OpenFOAM 2.2.1 Released
The OpenFOAM Foundation is pleased to announce the release of version 2.2.1 of the OpenFOAM open source CFD toolbox. Version 2.2.1 consolidates the major version 2.2.0 release through a large number of bug fixes and code improvements, included in over 200 code commits and 1000 file changes. OpenFOAM v2.2.1 is distributed under the General Public Licence by the OpenFOAM Foundation as:
- Deb packs created for Ubuntu Linux;
- RPM packs created for SuSE Linux;
- RPM packs created for Fedora Linux;
- source code for compilation on other Linux systems.
Version 2.2.1 also contains small, new developments, some of which are listed below. See the version 2.2.0 release announcement for information about the new features in the 2.2 series of OpenFOAM software.
Pre-processing
In OpenFOAM, boundary conditions are set according to matching of geometry patch and patch group names to entries in the boundaryField of field files (e.g. U, p). Patch groups were introduced in v2.2.0, but in this version the order of precedence for matching boundary geometry and field entries is consolidated to: (1) patch names; (2) patch groups; (3) regular expressions. Where multiple matches exist with patch group and regular expressions, the last entry takes precedence.
Numerical methods
New polynomial-fitted, surface-normal gradient schemes have been implemented including: a 2nd-order quadraticFit; and, a 1st-order linearFit, similar in accuracy to the standard corrected scheme, but using a more compact stencil. The extended least-squares gradient calculation has been replaced with a more general approach using a polynomial stencil with new pointCellsLeastSquares and edgeCellsLeastSquares schemes using the cell-point-cell and cell-edge-cell stencil respectively. These stencils provide better accuracy and stability and the extended least-squares gradient method is particularly suitable for cases with badly distorted meshes and calculation of interface orientation and curvature in VoF simulations.
Runtime-selectable physics
A new heat exchanger model has been added through the effectivenessHeatExchangerSource source added to the fvOptions framework; the model approximates the heat exchanger as a volumetric source via an effectiveness, which is based on a function of flow rates of the respective air and coolant streams.
Thermophysical modelling
A new thermoFoam solver has been included which solves the energy equation over frozen flow and turbulence fields; the solver can to operate in steady or transient mode, with laminar, RAS, and LES turbulence models. Other changes include consistent naming of turbulence thermal diffusivity, alphat, over incompressible and compressible thermal solvers and the addition of new polynomial functions for specific heat capacity and thermal conductivity in solid thermophysical models.
Radiation modelling
The fvDOM radiation model has been massively optimised with net speed-up of a factor of 3 over the method employed in version 2.2.0. The speed-up comes from several implementation improvements and optimised GAMG solver settings for solving the ray equations, demonstrated in the fireFoam tutorials smallPoolFire2D, smallPoolFire3D, oppositeBurningPanels.
Noise analysis
A new noise utility generates noise data from the computed pressure, typically extracted using function objects, e.g.probes; the utility uses the noiseFFT library which includes several forms of graphical output including: FFT of the pressure data; narrow-band PFL (pressure-fluctuation level) spectrum; one-third-octave-band PFL spectrum; one-third-octave-band pressure spectrum.
Post-processing
The forces and forceCoeffs function objects have been updated to include porosity contributions. If the user sets the new porosity keyword is set to true (optional), the force contributions are include for respective porosity model(s).
Compilation
The wmake build tool no longer requires additional arguments, such as libso, when building applications and libraries. Instead wmake infers the type of binary being compiled from from Make/files, so executing “wmake” is now sufficient to compile a library.
Other
A dynamic mesh variant of the rhoPimpleFoam solver called rhoPimpleDyMFoam has been developed with new tutorial case annularThermalMixer. For topology changes, mapping of fields has been improved; when new patch faces are created, the value on each face is initialised using existing local field data.
OpenFOAM v2.2.1 was produced by the OpenFOAM Team — at that time, Henry Weller, Mattijs Janssens, Chris Greenshields, Andy Heather, Sergio Ferraris, Laurence McGlashan, Gijs Wierink, Richard Jones, William Bainbridge and Jenya Collings. Thanks to the OpenFOAM enthusiasts who have contributed to a better code through the bug reporting system.
To download OpenFOAM 2.2.1, click here.