OpenFOAM 1.7.0 is released

A major, new release of version 1.7.0 of the OpenFOAM open source CFD toolbox is released. The new package can be downloaded from the official page. Version 1.7.0 is distributed: (1) as Debian packs created for Ubuntu 10.04 LTS; (2) as source code for compilation on other Linux systems. Please read the announcement, "OpenCFD release OpenFOAM® version 1.7.0", to know more.

The following introduction on the release of OpenFOAM 1.7.0 is borrowed from here.

OpenFOAM-1.7.0 is the latest release of OpenFOAM that contains new features both from OpenCFD’s development version of OpenFOAM and the repository 1.6.x distribution. This release passes our standard tests and the tutorials have been broadly checked. Please report any bugs by following the link: http://www.openfoam.com/bugs.

GNU/Linux version

This release of OpenFOAM is distributed primarily in 2 ways: (1) as a Debian pack containing binaries and source; (2) from a source code repository.

The Ubuntu/Debian pack is available for 32 and 64 bit versions of the 10.04 LTS operating system using the system compiler and libraries that will be installed automatically from standard Debian packs.

To use the source version, we provide a source pack of third-party packages that can be compiled on the user’s system. This does not include gcc, since the system installed version is typically sufficient, but includes paraview-3.8.0, openmpi-1.4.1, scotch_5.1, metis-5.0pre2, ParMetis-3.1 and ParMGridGen-1.0.

Library developments

There have been a number of developments to the libraries to support the extension of functionality in solver and utility applications.

Core library

• Large number of code refinements and consistency improvements to support other developments.

Turbulence modelling

• Wall function boundary conditions:
• New mutWallFunction continuous wall function,
• New mutLowReWallFunction continuous wall function,
• New nutWallFunction continuous wall function,
• New nutLowReWallFunction continuous wall function,
• Standard wall functions, based on k, now renamed nutkWallFunction and mutkWallFunction,
• omegaWallFunction now includes laminar blending function.
• Conjugate heat transfer boundary conditions:
• New turbulentTemperatureCoupledBaffleMixed BC,
• New turbulentTemperatureCoupledBaffle BC.

Thermo-physical models

There has been a set of developments to redefine the thermodynamics in some solvers in terms of sensible enthalpy instead of total (i.e. including chemical) enthalpy. This was done to improve the handling of thermodynamics in the case of partially-premixed or non-premixed combustion systems, or to handle systems with non-unity Lewis number.

• New hsPsiThermo thermophysical model calculation based on sensible enthalpy hs and compressibility psi.
• New hsRhoThermo thermophysical model calculation based on hs and density rho.
• New hsCombustionThermo thermophysical model calculation for a combustion mixture based on hs and psi.
• New hsPsiMixtureThermo thermophysical model calculation for a mixture based on hs and psi.
• New hsReactionThermo thermophysical model calculation for a complex reacting mixture based on hs.

DSMC

• 1D and 2D planar simulations now possible by specifying empty patches in the usual way.
• New MixedDiffuseSpecular wall boundary condition added.
• New pressure field measurement.
• New measurement of velocity slip and temperature jump.

Dynamic mesh

• New sixDoFRigidBodyDisplacement six degree-of-freedom, fluid coupled rigid body motion, applied as a boundary condition to a patch in the pointDisplacement field for dynamic mesh cases. The motion may have any number of restraints (springs and dampers) and constraints (reductions in degrees-of-freedom) applied. Restraints include linearAxialAngularSpring, linearSpring, sphericalAngularSpring and tabulatedAxialAngularSpring. Constraints include fixedAxis, fixedLine, fixedOrientation, fixedPlane and fixedPoint.

Numerics

• MULES now supports sub-cycling on moving meshes for interface capturing VoF (volume of fluid) calculations.
• Developments to TimeActivatedExplicitSource, a class that allows a source to be applied to an equation according to an input dictionary at run-time, that can be switched on at particular times and within particular regions of the mesh, using cellZones.

Solvers

A number of new solvers have been developed for a range of engineering applications. There has been a set of improvements to certain classes of solver that are introduced in this release.

New solvers

• fireFoam: Transient solver for fires and turbulent diffusion flames.
• rhoPorousMRFPimpleFoam: Transient solver for laminar or turbulent flow of compressible fluids with support for porous media and MRF for HVAC and similar applications. Uses the flexible PIMPLE (PISO-SIMPLE) solution for time-resolved and pseudo-transient simulations.
• chtMultiRegionSimpleFoam: Steady-state version of chtMultiRegionFoam.
• porousSimpleFoam: Steady-state solver for incompressible, turbulent flow with implicit or explicit porosity treatment.
• interMixingFoam: Solver for 3 incompressible fluids, two of which are miscible, using a VoF method to capture the interface.
• porousInterFoam: Solver for 2 incompressible, isothermal immiscible fluids using a VoF phase-fraction based interface capturing approach.
• simpleWindFoam: Steady-state solver for incompressible, turbulent flow with external source in the momentum equation to approximate, e.g. wind turbines; located in tutorials, with associated turbineSiting test case.

Modifications to multiphase and buoyant solvers

• Multiphase and buoyant flow solvers now solve for , rather than the static pressure p. This change is to avoid deficiencies in the handling of the pressure force / buoyant force balance on non-orthogonal and distorted meshes.
• Improvements to boundary conditions and pressure referencing in closed domains have been developed to avoid the problems encountered in previous attempts to decompose pressure for buoyant flow.
• The following solvers have been modified for p_rgh: fireFoam buoyantBoussinesqPimpleFoam, buoyantBoussinesqSimpleFoam, buoyantPimpleFoam, buoyantSimpleFoam, chtMultiRegionFoam, chtMultiRegionSimpleFoam, compressibleInterDyMFoam, compressibleInterFoam, interDyMFoam, porousInterFoam, MRFInterFoam, interFoam, interPhaseChangeFoam, multiphaseInterFoam, settlingFoam, twoLiquidMixingFoam.

Modifications to solvers for sensible enthalpy

• The following solvers have been modified to solve for hs (instead of h): dieselEngineFoam, dieselFoam, reactingFoam, rhoReactingFoam, coalChemistryFoam, porousExplictSourceReactingParcelFoam, reactingParcelFoam.

Modifications to steady-state compressible solvers

• Boundedness to the thermodynamics is ensured by limiting the density, rather than the pressure. This improves convergence by maintaining consistency between the pressure gradient and momentum changes.
• Removed the Sp “boundedness” correction in the convection term from the momentum equation.
• The following solvers have been modified with this change: rhoSimpleFoam, buoyantSimpleFoam, chtMultiRegionSimpleFoam.

Other modifications

• Added diffusion number limit to the time-step correction in chtMultiRegionFoam.
• Reformulated pressure correction during phase change to maintain boundedness of pressure in cavitatingFoam.

Boundary conditions

New boundary conditions have been introduced to support new applications in OpenFOAM.

• Added new time varying boundary conditions.
• Added new velocity inlets and wall boundary conditions: cylindricalInletVelocity, swirlFlowRateInletVelocity, translatingWallVelocity.
• Added boundary conditions for wind/atmospheric simulation: atmBoundaryLayerInletEpsilon, atmBoundaryLayerInletVelocity, fixedShearStress.

Utilities

There have been some utilities added and updated in this release.

New utilities

• foamToTecplot360: Tecplot binary file format writer.
• IFCLookUpTableGen: Infinitely-fast chemistry (IFC) look-up table generator that calculates the infinitely-fast chemistry relationships as a function of ft for a given fuel.

Updated utilities

• gmshToFoam: adapted for msh2.1 and 2.2 format.
• snappyHexMesh: lower memory usage by pre-balancing and non-blocking transfers.
• blockMesh: proper spline edges.
• setSet: handling of faceZoneSet, cellZoneSet, pointZoneSet.
• splitMeshRegions: option to use existing cellZones only for split.
• changeDictionary: allow wildcards in changeDictionaryDict.

Post-processing

Post-processing has been extended particularly to function objects, the on-the-fly post-processing system.

• New fieldValues function object, allows spatial averaging, sum, min/max calculations to be made on fields in sets of cells or faces in the geometry
• New surfaceInterpolateFields function object to generate surface fields from volume fields where required
• New sampledTriSurfaceMesh surface type for surface sampling function object
• New readFields function object controls the loading of fields from time directories for further post-processing

New tutorials

There is a large number of new tutorials to support the new solvers in the release.

• combustion/fireFoam/les/smallPoolFire2D
• combustion/reactingFoam/ras/counterFlowFlame2D
• compressible/rhoPorousMRFPimpleFoam/mixerVessel2D
• heatTransfer/chtMultiRegionSimpleFoam/multiRegionHeater
• incompressible/pimpleDyMFoam/wingMotion
• incompressible/porousSimpleFoam/angledDuctExplicit
• incompressible/porousSimpleFoam/angledDuctImplicit
• incompressible/simpleWindFoam/turbineSiting
• lagrangian/porousExplictSourceReactingParcelFoam/parcelInbox
• lagrangian/porousExplictSourceReactingParcelFoam/verticalChannel
• multiPhase/interDyMFoam/floatingObject
• multiPhase/interMixingFoam/laminar/damBreak
• multiPhase/interPhaseChangeFoam/cavitatingBullet