also known
as seed. Choosing a non-constant seed value is key to obtain good random numbers. Using a constant seed value
– using the same value each time the application is run – leads to an ever-recurring random number sequence,
i.e. for the same initial conditions the RNG generates the same sequence of numbers.

The good, the bad and the ugly – in reverse order

The worst thing to do is to use a constant value for seeding the RNG. In Listing 426 we use zero als seed value.
This value is equal every time we run the application. Thus, it comes as no suprise, when the random numbers
we print to the Terminal are always the same, i.e. we print the same sequence of 20 numbers between one and
a hundred every time we run the application containing the code of Listing 426.

1 // random stuff
2 # include " Random . H "
3 Random ranGen (0) ;
4
5 for ( int j = 0; j < 20; j ++)
6 {
7 Info << ranGen . integer (1 , 100) << endl ;
8 }

Listing 426: A simple test for random numbers; the ugly.

In order to obtain different sequences, we need to choose a better seed value. In fact, we need to choose a
seed value that is different every time we run our application. The time would be a perfect example for such a
seed value. However, we need to make errors in order to learn something. In the sources, we came across the
method osRandomInteger(). This sounds great, use a random number to seed a random number generator.
On a second thought, this sounds more of a chicken-egg problems, but let’s continue.
So we implement the code of Listing 427, which is simply a different seed value. However, when we run the
code, we find out, that we obtain the same sequences over and over, just as in the previous case.
Digging into the code, we find out, that osRandomInteger() uses the random number generator provided
by POSIX. However, there seems to be no proper seeding of the POSIX random number generator.

1 // random stuff
2 # include " Random . H "
3 Random ranGen ( os Ra n do mI nt eg e r () ) ;
4
5 for ( int j = 0; j < 20; j ++)
6 {
7 Info << ranGen . integer (1 , 100) << endl ;
8 }

Listing 427: A simple test for random numbers, the bad.

As mentioned above, the time is the perfect seed value. However, since we are now at the good solution,
we need something other than time. In Listing 428, we use the PID of the application as the seed value for the
RNG. The PID is unlikely to be equal when the application is run several times. In fact, the kernel of the OS
assigns the PIDs sequentially from a range of integer numbers, e.g. on the authors Linux machine the PID of

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 a process is in the range between 1 and 32768. If the end of the number range is reached, the kernel starts all
over, skipping numbers which are still in use. Furthermore, the PID is guaranteed to be different, when running
an application in parallel, i.e. all the sub-processes have a unique PID.

1 // random stuff
2 # include " Random . H "
3 Random ranGen ( pid () ) ;
4
5 for ( int j = 0; j < 20; j ++)
6 {
7 Info << ranGen . integer (1 , 100) << endl ;
8 }

Listing 428: A simple test for random numbers; the good.

The even better

As already mentioned, using the time gives us a different seed value every time, the application is run. The
method getTime() returns the number of seconds that have passed since January, 1st 1970. The code of Listing
429 now yields different number sequences every time we run the application. Also, PID-reuse is also not an
issue anymore, since, whenever a PID gets reused, the time is certainly different. As we use the time to seed
the RNG, the year 2038 problem190 is a non-issue to us, since we are only interested in unique values rather
than correct representation of time.

1 // random stuff
2 # include " Random . H "
3 # include " clock . H "
4 Random ranGen ( clock :: getTime () ) ;
5
6 for ( int j = 0; j < 20; j ++)
7 {
8 Info << ranGen . integer (1 , 100) << endl ;
9 }

Listing 429: A simple test for random numbers; the even better.

The perfect
The solution above is nearly perfect, the only issue left is running in parallel. This might seem a non-issue when
we just want to implement random numbers for an application we only will use in serial. However, the trick is
rather easy.
We use the current time as seed value and add the PID. This will ensure, that when multiple processes are
spawned at the same time, when starting a parallel run, each process has its unique seed value thanks to the
contribution of the PID.

1 // random stuff
2 # include " Random . H "
3 # include " clock . H "
4 Random ranGen ( clock :: getTime () + pid () ) ;
5
6 for ( int j = 0; j < 20; j ++)
7 {
8 Info << ranGen . integer (1 , 100) << endl ;
9 }

Listing 430: A simple test for random numbers; the perfect.

190 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_2038_problem

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 57.5 OpenFOAM specific macros for convenient programming
57.5.1 For-loops
... for lists
The UList class defines some macros for looping over the contents of the list. We frequently encounter for loops
using statements such as forAll, forAllIter or forAllConstIter. These statements, however, are not part
of the C or C++ programming language, they are macros provided by the UList class.
In Listing 431 we see the definition of the forAll macro.

1 # define forAll ( list , i ) \

2 for ( Foam :: label i =0; i <( list ) . size () ; i ++)

Listing 431: The definition of the forAll macro in UList.H

When the forAll macro is in use, a for-loop might look as the example in Listing 432.

1 forAll ( someList , i )
2 {
3 // list body
4 }

Listing 432: Using the forAll macro to traverse a list.

The code in Listing 432 is, at compile time, expanded into the code shown in Listing 433.

1 for ( Foam :: label i =0; i <( someList ) . size () ; i ++)

2 {
3 // list body
4 }

Listing 433: Expanding the forAll macro. This is what the C++ pre-processor does with Listing 432.

... for containers

For container data types, which have an associated iterator data type, there are the forAllIter and forAllConstIter
macros. The concept of the container is an abstracton to encompass sequenced containers (lists) and associative
containers (hash table). The concept of the iterator is used to decouple the access to elements of the container
from the internal organisation of the container191 .
Below, in Listing 434 we see the definition of the forAllIter macro, which uses an iterator to traverse the
container, note the usage of the methods begin() and end(), as well as to access the individual element, access
is shown by example in Listing 435.

1 # define forAllIter ( Container , container , iter ) \

2 for \
3 ( \
4 Container :: iterator iter = ( container ) . begin () ; \
5 iter != ( container ) . end () ; \
6 ++ iter \
7 )

Listing 434: The definition of the forAllIter macro in UList.H

In the example below, in Listing 435, a cloud of Lagrangian particles is traversed, and each particle can be
accessed via the iterator. This piece of code, respectively the developer working on this code, is completely
oblivious of the underlying data structure which the Lagrangian cloud class uses.
By using the iterator for traversing the cloud, and accessing its elements, the developers of OpenFOAM
could change the cloud’s internal way of storing the data without breaking the higher-level code.

191 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iterator_pattern

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1 forAllIter ( Cloud < solidParticle > , c , iter )
2 {
3 solidParticle & p = iter () ;
4
5 // ...
6 }

Listing 435: Using the forAllIter macro to access all particles in a Lagrangian particle cloud.

... for everything else

At the time of writing, OpenFOAM-5 is the current release, such for-loop macros are only defined for the class
UList. Thus, the macro can only be used on data types derived from UList.
If our for-loop is not about traversing a list, or any container data type derived from UList, then we need
to write the for-loop in the traditional fashion.

57.6 Time management

57.6.1 Time stepping
Transient solvers solve the governing equations each time step at least once. Depending on the solution algorithm
there are several inner iterations (iterations within a time step) during one outer iteration.

pimpleFoam
Listing 436 shows the beginning of the main loop of pimpleFoam. After the three include instructions, the
runTime object is incremented. This means, the current time step is incremented to the next time step.

1 /* code removed for the sake of brevity */

2
3 Info < < " \ nStarting time loop \ n " << endl ;
4
5 while ( runTime . run () )
6 {
7 # include " r e a d T i m e C o n t r o l s . H "
8 # include " CourantNo . H "
9 # include " setDeltaT . H "
10
11 runTime ++;
12
13 Info < < " Time = " << runTime . timeName () << nl << endl ;
14
15 /* code continues */

Listing 436: The beginning of the main loop of pimpleFoam in pimpleFoam.C

pisoFoam
Listing 437 shows the beginning of the main loop of pisoFoam.

1 /* code removed for the sake of brevity */

2
3 Info < < " \ nStarting time loop \ n " << endl ;
4
5 while ( runTime . loop () )
6 {
7 Info < < " Time = " << runTime . timeName () << nl << endl ;
8
9 # include " r e a d P I S O C o n t r o l s . H "
10 # include " CourantNo . H "
11
12 // Pressure - velocity PISO corrector
13 {

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14 /* code continues */

Listing 437: The beginning of the main loop of pisoFoam in pisoFoam.C

There, there is no incrementation of any runTime object. The explanation for this, lies in the condition
of the while statement. In pisoFoam, the while statement is controlled by the return value of the function
call runTime.loop(). Whereas, in pimpleFoam, the while statement is controlled by the return value of the
function call runTime.run().
Let’s have a closer look on runTime.loop(). Listing 438 shows, that the function loop() calls the function
run() and then increments the runTime object by calling operator++().

The ++ operator of the Time class

Listing 439 shows the first lines of the definition of the ++ operator of the Time class. The last instruction of
Listing 439 set the time value to the current time value plus the time step.

1 bool Foam :: Time :: loop ()

2 {
3 bool running = run () ;
4
5 if ( running )
6 {
7 operator ++() ;
8 }
9
10 return running ;
11 }

Listing 438: The definition of the function loop() in Time.C

1 Foam :: Time & Foam :: Time :: operator ++()

2 {
3 deltaT0_ = deltaTSave_ ;
4 deltaTSave_ = deltaT_ ;
5
6 // Save old time name
7 const word oldTimeName = d i m e n s i o n e d S c a l a r :: name () ;
8
9 setTime ( value () + deltaT_ , timeIndex_ + 1) ;
10
11 /* code removed for the sake of brevity */

Listing 439: The definition of the operator ++ in Time.C

57.6.2 Setting the new time step

Transient simulations can be run with fixed and variable time steps. In a simulation with fixed time step the
time step is constant. The value of the time step must be set before the simulation is started. The time step
influences the accuracy and stability of the simulation. The value of the time step determines the time scales
that can be resolved in the simulation. Via the Courant-Friedrichs-Lewy (CFL) criterion the time step is linked
to the stability of the time integration method.
Most transient OpenFOAM solvers offer the possibility of transient simulations with variable time steps. The
user then provides the limits for the determination of the time steps. The most obvious limit is the maximum
time step maxDeltaT. This is the upper limit for the value of each new time step. This is the parameter for the
user to determine the time scale to be resolved.
The second limit for determining the time steps is the maximum Courant number. This parameters purpose
is to maintain stability of the numerical solution.
Listing 440 shows the code that reads the time controls. The first instruction reads the entry in controlDict
specifying whether to use variable time steps or not. This code is rather self-explanatory. If there is not entry in
controlDict then a fixed time step is used. The other two instructions read values for the maximum Courant
number and the maximum time step. The default value for the maximum Courant number is 1.0, which is the
limit for the explicit Euler time integration method.

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1 const bool a djustTim eStep =
2 runTime . controlDict () . l oo ku p Or De fa u lt ( " ad justTime Step " , false ) ;
3 scalar maxCo =
4 runTime . controlDict () . lookupOrDefault < scalar >( " maxCo " , 1.0) ;
5 scalar maxDeltaT =
6 runTime . controlDict () . lookupOrDefault < scalar >( " maxDeltaT " , GREAT ) ;

Listing 440: The content of the file readTimeControls.H

Determining the new time step

The value of the new time step has to obey both limit mentioned above, the maximum time step and the
maximum Courant number. In order to prevent oscillations the increase of the time step is damped. Listing
441 shows how the time step is computed each time step.

1 if ( adjustTi meStep )
2 {
3 scalar maxDeltaTFact = maxCo /( CoNum + SMALL ) ;
4 scalar deltaTFact = min ( min ( maxDeltaTFact , 1.0 + 0.1* maxDeltaTFact ) , 1.2) ;
5
6 runTime . setDeltaT
7 (
8 min
9 (
10 deltaTFact * runTime . deltaTValue () ,
11 maxDeltaT
12 )
13 );
14
15 Info < < " deltaT = " << runTime . deltaTValue () << endl ;
16 }

Listing 441: The content of the file setDeltaT.H

Let us have a look on what the code is actually doing.

maxCo
maxDeltaTFact = (166)
Co + SMALL
deltaTFact = min( min( maxDeltaTFact, 1.0 + 0.1 ∗ maxDeltaTFact), 1.2) (167)

The scalar maxDeltaTFact (Line 3 in Listing 441 and Eq. (166)) is the relation between the maximum
Courant number and the current Courant number (see Section 57.6.4 on how the Courant number is determined).
The role of the constant SMALL is to prevent division by zero, which would cause the solver to crash.
The scalar deltaTFact is computed from maxDeltaTFact. This line of code (Line 4 and Eq. (167)) imple-
ments the damping, i.e. the rate of increase of the time step is limited. The nested use of two min() functions
determines the minimum of three values. The most obvious of these three values is the last argument. If this
value is the smallest, then the next time step is 20 % larger than the last one.
Eq. (167) shows the minimum of the first two arguments in a mathematical way. Figure 151 shows the
three arguments of Eq. (167). We use the symbol x for the scalar maxDeltaTFact. In Figure 151 the values
for x are greater than one. Eq. (169) elaborates why this is the case. x is the ratio of the maximum Courant
number Comax and the current Courant number Co. As the current Courant number is always smaller than
the maximum Courant number we replace Co with f Comax , with f < 1. After cancelling Comax the inverse of
f remains. Thus x is always greater than one.

(
10
x x< 9
min(x, 1 + 0.1x) = 10
(168)
1 + 0.1x x> 9
Comax Comax 1
x= = = (169)
Co f Comax f
<1
⇒x>1 (170)

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 1.5
y=x
y = 1 + 0.1x
y = 1.2
1.4

1.3
y

1.2

1.1

1
1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2 2.2 2.4 2.6 2.8 3
x

Figure 151: The three arguments of Eq. (167) plotted over x

The argument of the function setDeltaT() contains the abidance of the first limit, the maximum time step.
There the minimum of the newly calculated and the maximum time step is passed on.

57.6.3 A note on the passing of time

In this section we will take a closer look at the implementation of the Time class.

Class design
A quick glance at the file Time.H reveals some very interesting information on the nature of time, or more
precisely, the nature of the Time class. Listing 442 shows us, that the class Time class inherits from five base
classes192 .

class Time
:
public clock ,
public cpuTime ,
public TimePaths ,
public objectRegistry ,
public TimeState
{
/* class definition */
}

Listing 442: The information on inheritance of the Time class; an extract of Time.H.

The TimeState class

From Listing 442 we see that Time is a TimeState due to inheritance. In Listing 443 we see the information
on inheritance of the timeState class. There we see, that TimeState is a dimensionedScalar.

class TimeState
:
public d i me n s i o n e d S c a l a r
{
/* class definition */
}

Listing 443: The information on inheritance of the TimeState class; an extract of TimeState.H.

192 Literarily spoken, the Time class is not only Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, it is also Citizen Kane, Mrs. Robinson and the Tambourine

Man.

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 Distinguishing between time steps
The fact that Time is a TimeState which in turn is a dimensionedScalar helps to understand the Lines 6, 13
and 21 of Listing 444. There, the name() method of the dimensionedScalar name space is called.

1 Foam :: Time & Foam :: Time :: operator ++()

2 {
3 // some code removed for brevity
4
5 // Save old time name
6 const word oldTimeName = d i m e n s i o n e d S c a l a r :: name () ;
7
8 setTime ( value () + deltaT_ , timeIndex_ + 1) ;
9
10 // some code removed for brevity
11
12 // Check that new time represen tation differs from old one
13 if ( d i m e n si o n e d S c a l a r :: name () == oldTimeName )
14 {
15 int oldPrecision = precision_ ;
16 do
17 {
18 precision_ ++;
19 setTime ( value () , timeIndex () ) ;
20 }
21 while ( precision_ < 100 && d i m e n s i o n e d S c a l a r :: name () == oldTimeName ) ;
22
23 WarningIn ( " Time :: operator ++() " )
24 << " Increased the timePrecision from " << oldPrecision
25 << " to " << precision_
26 << " to distinguish between timeNames at time " << value ()
27 << endl ;
28
29 if ( precision_ == 100 && precision_ != oldPrecision )
30 {
31 // Reached limit .
32 WarningIn ( " Time :: operator ++() " )
33 << " Current time name " << d i m e n s i o n e d S c a l a r :: name ()
34 << " is the old as the previous one " << oldTimeName
35 << endl
36 << " This might result in overwriting old results . "
37 << endl ; }
38 }
39 // some code removed for brevity
40 }

Listing 444: The increment operator (++) of the Time class; an extract of Time.C.

From Line 23 to 27 of Listing 444 we see the code which generates the warning message we saw in Listing
43 in Section 11.3.2.
In Lines 21 and 29 we find the hard-coded limit for the time precision. If the time precision reaches a value
of 100, then it is no more increased.

Naming the time with precision

In Section 11.3.2 we saw that the value of the timePrecision can be a source of error. We will now elaborate
on the actual causes of this error.
Listing 445 shows the definition of the method timeName(const scalar). This method is used to create a
properly formatted time name193 from a given scalar representing the time. In this method the time precision
comes into play in the form of the data member precision_, which is a static data field of the Time class with a
protected visibility. In this method the time value with high precision is converted to a string representation
(the time name) with limited precision194 .
193 The data type of the return value of this method is word, which is a string data type of OpenFOAM. Thus, the time name is

a string representation of the time. It is important to note, that the string representation of the time is different than the actual
value of the time.
194 It is this method which creates the time name 0.102 from the time value 0.1023, when precision is set to three digits, as it is

the case in the example described in Section 11.3.2.

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1 // - Return time name of given scalar time
2 Foam :: word Foam :: Time :: timeName ( const scalar t )
3 {
4 std :: ostringstream buf ;
5 buf . setf ( ios_base :: fmtflags ( format_ ) , ios_base :: floatfield ) ;
6 buf . precision ( precision_ ) ;
7 buf << t ;
8 return buf . str () ;
9 }

Listing 445: The method timeName(const scalar) of the class Time; an extract of Time.C. Note, that the
descriptive comment is taken from the header file Time.H.

When the time is advanced, e.g. using the increment operator of the Time class, the method setTime() is
called. Listing 446 shows the definition of this method. The new time value is passed to this method. In the
second instruction we see how the time name is updated to the new value195 .

1 void Foam :: Time :: setTime ( const scalar newTime , const label newIndex )
2 {
3 value () = newTime ;
4 d i m e n s i o n e d S c a l a r :: name () = timeName ( time ToUserTi me ( newTime ) ) ;
5 timeIndex_ = newIndex ;
6 }

Listing 446: The method setTime() of the class Time; an extract of Time.C.

The method setTime() gets called e.g. by the operator * of the Time class, see Line 8 of Listing 444. There,
the time index is increased by one. From the header file of the TimeState class, we see, that the time index
is of the data type label, which is essentially an integer data type. Thus, we see, that the time index is a
consecutive number counting the time steps.

57.6.4 The Courant number

The Courant number Co is the ratio of the time step ∆t and the characteristic convection time scale u/∆x. Eq.
(171) shows the definition of the Courant number. However in a practical CFD code the Courant number will be
computed in a slightly different way. Eq. (172) shows how Eq. (171) is expanded with A/A to gain a formulation
featuring the flux and the volume of the control volume instead of the velocity and the discretisation length.
Eq. (173) shows the extension of Eq. (172) for a one-dimensional finite volume formulation. The mean of the
fluxes of the faces E and W defines the convective time scale. This definition seems obvious in some way in
the one-dimensional case. For two or three-dimensional cases the choice of how to define the characteristic flux
seems not straight forward.

u∆t
Co = (171)
∆x
u∆t u∆t A φ∆t
Co = = = (172)
∆x ∆x A ∆V
|φE |−|φW |
2 ∆t 1 (|φ E | − |φW |)∆t
Co = = (173)
∆V 2 ∆V

The Courant number in OpenFOAM

In OpenFOAM the Courant number is computed for all cells. In fact OpenFOAM computes a maximum
Courant number, i.e. the largest Courant number of all cells, and a mean Courant number, i.e. the mean
Courant number of all cells.
Listing 447 shows the code responsible for computing the Courant number. Line 8 of Listing 447 translates
to Eq. (174). sumPhi is a scalar field containing the sum of the magnitudes of all face fluxes of every cell, i.e.
for each cell the magnitude of the face fluxes are summed up. Eq. (174) holds for every cell.
195 The call of timeToUserTime() can be ignored. This method simply returns the passed value. This method has a non-trivial

implementation in the engineTime class, which keeps track of time in terms of engine RPM and crank-shaft angle. engineTime is
derived from Time.

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 Eq. (175) is the mathematical representation of line 11. There the maximum value of the ratio between the
values of sumPhi and the cell volume is determined. Both variables sumPhi and mesh.V() contain values for
every cell. Therefore the gMax() function returns the maximum value.
Eq. (176) represents line 14.

1 scalar CoNum = 0.0;

2 scalar meanCoNum = 0.0;
3
4 if ( mesh . n Internal Faces () )
5 {
6 scalarField sumPhi
7 (
8 fvc :: surfaceSum ( mag ( phi ) ) () . internalField ()
9 );
10
11 CoNum = 0.5* gMax ( sumPhi / mesh . V () . field () ) * runTime . deltaTValue () ;
12
13 meanCoNum =
14 0.5*( gSum ( sumPhi ) / gSum ( mesh . V () . field () ) ) * runTime . deltaTValue () ;
15 }
16
17 Info < < " Courant Number mean : " << meanCoNum
18 << " max : " << CoNum << endl ;

Listing 447: The content of the file CourantNo.H

X
sumPhi = |φfi | (174)
fi
 
1 sumPhi
CoNum = max ∆t (175)
2 all cells Vcell
P
1 sumPhi
meanCoNum = P ∆t (176)
2 Vcell

Discussion
The way to compute the Courant number in a three dimensional case is not straight forward as mentioned
above. This section reflects the authors way of understanding. So there is no guarantee of validity. The factor
of 1/2 and the summation of φfi is explained by the author as follows.
We base our reflections on a two dimensional control volume. Eq. (178) shows the summation written in
the long form. This equation is then rearranged to yield Eq. (179). In Eq. (179) the summation is reduced to
two terms. These terms are the arithmetic mean of the face flux in the principal directions N − S and W − E.
This summation is then identified as the L1 norm of the mean face fluxes in the principal directions.
The reason for choosing the L1 norm is not self-evident. In any case is the L1 norm computationally cheaper
than the Euklidian or L2 norm. However, the use of the L1 norm seems justified since it measures the distance
covered by a movement, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxicab_geometry.

P
1 fi |φfi |
Co = ∆t (177)
2 Vcell
1 |φN | + |φE | + |φS | + |φW |
Co = ∆t (178)
2 Vcell
|φN |+|φS |
2 + |φE |+|φ
2
W|

Co = ∆t (179)
Vcell
NS WE
|φ| + |φ|
Co = ∆t (180)
Vcell
xi
k |φ| k1
Co = ∆t (181)
Vcell

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We indroduce the following symbols
1X xi
|φfi | = k |φ| k1 = kΦk1 (182)
2
fi
kΦk1
Co = ∆t (183)
Vcell
The way the mean Courant number is computed seems incorrect at the first glance but it isn’t.

kΦk1
Co = ∆t (183)
Vcell
The mean value of the quantity x is defined as follows
N
1 X
x= xi (184)
N i=1

Next we write the mean value of the Courant number. An unmarked summation is a summation over all cells.
 
1 X kΦk1
Co = ∆t (185)
N Vcell
P P  
1 V kΦk1 X kΦk1
Co = P cell P ∆t (186)
N Vcell kΦk1 Vcell
| {z } | {z }
=1 =1
P P X  kΦk1 
kΦk1 1 V
Co = P P cell ∆t (187)
Vcell N kΦk1 Vcell
| {z }
X

Eq. (187) now resembles Eq. (176). Now we concentrate on the term X which is the only difference between
Eqns. (187) and (176).
P  
1 Vcell X kΦk1
X= P (188)
N kΦk1 Vcell
P 
X kΦk1 
Vcell 1
X= P (189)
| N{z } kΦk1 Vcell
=Vcell
 
Vcell X kΦk1
X=P (190)
kΦk1 Vcell
!
1 X kΦk1
X=P Vcell
(191)
kΦk1
Vcell

Vcell
We assume Vcell
≈1

1 X  kΦk1 
X=P (192)
kΦk1 1
P
kΦk1
X=P =1 (193)
kΦk1

Thus we have shown that the way the mean Courant number meanCoNum is computed is actually the mean
Courant number Co. However, this attempt of a proof is based on some assumptions.
First, the way the author explains the meaning of the summation of the face fluxes relies on hexahedral
cells. The argument made seems not to be applicable on tetrahedral cells. Secondly, the assumption VVcell ≈ 1
cell
is valid for homogeneous grids. For a uniform grid this assumption would be ideally fulfilled. If the volume of
the largest and smallest cells differs a lot this assumption is not justified.

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Some thoughts on the computational costs
Why the formula for the mean Courant number is rearranged from

 
1 X kΦk1
Co = ∆t (194)
N Vcell
to
P
kΦk1
Co = P ∆t (195)
Vcell
is unknown to the author.
It is the opinion of the author that this is made for reasons of computational cost. Two times the summation
over all values of a field plus one division is computationally cheaper than an elementwise division of two fields
and one subsequent summation over all elements of the resulting field.
This would be the case if the division operation takes more time than the summation operation which is
very likely the case. Depending on the system the floating point division operation can take several times longer
than a floating point multiplication.
In the first case n times one division and one addition needs to be made, with n the number of field values.
In the second case 2n times additions and one division is to be made.

T1 = n(Td + Ts ) T2 = 2nTs + Td (196)

We introduce the factor δ, that is the ratio between Td and Ts .
T1 = n(δTs + Ts ) T2 = 2nTs + δTs (197)
T1 = nTs (1 + δ) T2 = Ts (2n + δ) (198)
T1 T2
= n(1 + δ) = (2n + δ) (199)
Ts Ts
Next we assume that n is very large
T1 T2
= n(1 + δ) ≈ 2n (200)
Ts Ts
So the first formula takes 1 + δ operations, whereas the second formula takes approximately 2n operations. If
δ is larger than one, the second formula will take less time for computation. A δ smaller than one is highly
unlikelyor even impossible as the addition is a very simple operation. Remember, δ is the ratio between the time
a division takes and the time an addition takes. The actual ratio vary according to the system architecture,
the compiler and the implementation, e.g. [1] reports a factor of 5 to 6 for single and double precision floating
point division. This argument does not consider the memory usage of the operations involved, it only focuses
on the number of floating point operations.
Because the Courant number is computed after every time step the time needed to calculate the Courant
number has an impact on the simulation time.

57.6.5 The two-phase Courant number

In a two-phase simulation there are several choices of how to compute the Courant number. In total, there
are 4 velocity fields (U1, U2, U and Ur). These are the velocities of the phases 1 and 2 as well as the mixture
and relative velocities. The solver twoPhaseEulerFoam computes the Courant number for the mixture and the
relative velocities.
Listing 448 shows the content of the file CourantNos.H which is part of the source code of this solver. Line 1
computes the mixture Courant number by including the file CourantNo.H. This is the file described in Section
57.6.4. As this code operates on the field phi, which happens to be the flux of the mixture, the mixture Courant
number is computed.
The next lines compute the Courant number based on the relative phase flux. At line 11 the maximum of
this two Courant numbers is determined and stored into the variable CoNum.
CoNum is the Courant number used by the time stepping mechanism. So the variable time steps of the
twoPhaseEulerFoam solver are based on the maximum of the mixture and relative velocity Courant number.

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1 # include " CourantNo . H "
2
3 {
4 scalar UrCoNum = 0.5* gMax
5 (
6 fvc :: surfaceSum ( mag ( phi1 - phi2 ) ) () . internalField () / mesh . V () . field ()
7 ) * runTime . deltaTValue () ;
8
9 Info < < " Max Ur Courant Number = " << UrCoNum << endl ;
10
11 CoNum = max ( CoNum , UrCoNum ) ;
12 }

Listing 448: The content of the file CourantNos.H

57.7 The registry

At some point in our study of OpenFOAM’s sources, its documentation or the internet we all came across
words like registered objects or similar expressions. This section tries to cast some light on this topic, or at least
present the thoughts and findings of the author. This section is closely related to Section 57.8.

57.7.1 The classes involved

Here is an extract of the descriptions found in the header files of the respective classes.
IOobject IOobject defines the attributes of an object for which implicit objectRegistry management is
supported, and provides the infrastructure for performing stream I/O.
regIOobject regIOobject is an abstract class derived from IOobject to handle automatic object registration
with the objectRegistry.
objectRegistry registry of regIOobjects
In Figure 152 a detail of the class hierarchy surrounding the class regIOobject is shown.

IOobject

regIOobject
writeData()

objectRegistry IOdictionary IOField DimensionedField

Time

Figure 152: A partial view of the class hierarchy involving regIOobject; note that this diagram is complete
only for the classes IOobject and regIOobject – meaning IOobject is not derived from any other class and
regIOobject is derived from only IOobject; the other classes have more base classes than shown in this
diagram.

IOobject
This class provides the basic facilities for I/O. In Section 57.4.5 the practical or typical use of this class is shown.

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regIOobject
This class is an abstract class as the description in the header mentions. In Figure 152 the name of the pure
virtual method which makes this class an abstract class is shown in an italic font. This means all classes derived
from regIOobject must implement this pure virtual method. This also means, that we can not create an object
of the type regIOobject directly. Thus, in all of OpenFOAM’s sources we find a constructor call for the class
regIOobject only in the initializer list of classes derived from regIOobject.

objectRegistry
The objectRegistry is eponymous to this section. In fact there is not the one registry in OpenFOAM, there
are several. Among others, the classes Time, cloud, and polyMesh are derived from objectRegistry. Figure
153 shows the classes from which objectRegistry is derived.

regIOobject HashTable<regIOobject*>
writeData()

objectRegistry
Time& time()
objectRegistry& parent()
T& lookupObject(word)

Time polyMesh cloud

Figure 153: The base classes of the class objectRegistry; this class is derived from regIOobject and
a HashTable; note that the template parameter of the HashTable is a pointer to regIOobject; thus
objectRegistry is an regIOobject as well as a HashTable of regIOobject pointers – this is C++’s tem-
plate madness and inheritance wizardry in action.

objectRegistries: space and time

In OpenFOAM there is usually only one object of the type Time, usually named runTime. There are no solvers
to the knowledge ot the author, which use more than one instance of the class Time. As most solvers also feature
only one mesh, the seperation between Time and polyMesh as being a registry seems to be overdone.
However, there are solvers which feature several meshes, e.g. the conjugate heat transfer solvers. In the
simplest configuration there is one mesh for the solid part of the domain and one mesh for the fluid part of the
domain. However, the solver chtMultiRegionFoam supports an arbitrary number of fluid and solid domains.
In this case the temperature field T of the solid region i needs to be registered with the appropriate registry,
namely the mesh of the solid region i. Since the fluid in the fluid region also has a temperature, there will also
be a temperature field T registered to the appropriate fluid mesh. Thus, the separation of the object registries,
i.e. mesh(es) and time, saves us from a potential name clash, as we have two temperature fields T. Thus, the
mesh(es) are registered with the object registry runTime, whereas fields are registered with the appropriate
mesh.
An OpenFOAM solver has a number of object registries in use, the most prominent are the runTime and
the mesh objects. For fields it is important to know that they belong to a mesh, since the entity field is a mere
list of values. Only the connection to the mesh gives the field an actual meaning, i.e. the entry at position i in

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the list is the cell centre value of cell i. Furthermore, the field also needs a connection to the actual time state
of the simulation, otherwise there would be no meaningful way to define or calculate a temporal derivative.

57.7.2 Using the registry

Of what use could a possible object registry be? Well, ask the code.
In Section 67.3 we showed a way to search files for a certain pattern. Now we search all files with the file
extension .C for the pattern lookupObject and count the hits196 . Listing 449 shows the command we can use.
First we use find to look for all files with the specified pattern for the file name. The result is then piped to
grep which searches the files for the specified pattern. Lastly, the result of grep is piped to wc, which counts
lines, words and bytes. Thus the first number returned by this sequence of commands tells us the number of
hits. The actual number of hits is approximately half the displayed number, since in the process of building
OpenFOAM from sources, symbolic links are created within the lnInclude folders197 .

find $FOAM_SRC - name ’*.C ’ | xargs grep ’ lookupObject ’ | wc

Listing 449: Find and scan files with file extension .C for the pattern lookupObject and count the hits

The command of Listing 449 results in 1068 hits in the author’s OpenFOAM-2.3.x installation at the time of
writing. 537 of these hits come from symbolic links of lnInclude directories. This means that lookupObject()
gets used a lot. So what is lookupObject() good for?

Need to know vs. want to know

One principle of encapsulation or information hiding is a fundamental principle of object-oriented program-
ming198 . The general idea is to hide the actual implementation of something behind a publicly accessible
interface. Thus, the inner workings of a class may change without affecting its use. The iterator concept is
a good example of the benefits of information hiding. Typical container classes implement a feature called
iterators that are used to iterate over all elements of the container. By using the public interface of the iterator,
the actual container behind may be any kind of data structure (a linked list, a vector, a hash table, etc.).
Besides providing and using interfaces for accessing the data of a class it is also a common and good practice
to restrict the scope of data, e.g. temporary data being local to the class or method where it is actually used.
Thus, in the design of the classes we implement we limit the data contained within and/or passed to the class
to the necessary minimum, i.e. the viscosity law used in a solver does not need to know about the solver we
used to solve the discretized equation system. However, there might arise the need to access data, which the
original designers of a certain familiy of classes did not anticipate.

Namespaces & scopes

Another aspect are namespaces and variable scopes within our source codes. A variable is visible in the
namespace and scope it is declared. If we look at the top level code of a solver, e.g. twoPhaseEulerFoam,
we see a lot of #include statements and the main() method of the program. Although, we find no direct
statement involving the namespace, in the file fvCFD.H a statement is hidden which causes the compiler to
use the namespace Foam. This is the reason why we can later e.g. in createFields.H use typenames such as
volScalarField which are defined in the namespace Foam. Otherwise we would need to explicitely specify the
namespace as well, e.g. Foam::volScalarField. Thus, all objects created by a solver such as mesh, runTime,
etc. are visible in the namespace Foam.
Models however, have their own namespaces. Listing 450 shows an example of such a model with its own
namespace. Within the namespace Foam a new namespace diameterModels is created. Within this namespace
the class isothermal is defined. Thus the classes implementing diameter models do not pollute the Foam
namespace.
Although, the diameterModels namespace is a subset of the Foam namespace and everthing declared within
Foam is also visible within Foam::diameterModels, the diameter models are compiled with other models into a
196 The method lookupObject() can be used to ask the registry for a registered object. The usefulness will be explained in the

subsequent paragraphs.
197 The lnInclude folders collect links to all files of a certain library, thus when compiling a solver that uses this library we need

to include only the lnInclude folder and not the whole directory tree of the library’s sources. This minimizes the number of entries
in the Make/options files.
198 Information hiding and encapsulation are often used synonymously, however, strictly spoken they are not exactly the same.

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shared library. Thus, when these files are compiled, the compiler knows nothing of the objects in the namespace
Foam created in e.g. createFields.H.

namespace Foam
{
namespace diame terModel s
{

class isothermal
:
public diameterModel
{
// code removed
}

Listing 450: The class definition of the isothermal class, derived from the class diameterModel in
isothermalDiameter.H

Looking up stuff
Listing 451 shows the definition of the method d() of the class isothermal. For the reasons explained above
isothermal.C and createFields.H being in different compilation units, we can not access the pressure field p
directly from within the method body, even though p is part of the namespace Foam. However, other diameter
models do not need to access the pressure field, e.g. constant which implements a constant diameter.

Foam :: tmp < Foam :: volScalarField > Foam :: d iameterM odels :: isothermal :: d () const
{
const volS calarFie ld & p = phase_ . U () . db () . lookupObject < volScalarField >
(
"p"
);

return d0_ * pow ( p0_ /p , 1.0/3.0) ;

}

Listing 451: The definition of the method d() of the class diameterModel in isothermalDiameter.C

The example above shows the value of the lookup mechanism. Since some sub-models operate on some
fields, it is easy to get a reference to the mesh from the field, as it is done in phase_.U().db(). phase_ is a
member of the base class of the diameter models199 . The call phase_.U() returns a reference to the velocity
field of the phase in question. As the velocity field is registered with the mesh otherwise we wouldn’t know
which velocity value belongs to a certain cell we get a reference to the mesh by calling db(), which is a method
of the class IOobject. This handy mechanism saves us from polluting sub-models with references to the mesh,
the time, to fields we might need at some point or some derived classes might need in special cases.
Thus the lookupObject() method provides a tool for us to get references to fields which at compile-time
may not be declared and thus usable. Remember, the pressure field is declared in the solver’s createFields.H
file, which is in a different compilation unit as the library we are compiling our diameter model for. If the code
of the diameter model and the solver would be in the same compilation unit (the solver’s executable) we would
not need the lookup mechanism. However, since the developers of OpenFOAM aim for modularity, placing
everything into a single compilation unit is against the design principles of modularity and reusability.
The lookupObject() method is templated since we can register anything with the mesh, in fact anything
that is derived from regIOobject, since an objectRegistry is a HashTable of regIOobject pointers. Thus,
at compile-time the method and the compiler do not know exactly which data types it is going to handle.
This is where templates come into play. The templated method is implemented once for the template pa-
rameter, and when we use the method, we simply replace the template parameter with the actual type, as in
lookupObject<volScalarField>("p"). The compiler then does the rest of the work and generates the appro-
priate code. We could resolve this issue without templates by using function overloading at the price of massive
code duplication and poor maintainability.
199 It is a convention of OpenFOAM’s developers to append an underscore character (_) to the names of the data members of a

class in order to make them easily distinguishable from method parameters.

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57.7.3 Printing the registry
If you are curious you can add the following lines of code to a test utility of yours to check what is registered
with the mesh and the runTime object registry. Note that mesh and runTime must be accessible from the place
you put the code into. Also the names of the objects might differ in some cases.

Info << " mesh . names () " << mesh . names () << nl << endl ;
Info << " runTime . names () " << runTime . names () << endl ;

Listing 452: Printing the contents of the object registries mesh and runTime to Terminal

57.8 I/O - input & output

Some aspects of I/O were already covered in Sections 57.4.5 and 57.3. However as this collection of stuff is
fragmented by design or by the lack of such we cover the topic of I/O in a more general manner.

57.8.1 Output to Terminal - OpenFOAM’s very own printf()

In programming we have often the need to print stuff to the Terminal, e.g. for printf() debugging200 . With
C++ general I/O was implemented on the basis of I/O streams. C++’s I/O streams provide a type-safe and
uniform way to implement I/O for both built-in and user-defined types [59]. See Listings 453 and 454 for the
use of C’s printf() function and C++’s streams.

# include < stdio .h >

int main ( int argc , char ** argv )

{
printf ( " Hello , World !\ n " ) ;

return 0;
}

Listing 453: The Hello World! example of C.

# include < iostream >

int main ()
{
std :: cout << " Hello World ! " << std :: endl ;

return 0;
}

Listing 454: The Hello World! example of C++.

OpenFOAM implements its own stream library. The generic stream library of OpenFOAM is based on the
class IOstream. The description of this class in its header file sheds some light on the reasons for doing so:

An IOstream is an abstract base class for all input/output systems; be they streams, files, token
lists etc.
The basic operations are construct, close, read token, read primitive and read binary block. In
addition version control and line number counting is incorporated. Usually one would use the read
primitive member functions, but if one were reading a stream on unknown data sequence one can
read token by token, and then analyse.

OpenFOAM handles all kinds of communication in terms of streams, among others: Terminal I/O with the
user, file I/O and inter-process communication for parallel processing. The Hello World! example for the
OpenFOAM world in Listing 455 looks very similar to the example of C++.

200 Named after C’s ubiquitous printf() function, see http://stackoverflow.com/a/189570/2055536

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# include " Istream . H "

using namespace Foam ;

int main ( int argc , char * argv [])

{
Info << " Hello OpenFOAM ! " << endl ;

return 0;
}

Listing 455: The Hello World! example written in OpenFOAM.

Conditional (debug) output

printf() debugging is a very handy, low-level technique to trouble-shoot pieces of code. In the case of actual
debugging, we will remove all lines of code printing to the Terminal once we are done debugging. However, we
might want to create software, which may be either talkative or silent201 . In this case we need conditional Info
statements.
Listing 456 shows a Hello World! example with conditional output. This listing is quite lengthy, since we
decided not to use simple boolean to control the conditional output. Instead we opted for a real case scenario,
in which the verbosity is controlled by a command line option. This, however, entailed some more lines of code
to deal with command line parameters.

# include " argList . H "

bool verbose ( false ) ;

using namespace Foam ;

int main ( int argc , char * argv [])

{
argList :: addNote
(
" This is a \" Hello World !\" program for the OpenFOAM world . "
);

argList :: noBanner () ;
argList :: noParallel () ;

argList :: removeOption ( " n o F u n c t i o n O b j e c t s " ) ;

argList :: removeOption ( " case " ) ;

argList :: addBoolOption
(
" verbose " ,
" control the chatty - ness of me "
);
Foam :: argList args ( argc , argv ) ;

if ( args . optionFound ( " verbose " ) )

{
verbose = true ;
}

Info << " Hello OpenFOAM ! " << endl ;

if ( verbose ) Info << " ... and hello to all other non - OpenFOAM worlds ! " << endl ;

return 0;
}

Listing 456: The Hello World! example written in OpenFOAM with conditional chattiness.
201 Have you ever come across -v or --verbose command line switches when using UNIX or LINUX computers?

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 In addition to the boolean command line switch, we added a note informing the user about the executable.
This note gets displayed, when the usage message is shown by invoking the executable with the command line
option -help. OpenFOAM adds a number of command line parameters by default, thus we remove some of
them (the ones that make no sense for a Hello World! program, such as the parallel option).
The second to last line of code is the one that actually controls the conditional output. This is done by a
good old if statement.
In the source code of the function objects of OpenFOAM-2.3.x we observed another possiblity to define
conditional output. There, we can pass an argument to Info. With OpenFOAM-2.4.x and higher versions this
does not compile anymore. Listing 457

// OpenFOAM -2.3. x
Info ( log_ ) << " Including porosity effects " << endl ;

// OpenFOAM -2.4. x and higher

if ( log_ ) Info < < " Including porosity effects " << endl ;

Listing 457: Implementing conditional output, controlled by the Switch log_, in different OpenFOAM versions.
This example is taken from the force function object. See the file force.C.

A variant of the conditional Info(log_) statement was reinstated in May 2016202 , with the Log macro,
which is defined as follows:

// - Report write to Foam :: Info if the local log switch is true

# define Log \
if ( log ) Info

Listing 458: The definition of the Log macro, originally for conditional output of function objects. See the file
messageStream.H.

57.8.2 The registry and the I/O or the truth behind runTime.write()
Registering fields with the runTime object registry also allows makes our lives easier when we want to write
the current state of the simulation to disk. In a great number of solvers, possibly in all of them, we find an
instruction like runTime.write() within the main loop of the main method. This call to the method write()
causes fields to be written to disk. As every solver write a different set of fields to disk, we may ask ourselves how
the solver or OpenFOAM knows which fields to write when we call the write() method of the runTime object?
Here, the registry nature of the Time class comes into play. Since we register all our fields, which we eventually
want to read or write, with the runTime object, the runTime object has a list of objects (regIOobjects in fact)
which are to (or might) be written203 . In fact, since objectRegistry is derived from the type HashTable, an
object registry is a list of objects which are to (or might) be written204 . The call of the write method of the
Time class causes Time to iterate over its self (runTime is a list of regIOobjects by inheritance205 ) and call the
write() method of every single item within the list. The method write() is defined in the regIOobject class.
The closer look into the sources is revealing if we take some of C++’s rules into consideration. Listing 459
shows us the method that is called when we call write() on runTime, bear in mind that Time is derived in
second generation from regIOobject via the class objectRegistry. The listing shows a call of the method
writeObject().

bool Foam :: regIOobject :: write () const

{
return writeObject
(
time () . writeFormat () ,
IOstream :: currentVersion ,
time () . w r i t e C o m p r e s s i o n ()
202 https://github.com/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-dev/commit/48e58170392e5ef60538cfef28dd70c70a62e17b
203 depending on the write flags of the IOobject part of the type. See Section 57.4.5 for a discussion on the read and write flags

of the IOobject class.

204 A hash table is not really a list, however, we can iterate over a hash table the same way we can iterate over a list. The

description in the header file of the HashTable class describes the class as being An STL-conforming hash table.
205 think around the family tree, e.g. in Figure 153

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1 bool Foam :: Time :: writeObject
2 (
3 IOstream :: streamFormat fmt ,
4 IOstream :: versionNumber ver ,
5 IOstream :: c om pr e ss io nT y pe cmp
6 ) const
7 {
8 if ( outputTime () )
9 {
10 // some code removed
11
12 timeDict . regIOobject :: writeObject ( fmt , ver , cmp ) ;
13 bool writeOK = obj ectRegis try :: writeObject ( fmt , ver , cmp ) ;
14
15 // further code removed

Listing 460: Parts of the method writeObject() of the class Time in TimeIO.C

);
}

Listing 459: The method write() of the class regIOobject in regIOobjectWrite.C

If we search the sources of Time and all its base classes we find out that Time, regIOobject and objectRegistry
all define a method called writeObject()206 . All of these three methods share the same signature207 , i.e. they
receive the same function arguments. Since the call of writeObject() is not further specified for a certain
namespace, it is the method writeObject() of the class Time, which is called when we call runTime.write()
as runTime is of the type Time.
In Listing 460 we see a portion of the definition of the method writeObject() of the class Time. There we
also see calls explicitely to the methods writeObject() of the classes regIOobject and objectRegistry.

Thus, the method writeObject() of all three classes (Time, regIOobject and objectRegistry) are called
when runTime.write() is called. It is worth noticing that the call of regIOobject::writeObject() is invoked
on the timeDict object. The definition of this object is part of the removed code prior to the call. A look into
the source code reveals, that timeDict is an IOdictionary which is a class also derived from regIOobject,
see Figure 152. The call of timeDict.writeObject() is the piece of code which creates the uniform folders
within the time step directories208 .
The method writeObject() of the class objectRegistry does the actual iteration over all elements within
the registry. Listing 461 shows the actual iteration over the hash table of regIOobject pointers. For each
element writeObject() is called if the write flag is not set to NO_WRITE. Now the method writeObject() of
the class regIOobject is called, since the iteration is over regIOobject pointers. This call on Line 16 of Listing
461 causes a registered field to be written to disk.

1 bool Foam :: object Registry :: writeObject

2 (
3 IOstream :: streamFormat fmt ,
4 IOstream :: versionNumber ver ,
5 IOstream :: c om pr e ss io nT y pe cmp
6 ) const
7 {
8 bool ok = true ;
9
10 f or Al lC o nstI te r ( HashTable < regIOobject * > , * this , iter )
11 {
12 // code removed handling debug output
13
14 if ( iter () -> writeOpt () != NO_WRITE )
15 {
206 The arguments of the function are dropped in the text for the sake of brevity. In fact there is no method named writeObject()

with an empty parameter list. This can be checked via these commands: find $FOAM_SRC -name ’*.[CH]’ | xargs grep
’writeObject()’
207 The function signature consists of the name of the function and its parameters.
208 In case you ever wondered where these come from.

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16 ok = iter () -> writeObject ( fmt , ver , cmp ) && ok ;
17 }
18 }
19
20 return ok ;
21 }

Listing 461: Parts of the method writeObject() of the class objectRegistry in objectRegistry.C

In conclusion we have learned by digging the source code of OpenFOAM the magical inner workings of
the call runTime.write(). First the Time class writes its state to disk into the uniform folder and then the
objectRegistry part of the runTime object writes all registered fields. It was already mentioned in Section 57.6
that the class Time has a multiply divided personality. And some of those even bring along an ancestry. This
highlights the need to have a certain understanding of C++ in order to be able to deduce what’s going on from
the sources of OpenFOAM as OpenFOAM makes very heavy use of C++’s language features such as multiple
inheritance, polymorphism and templates. In the context of programming paradigms involved, OpenFOAM
makes use of (among others): object-orientation and generic programming.

57.9 Making an argument – passing arguments

In Listing 456 of Section 57.8 command line arguments were used to influence an application’s behaviour. In
Section 11.1 different means of exterting control over an application are discussed. There, the point was made
that command line arguments are the lowest level of control over an application. Command line arguments
need to be specified each time an application is run. Only default values for optional arguments are permanent.
This section discusses some points about command line arguments.

57.9.1 The order of things

If we study applications, which make use of their own command line arguments, we see that there is certain
order of things. Listing 462 shows a minimal example of how to define command line arguments.
First, the static method addBoolOption method is called to add our own command line argument. Then,
the file setRootCase.H is included. Listing 463 shows the contents of this file. We see that a variable of the type
Foam::argList is created and all command line arguments209 are passed to the constructor of Foam::argList.
The constructor of Foam::argList only performs checks on the validity of the already defined options. In fact
no further options can be added after the call to the constructor of Foam::argList. Once the constructor has
been called, an object named args exists, which can be used to lookup options and extract information.

argList :: addBoolOption
(
" verbose " ,
" be more talkative "
);

# include " setRootCase . H "

const bool verbose = args . optionFound ( " verbose " ) ;

Listing 462: The order of things in the source code for defining command line arguments

Foam :: argList args ( argc , argv ) ;

if (! args . checkRootCase () )
{
Foam :: FatalError . exit () ;
}

Listing 463: The content of the file setRootCase.H

209 In C++ argc is the number of command line arguments, and argv is the actual command line arguments. argc and argv

are passed from the Terminal to the main() method of the application, see main()’s method signature: int main(int argc, char
*argv[])

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57.9.2 Dealing with SPAAAACE!
Having a space in an argument’s name is not really a good idea, since the Terminal generally interprets a
space as the end of an argument. In common UNIX/Linux tools multi-word arguments are generally seperated
with hyphens, e.g. --auto-compress. In the OpenFOAM universe, we see the use of camel case210 , e.g.
-noFunctionObjects to deal with multi-word argument names.
However, if we really want to have spaces within our argument’s name, OpenFOAM allows us to do so.
Listing 464 demonstrates how to define an argument named search point.

argList :: addOption
(
" search point " ,
" vector " ,
" find the cell containing the specified coords at < vector > - eg , ’(1 0 0) ’"
)

/* no comment */

vector v ;
if ( args . o p t i o n R e a d I f P r e s e n t ( " search point " , v ) )
{
Info < < " Searching cell at point : " << v << endl ;
}

Listing 464: Reading a point’s coordinates from a command line argument

Using an argument with a space in it, requires taking special care, as shown in Listing 465. Quotes are used
to prevent the Terminal from interpreting the space within the argument’s name as the end of the argument’s
name.
Listing 466 shows the danger of defining arguments with spaces. In this case the quotes were not used, just
as we are used to.

f i n d C e l l B y P o i n t C o o r d s -’ search point ’ ’( -0.993389 -1.90411 12.4942) ’

Listing 465: Passing a point’s coordinate to an application; note the quotes around the argument’s name

user@host :∼$ f i n d C e l l B y P o i n t C o o r d s - search point ’( -0.993389 -1.90411 12.4942) ’

...

--> FOAM FATAL ERROR :

Wrong number of arguments , expected 0 found 2
Invalid option : - search

FOAM exiting

Listing 466: Passing a point’s coordinate to an application; omitting the quotes around the argument’s name
leads to a misinterpretation

57.10 Turbulence models

In Section 32.3 it is stated that the user can choose between three options.

1. A laminar simulation
2. Using a RAS turbulence model
3. Using a LES turbulence model
This statement is reflected in the relationship between the classes implementing the turbulence models in
OpenFOAM. Object oriented programming allowes the programmer to translate relationships directly from
human language to source code. Two statements can be made about turbulence models
210 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camel_case

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 1. All RAS turbulence models are turbulence models, but not all turbulence models are RAS turbulence
models.
2. A RAS turbulence model is not the same as an LES turbulence model, however, both are turbulence
models.
Both statements are reflected by the class diagram of the turbulence models. On the top is the abstract class
turbulenceModel. This abstract class, provides the framework for all derived turbulence classes. Also, all
functionality common to all possible turbulence classes can be defined in this class. All derived classes will then
inherit this functionality.
Each turbulence model is derived from this abstract base class. Each turbulence class will implement specific
functionality individually.

turbulence
divDevReff():

laminar RASModel LESModel

divDevReff(): divDevReff(): divDevReff():

Figure 154: Graphic representation of inheritance of the turbulence model classes.

57.10.1 The abstract base class turbulenceModel

The base class turbulenceModel is an abstract class211 . It contains several pure-virtual functions. To be able
to call this functions, these functions must be overridden by the classes that are derived from the base class.
A pure-virtual class can not be called. Listing 467 shows the declaration of pure-virtual or abstract methods.
The = 0 indicates that a method is abstract.

// - Return the turbulence viscosity

virtual tmp < volScalarField > nut () const = 0;

// - Return the effective viscosity

virtual tmp < volScalarField > nuEff () const = 0;

Listing 467: Declaration of the virtual methods in turbulenceModel.H

The base class contains not only virtual functions. It also contains functions that are the same for all derived
classes. Consequently, this functions are implemented by the base class. Listing 468 shows the implementation
of the function nu(). This function is used to access the laminar or molecular viscosity. The laminar viscosity
is a property of the fluid itself and has nothing to do with turbulence. However, the turbulence models need to
access the laminar viscosity.

// - Return the laminar viscosity

inline tmp < volScalarField > nu () const
{
return t ra n sp or tM od e l_ . nu () ;
}

Listing 468: Implementation of nu() in turbulenceModel.H

Every class derived from an abstract class must at least override the abstract methods. The non-abstract
methods of the base class – like nu() from Listing 468 – can be used by the derived classes. No matter if a RAS
or a LES turbulence model is used, the laminar viscosity will always be the same.
211 A class that contains one or more abstract methods is called an abstract class. If a class contains only abstract methods, then

it is sometimes called a pure-abstract class.

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57.10.2 The class RASModel
The class RASModel is derived from the abstract class turbulenceModel. The class RASModel itself is the base
class for all RAS turbulence models. It is also an abstract class because it does not override all abstract methods
inherited from turbulenceModel.
However, the class RASModel implements all methods that are common to all RAS turbulence models. List-
ing 469 shows the implementation of the method nuEff() in the class RASModel.

// - Return the effective viscosity

virtual tmp < volScalarField > nuEff () const
{
return tmp < volScalarField >
(
new volScala rField ( " nuEff " , nut () + nu () )
);
}

Listing 469: Implementation of nuEff() in RASModel.H

The effective viscosity nuEff is calculated from the laminar viscosity, which is a property of the fluid, and the
turbulent viscosity. The turbulent viscosity is a property of the turbulence model. The function nu() in Listing
469 is implemented in the class turbulenceModel, see Listing 468. The function nut() is not implemented by
the class RASModel. Therefore, this method must be implemented by the classes derived from RASModel.

57.10.3 RAS turbulence models

All RAS turbulence models are derived from the class RASModel. Each derived class must implement all
remaining abstract methods. Figure 155 shows a simplified class diagram – there is a number of RAS turbulence
models available in OpenFOAM.

RASModel
divDevReff():

laminar kEpsilon SpalartAllmaras

divDevReff(): divDevReff(): divDevReff():

Figure 155: Inheritance of RAS turbulence models

57.10.4 The class kEpsilon

The class kEpsilon is derived from RASModel.

class kEpsilon
:
public RASModel
{
/* class definition */
}

Listing 470: Class definition of kEpsilon in kEpsilon.H

The function nut() has to be implemented by kEpsilon. Listing 471 shows how the function nut() is
implemented. This function simply returns the class member nut_.

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// - Return the turbulence viscosity
virtual tmp < volScalarField > nut () const
{
return nut_ ;
}

Listing 471: Implementation of nut() in kEpsilon.H

The way how nut_ is calculated differs between the RAS turbulence models. See Listing 507 in Section
62.2.2.

57.11 Debugging mechanism

OpenFOAM brings along a handy debugging mechanism. This mechanism can be used when creating additional
model libraries. The OpenFOAM wiki features a section explaining the built-in debug mechanism212 .
The global debug flags – controlling the behaviour of the debugging system-wide – are specified in \$FOAM_SRC/../etc/con
From OpenFOAM-2.2.0 onwards the global debug flags can be overridden by stating the debug flags of choice
in the case’s controlDict213 .
As this debugging mechanism relys on internal variables no re-compiling is involved when using this kind of
debugging mechanism. This kind of debugging is sometimes referred to as printf debugging 214 .
By default all debug switches are initialised with a zero value, therefore the debug feature for the specific
class is disabled. However, when the solver sets up the case, the global and local entries are checked. Listing 472
shows the entry in the controlDict to override debug switches. Listing 473 shows the solver output informing
us of the local settings in controlDict.

DebugSwitches
{
D e f a u l t S t a b il i t y 0;
YoonLuttrellAttachment 1;
}

Listing 472: Specifying debug switches in the case’s controlDict

Overriding DebugSwitches according to controlDict

D e f a u l t S t ab il i t y 0;
Y o o n L u t t r e l l A t t a c h m e n t 1;

Listing 473: Solver output when specifying debug switches in the case’s controlDict

57.11.1 Using the debugging mechanism

If the debugging mechanism is enabled for a class215 , Listing 474 shows how to actually use it. The code is
amazingly simple. The magic behind the scenes provides a variable named debug. We simply use this variable
in an if statement.

// print debug information

if ( debug )
{
// debug action
}

Listing 474: Using the debug mechanism in a class.

212 http://openfoamwiki.net/index.php/HowTo_debugging#Getting_built-in_feedback_from_OpenFOAM
213 http://www.openfoam.org/version2.2.0/runtime-control.php
214 See http://oopweb.com/CPP/Documents/DebugCPP/Volume/techniques.html or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debugging#

Techniques
215 See Section 57.12 on the background of the debugging mechanism.

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 57.11.2 Use case: Write intermediate fields
Listing 475 shows the definition of a method named Ea. For debugging purposes we want to write intermediate
fields to disk. In Line 7 of Listing 475 we compute a Reynolds number and store it in ReB. This is used to
generate the return value of the method. In normal operation only the return value is of interest. When
debugging also intermediate results may be of interest. The field ReB is by default not written to disk and
ceases to exist when the scope leaves the method, i.e. when the method is reaches its end the variable ReB is
automatically deleted216 .
Note the arguments passed in Line 7. The first is the name of the field. We could omit this argument,
however, when we write the variable ReB to disk the first argument determines the file name. If this argument
was omitted, then an automatically generated name – based on the way the field was generated – would be used.
In this very case the file written would be named max(((mag((U1-U2))*d)|nu),0.001). We easily recognize
the formula of Line 7. A file name containing special characters (non-alphanumerical characters) is generally
not advisible217 .
In Line 14 we manually call the write() method. This method is available to all registered input/output
objects218 . As we construct the local variable ReB from the registered i/o object Ur we can savely assume that
ReB will also be of this type.

1 Foam :: tmp < Foam :: volScalarField > Foam :: Y o o n L u t t r e l l A t t a c h m e n t :: Ea

2 (
3 const volS calarFie ld & Ur , const d i m e n s i o n e d S c a l a r & dP
4 ) const
5 {
6 // do stuff
7 volS calarFie ld ReB ( " ReB " , max ( Ur * dB / phase2_ . nu () , scalar (1.0 e -3) ) ) ;
8
9 // debug instructions
10 if ( debug )
11 {
12 if ( Ur . time () . outputTime () )
13 {
14 ReB . write () ;
15 }
16 }
17
18 // do more stuff
19 }

Listing 475: Manually writing intermediate fields for debugging.

57.12 A glance behind the run-time selection and debugging magic

OpenFOAM offers some amazing features. E.g. at compile-time of a fluid solver nobody knows which turbulence
model will be used with the solver. In fact it can be none at all or any of the available. The same is true for
drag models and the two-phase Eulerian solver with the exception that you can not use no drag law.
The entire wisdom behind the run-time selection mechanism, however, is more complex than what is pre-
sented in this section. Here, we focus on the macros we can find in the source files of the SchillerNaumann drag
model class. We know, this drag model is derived from the base class dragModel. For the run-time selection
mechanism to work, the base class also needs to do some preparations. See http://openfoamwiki.net/index.
php/OpenFOAM_guide/runTimeSelection_mechanism for a discussion on the run-time selection mechanism.
This section hopefully sheds some light into some of the inner workings of the run-time selection mechanism.
We shall now have a look behind the magic powers of OpenFOAM using the SchillerNaumann drag model as
an example. The Listings 476 and 477 (Lines 10 and 3) show the two harmlessly looking lines of code enabling
all the magic.

1 namespace Foam
216 This behaviour is subsumed under the term automatic variable. See e.g. http://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/language/

storage_duration
217 See e.g. http://www.teamdrive.com/Invalid_characters_in_file_and_folder_names.html
218 See http://openfoamwiki.net/index.php/OpenFOAM_guide/Input_and_Output_operations_using_dictionaries_and_the_
IOobject_class and http://openfoamwiki.net/index.php/OpenFOAM_guide/objectRegistry

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 2 {
3 class Sc hi lle rN au ma nn
4 :
5 public dragModel
6 {
7
8 public :
9 // - Runtime type information
10 TypeName ( " S ch il l er Na um a nn " ) ;
11 }
12 }

Listing 476: The relevant lines of code in SchillerNaumann.H

1 namespace Foam
2 {
3 d e f i n e T y p e N a m e A n d D e b u g ( SchillerNaumann , 0) ;
4 }

Listing 477: The relevant lines of code in SchillerNaumann.C

57.12.1 Part 1 - TypeName

First we will examine Line 10 of Listing 476.

TypeName ( " S ch il l er Na um a nn " ) ;

What looks like a function call is actually a preprocesser macro219 with parameters220 . The macroTypeName
is defined in the file typeInfo.H. Listing 478 shows its definition.
A \#define macro consists of at least two parts. First comes the identifier, then comes the optional pa-
rameter list in parentheses and at least the replacement token list until the end of the line221 . As the macro
is expanded by the preprocessor, the identifier (in this case TypeName) is replaced with the replacement tokes
(all instructions after the parameter list). A macro can not cover more than one line, however, by using the
backslash (\\) the current line is continued with the next line222 .

1 // - Declare a ClassName () with extra virtual type info

2 # define TypeName ( TypeN ameString ) \
3 ClassName ( TypeName String ) ; \
4 virtual const word & type () const { return typeName ; }

Listing 478: The macro definition in typeInfo.H

Thus, the line TypeName("SchillerNaumann"); expands to.

ClassName ( " S ch i ll er Na u ma nn " ) ;

virtual const word & type () const { return typeName ; }

The second line is a function definition. As this function definition is made by the macro, this function is
defined for every class where the TypeName macro is stated in the class definition. This demonstrates one of the
major reasons for using preprocessor macros – the ability to write recurring pieces of code just once.
The first line of the above listing is itself a macro. Listing 479 shows the macro definitions that are necessary
to expand the ClassName macro.

1 // - Add typeName information from argument \ a TypeN ameStrin g to a class .

2 // Also declares debug information .
3 # define ClassName ( Type NameStri ng ) \
4 C l a s s N a m e N o De b u g ( TypeNam eString ) ; \
5 static int debug
219 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C_preprocessor
220 See e.g. http://www.cplusplus.com/doc/tutorial/preprocessor/
221 https://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/cpp/The-preprocessing-language.html
222 https://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/cpp/The-preprocessing-language.html#The-preprocessing-language

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6
7 // - Add typeName information from argument \ a TypeN ameStrin g to a class .
8 // Without debug information
9 # define C l a s s N a m eN o D e b u g ( TypeName String ) \
10 static const char * typeName_ () { return Type NameStri ng ; } \
11 static const :: Foam :: word typeName

Listing 479: Two macro definitions in className.H

Thus, we further expand the TypeName("SchillerNaumann") macro.

static const char * typeName_ () { return " Sc hi l le rN au m an n " ; } \

static const :: Foam :: word typeName
static int debug
virtual const word & type () const { return typeName ; }

As the TypeName("SchillerNaumann") macro was put into the class definition of the verb+SchillerNaumann+
class, the macro added two function definitions (first and last line), one of which is a static method, and two
static variables (the two center line).
Static elements of class (variables or methods) are elements that exist only once for all instances of a class223 .
In the case of a two-phase Eulerian solver two instances of the SchillerNaumann class might exist – in the case
this model was specified for both phases. No matter which of the two instances of the class call the method
typeName() it is always the same function called. In this case – returning the name of the class – the use of a
static method makes perfect sense and is the only sensible way to implement this task.
The TypeName("SchillerNaumann") macro is used to create a method that returns the name of the class and
a method that return the name of the type. Obviously, the class name and the type name were not considered
equivalent when designing OpenFOAM224 . The variables created by the TypeName("SchillerNaumann") macro
are a static variable containing the type name and a static variable named debug. This debug variable controls
the debug mechanism covered in Section 57.11.

57.12.2 Part 2 - defineTypeNameAndDebug

Now we will examine Line 3 of Listing 477 which is repeated just below.

d e f i n e T y p e N a m e A n d D e b u g ( SchillerNaumann , 0) ;

The defineTypeNameAndDebug macro is defined the file className.H.

1 // - Define the typeName and debug information

2 # define d e f i n e T y p e N a m e A n d D e b u g ( Type , DebugSwitch ) \
3 defi neTypeNa me ( Type ) ; \
4 d e f i n e D e b u g S w i t c h ( Type , DebugSwitch )

Listing 480: A macro definition in className.H

Thus our macro expands to two macros.

defi neTypeNa me ( Sc hi ll e rN au ma n n ) ;
d e f i n e D e b u g S w i t c h ( SchillerNaumann , 0) ;

Listing 481 shows the macro definitions necessary to expand the above two macros.

1 // - Define the typeName , with alternative lookup as \ a Name

2 # define d e f i n e T y p e N a m e W i t h N a m e ( Type , Name ) \
3 const :: Foam :: word Type :: typeName ( Name )
4
5 // - Define the typeName
6 # define defi neTypeNa me ( Type ) \
7 d e f i n e T y p e N a m e W i t h N a m e ( Type , Type :: typeName_ () )
8

223 http://www.tutorialspoint.com/cplusplus/cpp_static_members.htm
224 See Section 57.12.3 for an example when class name and type name are different.

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9 // - Define the debug information , lookup as \ a Name
10 # define d e f i n e D e b u g S w i t c h W i t h N a m e ( Type , Name , DebugSwitch ) \
11 int Type :: debug (:: Foam :: debug :: debugSwitch ( Name , DebugSwitch ) )
12
13 // - Define the debug information
14 # define d e f i n eD e b u g S w i t c h ( Type , DebugSwitch ) \
15 d e f i n e D e b u g S w i t c h W i t h N a m e ( Type , Type :: typeName_ () , DebugSwitch ) ; \
16 r e g i s t e r D e b u g S w i t c h W i t h N a m e ( Type , Type , Type :: typeName_ () )

Listing 481: Four macro definitions in debugName.H

Thus, our macros expand to:

const :: Foam :: word Sc hi ll e rN au ma nn :: typeName ( S ch il le rN a um an n :: typeName_ () ) ;

int S ch il le r Naum an n :: debug (:: Foam :: debug :: debugSwitch ( SchillerNaumann , 0) ) ;
r e g i s t e r D e b u g S w i t c h W i t h N a m e ( SchillerNaumann , SchillerNaumann , Sc hi ll er N au ma nn :: typeName_ () ) ;

The first line of the expansion of the macro defineTypeNameAndDebug(SchillerNaumann, 0) assigns the
return value of the function typeName_() to the static variable typeName. This has the effect that the class
name and the type name have an equal value. However, the way this framework is set up allows for different
names.
The second line assigns the return value of the function call ::Foam::debug::debugSwitch(SchillerNaumann, 0)
to the static variable SchillerNaumann::debug. The reason why the value is not directly used to assign the
value to the static variable is that the called method adds the debug switch to a dictionary, see Listing 482.
The last line of the macro expansion invokes another macro. Listing 483 shows the macro definition of
registerDebugSwitchWithName.

1 int Foam :: debug :: debugSwitch ( const char * name , const int defaultValue )
2 {
3 return debugSwitches () . l o o k u p O r A d d D e f a u l t
4 (
5 name , defaultValue , false , false
6 );
7 }

Listing 482: Adding the debug switch to the dictionary in debug.C

1 // - Define the debug information , lookup as \ a Name

2 # define r e g i s t e r D e b u g S w i t c h W i t h N a m e ( Type , Tag , Name ) \
3 class add ## Tag ## ToDebug \
4 : \
5 public :: Foam :: s i m p l e R e g I O o b j e c t \
6 { \
7 public : \
8 add ## Tag ## ToDebug ( const char * name ) \
9 : \
10 :: Foam :: s i m p l e R e g I O o b j e c t ( Foam :: debug :: addDebugObject , name ) \
11 {} \
12 virtual ∼add ## Tag ## ToDebug () \
13 {} \
14 virtual void readData ( Foam :: Istream & is ) \
15 { \
16 Type :: debug = readLabel ( is ) ; \
17 } \
18 virtual void writeData ( Foam :: Ostream & os ) const \
19 { \
20 os << Type :: debug ; \
21 } \
22 }; \
23 add ## Tag ## ToDebug add ## Tag ## ToDebug_ ( Name )

Listing 483: Definition of the registerDebugSwitchWithName macro in debugName.H

57.12.3 A walk in the park: demonstrate some of this magic

In the above sections we took a look behind two very powerful pre-processor macros. So, what is this all for?

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 The turbulence models are very prominent examples for the usefulness of the run-time selection mechanism.
At compile-time – the time we or the OpenFOAM developers compile a solver – nobody knows, what exact
turbulence model we want to use for our simulation. Thus, we need to decide at run-time – at the time the
solver reads all the case information – which turbulence model to use. In order to save us from writing a solver
for each turbulence model, solvers can be written in a generic way. I.e. at the time we compile the solver
nobody, not even the compiler, cares about the actual turbulence model. The base class turbulenceModel tells
the compiler and the solver how a turbulence model works, that is all we need to know at compile time.
However, at run-time we need to decide which turbulence model to use. Fortunately, OpenFOAM takes care
of that and we do not need to bother. In some cases, however, we would like to know which turbulence model
is currently used. We could achieve this by either reading the case data225 or by making use of the run-time
magic.
Listing 484 shows three lines of code. The intention behind this line is to print the return values of the
methods typeName_() and type(). These two methods were provided by the two macros dissected in Sections
57.12.1 and 57.12.2.

1 Info << " Happy printf () debugging : " << endl ;

2 Info << turbulence - > typeName_ () << endl ;
3 Info << turbulence - > type () << endl ;

Listing 484: Applying some of the magic, the source code.

Listing 485 shows the results of the three lines of code of Listing 484. The code in Listing 484 presumes that
turbulence modelling is used in its generic form, as it is the case in e.g. pimpleFoam. In this example the
variable turbulence is of the type autoPtr<incompressible::turbulenceModel> turbulence.
From the output we see, that the variable turbulence is indeed of type turbulenceModel. However, as the
class turbulenceModel is an abstract base class, no solver will ever actually use turbulenceModel itself226 .
In this case, the solver used the kOmega turbulence model. Thus, the method type() returns the name of the
actual turbulence model. Here we also see the sense behind the distinction between the class name and the type
name as discussed some paragraphs above. In the example of an concrete class those are the same. For a base
class, however, this distinction makes perfect sence.

1 Happy printf () debugging :

2 t ur bu le n ce Mo de l
3 kOmega

Listing 485: Applying some of the magic, the output.

57.13 Notes on running OpenFOAM in parallel

OpenFOAM is perfectly capable of running on multiple processors, however, even as OpenFOAM hides some or
most of the technical issues arising from running in parallel from the programmer by its very intelligent design,
there are still some things we need to consider and pitfalls we may stumble into.
First of all, let us take a moment and thank the universe, that OpenFOAM does so much on its own, in
the background, when it comes to parallel running227 . If you restrict yourself to OpenFOAM’s high-level data
structures, as any sensible human being should, then you get running in parallel basically for free. You would
not want to get into the details of how Lagrangian particles traverse sub-domains, or how to compute the
gradient of a field at the very boundary of a sub-domain.
This section is devoted to topics which offer us mere mortals the chance to nevertheless mess up despite all
the magic OpenFOAM brings to the table. Other topics, such as printing to Terminal228 , are presented out of
curiosity, as in how to do X?
225 This would mean re-programming existing functionality. The case data related to turbulence modelling was already read by
the constructor of the turbulence model. Manually reading this information again would result in some kind of code duplication.
The more elegant way to solve this problem is to access the information already gathered.
226 See Section 57.10 for information about how turbulence models are organized in OpenFOAM.
227 If you think otherwise, or are curious, see http://mpitutorial.com/tutorials/ as a starting point for getting into the nitty-

gritty of implementing parallel communication using MPI.

228 It would require a bit of (evil) creativity on the part of the user to mess up something as simple as printing to Terminal.

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 57.13.1 Printing to Terminal
When running an application in parallel, we might want for each one of the parallel processes being able to
print to the Terminal, or we might want that only the master process can print to the Terminal. OpenFOAM
allows you to do both.

Hush! The master is printing

If you want only the master to print to the Terminal, all is well. Just continue to use the Info statement we
are all familiar with.

1 // this should be printed only once

2 Info << " Hello OpenFOAM World ! " << endl ;

Listing 486: Printing to the Terminal using the Info statement.

The output of Listing 486 is shown in Listing 488, which is the result of a parallel run with 4 processes229 .

Parallel print, the choir of processes

If we want all of the parallel processes to have their say, respectively print to Terminal, we can use the Pout
statement. This statement allows each running process to print to the Terminal.

1 // this should be printed only once

2 Info << " Hello OpenFOAM World ! " << endl ;
3
4 // this should be printed once for each running process
5 Pout << " ... this is process " << pid () << " speaking ! " << endl ;

Listing 487: Printing to the Terminal using the Pout statement.

The Pout statement prepends the output message with the processor number, which starts counting from 0,
and 0 being the master process. Note in Listing 488 that the order in which the individual processes print to
the Terminal is not fixed.

1 Hello OpenFOAM World !

2 [1] ... this is process 2315 speaking !
3 [2] ... this is process 2316 speaking !
4 [0] ... this is process 2314 speaking !
5 [3] ... this is process 2317 speaking !
6 Finalising parallel run

Listing 488: Resulting output of Listing 487.

57.13.2 Condensing values (sums, extrema)

If we want to sum up all the values of a field, or if we want to determine the extrema (minimum and maximum),
we most probably want to perform these operations globally, i.e. across all our sub-domains in a parallel run.
What needs to be done, is to perform the operation, e.g. summing up, within the sub-domain, communicating
the result (e.g. all processes report to the master), and continuing the operation (the master determines the
final result).
As OpenFOAM’s developer designed the code base to be most friendly to the user, there are statements
named gSum, gMin, gMax and others, which do exactly that.

1 // correct in serial , however , not so in parallel

2 Info < < " Sum of field U : " << sum ( mag ( X ) * mesh . V () ) << endl ;
3
4 // correct summing - up
5 Info < < " Sum of field U : " << gSum ( mag ( X ) * mesh . V () ) << endl ;

Listing 489: Computing and printing the total amoung of field X to the Terminal.
229 ... if the author is to be believed.

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 If we were to sum up mesh.V(), which is a scalar field made-up of the cell’s volumes, we get the total volume
of the domain, when we use gSum(mesh.V()). If we used sum(mesh.V()), then we would get roughly the total
domain’s volume divided by the number of processes. This is roughly an N -th of the domain’s volume, as
decomposition does not always yield sub-domains with a size exactly one N -th of the globale domain, e.g. when
having an even number of cells and dividing into three parts.

57.14 Math-like syntax in OpenFOAM

OpenFOAM is designed in a way, for its top-level code to resemble mathematical notation, or to quote the
original paper [68]:
The intention is to develop a C++ class library that makes it possible to implement complicated
mathematical and physical models as high-level mathematical expressions. This is facilitated by
making the high levels of the code resemble as closely as possible standard vector and tensor notation.

57.14.1 Pitfalls
Operator precedence: use caution with vector products
In mathematics certain operations are evaluated with priority over others230 . The same holds true for most
programming languages. The general rules of operator precedence231 in C++ closely follow the rules known
from mathematics.
However, as OpenFOAM extends the rudimentary mathematical capabilities of standard C++ with concepts
such as vectors and tensors, the question of operator precedence becomes interesting. Since, there are no
vector products in C++ and completely new operators can not be defined, some existing operators have to be
overloaded to implement the vector products. Furthermore, the operator precedence of existing operators can
not be altered.
As it turns out, the bitwise AND (&) and bitwise XOR (^) have been overloaded to implement the inner
and outer vector product. An unfortunate side-effect of using these operators is, that the inner and outer vector
product have a lower precedence than the basic operators such as addition, subtraction and multiplication. This
is because the bitwise AND and bitwise XOR operators have a quite low precedence.
To the unsuspecting user, it may come as a surprise when the following formula results in a compilation error:

a·b − c

As mentioned above, the unexpected operator precedence leads to:

a · (b − c)

Trying to compile the formula from above, translated into OpenFOAM source code:

1 const vector a (1.0 , 2.0 , 3.0) ;

2 const vector b (0.0 , 42.0 , 666.0) ;
3 const scalar c (0.815) ;
4
5 vector d ( a & b - c ) ;

Listing 490: This simple vector operation leads to a compiler error.

leads to a compiler error. Among the potentially plentyful lines of compiler warning and error messages, the
line below is the relevant one. It informs us of our intent to subtract a scalar from a vector, which is undefined.

error : no match for ’ operator - ’ ( operand types are ’ const vector { aka const Foam :: Vector <
double >} ’ and ’ const scalar { aka const double } ’)

Listing 491: The compiler error message

230 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_operations
231 https://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/language/operator_precedence

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 Thus, users are advised to use plenty of parentheses to avoid such problems. The issue with operator
precedence is well explained by Hrv Jasak in a forum post232 :

That’s because operator& and operator^ are really binary C++ operators in C++ and the language
does not allow you to define your own operators or change operator precedence.
We have chosen to re-use the operators for nice sytnax - makes the code look nice. Therefore, all I
can recommend is lots of brackets in vector/tensor products.

The same also applies to the double inner product, which takes two tensors of at least 2nd order. This operator
is implemented by overloading the logical AND (&&) operator, which has an even lower precedence than the
bitwise binary operators.

232 https://www.cfd-online.com/Forums/openfoam/61023-operator-precedence.html

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58 General remarks on OpenFOAM programming
This section covers some general advice for users who want to implement their own models and solvers or modify
existing ones.

58.1 Preparatory tasks

58.1.1 Create user specific directories
In order to be able to distinguish between the standard solvers and models from the solvers and models created
by the user, some new directories have to be created. Not only do we need to keep our models and applications
apart from the models and applications of the standard OpenFOAM installation, we also need to keep our
models and applications from those of other users. Thus, every user will get his or her own user directory.
The name of this user directory follows OpenFOAM’s naming convention which combines the user name and
the version number of OpenFOAM, i.e. user-4.0. Thus, we can also keep our own stuff for OpenFOAM-X
separate from the stuff for OpenFOAM-Y.
In this, we follow the organisational scheme of OpenFOAM’s standard solvers and models, of which the
source code resides in $WM_PROJECT_DIR/applications/solvers and $WM_PROJECT_DIR/OpenFOAM-2.1.x/
src. Therefore, we need to create some folders to place our sources in: $WM_PROJECT_USER_DIR/applications/
solvers and $WM_PROJECT_USER_DIR/src. Listing 492 lists the necessary commands. Open a Terminal and
type the commands of the Listing to do the job.

cd $ W M _ P R O J E C T _ U S E R _ D I R
mkdir -p applications / solvers
mkdir src

Listing 492: Create the proper directories for a user’s solvers and models

Note the use of the variable $WM_PROJECT_USER_DIR, which resolves to your OpenFOAM installation’s user
directory, which also contains the run-directory ($FOAM_RUN).

58.2 Start from existing code

58.2.1 Copy the sources
If you want to create a new model or solver, it is generally recommended to base it on the model or solver from
OpenFOAM’s standard installation, which comes closest to your intended set of features.

58.2.2 Change compilation settings

Before proceeding any further certain compilation settings have to be changed from the settings of OpenFOAM’s
standard code base.

Change the executable’s or library’s name

The executable’s or library’s name is determined by a setting in the file Make/files of the source code of the
respective solver of model. For a solver the name of the executable is determined by the setting EXE. Listing
494 shows how the name of the executable for the solver pimpleFoam is defined.

EXE = $ ( FOAM_APPBIN ) / pimpleFoam

Listing 493: Setting the name of pimpleFoam’s executable in the file Make/files of pimpleFoam’s source code233

233 The executeable does not necessarily have to have the same name as the source file. However, different names can lead to

confusion and make code maintenance harder. Therefore, it is strongly recommended to use consistent names, i.e. to name the
source file SOLVER.C and the executable SOLVER.

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 Analogously, defining the name of the shared library234 is done by the setting LIB in the file Make/files of
the library’s source code.

LIB = $ ( FOAM_LIBBIN ) / liblagrangian

Listing 494: Setting the name of the shared object of the Lagrangian particle library in the file Make/files of
Lagrangian library source code

The settings for EXE and LIB are full file paths. Thus, next to the assigment (the = symbol) we find a
directory, the path name separator (the / symbol) and the actual name of the executable or shared library.

Change the executable’s or library’s location

Avoiding mixing up user created solvers and models from the ones provided by OpenFOAM’s standard installa-
tion involves apart from changing the file name of the executable or shared object also the path the executable
or shared object resides in. This is specified, as already shown above, in the file Make/files.
For user created solvers and models, users are advised to change the path specifier to FOAM_USER_APPBIN or
FOAM_USER_LIBBIN respectively. Thus, user generated solvers and libraries are also spatially separated235 from
standard solvers and libraries.
If you use a system-wide OpenFOAM installation, then you most probably have only read access to the
FOAM_APPBIN and FOAM_LIBBIN directories. Thus, trying to compile your solver or model will fail, even when
there are no errors. In this case, the resulting error message might contain some hint about missing permissions.

Check Make/files
After adjusting the compilation settings, check and re-check the file Make/files. Listing 495 shows the vital
entries of the file highlighted. In the listing, the source file has the same name as the executable. Furthermore,
the executable will be located in the user’s application directory.

myApplication.C

EXE = $ (FOAM_USER_APPBIN) /myApplication

Listing 495: The content of Make/files

The file Make/files controls what is compiled and where the resulting executable will be stored. Thus,
getting Make/files right will save yourself from breaking something else, i.e. the model or application you
base your new model or application on. On the other hand, the file Make/options controls what is needed to
successfully compile the model or application. Getting Make/options wrong initially will do no harm.

Check Make/options
The file Make/options tells the compiler where to find additional source files, and it tells the linker236 where to
find additional libraries. The file Make/options only needs to be edited, if you use existing models, or source
files from other directories. This, however, is often the case.
The content of the file Make/options is divided in two parts. First, there are the paths for compiler to
look for source files to include. The second part is a list of libraries for the linker to link the current model or
application with.

EXE_INC = \
- I$ ( LIB_SRC ) / meshTools / lnInclude \
- I$ ( LIB_SRC ) / finiteVolume / lnInclude

234 The main purpose of dividing code into applications and libraries is to allow for multiple unconnected applications using

certain implemented behaviour (the libraries). Thus, libraries are shared by an arbitrary number of applications. Hence, libraries
are compiled into files which are referred as shared objects or shared libraries. The names of these files are appended by the filename
extension so, i.e. libraryName.so.
235 by residing in different directories
236 Compilation of C or C++ code is usually done in two steps. First all files are compiled and then the object files generated by

the compiler are linked together to form the executable.

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LIB_LIBS = \
- lmeshTools

Listing 496: Content of Make/options

Initial compilation
Once the existing sources have been copied and, most importantly, the compilation settings have been changed,
we can run an initial compilation. Although, at this point, nothing in the source code has changed, running an
initial compilation is recommended to check whether we have got the compilation settings right.
For applications simply execute wmake, for shared libraries the compiler gets an additional parameter:
wmake libso. After the compilation the compiled binary should show up in FOAM_USER_APPBIN or FOAM_USER_LIBBIN
respectively.

58.3 Create the source code from scratch

The steps discussed above may not be needed by certain users. OpenFOAM provides some macros to create the
basic source-code-skeleton for, among others, new applications, boundary conditions or functions objects. In the
case of creating a new application from scratch, the user simply calls the macro foamNewApp and provides the
desired application name. The executable’s path will automatically be set to FOAM_USER_APPBIN. New function
objects or boundary conditions will automatically be compiled into FOAM_USER_LIBBIN.

58.4 Using a user-created libraries

Distinguishing between solvers and libraries is a good thing, since we can create and reuse certain models. If
we want our application to use a model of ourself, we need to tell the compiler and the linker where to find our
(already compiled) model.
In Listing 497 we see the necessary entries for the file Make/options for an application which is to use a
user-created libary with the very creative name myLibrary. The green line in Line 4 of the listing tells the
compiler where to find the source code of the library myLibrary.
After the compilation stage finished succesfully, the compiled application needs to be linked to the compiled
library, i.e. shared object. This is shown in the Lines 8 and 9 of the Listing. The red line defines an additional
directory in which to look for shared objects. As good style dictates us to compile our own libraries into
FOAM_USER_LIBBIN, the additional directory for the linker is FOAM_USER_LIBBIN.
The blue line, Line 9 of the Listing, then tells the linker the name of the shared object of myLibrary.

EXE_INC = \
- I$ ( LIB_SRC ) / meshTools / lnInclude \
- I$ ( LIB_SRC ) / finiteVolume / lnInclude \
-I$(MY_LIB_SRC_PATH)/myLibary/lnInclude

LIB_LIBS = \
- lmeshTools \
-L$(FOAM_USER_LIBBIN) \
-lmyLibary

Listing 497: Content of Make/options of an application using a user-created library

58.5 Pitfalls
Modifying existing models or creating new ones bears the potential for many bugs and errors. This section
tries to discuss some of them, which either occur regularly or may be difficult to track down. Such a list can
never be complete and it is clearly biased towards the errors made and encountered by the author. These
errors are not necessarily restricted to OpenFOAM, moreover, modifying OpenFOAM involves programming
and programming involves bugs and errors. Enjoy reading.

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58.5.1 Segfault due to modified libary and failing to update the solver
Libraries are reusable parts of code, which are independent of the solver(s) using them. However, this in-
dependence may create problems if we modify the library and fail to recompile the solver(s) that are using
said library, even if said solver(s) have not been touched. The problem that might occur is a segmentation
fault (segfault in short) at construction of the modified objects. Unfortunately, a segfault does not produce very
telling error messages, see Listing 498. Note that we assume that compilation of the library finished successfully.

#0 Foam :: error :: printStack ( Foam :: Ostream &) at ??:?

#1 Foam :: sigSegv :: sigHandler ( int ) at ??:?
#2 ? in "/ lib / x86_64 - linux - gnu / libc . so .6"
#3 ? in "/ lib / x86_64 - linux - gnu / libc . so .6" Segmentation fault ( Core dumped )

Listing 498: A segmentation fault

The reason for this behaviour, the solver violently fails at start-up due to a segmentation fault, is that our
modifications to the library changed its memory layout. As we did not recompile the solver, the solver had no
means to learn about the changed memory layout. Thus, at solver start-up, the solver reserves an incorrect
amount of memory for the objects of the library. At construction of these objects, this mismatch causes the
segmentation fault.
Recompiling the solver, which has not been touched seems at first counter-intuitive. However, when the
memory layout of the library changed, the solver will reserve memory according to the old memory layout.
Recompiling the solver will simply update memory allocation.
The tricky bit of this error, is that it does not always occur. If we change a library and our changes do not
alter the memory layout, all is well. No error will occur. This opens the possibility of modifying the library and
running the solver using that library to sometimes work and sometimes cause this error.

Further reading
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2346806/what-is-a-segmentation-fault
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Segmentation_fault

58.5.2 (Failing to) Tell the solver to use a library

Modifying an existing library, or creating your own from scratch, results in a new shared object file in the
FOAM_USER_LIBBIN directory. However, if you want your solver to make use of this library, you need to tell the
solver to do so. Models in FOAM_USER_LIBBIN are not loaded by an application by default!
This is done via the libs list entry in controlDict, see Section 11.3.3. Failing to do so results in a very
odd situation. The model compiles without error; the solver, if you are using your own, also compiles without
error237 ; the case setup seems without error238 ; and yet the case does not run, when you try to make use of your
own model. In this situation, the seemingly correct case setup yields the same result as the banana test (see
Section 11.2.1), since OpenFOAM is unable to find the correct model associated with the name we provided in
the case files.

58.6 Tips
Check and double-check that you compile to the user-directories
Always make sure, that you compile your applications to FOAM_USER_APPBIN and your libraries to FOAM_USER_LIBBIN.
The reason for this, and the way how to ensure this, are discussed in 58.2.2.

When modifying a library, also recompile the solver(s) using the library
This mean a seemingly extraneous step239 , however, it might prevent weird behaviour. One reason for recom-
piling the solver using a recently modified library was discussed above in Section 58.5.1.
Furthermore, especially when templates are involved, e.g. you modify a templated class, it is vital to compile
the library which provided the templated model and the solver that uses the templated model. Templates need
special attention, care and love, do not neglect them.
237 Ifthe library compilation had failed, the linker would throw an error, if you tried to compile a solver using that library.
238 i.e.the case runs, when you use only standard OpenFOAM features.
239 In some cases it is sufficient only to compile the library, e.g. when fixing a type in an Info message.

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Use Allwclean or wclean liberally
Clean-up your temporary build-files for good measure by running wclean. Especially when templated classes
are involved, clearing build-files might be essential.
Also, if you update the underlying OpenFOAM version, recompiling your custom libraries and solvers will
also require cleaning of the build-files. If the underlying OpenFOAM installation, then the dependency list, i.e.
the *.dep file present in the Make directory of your code, may contain the file-names of files which might have
ceased to exist.

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 59 wmake - the build system of OpenFOAM
OpenFOAM’s build system wmake has been developed along the lines of make240 .

59.1 Supporting multiple versions of OpenFOAM

Supporting multiple versions of OpenFOAM requires additional effort and care when internals of OpenFOAM
are modified between the versions. Here caution is warranted. Simple changes to internals can be accomodated
with relatively little effort, however, there is a point at which one needs to decide whether to drop support of
older versions if the changes become too big.
However, if there is only a minor difference, the extra effort should be managable. In this section we discuss
how to accomodate such minor changes to OpenFOAM’s internals.
The brute-force method of supporting multiple versions of OpenFOAM would be to maintain a code base
for each version of OpenFOAM. However, the reason why this is a bad idea lies in the verb of the prior sentence:
maintain. Duplicating all our code for each new version of OpenFOAM is the recipe for a maintenance nightmare.
Thus, we ideally would like to maintain a single code base for all versions of OpenFOAM we would like to
support241 . All special, version-dependent treatment of the code will undoubtedly add to the code and increase
complexity, however, the benefit of having only one code base is thought to outweigh the added complexity.
In this discussion, we assume that our code is compatible with OpenFOAM-8 and OpenFOAM-9, lesser
versions or other variants are not supported. The code snippets shown here are taken from a solver created and
maintained by the author, however, only snippets are used to demonstrate the points of the discussion.

59.1.1 options file

Listing 499 shows several things going on. First, we pass the version number of OpenFOAM as a compiler
option. This allows us to abort compilation if the version does not match the supported ones, and to make the
distinction between versions in the source code itself. Then, we define include paths and library names which
depend on the version of OpenFOAM.
In Line 1 of Listing 499, we create a variable within the options file. This variable is then passed added to
PFLAGS in the form of a compiler option in Line 2.
In Line 5, we see how to check the OpenFOAM version to ensure compilation does only occur for supported
versions of OpenFOAM. We use a sequence of if conditions with empty branches when the OpenFOAM
version matches the supported versions, in the branch for all other versions, i.e., the unsupported ones, an error
is thrown242 and compilation terminates.
From Line 12 onwards, we see an if condition. Following this if condition, we specify version-dependent
include directories. In Line 13, we see an info statement, which can be used for trouble-shooting and to indicate
to the user which branch of the if clause is being taken.
From Line 22 onwards, the EXE_INC entry of the options file is built by combining the compiler options of
PFLAGS, the version-dependent include directories of COND_INC and the remaining include directories which are
common to all supported versions. A similar strategy is used for specifying the libraries with EXE_LIB.

1 F O A M _ V E R S I O N _ M A J O R := $ ( W M _ P R O J E C T _ V E R S I O N )
2 PFLAGS += - DFOAM_VERSION = $ ( F O A M _ V E R S I O N _ M A J O R )
3
4
5 ifeq ( $ ( F O A M _ VE R S I O N _ M A J O R ) ,9)
6 else ifeq ( $ ( F O A M _ V E R S I O N _ M A J O R ) ,8)
7 else
8 $ ( error OpenFOAM -7 and older is not supported )
9 endif
10
11
12 ifeq ( $ ( F O A M _ V E R S I O N _ M A J O R ) ,9)
13 $ ( info This branch )
14 COND_INC = \
15 - I$ ( LIB_SRC ) / t r an sp or t Mo de ls / lnInclude \
240 See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Make_(software)
241 Note the restriction to all versions we would like to support. Supporting all versions of OpenFOAM is out of the question for
all but the most basic or simple models/solvers/tools.
242 See https://www.gnu.org/software/make/manual/html_node/Make-Control-Functions.html

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16 - I$ ( LIB_SRC ) / dynamicFvMesh / lnInclude
17 else
18 COND_INC = \
19 - I$ ( LIB_SRC ) / sampling / lnInclude
20 endif
21
22 EXE_INC = \
23 $ ( PFLAGS ) \
24 $ ( COND_INC ) \
25 - I$ ( LIB_SRC ) / finiteVolume / lnInclude \
26 - I$ ( LIB_SRC ) / meshTools / lnInclude
27
28
29 ifeq ( $ ( F O A M _ V E R S I O N _ M A J O R ) ,9)
30 COND_LIB = \
31 - lfvModels \
32 - l fvConstr aints
33 else
34 COND_LIB = \
35 - lfvOptions
36 endif
37
38 EXE_LIBS = \
39 $ ( COND_LIB ) \
40 - lfiniteVolume \
41 - lmeshTools

Listing 499: An options file with conditional include paths and library names.

59.1.2 Source code

Once the files of the build system are in order, we can turn to the source code itself. Here, we also might
need to adjust the code depending on the actual version of OpenFOAM. In the Listing below, we include a
version-dependent header-file243 . From Line 2 of Listing 500 onwards, the relevant include statements are
within an if statement, ensuring the proper header-file gets included at compilation.

1 // conditional include due to changes in OpenFOAM

2 # if FOAM_VERSION == 9
3 # include " p h a s e D y n a m i c M o m e n t u m T r a n s p o r t M o d e l . H "
4 # elif FOAM_VERSION == 8
5 # include " p h a s e C o m p r e s s i b l e M o m e n t u m T r a n s p o r t M o d e l . H "
6 # endif

Listing 500: A conditional include statement in a source file.

Note, that the if statement in Listing 500 uses the variable that was passed as a compiler argument in Line
2 of Listing 499.

243 Between OpenFOAM-8 and OpenFOAM-9 multi-phase Eulerian turbulence modelling was re-organized.

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Part IX
Theory
This section covers more detailled topics and tries to look under the hood of OpenFOAM from a non-programming
view.

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60 Discretization
60.1 Temporal discretization
60.2 Spatial discretization
The purpose of spatial discretization schemes is to compute the face values of fields whose values are stored at
the cell centre. The face values are then used e.g. for computing the spatial derivatives.

60.2.1 upwind scheme

An upwind scheme determines the face value of a quantity simply by choosing the cell centered value of the cell
that is located upwind of the face in question.

60.2.2 linearUpwind scheme

The linearUpwind scheme is equivalent to FLUENTs Second-Order Upwind Scheme.

60.2.3 QUICK scheme

The FLUENT Theory Guide [9] states:

For quadrilateral and hexahedral meshes, where unique upstream and downstream faces and cells
can be identified, ANSYS FLUENT also provides the QUICK scheme for computing a higher-order
value of the convected variable at a face.

60.2.4 MUSCL scheme

60.3 Continuity error correction

In the governing equations of some solvers in OpenFOAM – e.g. in twoPhaseEulerFoam of OpenFOAM-2.3.x –
we find a special correction for the continuity error.

60.3.1 Conserving the form

Before we start our considerations, we take a closer look on the conservation and nonconservation form of a
transport equation. First, we recall the definition of the substantial derivative:

D ∂
= + (u · ∇) (201)
Dt ∂t
For example applied to an arbitrary scalar K
DK ∂K
= + u · ∇K (202)
Dt ∂t

Continuity equation
As a first example we look up the differential form of the continuity equation.

∂ρ
conservation form: + ∇ · (ρu) = 0 (203)
∂t
Dρ
nonconservation form: + ρ∇ · u = 0 (204)
Dt
Both forms are equivalent to each other, since we can express one equation easily by the other one with the
help of some simple mathematical operations.

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 ∂ρ
+ ∇ · (ρu) = 0 (205)
∂t
∂ρ
+ ∇ρ · u + ρ∇ · u = 0 (206)
∂t
∂ρ
+ u · ∇ρ +ρ∇ · u = 0 (207)
|∂t {z }
Dρ
Dt

Transport equation
For the next example we use the right hand side of the transport equation of enthalpy in a multiphase problem.
This example is motivated by the energy equation of twoPhaseEulerFoam in OpenFOAM-2.3.x. We could also
have used the momentum equation, however, we want to avoid confusion by the repeated occurance of the
velocity.
We look up the energy equation for multiphase flows from a textbook or other resources [9, 6]. For the sake of
brevity, we state only the left hand side of the equation. The equation we looked up (Eqn. (208)) happens to be
formulated in the conservation form. We now rearrange the equation in order to gain the nonconservation form.

∂αk ρk hk
+ ∇ · (αk ρk uk hk ) = RHS (208)
∂t
by partial derivation of the LHS, we gain
∂αk ρk ∂hk
hk + αk ρk + hk ∇ · (αk ρk uk ) + αk ρk uk · ∇hk = RHS (209)
∂t
 ∂t   
∂αk ρk ∂hk
hk + ∇ · (αk ρk uk ) +αk ρk + uk · ∇hk = RHS (210)
∂t ∂t
| {z } | {z }
I II

We now pay attention to the term marked by I, we recognize the phase-continuity equation which equals
zero. The term marked with II is the substantial derivative of hk . Thus we gain with Eqn. (211), the noncon-
servation form of the energy equation.

 
∂hk
αk ρk + uk · ∇hk = RHS (211)
∂t
Dhk
αk ρk = RHS (212)
Dt
All the operations we applied to get from Eqn. (208) to (211) applied only to the left hand side. Thus, the
distinction in conservation and nonconservation form applies only to the left hand side of the equation.

60.3.2 Continuity error

In theory and in the mathematical sense the conservation and nonconservation forms are equivalent. However,
in we do not solve the s we gain from physics, but the linear equation system stemming from discretizing those
PDEs. The resulting linear equation system we solve is not necessarily a direct representation of our initial
PDEs. The difference between the (exact) solution of the system of algebraic equations and the (unknown)
solution of the mathematical model (the PDEs) is generally referred to as discretisation error [38].
We now use Eqns. (208) and (211) to to some rearrangement.

   
∂αk ρk hk ∂hk ∂αk ρk
+ ∇ · (αk ρk uk hk ) = αk ρk + uk · ∇hk + hk + ∇ · (αk ρk uk ) (213)
∂t ∂t ∂t
   
∂αk ρk hk ∂αk ρk ∂hk
+ ∇ · (αk ρk uk hk ) − hk + ∇ · (αk ρk uk ) = αk ρk + uk · ∇hk (214)
∂t ∂t ∂t

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 We now want to solve the energy equation. For this we choose the nonconservative form (211).

 
∂hk
αk ρk + uk · ∇hk = RHS (211)
∂t

Using Eq. (214), we could also write

 
∂αk ρk hk ∂αk ρk
+ ∇ · (αk ρk uk hk ) − hk + ∇ · (αk ρk uk ) = RHS (215)
∂t ∂t

Mathematically, Eqns. (211) and (215) are equivalent. However, when we now discretize both equations in
order to solve them numerically, the left hand sides of Eqns. (211) and (215) might actually be different, as the
discretised phase continuity equation might not equal zero.
We now take a break from math and take a look into the source code of twoPhaseEulerFoam-2.3.x. In Listing
502 we see the first terms of the energy equation of one phase. For a discussion on the full energy equations see
Section 45.5.
In Lines 3 and 4 of Listing 502 we see the left hand side of Eqn. (215).

1 fvSc alarMatr ix he1Eqn

2 (
3 fvm :: ddt ( alpha1 , rho1 , he1 ) + fvm :: div ( alphaRhoPhi1 , he1 )
4 - fvm :: Sp ( contErr1 , he1 )
5 /* other stuff */
6 );

Listing 501: The first terms of the energy equation in the file EEqns.H of twoPhaseEulerFoam.

1 volS calarFie ld contErr1

2 (
3 fvc :: ddt ( alpha1 , rho1 ) + fvc :: div ( alphaRhoPhi1 )
4 - ( fvOptions ( alpha1 , rho1 ) & rho1 )
5 );

Listing 502: The definition of the continuity error in the file twoPhaseEulerFoam.C.

We can create more resemblance if we repeat Eqn. (215) and name some of the terms. In Listing 502
the definition of the continuity error differs slightly from Eqn. (215). This is due to the fact, that the solver
considers phase sources, see Line 4 of Listing 502.

 
∂αk ρk hk ∂αk ρk
+ ∇ · (αk ρk uk hk ) −hk + ∇ · (αk ρk uk ) = RHS (215)
| ∂t
{z } | {z }
fvm::div(alphaRhoPhi1, he1) |
∂t
{z }
fvm::ddt(alpha1, rho1, he1) contErr1

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 61 Momentum diffusion in an incompressible fluid
61.1 Governing equations
In Section 42.1 we discussed the governing equations of a solver for incompressible fluids.

∂u
+ ∇(uu) + ∇ · dev(Ref f ) = −∇p + Q


(81)
∂t | {z }
=div(dev(Ref f ))
ef f
= −ν ef f ∇u + (∇u)T


R (75)
∂u
+ ∇(uu) + ∇ · dev(−ν ef f ∇u + (∇u)T ) = −∇p + Q



(82)
∂t
The momentum diffusion term is handled by the turbulence model.

∇ · dev(Ref f )


⇔ turbulence->divDevReff(U)
| {z }
=div(dev(Ref f ))

61.2 Implementation
All turbulence model of OpenFOAM are based on a generic turbulence model class. Figure 154 in Section 57.10
shows a class diagram. There, it is shown, that all RAS turbulence model classes as well as all LES turbulence
model classes are derived from the same base class. A lot of solvers of OpenFOAM allow the user to choose
between laminar simulation as well as RAS or LES turbulence modelling. Therefore, by the time of writting the
source code, nobody could have known, which turbulence exactly will handle the momentum diffusion term.
To overcome such problems, modern programming languages support a technique called polymorphism. In
the source code the instruction turbulence->divDevReff(U) is called to compute the diffusive term. This
instruction means, that the method divDevReff() of the object turbulence is called.

1 // Solve the Momentum equation

2
3 tmp < fvVectorMatrix > UEqn
4 (
5 fvm :: ddt ( U )
6 + fvm :: div ( phi , U )
7 + turbulence - > divDevReff ( U )
8 );
9
10 UEqn () . relax () ;
11
12 sources . constrain ( UEqn () ) ;
13
14 volS calarFie ld rAU (1.0/ UEqn () . A () ) ;
15
16 if ( pimple . m o m e n t u m P r e d i c t o r () )
17 {
18 solve ( UEqn () == - fvc :: grad ( p ) + sources ( U ) ) ;
19 }

Listing 503: The file UEqn.H of pimpleFoam

The source code of the file createFields.H tells us, that the object turbulence is of the data type
turbulenceModel.

1 s i n g l e P h a s e T r a n s p o r t M o d e l la m i n a r T r a n s p o r t (U , phi ) ;
2
3 autoPtr < inc ompressib le :: turbulenceModel > turbulence
4 (
5 inco mpressib le :: tu rb u le nc eM o de l :: New (U , phi , l a m i n a rT r a n s p o r t )
6 );

Listing 504: The file createFields.H of pimpleFoam

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 By the time of compilation, it is guaranteed that the object turbulence is of the data type turbulenceModel.
However, turbulence will never actually be of the data type turbulenceModel. It will be of a data type derived
from turbulenceModel. The decision which exact method divDevReff() has to be called, will be made at run-
time based on the actual type of turbulence.
Listing 505 shows the declaration of the virtual method divDevReff(). See Section 57.10 for a discussion
on virtual methods. Listing 506 shows how this method is actually implemented by the standard k- turbulence
models of OpenFOAM.

// - Return the source term for the momentum equation

virtual tmp < fvVectorMatrix > divDevReff ( volVec torField & U ) const = 0;

Listing 505: Declaration of the virtual Method divDevReff in turbulenceModel.H

tmp < fvVectorMatrix > kEpsilon :: divDevReff ( vol VectorFi eld & U ) const
{
return
(
- fvm :: laplacian ( nuEff () , U )
- fvc :: div ( nuEff () * dev ( T ( fvc :: grad ( U ) ) ) )
);
}

Listing 506: Implementation of the virtual Method divDevReff in kEpsilon.H

The calculation of divDevReff() is equivalent to Eq. (82).

divDevReff = ∇ · dev(−ν ∇U + (∇U)T )

∇ · ν(∇U)T


= −∇ · (ν(∇U)) −
| {z } | {z }
laplacian(nu,U) div(nu*dev(T(grad(U))))

The momentum diffusion term is most probably split into two parts for numerical reasons.

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62 The incompressible k- turbulence model
62.1 The k- turbulence model in literature
The governing equations for the k- model for a single phase are taken from Wilcox [69].

Eddy viscosity

k2
µT = ρCµ (216)

Turbulent kinetic energy
 
∂k ∂k ∂Ui ∂ µT ∂k
ρ + ρUj = τij − ρ + (µ + ) (217)
∂t ∂xj ∂xj ∂xj σk ∂xj
Dissipation Rate

2
 
∂ ∂  ∂Ui ∂ µT ∂
ρ + ρUj = C1 τij − C2 ρ + (µ + ) (218)
∂t ∂xj k ∂xj k ∂xj σ ∂xj
Closure coefficients

C1 = 1.44, C2 = 1.92, Cµ = 0.09, σk = 1.0, σ = 1.3 (219)

The transport equations for k and  are reorganized to follow the basic structure

local derivative + convection + diffusion = source & sink terms

Turbulent kinetic energy

 
∂k ∂k ∂ (µ + µT ) ∂k  = τij ∂Ui −ρ

ρ + ρUj − (220)
∂t ∂xj ∂xj  σ ∂x  ∂xj
| {z k } j | {z }
Dk G

Dissipation Rate

2
 
∂ ∂ ∂ µT ∂  ∂Ui
ρ + ρUj − (µ + ) = C1 τij −C2 ρ (221)
∂t ∂xj ∂xj σ ∂x k ∂xj k
| {z  } j | {z }
D G

Diffusivity constants
µT
Dk = µ + (222)
σk
µT
D = µ + (223)
σ
The constant expressions in the diffusive terms are combined into the diffusivity constants Dk and D . The
first term on the right hand side of the turbulent kinetic energy equation is the production of turbulent kinetic
energy G.

62.2 The k- turbulence model in OpenFOAM

62.2.1 Governing equations
The governing equations of the k- model of OpenFOAM are basically the same equations as in Section 62.1.
The vector notation is used in this section because the syntax OpenFOAM uses strongly resembles the vector
notation. However, there are some modifications to the equations.

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 First, the transport equations for k and  are divided by the density ρ. Therefore, all terms containing
viscosity contain the kinematic viscosity ν instead of the dynamic viscosity µ.
Secondly, the standard k- model of OpenFOAM has eliminated the model constant σk . Since the value of
this constant is one, this constant has been elimininated. This does not change the behaviour of the model.
However, if the user tries to change this model constant, nothing actually happens. See Section 32.4.2 for a
discussion and an example.
Finally, the convection term is converted into two term by the product rule of differentiation. See Eqn. (225).

Eddy viscosity, see Listing 507

µT = ρ νT
k2
νT = Cµ (224)

Turbulent kinetic energy, see Listing 508
∂k ∂k
Uj = U· = U · ∇k
∂xj ∂x
∂k
U· = ∇ · (Uk) − (∇ · U)k (225)
∂x
∂k
+ ∇ · (Uk) − (∇ · U)k − ∇ · (Dk ∇k) = G −  (226)
∂t
Dissipation Rate

∂ 1 2
+ ∇ · (U) − (∇ · U) − ∇ · (D ∇) = C1 G − C2 (227)
∂t k k
Diffusivity constants - Note that σk has been eliminated from the equations

Dk = DkEff = ν + νT (228)
νT
D = DepsilonEff = ν + (229)
σ
Closure coefficients - default values

C1 = 1.44, C2 = 1.92, Cµ = 0.09, σ = 1.3 (230)

The default values of the model constants can be found in the constructor of the respective turbulence model
class.

62.2.2 The source code

Listing 507 shows the calculation of the eddy viscosity. A (too) short glimpse on the code may lead to confusion,
as the function sqr() meaning taking a variable to the power of two looks similar to sqrt(), which is the square
root.
Listing 508 shows the transport equation for the turbulent viscosity. The last term on the right hand side
is expanded.


= k (231)
k
|{z}
fvm::Sp(epsilon/k, k)

nut_ = Cmu_ * sqr ( k_ ) / epsilon_ ;

Listing 507: Calculation of the eddy viscosity

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 tmp < fvScalarMatrix > kEqn
(
fvm :: ddt ( k_ )
+ fvm :: div ( phi_ , k_ )
- fvm :: Sp ( fvc :: div ( phi_ ) , k_ )
- fvm :: laplacian ( DkEff () , k_ )
==
G
- fvm :: Sp ( epsilon_ / k_ , k_ )
);

Listing 508: Transport equation for the turbulent kinetic energy

Constructor
Listing 509 shows the first lines of the constructor of the kEpsilon class. The constructor receives five argu-
ments. After the colon (in line 9), the initialisation list follows. This list contains also the default values of the
model constants. See Section 56.5 for details about constructors in C++. In line 18 the default value of the
model constant Cµ is defined.

1 kEpsilon :: kEpsilon
2 (
3 const volV ectorFie ld & U ,
4 const s u r f a c e S c a l a r F i e l d & phi ,
5 tran sportMod el & transport ,
6 const word & turbulenceModelName ,
7 const word & modelName
8 )
9 :
10 RASModel ( modelName , U , phi , transport , t u r b u l e n c e M o d e l N a m e ) ,
11
12 Cmu_
13 (
14 dimensioned < scalar >:: l o o k u p O r A d d T o D i c t
15 (
16 " Cmu " ,
17 coeffDict_ ,
18 0.09
19 )
20 ),
21 /* code continues */

Listing 509: The constructor of the kEpsilon class

62.3 The k- turbulence model in bubbleFoam and twoPhaseEulerFoam

The k- turbulence model is hardcoded in bubbleFoam and twoPhaseEulerFoam. This means, that these solvers
do not use the generic turbulence modelling other than most OpenFOAM solvers.
The question of turbulence modelling in dispersed two-phase flows is not fully answered yet. There are
several strategies:
Per phase The turbulence is modelled for both phases individually.
Mixture The turbulence is modelled based on mixture quantities.
Liquid phase Turbulence is modelled based in the quantites of the liquid phase. The turbulence of the
dispersed phase is either neglected or considered by a model constant.

62.3.1 Governing equations

The k- turbulence model of bubbleFoam and twoPhaseEulerFoam is in some aspects different than the standard
k- turbulence model of OpenFOAM.
1. The diffusivity constants are calculated from the effective viscosity. Compare Eqns. (222, 223) and
(237, 238)

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 2. The model constants σk and σ are replaced by their reciprocal values.
3. Other than in the standard k- model, the model constant σk is not dropped. By defining a value for the
constant α1,k = 1/σk , a value for σk is assigned.
Turbulence modelling in bubbleFoam and twoPhaseEulerFoam is based on the liquid quantities. Turbulence of
the gas phase is considered by the use of the model constant Ct . This constant connects the turbulent viscosity
of the liquid and the gas phase. By setting this constant to zero, turbulence is ignored in the gas phase.

Eddy viscosity

k2
ν2,T = Cµ (232)

ν2,ef f = ν2 + ν2,T (233)
ν1,ef f = ν1 + Ct2 ν2,T (234)

Turbulent kinetic energy, see Listing 508

∂k
+ ∇ · (U2 k) − (∇ · U2 )k − ∇ · (α1,k ν2,ef f ∇k) = G −  (235)
∂t
Dissipation Rate

∂ 1 2
+ ∇ · (U2 ) − (∇ · U2 ) − ∇ · (α1, ν2,ef f ∇) = C1 G − C2 (236)
∂t k k
Diffusivity constants - Note the different definition
1
α1,k =
σk
1
α1, =
σ
ν2,ef f
Dk = α1,k ν2,ef f = (237)
σk
ν2,ef f
D = α1, ν2,ef f = (238)
σ
Closure coefficients - default values

C1 = 1.44, C2 = 1.92, Cµ = 0.09, α1,k = 1, α1, = 0.76923 (239)

62.3.2 Source code

The transport equations of bubbleFoam and twoPhaseEulerFoam reside in the file kEpsilon.H. Listing 510 shows
the most important lines of kEpsilon.H.

1 tmp < volTensorField > tgradU2 = fvc :: grad ( U2 ) ;

2 volS calarFie ld G (2* nut2 *( tgradU2 () && dev ( symm ( tgradU2 () ) ) ) ) ;
3
4 // Dissipation equation
5 fvSc alarMatr ix epsEqn
6 (
7 fvm :: ddt ( epsilon )
8 + fvm :: div ( phi2 , epsilon )
9 - fvm :: Sp ( fvc :: div ( phi2 ) , epsilon )
10 - fvm :: laplacian
11 (
12 alpha1Eps * nuEff2 , epsilon ,
13 " laplacian ( DepsilonEff , epsilon ) "
14 )
15 ==
16 C1 * G * epsilon / k

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17 - fvm :: Sp ( C2 * epsilon /k , epsilon )
18 );
19
20 // Turbulent kinetic energy equation
21 fvSc alarMatr ix kEqn
22 (
23 fvm :: ddt ( k )
24 + fvm :: div ( phi2 , k )
25 - fvm :: Sp ( fvc :: div ( phi2 ) , k )
26 - fvm :: laplacian
27 (
28 alpha1k * nuEff2 , k ,
29 " laplacian ( DkEff , k ) "
30 )
31 ==
32 G
33 - fvm :: Sp ( epsilon /k , k )
34 );
35
36 // - Re - calculate turbulence viscosity
37 nut2 = Cmu * sqr ( k ) / epsilon ;

Listing 510: The turbulent transport equations of the bubbleFoam and twoPhaseEulerFoam solver

62.4 Modelling the production of turbulent kinetic energy

When comparing the turbulent equations From literature and the sources, the definition of the production of
turbulent kinetic energy shows great differences.

62.4.1 Definitions from literature and source files

The production of turbulent kinetic energy seems to be differently defined.

Thesis of H. Rusche [56] - the basis of bubbleFoam and twoPhaseEulerFoam

Pb = 2ν2,ef f ∇Ub · dev ∇Ub + (∇Ub )T

(240)

Source code - kEpsilon.H of bubbleFoam - See Line 2 Listing 510

G = 2νT (∇U2 : dev(sym(∇U2 ))) (241)

Source code - standard k- model, kEpsilon.C

G = 2νT |sym(∇U)|2 (242)

Ferzinger Peric [37]

P = µT ∇U : ∇U + (∇U)T


(243)

Wilcox [69]

2
G = µT ∇U : ∇U + (∇U)T − ρkI : ∇U (244)
3
Some definitions use the dynamic viscosity and some others use the kinematic viscosity. For incompressible
fluids, this is no major difference between the definitions.

62.4.2 Different use of viscosity

Eq. (240) is the only definition that makes use of the [56] effective viscosity instead of the turbulent viscosity.
The reason for this is not explained.
However, the FLUENT Theory Guide [9] states that the effective viscosity is used to calculate the production
term when high-Reynolds number versions of the k- model are used. It is not further specified what is meant
with high-Reynolds number versions of the k- model.

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62.4.3 Notation
The definitions in Section 62.4.1 are written in vector notation. However, there seems to be a minor flaw in Eq.
(240). There

Pb = 2ν2,ef f ∇Ub · dev ∇Ub + (∇Ub )T

(240)
The dot can not denote an inner product. The result only has the correct dimension, if the dot denotes a
contraction. Therefore, the equation should read
Pb = 2ν2,ef f ∇Ub : dev ∇Ub + (∇Ub )T



(245)

62.4.4 Definitions from literature

The definition of the production term in Eq. (243) and (244) differ only in the last term.

2
G = µT ∇U : ∇Ub + (∇Ub )T − ρkI : ∇U (244)
3
Using the following identities, the contraction can be replaced by an inner product
I : ∇U = tr(∇U) = ∇ · U (246)
For incompressible fluids the divergence of the velocity must be zero due to the continuity equation
∇·U = 0 (247)
T

2
G = µT ∇U : ∇Ub + (∇Ub ) − ρkI : ∇U (248)
|3 {z }
=0

Therefore, Eqns. (243) and (244) are identical if the fluid is incompressible. We now can examine the
differences of the definitions of the production term, using Eq. (243) as reference equation.

62.4.5 Definitions of Rusche and bubbleFoam

The solvers bubbleFoam and twoPhaseEulerFoam are based on the thesis of H. Rusche [56]. However, the pro-
duction term is defined differently. Compare Eq. (240) and (241).

Pb = 2ν2,ef f ∇Ub : dev ∇Ub + (∇Ub )T

(240)
G = 2νT (∇U2 : dev(sym(∇U2 ))) (241)
We ignore the different symbols for the velocity of the continuous phase
U2 = Ub (249)
The second operator of the contraction is different in both equations. We ask, if the following equation holds
?
∇U2 : dev(sym(∇U2 )) = ∇Ub : dev ∇Ub + (∇Ub )T


(250)
With the following identities the question is easily answered
1
dev(T) = T − tr(T) (251)
3
1
T + (T)T


sym(T) = (252)
2 
1 T


dev (sym(∇U2 )) = dev ∇U2 + (∇U2 ) (253)
2
1
dev (sym(∇U2 )) = dev ∇U2 + (∇U2 )T


(254)
 2 
1 T 1 T
dev (sym(∇U2 )) = (∇U2 + (∇U2 ) ) − tr(∇U2 + (∇U2 ) ) (255)
2 3
| {z }
=dev(∇U2 +(∇U2 )T )
1
dev ∇U2 + (∇U2 )T


dev (sym(∇U2 )) = (256)
2

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This leads to the answer
1
∇Ub : dev ∇Ub + (∇Ub )T


∇U2 : dev (sym(∇U2 )) = (257)
2
The definition of the production term in the source code differs in two ways from the definition in the source
code
1. The use of different viscosities, see Eqns. (240) and (241).
2. A factor of 2, compare Eqns. (250) and (257)

The reason for this differences is not clear. H. Rusche refers to an article which is not available to the author.

62.4.6 Definitions of Ferzinger and bubbleFoam

We now compare the definitions of Ferzinger and bubbleFoam. The definition of Ferzinger is – like the equations
in most other book about turbulence – for single-phase systems. However, bubbleFoam is a two-phase solver.
The question of considering turbulence in two-phase systems is not answered yet. bubbleFoam considers turbu-
lence for the continuous phase by the use of a turbulence model. The turbulence of the disperse phase is linked
to the continuous phase. Therefore, turbulence model equations of bubbleFoam are quite similar to single-phase
turbulence equations.

G = 2νT (∇U2 : dev(sym(∇U2 ))) (241)

P = µT ∇U : ∇U + (∇U)T


(243)

We ignore the different viscosities and ask ourselves

?
∇U : ∇U + (∇U)T = 2 (∇U2 : dev(sym(∇U2 ))) (258)

Inserting Eq. (256) gives

∇U : ∇U + (∇U)T = 2(∇U2 : dev(sym(∇U2 )))

(259)
| {z }
= 21 dev(∇U2 +(∇U2 )T )
T
= ∇U2 : dev ∇U2 + (∇U2 )T



∇U : ∇U + (∇U) (260)

Now we insert Eq. (251) into the rhs of Eq. (260)

 
1
∇U : ∇U + (∇U)T = ∇U : dev(∇U + (∇U)T ) + tr(∇U + (∇U)T )


(261)
3

Using the following identities and Eq. (246)

tr(A + B) = tr(A) + tr(B) (262)

T
tr(A ) = tr(A) (263)
I : ∇U = tr(∇U) = ∇ · U (246)
 
T

T 2
∇U : ∇U + (∇U) = ∇U : dev(∇U + (∇U) ) + (∇ · U) (264)
3

The second term of the rhs vanishes according to the continuity equation for an incompressible fluid
 
T

T 2
∇U : ∇U + (∇U) = ∇U : dev(∇U + (∇U) ) + (∇ · U) (265)
3 | {z }
∇ · U=0

Eq. (266) now resembles Eq. (260). Therefore, we proofed that the definition of bubbleFoam is equivalent to
the definition of Ferzinger

∇U : ∇U + (∇U)T = ∇U : dev ∇U + (∇U)T

(266)

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62.4.7 Definition of standard k- of OpenFOAM
We now compare the definition of the production term of the standard k- model implemented in OpenFOAM
with the definition found in [37].

Source code - standard k- model, kEpsilon.C

G = 2νT |sym(∇U)|2 (242)

Ferzinger Peric [37]

P = νT ∇U : ∇U + (∇U)T


(243)

Starting from Eq. (243), we will use Eq. (266) and Eq. (256)

∇U : ∇U + (∇U)T = ∇U : dev ∇U + (∇U)T

(266)
dev ∇U + (∇U)T = 2 dev (sym(∇U))


(256)

to gain

∇U : ∇U + (∇U)T = 2 ∇U : dev (sym(∇U))

(267)

We use definition (268) to change Eq. (242)

|sym(∇U)|2 = sym(∇U) : sym(∇U) (268)

Now we pose the question

?
sym(∇U) : sym(∇U) = ∇U : dev (sym(∇U)) (269)

The lhs of Eq. (269) corresponds to Eq. (242). The rhs of Eq. (269) was derived from Eq. (243). Now, we use
some identities
1
dev(T) = T − tr(T) (251)
3
tr(sym(T)) = tr(T) (270)

to reformulate the rhs of Eq. (269)

 
1
∇U : dev (sym(∇U)) = ∇U : sym(∇U) − tr(∇U) (271)
3
As we now concentrate on incompressible single-phase problems, we can eliminate the second term of the rhs
of Eq. (271) by the use of Eq. (246)

I : ∇U = tr(∇U) = ∇ · U = 0 (246)

We now have

∇U : dev (sym(∇U)) = ∇U : sym(∇U) (272)

The following equation remains, which is easily proofed by some tensor calculus

sym(∇U) : sym(∇U) = ∇U : sym(∇U) (273)

Every tensor can be decomposed into a symmetric and a skew part

T = sym(T) + skew(T) (274)

1
T + TT


sym(T) = (275)
2
1
T − TT


skew(T) = (276)
2

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Therefore, we can write

T : sym(T) = sym(T) : sym(T) + skew(T) : sym(T) (277)

The following properties of skew tensors let the second contraction vanish

skew(T) : sym(T) (278)

| {z } | {z }
aij sij

aii = 0 (279)
aij = −aji (280)
skew(T) : sym(T) = aij sij = 0 (281)

Finally, we obtain

T : sym(T) = sym(T) : sym(T) (282)

Therefore, we proofed that the definition of the standard k- model is equivalent to the definition of Ferzinger.

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63 Some theory behind the scenes of LES
63.1 LES model hierarchy
The large eddy simulation is based on the spatial filtering of the governing equations. Similar to the Reynolds-
averaged modelling strategy (filtering with respect to time), the large eddy modelling strategy requires some
closure models. In principle, the velocity is decomposed into a grid-scale and a sub-grid scale portion. The
grid-scale portion is resolved by the governing equations. The sub-grid scale portion – or the influence of the
sub-grid scale portion on the resolved velocity – needs to be modelled.
Similar to the RANS approach, the closure terms appear in the stress terms of the momentum equations.
There are several modelling strategies to close the equations. The class hierarchy of the LES models of Open-
FOAM reflects the different approaches. Figure 156 shows the first layer of the class hierarchy of the LES
models in OpenFOAM. First layer means that a class derived from the abstract class LESModel may be an
abstract class itself and therefore be the base for other classes244245 .

LESModel

DESModel GenSGSStress laminar

GenEddyVisc kOmegaSSTSAS scaleSimilarity

Figure 156: First layer of the class hierarchy of the LES models of OpenFOAM

The classification according to Figure 156 is not the only possible way to divide all existing LES models into
categories.

63.2 Eddy viscosity models

One of the most common approaches of closing the governing equations when using an LES turbulence mod-
elling strategy are eddy viscosity models. Like the RANS turbulence models, the eddy viscosity models make
use of the Boussinesq hypothesis. The contribution of the sub-grid scale terms is modelled by an additional
viscosity. The effective viscosity is the sum of the laminar viscosity and the sub-grid viscosity.

νef f = ν + νSGS (283)

63.2.1 Class hierarchy

The base class for all eddy viscosity models is GenEddyVisc. Figure 157 shows the class hierarchy with focus
on GenEddyVisc.

63.2.2 Classification
The eddy viscosity models can be divided further based on the way the sub-grid viscosity is computed and the
complexity of the model.

244 In a class diagram a class with an italic written name is an abstract class. A class with an upright written name is an actual

class.
245 This shows the great advantage of object oriented programming. The class hierarchy of the code reflects the relation between

the objects in reality, e.g. every eddy viscosity model is an LES model, but not every LES model is an eddy viscosity model.

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 LESModel

laminar GenEddyVisc

dynLagrangian Smagorinsky oneEqEddy dynOneEqEddy

spectEddyVisc

homogeneousDynOneEqEddy

homogeneousDynSmagorinsky

Smagorinsky2 mixedSmagorinsky

Figure 157: Class hierarchy of the eddy viscosity models in OpenFOAM

constant coefficient dynamic coefficient

Smagorinsky homogeneousDynSmagorinsky
algebraic model
Smagorinsky2 spectEddyVisc
oneEqEddy dynOneEqEddy
one equation model homogeneousDynOneEqEddy
dynLagrangian

Table 8: Comparison of the eddy viscosity models of OpenFOAM

63.2.3 Eddy viscosity

For dimensional reasons, the eddy viscostiy must be a product of a length and a velocity scale [26]. Eq. (285)
shows the generic equation for the sub-grid viscosity. An additional model constant is the third term in the
product. The way the model constant is computed as well as the choice for the length and velocity scales is
determined by the model.

m2 m
[νSGS ] = = ·m (284)
s s
νSGS = CSGS lSGS qSGS (285)

A choice that is common to a number of eddy viscosity models in OpenFOAM is to choose the filter width
as the length scale and the square root of the sub-grid kinetic energy as teh velocity scale. Algebraic models
usually calculate the sub-grid kinetic energy from known quantities, e.g. based on the velocity gradient. One
equation models typically solve a transport equation for the sub-grid scale kinetic energy.

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 lSGS = ∆ (286)
[lSGS ] = m (287)
p
qSGS = kSGS (288)
r
m2 m
[qSGS ] = 2
= (289)
s s

63.2.4 The Smagorinsky LES model

The Smagorinsky eddy viscosity is one of the simplest LES models. From Table 8 we see that this is an algebraic
model with a constant model coefficient. This model was published 1963 [58].
Eq. (290) shows the definition of the sub-grid scale viscosity according to the Samgorinsky model as it can
be found in literature [26].

νSGS = (CS ∆)2 |S| (290)

with

S = sym(∇u) = sym(grad(u))
√
|T| = T : T

Some rearrangement of Eq. (290) is necessary to match the form of Definition (285) and (288). Eqns. (291)
to (293) show the necessary steps to match the generic definition of νSGS .

√
νSGS = CS2 |{z}
∆ |∆ {z
S : S} (291)
lSGS qSGS
p √
qSGS = kSGS = ∆ S : S (292)
2
⇒ kSGS = ∆ S : S (293)

Implementation
The implementation in the source code differs a little from the equations above.

1 void Smagorinsky :: u p d a t e S u b G r i d S c a l e F i e l d s ( const volTe nsorFiel d & gradU )

2 {
3 nuSgs_ = ck_ * delta () * sqrt ( k ( gradU ) ) ;
4 nuSgs_ . c o r r e c t B o u n d a r y C o n d i t i o n s () ;
5 }

Listing 511: The function updateSubGridScaleFields() in the file Smagorinsky.C

1 tmp < volScalarField > k ( const tmp < volTensorField >& gradU ) const
2 {
3 return (2.0* ck_ / ce_ ) * sqr ( delta () ) * magSqr ( dev ( symm ( gradU ) ) ) ;
4 }

Listing 512: The function k() in the file Smagorinsky.H

Listing 511 shows the implementation of how the sub-grid viscosity is computed by the Smagorinsky model
in OpenFOAM. Listing 512 shows how the model calculates the sub-grid kinetic energy.

√
nuSgs = ck∆ k (294)
ck
k = 2 ∆2 |dev S|2 (295)
ce

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 with

S = sym grad(u) (296)

it follows
r
ck
nuSgs = ck∆ 2 ∆2 |dev S|2 (297)
ce
r
ck 2
nuSgs = ck 2 ∆ |dev S| (298)
ce
the comparison with Eq. 290 shows

νSGS = (CS ∆)2 |S| (290)

r
2 ck
⇒ CS = ck 2 (299)
ce
Eq. (299) shows how the Smagorinsky constant can be calculated from the model constants. The Smagorin-
sky constant is often stated in publications using or investigating the Smagorinsky model, because it is the only
degree of freedom of the Smagorinsky model.
In OpenFOAM the Smagorinsky model has two model constants. ce is inherited from the class GenEddyVisc.
This constant is used in the definition of the sub-grid dissipation rate. The default value of ce is 1.048 and is
defined in the constructor of the class GenEddyVisc in the file GenEddyVisc.C.
Therefore, the model constant ck is the only degree of freedom of the Smagorinsky model of OpenFOAM.
The default value of ck is 0.094. This results in a default value fofr CS of 0.1995 ≈ 0.2. The value of CS varies
in literature depending on the publication from 0.07 to 0.33 [11, 47].

1 // - Return sub - grid disipation rate

2 virtual tmp < volScalarField > epsilon () const
3 {
4 return tmp < volScalarField >
5 (
6 new volScala rField
7 (
8 IOobject
9 (
10 " epsilon " ,
11 runTime_ . timeName () ,
12 mesh_ ,
13 IOobject :: NO_READ ,
14 IOobject :: NO_WRITE
15 ),
16 ce_ * k () * sqrt ( k () ) / delta ()
17 )
18 );
19 }

Listing 513: The function epsilon() in the file GenEddyVisc.H

63.2.5 The oneEqEddy LES model

The oneEqEddy model is one of the standard LES models of OpenFOAM. This model is an one equation eddy
viscosity model with a constant model coefficient. Eq. 300 shows how the sub-grid viscosity is calculated by
the oneEqEddy model. The constant ck has a default value of 0.094.

p
νSGS = ck∆ kSGS (300)

The transport equation for kSGS

As this model is an one equation model, it introduces an additional equation to the set of equations. This
additional equation is a transport equation for the sub-grid kinetic energy kSGS . kSGS is the kinetic energy of

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the unresolved protion of the velocity. Thus, kSGS is called sub-grid kinetic energy.

∂kSGS
+ ∇ · (kSGS u) − ∇ · (Dk ∇kSGS ) = G − SGS (301)
∂t
with

Dk = ν + νSGS
G = νSGS |sym(∇u)|2
√
kSGS
SGS = ce kSGS
∆
Eq. 301 is similar to the transport equation for k of the k- model. Also the definition of the sub-grid viscos-
ity is similar to the definition of the turbulent viscosity of the k- model. This is not very obvious. Therefore,
we shall explore this matter further.

p
νSGS = ck∆ kSGS (300)
√
ce kSGS kSGS p
νSGS = ck √ ∆ kSGS (302)
ce kSGS kSGS
√ √
kSGS kSGS kSGS
νSGS = ck ce √ (303)
ce kSGS ∆kSGS
2
kSGS
νSGS = ck ce (304)
SGS
Eq. 304 is similar to Eq. 224 – the definition of the turbulent viscosity of the k- model

k2
νT = Cµ (224)

The product of ck and ce when using their default values gives ck · ce = 0.0985 which is approximately the
default value of Cµ of the k- model, which is Cµ = 0.09.

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 64 The use of phi
64.1 The question
The governing equations of the solvers of OpenFOAM are written in a special notation that makes it easy
to compare the source codes with equations from a fluid dynamics textbook. In Section 42.1 the governing
equations of the solver pimpleFoam are examined. There, the terms of Eq. 82 are compared with the source
code, see Listing 281. Here, we repeat the comparison of how the convective term is written in the sources and
how this term is expressed mathematically.

∇(uu) ⇔ fvm::div(phi, U)
| {z }
div(uu)

We now examine how phi is defined and how we can find phi in the math.

64.2 Implementation
64.2.1 The origin of fields
One way to learn more about phi is to look for its definition in the source code of OpenFOAM.
Listing 514 shows the first lines of the main function of the solver pimpleFoam. The main function of any
C or C++ program is entered, when this program is executed. So, the instructions of Listing 514 are the first
instructions that are executed, when the solver is called.
In line 6 of Listing 514 the file createFields.H is included. This file contains instructions that create the
data structures of all fields that are necessary for the solver (e.g. the pressure or the velocity field).

1 int main ( int argc , char * argv [])

2 {
3 # include " setRootCase . H "
4 # include " createTime . H "
5 # include " createMesh . H "
6 # include " createFields . H "
7 # include " i ni t C o n t i n u i t y E r r s . H "
8
9 /* the rest of the solver */

Listing 514: The first few line of the main function of pimpleFoam in pimpleFoam.C

The file createFields.H contains the content of Listing 515. There, the velocity field U is created. In line
15 the file createPhi.H is included. There, the field phi is created.

1 Info < < " Reading field U \ n " << endl ;

2 volV ectorFie ld U
3 (
4 IOobject
5 (
6 "U",
7 runTime . timeName () ,
8 mesh ,
9 IOobject :: MUST_READ ,
10 IOobject :: AUTO_WRITE
11 ),
12 mesh
13 );
14
15 # include " createPhi . H "

Listing 515: The creation of U and phi in the file createFields.H

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 64.2.2 How phi is defined
Listing 516 shows the content of the file createPhi.H. From this Listing we see the data type of phi, it is
surfaceScalarField. This tells us, that phi is a scalar, that is defined on the faces of the control volumes
(cells) of the mesh.
Line 13 tells us how phi is defined. There, we find out, that phi is the inner product of the velocity – we
forget for the moment about the function linearInterpolate – and the face surface area vector. In Listing
517 we see the declaration of the function Sf(). In Listing 518 we see, that the variable mesh of Listing 516 is
of the type fvMesh.

1 Info < < " Reading / calculating face flux field phi \ n " << endl ;
2
3 s u r f a c e S c a l a r F i e l d phi
4 (
5 IOobject
6 (
7 " phi " ,
8 runTime . timeName () ,
9 mesh ,
10 IOobject :: READ_IF_PRESENT ,
11 IOobject :: AUTO_WRITE
12 ),
13 l i n e a r I n t e r p o l a t e ( U ) & mesh . Sf ()
14 );

Listing 516: The creation of phi in the file createPhi.H

1 // - Return cell face area vectors

2 const s u r f a c e V e c t o r F i e l d & Sf () const ;

Listing 517: The declaration of the method Sf() of the class fvMesh in the file fvMesh.H

1 Foam :: Info
2 << " Create mesh for time = "
3 << runTime . timeName () << Foam :: nl << Foam :: endl ;
4
5 Foam :: fvMesh mesh
6 (
7 Foam :: IOobject
8 (
9 Foam :: fvMesh :: defaultRegion ,
10 runTime . timeName () ,
11 runTime ,
12 Foam :: IOobject :: MUST_READ
13 )
14 );

Listing 518: The creation of the mesh in the file createMesh.H

64.3 The math

Now, let us examine the origin of phi from the mathematical point of view. We start with the governing
equations of a solver for incompressible fluids. Therefore, Eq. 82 is repeated below.

∂u
+ ∇(uu) + ∇ · dev(−ν ef f ∇u + (∇u)T ) = −∇p + Q


(82)
∂t
This equation is written in diferential form and is valid everywhere in the fluid. In order to use the finite
volume method, we need the governing equations in the integral form. Integrating Eq. (82) over a control
volume yields:

Z Z
∂u
+ ∇(uu) + ∇ · dev(−ν ef f ∇u + (∇u)T ) dV =


−∇p + Q dV (305)
V ∂t V

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 Now we will have a closer look on the second term of Eq. (305). That is the convective term we already saw
at the beginning of this section.
Using Gauss’ theorem, we replace the integration over the volume of our control volume with the integration
over the surface of the control volume.
Z I
∇(uu) dV = (uu) · dS (306)
V ∂V

Because our control volume is a polyhedron (in most cases a hexahedron or a tetrahedron), the surface
integral reduces to a sum of intergrals over the faces Sf of the polyhedron.
I XZ
(uu) · dS = (uu) · dSf (307)
∂V f Sf

kSf k = Sf (308)
With Sf being the surface normal vector of the face f . The norm of this vector is equal to the area of the
face f . We denote with the subscript f the mean face-value of a quantity.

XZ X
(uu) · dSf = (uu)f · Sf (309)
f Sf f
Z
1
(uu)f = (uu) dSf (310)
Sf Sf

(uu)f ≈ (uf uf ) (311)

X X
(uu)f · Sf ≈ (uf uf ) · Sf (312)
f f

Eq. (312) contains the fundamental assumption or approximation of the finite volume method. It is assumed,
that the mean face-value of the product of the velocities is (approximately) equal to the product of the mean
face-values of the velocity, see Eq. (311). In general, the operations averaging and multiplication are not
commutative.
We are now nearly finished. The rhs of Eq. (312) contains all ingredients we need for phi. A surface area
vector, a velocity and an inner vector product. See Listing 516. However, this ingredients are not in the order
we need. Therefore, there is need for some more math to do.
A general rule of tensor calculus states:

a ⊗ b · c = a(b · c) (313)
In this document, we omit the symbol ⊗ for the sake of brevity.

a ⊗ b · c = (ab) · c (314)
Eq. (314) looks like the rhs of Eq. (312).

(uf uf ) · Sf = uf (uf · Sf ) (315)

| {z }
= φf

uf (uf · Sf ) = uf φf (316)

64.4 Summary
Now, after having dug deep into the sources and after having done some math, we can summarize all thoughts
so far. We want to understand this equivalency.

∇(uu) ⇔ fvm::div(phi, U)
| {z }
div(uu)

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 The math tells use the following identities.

Z I
∇(uu) dV = (uu) · dS (317)
V ∂V
I X
(uu) · dS = (uu)f · Sf (318)
∂V f
X X
(uu)f · Sf ≈ (uf uf ) · Sf (319)
f f
X X
(uf uf ) · Sf = uf (uf · Sf ) (320)
f f
X X
uf (uf · Sf ) = uf φf (321)
f f

We have shown, that the integral formulation of the convective term can be reformulated to incorporate φ
and u instead of uu.

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65 Derivation of the IATE diameter model
In this section we cover the derivation of OpenFOAMs IATE diameter model from [35].

65.1 Number density transport equation

We start with the transport equation for the bubble number density distribution f = f (V, x, t), e.g. from [35].
For sake of readability in most cases we refer to f (V, x, t) simply as f .
The first term of Eqn. (322) is the local rate of change of the bubble number density distribution. The
second term represents convective transport. The third term represents the rate of change due to change of
bubble volume. On the right hand side of the equation are source terms due to bubble interactions Sj and
phase change Sph .

 
∂f ∂ dV X
+ ∇ · (f u) + f = Sj + Sph (322)
∂t ∂V dt j

The equation for the bubble number density distribution is much too detailled for most flow studies [41].
Thus, we derive a transport equation for the area concentration ai . The area concentration is a moment of the
bubble number density distribution. Besides the area concentration we can define further quantities based on
the moments of the number density distribution.
Eqn. (323) lists the general definition of the i-th moment mi of the probability density function f (x).

Z b
mi = f (x)xi dx (323)
a

We now define some moments of the bubble number density distribution.

Z Vmax
Total number of bubbles per unit volume n(x, t) = f (V, x, t)dV (324)
Vmin
Z Vmax
Volume fraction of bubbles α(x, t) = f (V, x, t)V dV (325)
Vmin
Z Vmax
Area concentration of bubbles ai (x, t) = f (V, x, t)Ai (V )dV (326)
Vmin

65.2 Interfacial area transport equation

65.2.1 Deriving the governing equations
We will use Eqn. (326) to derive a transport equation for the area concentration from Eqn. (322). First we
multiply Eqn. (322) by the average interfacial area Ai (V ) of bubbles with the volume V .

 
 
∂f ∂ dV X
Ai + Ai ∇ · (f u) + Ai f = Ai  Sj + Sph  (327)
∂t ∂V dt j

Then, we integrate Eqn. (327) over all bubble sizes

 
Z Vmax    Z Vmax
∂f ∂ dV X
Ai + Ai ∇ · (f u) + Ai f dV = Ai  Sj + Sph  dV (328)
Vmin ∂t ∂V dt Vmin j

Now we will take a closer look on the single terms of Eqn. (328). For the first term, we simply apply Leibnitz
rule. Here it is important to note, that Ai is constant in space and time. With Eqn. (326), we gain the local

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derivative of the interfacial area concentration ai .

Z Vmax Z Vmax
∂f ∂
Ai dV = Ai f dV (329)
Vmin ∂t ∂t Vmin
Z Vmax
∂f ∂
Ai dV = ai (330)
Vmin ∂t ∂t
The convective term of Eqn. (328) can be treated in a similar fashion. If the velocity is independent of the
bubble size, we can put the u in front of the integral over all bubble sizes. Thus, we gain the convective term
for the interfacial area concentration.

Z Vmax Z Vmax
Ai ∇ · (f u) dV = ∇ · (Ai f u) dV (331)
Vmin Vmin
!
Z Vmax Z Vmax
Ai ∇ · (f u) dV = ∇ · u Ai f dV (332)
Vmin Vmin
Z Vmax
Ai ∇ · (f u) dV = ∇ · (u ai ) (333)
Vmin

If the velocity is not independent of the bubble size we can follow a similar strategy to derive a convective
term which is formulated in terms of the interfacial area concentration.

Z Vmax Z Vmax  
ai
Ai ∇ · (f u) dV = ∇· Ai f u dV (334)
Vmin Vmin ai
R Vmax !
Z Vmax Ai f udV
Vmin
Ai ∇ · (f u) dV = ∇ · ai (335)
Vmin ai
Z Vmax
Ai ∇ · (f u) dV = ∇ · (ai ui ) (336)
Vmin

With the average local bubble velocity weighted by the bubble number ui [20]
R Vmax
Ai f udV
ui = RVmin
Vmax
(337)
Vmin
Ai f dV
The third term of Eqn. (328) needs more special treatment. In Section 65.5.1 we show the proof for (338).
This term relates to the gas expansion.

Z Vmax  
∂ dV 2 α̇
Ai f dV = − ai (338)
Vmin ∂V dt 3α
The RHS of Eqn. 328 contains the terms due to bubble-bubble interaction and due to phase change.
 
Z Vmax    Z Vmax
∂f ∂ dV X
Ai + Ai ∇ · (f u) + Ai f dV = Ai  Sj + Sph  dV (328)
Vmin ∂t ∂V dt Vmin j

There are two approaches to model the source terms due to bubble interaction [43]. One can solve the
integral equation for these source terms (339) or solve algebraic equations using mean parameters (340).
The latter approach assumes monosized bubble, i.e. a bubble breaks up into two equalsized daughter bubbles
[43]. In this approach each bubble interaction results in a change of interfacial area ∆Ai = 13 Ai .

Z Vmax X
Ai Sj dV = Φj (339)
Vmin j

Φj = Sj ∆Ai (340)

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 with the interfacial area Ai
ai
Ai = (341)
n
1
and bubble number density n, Ψ = 36π for spherical bubbles
a3
n = Ψ i2 (342)
α
 2
11 α
Φj = Sj (343)
3 Ψ ai
The phase change term can be modelled directly, but within the framework of this manual we will not
consider phase change. Thus we gained a transport equation for the interfacial area concentration ai .

 2
∂ai 2 α̇ X1 1 α
+ ∇ · (u ai ) = ai + Sj (344)
∂t 3α j
3Ψ ai

65.3 Interfacial curvature transport equation

65.3.1 Basic definitions
The IATE diameter model solves a transport equation for the interfacial curvature kappai_.
Solves for the interfacial curvature per unit volume of the phase rather than interfacial area
per unit volume to avoid stability issues relating to the consistency requirements between the phase
fraction and interfacial area per unit volume.
Class description in IATE.H
By looking into the sources, we find the following relations

ai = ακ (345)
6
dsm = (346)
κ
Thus, the Sauter mean diameter dsm equals
6α
dsm = (347)
ai
Which corresponds with the definition given in literature [33, 34].

6α
dsm = (348)
ai
Listing 519 and 520 show the relevant source code of the IATE diameter model. This source code is the basis
for Eqns. (345) and (346).

1 // - Return the interfacial area

2 tmp < volScalarField > a () const
3 {
4 return phase_ * kappai_ ;
5 }

Listing 519: Definition of the method a() of the IATE diameter model classin the file IATE.H.

1 Foam :: tmp < Foam :: volScalarField > Foam :: d iameterM odels :: IATE :: dsm () const
2 {
3 return max (6/ max ( kappai_ , 6/ dMax_ ) , dMin_ ) ;
4 }

Listing 520: Definition of the method dsm() of the IATE diameter model class in the file IATE.C.
The definition of kappai_ as the interfacial curvature seems a bit counter-intuitive, as the curvature of a
sphere is the inverse of its radius.

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 65.3.2 Derivation of the governing equations
We will now derive the governing equations for the interfacial curvature κ from the equations for the interfacial
area concentration ai which we derived from the transport equations for the bubble size distribution.
Here we will make no further assumptions, as we are simply rearranging the equations. We start from the
transport equation for the interfacial area concentration ai and OpenFOAMs definition of ai .

 2
∂ai 2 α̇ X1 1 α
+ ∇ · (u ai ) = ai + Sj (344)
∂t 3α j
3Ψ ai
ai = ακ (345)

Inserting (345) into (344) yields

∂ακ 2 α̇ X 1 1  α 2
+ ∇ · (u ακ) = ακ + Sj (349)
∂t 3α j
3 Ψ ακ

Next, we apply partial derivation of all terms containing κ

∂κ ∂α 2 X 1 1  1 2
α +κ + κ∇ · (u α) + αu · ∇κ = α̇κ + Sj (350)
∂t ∂t 3 j
3Ψ κ

∂α
 
∂κ

2 X 1 1  1 2
κ + ∇ · (u α) +α + u · ∇κ = α̇κ + Sj (351)
∂t ∂t 3 j
3Ψ κ
| {z }
α̇

∂κ
 
1 X 1 1  1 2
α + u · ∇κ = − α̇κ + Sj (352)
∂t 3 j
3Ψ κ
 2
∂κ 1 κ X1 1 1 1
+ u · ∇κ = − α̇ + Sj (353)
∂t 3 α j
3Ψα κ

1 α
With κ = ai

 2 X
∂κ 1 α̇ 1 α Sj
+ ∇ (κu) − κ∇
| {z· u} = − 3 α κ + 3Ψ (354)
∂t ai j
α
| {z } II | {z }
I III

The form of Eqn. (354) is chosen to match the equations given in [35]. The second term of the RHS has
exactly the same form as the equivalent terms in [35].

65.3.3 Implemented equations

Thus, we have derived a transport equation for κ. However, we still need to check the equations that are
implemented in OpenFOAM. Therefore, we take a look at the source code.
In Listing 521 we see the main code for the transport equation. In Line 4 we see the terms marked with I
of Eqn. (354). In Line 5 term II of Eqn. (354) is implemented.

1 // Construct the interfacial curvature equation

2 fvSc alarMatr ix kappaiEqn
3 (
4 fvm :: ddt ( kappai_ ) + fvm :: div ( phase_ . phi () , kappai_ )
5 - fvm :: Sp ( fvc :: div ( phase_ . phi () ) , kappai_ )
6 ==
7 - fvm :: SuSp (R , kappai_ )
8 // + Rph () // Omit the nucleation / condensation term
9 );

Listing 521: Construction of the transport equation in the file IATE.C.

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 The right hand side of the equation in Listing 521 combines all term of the RHS of Eqn. (354) into the term
fvm::SuSp(R, kappai_). The method fvm::SuSp() implements a source term for a matrix equation. The
arguments translate to R * kappai_.
The first term on the RHS of Eqn. (354) is due to the change of bubble volume (dilatation effect). The code
in Listing 522 translates to Eqn. (355).

1 // Initialise the accumulated source term to the dilatation effect

2 volS calarFie ld R
3 (
4 (
5 (1.0/3.0)
6 / max
7 (
8 fvc :: average ( phase_ + phase_ . oldTime () ) ,
9 resi dualAlph a_
10 )
11 )
12 *( fvc :: ddt ( phase_ ) + fvc :: div ( phase_ . alphaPhi () ) )
13 );

Listing 522: The first term of the RHS of Eqn. (354) of the transport equation in the file IATE.C.

∂α
1 ∂t + ∇ · (αu)
R= (355)
3 α
The method call fvm::SuSp(R, kappai_) multiplies R with kappai_. Thus we recognize the first term of
the RHS of Eq. (354).

1 α̇
Eqn. (354) III = − κ (356)
3α
OpenFOAM III = −Rκ (357)
1 α̇
R= (358)
3α
1 α̇
III = − κ (359)
3α
The other source terms related to the models for bubble-bubble interaction are added to R. Listing 523 shows
the loop over all sources, note the minus sign.

1 // Accumulate the run - time selectable sources

2 forAll ( sources_ , j )
3 {
4 R -= sources_ [ j ]. R () ;
5 }

Listing 523: The second term of the RMS of Eqn. (354) of the transport equation in the file IATE.C.
For the interaction models the minus of Listing 523 cancels the minus of Listing 521.

65.4 Interaction models

OpenFOAM provides a base class for all models related to bubble-bubble interaction. There are several inter-
action mechanisms implemented.
1. Breakage due to impact of turbulent eddies (TI - turbulent impact)
2. Coalescence through random collision driven by turbulent eddies (RC - random collision)
3. Coalescence due to acceleration of the following bubble in the wake of preceding bubble (WE - wake
entrainment)
The base class is named IATEsource and it defines a pure virtual function named R(). This means that every
derived class has to provide its implementation of R(). Besides R(), the base class provides a number of helper
methods that are used in the derived classes, e.g. bubble Reynolds number Re() or the Weber number We().

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 65.4.1 Turbulent impact - TI
In [34, 35] the source term due to turbulent impact is stated as:

a3
n = Ψ i2 (360)
√α
ut = 2k (361)
   r
nut W ecr W ecr
RT I = CT I exp − 1− where W ecr > W e (362)
Db We We
The Weber number W e can be seen as the ratio of inertia forces and surface tension forces and is defined
as:

ρu2 d
We = (363)
σ
with
ρ density
u characteristic velocity
d characteristic length scale
σ surface tension
The Weber number is provided by the class IATEsource as the base class for all interaction models. See
Section 65.4.4 for implementation details.
The critical Weber number W ecr and the model constant CT I must be provided by the user in the appropriate
dictionary.

65.4.2 Random collision - RC

In [34, 35] the source term due to random collision is stated as:

√
ut = 2k (364)
" #" 1/3
!#
1/3
n2 ut Db2 αmax α
RRC = CRC 1/3 1/3 1/3
1 − exp −C 1/3
(365)
αmax (αmax − α ) αmax − α1/3
The model constants CRC , C and αmax need to be provided by the user.

65.4.3 Wake entrainment - WE

In [34, 35] the source term due to wake entrainment is stated as:

1/3
RW E = CW E CD n2 Db2 ur (366)
The model constant CW E needs to be provided by the user.

65.4.4 Implementation details of the IATEsource class

Weber number
The Weber number is implemented in the class IATEsource, see Listing 524. This definition makes use the
method Ur(), which is also provided by IATEsource.

1 Foam :: tmp < Foam :: volScalarField > Foam :: d iameterM odels :: IATEsource :: We ()
2 const
3 {
4 return otherPhase () . rho () * sqr ( Ur () ) * phase () . d () / fluid () . sigma () ;
5 }

Listing 524: The definition of the Weber number W e in IATEsource.C

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 Relative velocity
The relative velocity between the bubbles and the surrounding fluid is given by [32, 40]. Compare Eqn. (367)
and Listing 525.

1/4
√

σg∆ρ 1.75
ur = 2 (1 − α) (367)
ρ2L

1 Foam :: tmp < Foam :: volScalarField > Foam :: d iameterM odels :: IATEsource :: Ur () const
2 {
3 const u n i f o r m D i m e n s i o n e d V e c t o r F i e l d & g =
4 phase () . U () . db () . lookupObject < un ifo rmD im ens ion edV ect orF ie ld >( " g " ) ;
5
6 return
7 sqrt (2.0)
8 * pow025
9 (
10 fluid () . sigma () * mag ( g )
11 *( otherPhase () . rho () - phase () . rho () )
12 / sqr ( otherPhase () . rho () )
13 )
14 * pow ( max (1 - phase () , scalar (0) ) , 1.75) ;
15 }

Listing 525: The definition of the relative velocity between bubbles and surrounding liquid in IATEsource.C

The IATE implicitely applies only to bubbly systems, i.e. gas-liquid systems. If the IATE model is applied to
the denser phase, then Line 11 of Listing 525 leads to a floating-point exception (FPE). If phase refers to the
liquid phase, then Line 11 evaluates to a negative number. Raising a negative number to a non-integer power
is not possible within the domain of the real numbers. Thus, OpenFOAM will issue an error message due to an
floating-point exception.

Comparing the formulations

Here we take a closer look on the implementation of the source terms. Listing 526 shows the method R() of the
IATEsource class.

1 Foam :: tmp < Foam :: volScalarField >

2 Foam :: d iameterM odels :: IATEsources :: t u r b u l e n t B r e a k U p :: R () const
3 {
4 tmp < volScalarField > tR
5 (
6 new volScala rField
7 (
8 IOobject
9 (
10 "R",
11 iate_ . phase () . U () . time () . timeName () ,
12 iate_ . phase () . mesh ()
13 ),
14 iate_ . phase () . U () . mesh () ,
15 d i m e n s i o n e d S c a l a r ( " R " , dimless / dimTime , 0)
16 )
17 );
18
19 volS calarFie ld R = tR () ;
20 scalar Cti = Cti_ . value () ;
21 scalar WeCr = WeCr_ . value () ;
22 volS calarFie ld Ut ( this - > Ut () ) ;
23 volS calarFie ld We ( this - > We () ) ;
24 const vol ScalarFie ld & d ( iate_ . d () () ) ;
25
26 forAll (R , celli )
27 {
28 if ( We [ celli ] > WeCr )
29 {

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30 R [ celli ] =
31 (1.0/3.0)
32 * Cti / d [ celli ]
33 * Ut [ celli ]
34 * sqrt (1 - WeCr / We [ celli ])
35 * exp ( - WeCr / We [ celli ]) ;
36 }
37 }
38
39 return tR ;
40 }

Listing 526: The definition of the method R() in turbulentBreakUp.C

Listing 526 translates to the following mathematical expression:

r  
1 CT I W ecr W ecr
RT I = ut 1− exp − where W e > W ecr (368)
3 dsm We We
Comparing Eqns. (362) and (368) reveals some differences in formulation. This is due to the fact, that Eq.
(362) is a source term for the transport equation for the interfacial area concentration ai and Eq. (368) is a
source term for the transport equation for the interfacial curvature κ.
In the derivation of the curvature equation from the area concentration equation we divided by the volume
fraction. Otherwise, only rearrangement and variable substitution was performed.
For this term we now have a look on the RHS of the equations for ai and κ and compare the implementation
of OpenFOAM with the equations stated in literature.
We begin with repeating the equations for ai and κ. The interaction source term Sj can be found in this
form in [35].

∂ai 2 α̇ X 1 1  α 2
+ ∇ · (u ai ) = ai + Sj (344)
∂t 3α j
3 Ψ ai
 2 X
∂κ 1 α̇ 1 α Sj
+ ∇ (κu) − κ∇ · u = − κ+ (354)
∂t 3α 3Ψ ai j
α
| {z }
IV

The interaction model source terms in the curvature equation of OpenFOAM takes the following form:

∂κ 1 α̇ X
+ ∇ (κu) − κ∇ · u = − κ+ Rj κ (369)
∂t 3α j
| {z }
IV

We now compare the terms marked with IV of Eqns. (354) and (369). As these terms must be equal, we
can form the following equation.

 2 X
1 α Sj X
= Rj κ (370)
3Ψ ai j
α j

We now demand, that the summands need to be equal, and we focus on the term for turbulent break-up (TI)
 2    r r  
1 α 1 nut W ecr W ecr 1 CT I W ecr W ecr
CT I exp − 1− = ut 1 − exp − κ (371)
3Ψ ai α Db We We 3 dsm We We
| {z } | {z }
Sj Rj

Next, we cancel all common symbols and expressions, note the different symbols for the bubble diameter
(Db = dsm )
 2
1 α 1
n=κ (372)
Ψ ai α

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We now insert the definition of n, see Eq. (360)
2
1 a3i

1 α
Ψ =κ (373)
Ψ ai α α2
ai
=κ (374)
α
We now end up with an equation that is fulfilled, when we look at the definition of κ, see Eqn. (345)

ai = ακ (345)

Thus, we have demonstrated on the example of the source term for turbulent break-up of bubbles, that the
implementation of OpenFOAM follows exactly the model published in [35].

65.5 Appendix
65.5.1 The proof for Eqn. (338)
We use the following symbols.

x=V (375)
f (x) = f (V, x, t) (376)
g(x) = Ai (V ) (377)
a = Vmin (378)
b = Vmax (379)

Thus, the LHS of Eqn. (338) becomes

Z Vmax   Z b  
∂ dV ∂ dx
Ai f dV = g(x) f (x) dx (380)
Vmin ∂V dt a ∂x dt

Now, we apply partial integration

Z b    b Z b  
∂ dx dx ∂g(x) dx
g(x) f (x) dx = f (x) g(x) − f (x) dx (381)
a ∂x dt dt a a ∂x dt

As f (x) is a probability density distribution it has the following properties

f (a) = f (b) = 0 (382)

Thus, the first term of the RHS of Eqn. (381) vanishes

Z b   Z b  
∂ dx ∂g(x) dx
g(x) f (x) dx = − f (x) dx (383)
a ∂x dt a ∂x dt

We now take a closer look on the relation between the average interfacial area of a bubble Ai and the volume
of a bubble V .

Ai = d2 π (384)
d3 π
V = (385)
6 r
3 6V
⇒d= (386)
π
 2/3
6V
Ai = π (387)
π

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Returning to our simplified notation for this proof
 2/3
6x
g(x) = π (388)
π

For Eqn. (383) we also need the derivative of g(x)

 2/3
∂g(x) 2 6 −1/3
= (x) π (389)
∂x 3 π
 2/3 2/3
∂g(x) 2 6 x
= π (390)
∂x 3 π x
 2/3
∂g(x) 2 1 6x
= π (391)
∂x 3x π
∂g(x) 2 g(x)
= (392)
∂x 3 x
We now insert Eqn. (383) into Eqn. (383).

Z b   Z b  
∂ dx 2 g(x) dx
g(x) f (x) dx = − f (x) dx (393)
a ∂x dt a 3 x dt
Z b
2 b ẋ
  Z
∂ dx
g(x) f (x) dx = − f (x)g(x)dx (394)
a ∂x dt 3 a x

Next, we take a closer look on the term ẋx . Since x is the volume of the bubbles V , we can relate V to
the void fraction or gas phase volume fraction α. For any control volume VCV we can state, that the volume
of the bubbles V is equal to the volume fraction times the control volume. Here we neglect mass transfer by
evaporation, see [34] for a derivation considering evaporation.

V = αVCV (395)
V̇ = α̇VCV (396)
V̇ α̇VCV α̇
= = (397)
V αVCV α
ẋ α̇
= (398)
x α
We further assume that the rate of change of volume is independent of the volume itself [34, 40].

V̇
6= f (V ) (399)
V
By using relation (394) and (398) on Eqn. (394), we gain

b
2 α̇ b
Z   Z
∂ dx
g(x) f (x) dx = − f (x)g(x)dx (400)
a ∂x dt 3α a

or by using the other notation, Eqns. (375)-(375)

b
2 α̇ Vmax
Z   Z
∂ dx
g(x) f (x) dx = − f Ai dV (401)
a ∂x dt 3 α Vmin
Z b  
∂ dx 2 α̇
g(x) f (x) dx = − ai (402)
a ∂x dt 3 α

And by using (326) on (401) we have proofed (338).

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66 Derivation of the governing equations for the MRF approach
66.1 Preliminary observations
In order to use the MRF approach the mesh has to be divided into different regions. As the MRF approach in
OpenFOAM covers only rotating reference frames246 only rotation can be imposed on a region. A region for
which a non-zero rotation is specified has to be axi-symmetric with respect to the rotational axis. Furthermore,
older versions of OpenFOAM247 only support steady rotation, i.e. the angular velocity ω is constant.

66.1.1 Pitfalls
Axi-symmetric region for MRF rotation
As stated above, the MRF region for applying reference frame rotations has to be axi-symmetric. However,
OpenFOAM performs no checks to test whether this is the case. Thus, on a region axi-symmetic with respect
to the z-axis, may very well be used to prescribe a reference frace rotation around the x-axis. The results will
be blatantly wrong, and the solver might crash. However, if you are unlucky enough, the solver will not crash
and compute woefully wrong results, wasting time and computational resources.

Always check whether the axis of the MRFProperties coincides with the sym-
metry axis of your MRF zone. Furthermore, make sure that origin of the
MRFProperties lies on the symmetry axis of the MRF zone.

66.2 Mass conservation equation

The mass conservation equation for incompressible flows

∇·u = 0 (403)

is valid in all inertial frames of reference. An inertial frame of reference is either fixed in space and time or
moving with a constant translational velocity.
Due to the constraints listed in the previous section we consider only rotating reference frames in the MRF
method. To translate a vector from its representation in the inertial frame of reference to the rotating frame of
reference a rotation matrix Q is used. A rotation matrix has the property that the inverse is also the transposed.

Ru = Qu (404)
T
u=Q Ru (405)
−1 T
Q =Q (406)

The index R before the symbol u denotes that the vector R u is given in the rotating frame of reference. If
there is no index before the symbol the vector is given in the inertial coordinate system. The index R is put
before the symbol to prevent the vector R u to be mistaken as a relative velocity.
Beginning with the mass conservation equation in the inertial coordinate system we derive the mass conser-
vation in the rotating coordinate system.

∇·u = 0 (407)
∇· QT Q u = 0


(408)
| {z }
=I
∇· QT R u = 0


(409)
246 E.g. in Fluent it is possible to prescribe frame motion with unsteady translational and rotational speeds [9]. This leads
essentially to more additional terms in the governing equations. OpenFOAM, however, limits the frame motion to steady rotation.
247 Prior to OpenFOAM-3.0, see Section 66.4.2.

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We use the relation ∇·(A·a) = (∇·A)·a + A : (∇a) and the note that the rotation matrix is constant in
space.
∇· QT R u = ∇·QT ·R u + QT : (∇R u)



(410)
| {z }
=0
∇· Q R u = QT : (∇R u)
T


(411)
QT : (∇R u) = 0 (412)
Next we multiply the equation from the left with the rotation matrix.
QQT : (∇R u) = 0 (413)
I : (∇R u) = 0 (414)
We remember that the contraction of the unit tensor and a velocity gradient is equal to the divergence of the
velocity.
I : (∇R u) = ∇·R u (415)
∇·R u = 0 (416)
Thus, we showed that the mass convervation equation with the velocity expressed in the rotating coordinate
system has the same formulation as the mass conservation equation in inertial coordinates.

66.3 Momentum conservation equation

When we use a rotating coordinate system, we can decompose the flow velocity in two components. The first is
due to the rotation of the frame of reference and the second is the relative motion between the particle or fluid
parcel under consideration and the rotating reference frame.

u = ω × r + uR (417)
Eq. (417) can also be written in this form using the spin tensor Ω
u = Ω r + uR (418)
The spin tensor is a skew-symmetric tensor that contains the components of ω, the angular velocity vector.
 
0 −ωz ωy
Ω =  ωz 0 −ωx  (419)
−ωy ωx 0
We now derive the momentum equation for the velocity for the rotating zone starting from the momentum
conservation equation for incompressible Newtonian fluids.

∂u ∇p
+ (∇u) ·u = − + ∇· (ν∇u) (420)
∂t ρ
The terms on the LHS are the total time derivate of u. Thus, we can write
du ∇p
=− + ∇· (ν∇u) (421)
dt ρ
With Eq. (417) we yield
d ∇p
(Ω r + uR ) = − + ∇· (ν∇u) (422)
dt ρ
We consider only steady rotation; thus, the temporal derivative of the spin vanishes
duR dΩ dr ∇p
+ r+Ω =− + ∇· (ν∇u) (423)
dt dt
|{z} dt ρ
=0
duR ∇p
+ Ωu = − + ∇· (ν∇u) (424)
dt ρ

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We now evaluate the total time derivative of uR
∂uR ∂uR dx ∇p
+ +Ωu = − + ∇· (ν∇u) (425)
∂t ∂x dt
| {z } |{z} ρ
=∇uR =u
∂uR ∇p
+ (∇uR ) ·u + Ωu = − + ∇· (ν∇u) (426)
∂t ρ

Now we insert uR from Eq. (417) into the local derivative

∂ ∇p
(u − Ω r) + (∇uR ) ·u + Ωu = − + ∇· (ν∇u) (427)
∂t ρ
∂
As the velocity component due to the steady rotation of the reference frame is constant, the term ∂t (Ω r) will
vanish
∂u ∇p
+ (∇uR ) ·u + Ωu = − + ∇· (ν∇u) (428)
∂t ρ
The second term on the LHS can be rewritten using the following identity

∇ (ab) = (∇·b) a + (∇a) ·b (429)

∂u ∇p
+ ∇· (uR u) + Ωu = − + ∇· (ν∇u) (430)
∂t ρ
Thus, we derived the governing equation for the absolute velocity using flux relative to the local frame of
reference.
The contribution from the rotation of the domain is limited to two terms in the governing equation. The
LHS of Eq. (431) contains the relative velocity in the second term. The RHS of Eq. (431) contains the Coriolis
force in the last term.

∂u ∇p
+ ∇· (uR u) = − + ∇· (ν∇u) − Ωu (431)
∂t ρ

Eq. (431) corresponds to the momentum equation in absolute velocity formulation that can be found in the
Fluent Theory Manual [9]. Another resource for the MRF approach in OpenFOAM is [48].

66.4 Notes on the implementation of the MRF Approach

Adding Coriolis forces in the cells of the moving zone is not the only operation necessary for the MRF approach.
The boundary conditions of the rotor have to be adjusted. As the rotor is moving the fluid velocity at the rotor
walls is not zero. The velocity at the walls has to equal the solid body rotational velocity of the rotor.

66.4.1 OpenFOAM-2.*
In OpenFOAM-2.2.x the MRF method is part of the fvOptions mechanism248 . This is a general mechanism
that allows for run-time selectable physics. The fvOptions framework is a generalization for the source terms in
the momentum equation. Via this framework the MRF approach can be selected along with momentum (e.g.
wind turbine rotors), porosity (i.e. for modelling porous zones) and energy sources (e.g. for regions with heat
transfer).
To provide this flexibility the fvOptions framework is implemented using an abstract class to define the
behaviour of the general source. Derived class implement the actual physics, e.g. the MRF method. Thus the
class MRFSource is derived from option.
The constructor of the class MRFSource calls the method initialise(). This method is defined in the
class MRFSource and calls the method correctBoundaryVelocity of the class MRFZone. In the method
correctBoundaryVelocity the velocity values of boundaries within an MRF-zone are set to the solid body
rotational velocity. Otherwise the no-slip boundary condition would enforce a zero absolute velocity which
would be clearly wrong.
248 See http://www.openfoam.org/version2.2.0/fvOptions.php

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 In Listing 527 we see the prescription of the solid body velocity for all faces that lie within the MRF-zone.
On these faces the solid body velocity is prescribed.

urot = ω × (rf ace − rorigin ) (432)

1 void Foam :: MRFZone :: c o r r e c t B o u n d a r y V e l o c i t y ( volVecto rField & U ) const

2 {
3 const vector Omega = this - > Omega () ;
4 // Included patches
5 forAll ( includedFaces_ , patchi )
6 {
7 const vectorField & patchC = mesh_ . Cf () . boundaryField () [ patchi ];
8 vectorField pfld ( U . boundaryField () [ patchi ]) ;
9 forAll ( includedF aces_ [ patchi ] , i )
10 {
11 label patchFacei = i ncludedF aces_ [ patchi ][ i ];
12 pfld [ patchFacei ] = ( Omega ^ ( patchC [ patchFacei ] - origin_ ) ) ;
13 }
14 U . boundaryField () [ patchi ] == pfld ;
15 }
16 }

Listing 527: The method correctBoundaryVelocity in the file MRFZone.C

Capabilities and limitations of the MRF approach

The MRF method in OpenFOAM deals only with rotations other than FLUENT, which is also capable of
accounting for translational movement [9]. In both CFD softwares the velocity of the moving reference frame
needs to be constant. This means OpenFOAM is capable of dealing with rotating reference frames that move
with a constant angular velocity.
The boundary of the zone, in which the rotation of the frame of reference is active, must be oriented in a
way, so that the velocity component of the reference frame’s velocity normal to the bounary is zero. This means
for a rotating frame of reference the zone in which this movement is acting needs to be a cylinder249 with its
axis parallel to the axis of rotation of the reference frame.
The FLUENT theory manual says that the MRF method is strictly speaking only valid for steady state
cases [9]. However, FLUENT offers this method for unsteady simulations too [9].
The sliding mesh technique gives more accurate results than the MRF method especially when it comes to
transient simulations. However, the main advantage of the MRF method is its low impact on computational
cost, compared to moving mesh techniques.

66.4.2 OpenFOAM-3.*
With OpenFOAM-3.0.0250 the MRF method was taken out from the fvOptions framework. The developers of
OpenFOAM give the following reason for this mode:

fvOptions does not have the appropriate structure to support MRF as it is based on option
selection by user-specified fields whereas MRF MUST be applied to all velocity fields in the particular
solver. A consequence of the particular design choices in fvOptions made it difficult to support MRF
for multiphase and it is easier to support frame-related and field related options separately.
Currently the MRF functionality provided supports only rotations but the structure will be
generalized to support other frame motions including linear acceleration, SRF rotation and 6DoF
which will be run-time selectable.
As noted in the cited message above, the MRF framework was also generalized. Thus, rotating reference frames
are not limited to steady rotations anymore. Listing 528 shows how this change allows to spin-up reference
frame rotation. This might improve numerical behaviour in the initial stages of the simulation.

249 In fact the zone can be any volume defined by any surface of revolution of the rotational axis of the reference frame. However,

the cylinder is the easiest and most convenient choice.

250 http://www.openfoam.org/version3.0.0/

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MRF1
{
cellZone rotor ;

active yes ;

n o n R o t a t i ng P a t c h e s () ;

origin (0 0 0) ;
axis (0 0 1) ;

omega table
2(
(0 0.01)
(0.5 104.72)
);
}

Listing 528: Passing a table as angular velocity to the MRF framework.

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Part X
Appendix
67 Useful Linux commands
67.1 Getting help
67.1.1 Display –help
Virtually all Linux commands display a summary of the programs purpose and usage. To display this message
the command has to be invoked with one of those parameters: -h, -help, --help. If the wrong parameter is
used the help message is displayed anyway or an error message naming the correct parameter to display the
usage information, see Listing 529.

user@host :∼$ ls - help

ls : invalid option -- e
Try ‘ ls -- help ’ for more information .
user@host :∼$

Listing 529: Displaying the help message

Apparently all of the tools and solvers of OpenFOAM251 display such help messages. New Linux and
OpenFOAM users are strongly encouraged to study the help messages to deepen their understanding and
insight.

67.1.2 man pages

Many Linux commands have an additional, more detailed documentation252 . This is written in the man pages
(man is short for manual). To display the man pages of a certain command, simply put the name of the command
or program behind the command man. Listing 530 shows how to display the man pages of the Linux command cp.

man cp

Listing 530: Displaying the man pages

The man pages cover general commands of Linux, system call, library function of the C standard library
and much more. On some systems the man pages are only partially or not at all installed by default.

67.2 Finding files

67.2.1 Searching files system wide
Searching for a file on the whole file system can be done by locate. Listing 531 shows the result of the search
for the source file of icoFoam.

user@host :∼/ OpenFOAM / user -2.1. x / run / icoTurb$ locate icoFoam . C

/ home / user / OpenFOAM / OpenFOAM -2.0. x / applications / solvers / incompr essible / icoFoam / icoFoam . C
/ home / user / OpenFOAM / OpenFOAM -2.1. x / applications / solvers / incompr essible / icoFoam / icoFoam . C

Listing 531: Looking for icoFoam.C

67.2.2 In a certain directory

To find a file in a certain directory and its sub-directories find can be used. Listing 532 shows the command to
search the file LESProperties in the OpenFOAM tutorials.

251 No exception is known to the author.

252 As an example: the man pages of gcc are longer than 10000 lines.

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find $ FO AM _T U TO RI AL S - name LESProperties

Listing 532: Search LESProperties in the tutorials

67.3 Find files and scan them

How do I define probes? I have seen this already, but where?
To answer this question one has to find all files in which probes can be defined – the controlDict in this
case. Additionally, all of the files returned by the search have to be scanned for the definition of probes. As an
OpenFOAM case consists of a number of text files, it is easy to scan these files for certain keywords. So, the
answer to the question above is: find all controlDicts and scan them for the word probe.
Instead of perfoming this task manually, a single one-liner in the Terminal does the magic. Listing 533 shows
how all files named controlDict in the tutorials are located and scanned for the word probes.

find $ FO AM _T U TO RI AL S - name controlDict | xargs grep ’ probes ’ - sl

Listing 533: Find and scan files

find looks for respectively finds all files with the name passed with the option -name in the specified folder
and its folders. xargs executes the passed command line. The output of find is passed to grep as input by a
pipe. grep then scans all files for the word probes.

git it done the other way

If OpenFOAM is installed from a git source code repository, we can also use git to search for patterns. Here,
all (tracked) files are searched for the provided pattern. The reason for using git, is that git tracks file content
in a very efficient way. Thus searching is generally faster, especially if we scan a lot of files. E.g. if we want to
know where in the sources VGREAT is defined.
In the case of the example above, we would need to go to the tutorials directory and then tell git to search
for the pattern “probes”. This causes an overall search, which is not limited to controlDicts. In fact, we find
also some clean-up scripts.

cd $F OA M _T UT ORI AL S
git grep probes

Listing 534: Scan files using git grep

67.4 Scan a log file

grep can scan a text file for a certain pattern. In this example we want to scan the solver output for a certain
pattern. The solver twoPhaseEulerFoam displays after every time step the minimum and maximum value of
the volume fraction α. For α to be physically meaningful, its value has to be of the range 0 ≤ α ≤ 1.
In this example a simulation crashed and the main suspicion is, that there were values of α greater than
one. Listing 535 shows two lines of solver output. The first line has a maximum value of one. In some cases,
when regions evolve where the continuous phase vanishes, e.g. above a water surface, this value is perfectly
reasonable. The second line comprises a maximum value of α greater than unity. This value is unphysical,
because a phase can not occupy a certain amount of space – a cell – to more than 100%.
Due to the fact that simulations often do not crash immediately the log file containing the solver output is
hundreds of thousands of lines long. To look for maximum values of α greater than unity manually is not an
option. We need an one-liner that does that automatically for us. That’s where grep comes in.

Dispersed phase volume fraction = 0.194351 Min ( alpha ) = 7.52826 e -42 Max ( alpha ) = 1
Dispersed phase volume fraction = 0.060562 Min ( alpha ) = 2.30261 e -52 Max ( alpha ) = 1.00003

Listing 535: Example: solver output regarding volume fraction

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 Listing 536 shows how the user can scan the log file for the appropiate pattern. grep expects as first argument
the pattern to look for. The second argument is optional, it specifies the file from which to read. If no file was
specified, grep would read from standard input. The option -c makes grep display only the number of number
of matches. Otherwise, grep would display all lines in which a match was found. In a situation in which the
number of hits could reach hundreds or thousands, displaying all lines with a match could be unwise.
The first command in Listing 536 would detect a match for both lines of Listings 535. So this pattern
’Max(alpha) = 1’ is not useful to find out whether α exceeded unity or not.
The second command in Listing 536 will only detect lines in which α is larger than unity. So, of the two
lines of Listings 535, only the second one would result in a match.

grep ’ Max ( alpha ) = 1 ’ foamRun . log -c

grep ’ Max ( alpha ) = 1. ’ foamRun . log -c

Listing 536: Scan the log using grep

67.5 Running in scripts

67.5.1 Starting a batch of jobs
To use the computing power of a computing cluster it is a good idea to let the cluster do the work in batches.
To be able to do this, this section explains how to use a script to run a number of simulations sequentially. So,
the cluster can calculate a great number of cases without the need for the user to start each job seperately. This
would be unacceptable when simulating overnights.
The script in Listing 537 starts two parallel simulations inkluding domain decomposition and reconstruction.
The script assumes to start from a directory which contains all two cases. The first group of commands changes
into a subdirectory of the current directory (cd ’./fullColumn_fineV01’). The next commands perform all
tasks of a parallel simulation. Then the script changes to the second case (cd ’../fullColumn_fineV02’).
This is a very basic script. It contains no checks if a simulation has terminated prematurely or any other
useful features.

# !/ bin / bash
# fine 01

echo ’ fine01 ’
cd ’ ./ f u l l C o l um n _ f i n e V 0 1 ’

echo ’ decomposing ’
decomposePar > foamDecompose . log

mpirun - np 2 tw o P h a s e E u l e r F o a m - parallel > foamRun . log

echo ’ reconstructing ’
reco nstructP ar > fo am Re c on st ru c t . log

# fine 02
echo ’ fine02 ’
cd ’ ../ f u l l C o l u m n _ f i n e V 0 2 ’

echo ’ decomposing ’
decomposePar > foamDecompose . log

mpirun - np 2 tw o P h a s e E u l e r F o a m - parallel > foamRun . log

echo ’ reconstr ucting ’

reco nstructP ar > fo am Re c on st ru c t . log

Listing 537: Using a shell script to start several simulations.

67.5.2 Terminating a running script

There may be need to stop a script from any further execution without terminating the currently running
simulation. This example assumes that a script with name runCalculations is to be terminated. First the PID

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of runCalculations has to be known. In Section 12.3.2 explains this bit in detail. Listing 537 shows how to look
for the PID. The command in Listing 537 outputs two lines. The first line comes from the running script and
the second line stems from the running parallel calculation. This is because all running processes matching the
pattern run were searched for. Therefore, also the running instance of mpirun was found.

user@host :∼$ ps - el | grep run

0 S 8553 14913 14517 0 80 0 - 2687 wait pts /11 00:00:00 ru nC a lc ul at io n s
0 S 8553 14917 14913 0 80 0 - 2687 wait pts /11 00:00:00 mpirun
user@host :∼$

Listing 538: Search for PIDs using ps and grep

Terminate the script

If the script was terminated using kill, then the simulation would continue unaffected. Listing 539 shows how
the script is terminated and mpirun continues to be running.

user@host :∼$ ps -e | grep run

14913 pts /11 00:00:00 ru nC a lc ul at i on s
14917 pts /11 00:00:00 mpirun
user@host :∼$ kill - KILL 14913
user@host :∼$ ps -e | grep run
14917 pts /11 00:00:00 mpirun

Listing 539: Use kill to stop a shell script.

Terminate the script and the simulation

To terminate both the script and the simulation – in this example – the running simulation has to be terminated
also. Terminating only the running simulation only, will cause the script to execute the next command. So,
first the script and then the simulation need to be terminated.

67.6 diff
diff is a command line tool that analyses two files and prints a summary of the differences of those files.
Further information on diff can be found in the man-pages or the help-message.

67.6.1 Meld
Meld is a graphical front-end to diff. This allows for a side-by-side comparison of both files under investi-
gation. Parts of the file that differ are highlighted by colors. For more information about Meld see http:
//meldmerge.org/.

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 Figure 158: A screenshot of Meld

67.7 Case setup

There are a lot of tasks when setting up a case. Even though we might use a tutorial case as a starting point, a
lot of tedious work might lie ahead of us. Computers are better at certain tasks than we humans[Citation needed].
Thus, we might be better off automating boring tasks. The pyFoam library is a good collection of useful
stuff. However, certains tasks are done by mere one-liners in Linux. This is what this section is about.

67.7.1 Renaming files

The current mult-phase solvers use a naming scheme in which the name of the phase determines the file’s exten-
sion. Thus, the thermophysical properties of the phase air are stored in the file thermophysicalProperties.air.
This causes in certain cases the need to rename a number of files, because we use argon as gaseous phase and
we want to comply with the naming scheme. The dirty hack would be to just exchange the properties of air
with those of argon without changing the naming of the phase.
In Linux there are many ways to perform this sort of task. For mere text substitution a solution based on
regular expressions is the way to go. Listing 540 shows how the command rename is used to rename all files
containing a certain text.

rename ’s / air / argon /g ’ ./*

Listing 540: Change the extension of all files having the extension air to argon.

67.8 Miscellaneous
This section contains references to useful scripts or commands explained elsewhere in this document.

Terminate a backround process

See Section 12.3.2.

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Delete the processor* directories
If one or several simulations have been conducted on a computing cluster, it makes sense so reconstruct the
domain on the cluster. Otherwise the workstation of the user would be blocked for the time needed to complete
reconstruction. After reconstructing the domain the processor* directories still contain all the time step data.
If the processor* folders are deleted on the cluster, the user can afterwards copy the whole case directory to the
workstation without transmitting the solution data twice.
See Section 12.5.2 for how to deal with processor* directories.

Redirect output
Redirecting the output of a program is explained in Section 12.1.1.

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68 Archive data
Parametric studies generate a great deal of data. After the post-processing is done all files could be compressed
to save disk space. On Linux systems the tar archiving utility may be the agent of choice. The name tar comes
from tape archive, which is pretty descriptive in terms of the origins of this archiving program. A tar archive
is a single file which contains all archived files and folders. This step alone is only a reorganisation of the data,
fit for the usage of sequential data storage devices like magnetic tapes.
In a second step the tar archive needs to be compressed. For this task there are many possible choices. Linux
systems usually provide programs like gzip, bzip2 or xz. The distinction between archiving and compressing is
probably for historical as well as practical reasons. There is also one paradigm of the UNIX philosophy (Make
each program do one thing well) which supports the segregation in archiving and compression. The compression
programs usually differ in the utilised compression algorithms. There is one rule of thumb stating: The more
data is to be compressed, the longer compression takes.
Table 9 lists the achieved compression of a parametric studies with 21 cases totalling in 50 GB of data. The
data was written in ascii format. Compressing the data resulted in a 70+ % reduction of used disk space. If
space consuming cases are to archived, slow algorithms that result in good compression rates should be prefered.

used disk space reduction

21 cases uncompressed 50 GB
compressed: *.tar.bz2 13.7 GB 36.3 GB - 72.6 %

Table 9: Comparison of disk space reduction

Archive log files

In this example log files are archived. In this case the same algorithm achieves an even greater reduction of disk
space usage. This example shows that the achieved compression rate strongly depends on the input data.

used disk space reduction

16 log files uncompressed 2.0 GB
compressed: *.tar.bz2 154.7 MB 1.85 GB - 92.3 %

Table 10: Comparison of disk space reduction

Yet another compression comparison

When archiving OpenFOAM cases, the mesh generation may be very convoluted or time consuming. So it
might be preferable to archive the mesh generation seperately from the actual case. Thus, for the actual case
we might want to include the final mesh and do not bother with mesh creation.
This section compares how three compression tools perform on a Linux system when compressing a mesh.
The mesh in question was created by blockMesh and certain files are in binary format.
Listing 541 shows the actual command that were used to compress the mesh.

tar - cv polyMesh | gzip -- best > polyMesh . tar . gz

tar - cv polyMesh | bzip2 -- best > polyMesh . tar . bz
tar - cv polyMesh | lzma -9 > polyMesh . tar . xz

Listing 541: Compressing the mesh with various tools; note the setting for maximum compression

Listing 542 shows the sizes of the original mesh and its compressed forms. The used compression algo-
rithms differ considerably. Compression was performed with the setting for best compression, the time it took
for each tool to compress the mesh was not recorded. However, the stronger the compression the more time it
takes to compress. Since for archiving purposes disk space is the limiting factor, we chose maximum compression.

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user@host :∼$ du - sh polyMesh *
23 M polyMesh
5 ,3 M polyMesh . tar . bz
6 ,2 M polyMesh . tar . gz
2 ,6 M polyMesh . tar . xz

Listing 542: Comparing the disk usage of a mesh and its various compressions

From the comparison in Listing 542 we see that the LZMA compression algorithm achieves the best com-
pression, followed by BZIP2 and GZIP. All three compression algorithms are widely available in the UNIX world
in the form of open source implementations.

The effects of renumbering and/or writing binary

When playing around with various ways to archive an existing mesh, something quite interesting has been
observed: the archive file-size differs whether the mesh had been renumbered or not. Note that this comparison
only deals with archiving the mesh, no solution data (i.e. fields) have been archived alongside the mesh.
In Table 11 we compare the resulting file size of an archive of a reasonable complex, all-hex mesh with
147262 cells. The required disk space of the mesh itself only differs between writing in ascii or binary format.
Renumbering the mesh does not have an effect, which is not surprising, since renumbering does not add or
remove information. Thus, the required disk space of the mesh should not change due to renumbering.
When it comes to archiving the mesh, however, renumbering certainly has an effect on the resulting file size
of the archive. Compressing the as-is 253 mesh yields only a slightly smaller archive, when the mesh was written
in binary format to disk. The big surprise, however, is when we compare the resulting archive file size for the
renumbered mesh. In both cases, ascii and binary, the compressed, renumbered mesh results in a larger archive
file size than the compressed, as-is mesh.

The mesh ascii binary The archive ascii binary

as-is 22M 16M as-is 1,7M 1,6M
renumbered 22M 16M renumbered 2,5M 2,0M

Table 11: Comparing the resulting file size of the mesh archive file for various conditions/treatments. All file
or folder sizes were determined with the Linux command du -sh FILE. The mesh was compressed using the
LZMA algorithm at maximum compression: tar -cv constant/polyMesh | lzma -9 > polyMesh.tar.xz.

We can draw two conclusions from this comparison. The most obvious is, that writing data in binary format
is always favourable over writing in ascii format, especially for uncompressed data. Writing in ascii should only
be used for trouble-shooting. In production, binary is definitely the format of choice. Writing in binary not
only saves disk space in storage, it also provides the maximum read/write precision, since all relevant bits of
each numerical value are stored. In contrast, writing in ascii format only writes a finite number of significant
bits.
The second conclusion we can draw from the comparison above, is not to store the renumbered mesh. Even
if renumbering would/does254 not increase archive file size, renumbering is an operation we can easily perform
prior to our simulation. The time it takes to renumber the mesh is negligible compared to the overall simulation
time. Thus, we advise to archive meshes in an un-renumbered state. This, in addition to potential savings
on storage, gives future users the choice whether to run the simulation on a renumbered mesh or not. On an
already renumbered mesh it is impossible to determine the benefits of renumbering the mesh with respect to
simulation time or convergence. An operation which can always be performed at demand does not need to be
archived.

253 We denote the state of the mesh after mesh-creation by the term as-is in order to distinguish it from the renumbered state.

Mesh creation consists of a call to blockMesh, extruding a patch and finally removing parts of the mesh with subsetMesh. After
these steps, any sets of points, faces or cells are deleted. Also zones of any kind have not been defined. Thus, as-is denotes the
final, minimal mesh.
254 One case of renumbering causing larger archive file sizes does not necessarily mean that this will always cause this effect.

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Nomenclature

ACMI Arbitrary Coupled Mesh Interface MPI message passing interface

AMI Arbitrary Mesh Interface MRF multiple reference frame
ASCII American Standard Code for Information OO object-oriented
Interchange
OOD object-oriented design
BC boundary condition
OOP object oriented programming
BIT Bubble induced turbulence
OS operating system
CAD computer aided design
PDE Partial differential equation
CFD Computational fluid dynamics
Perl An interpreted programming language
CG Conjugate gradient
PID process identifier
DO discrete ordinates
PIMPLE An algorithm based on PISO and SIM-
DPE Dispersed phase element
PLE algorithm
EDF Électricité de France
PISO Pressure Implicit with Split Operator
FIFO A data structure follwing the First In, First
Out principle POSIX Portable Operating System Interface

FPE Floating-point exception RAS Reynolds averaged simulation

FVM Finite volume method RHS Right hand side

GAMG Geometric algebraic multi-grid RNG random number generator

gcc GNU compiler collection RTD residence time distribution

GNU GNU is not Unix SAT Standard ACIS Text

GUI graphical user interface SI Le Système Internationale d’Unités

I/O input and output SIMPLE Semi-Implicit Method for Pressure-
Linked Equations
IATE Interfacial area transport equation
SOI start of injection
IGES Initial Graphics Exchange Specification
STL Surface Tesselation Language
IT Information technology
UNIX an operating system; ancestor of many
LES Large eddy simulation
modern operating systems, e.g. all kinds
LPT Lagrangian Particle Tracking of Linux, Mac OS X.

LZMA Lempel-Ziv-Markov chain algorithm VOF Volume of fluid

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