mesh generation inside/around 3D cylinder
 

Dear all,

I am a new user of openFOAM and I would like to learn how to generate mesh around 3D cylinder in native mesher in openFOAM

I tried the blockMesh method http://www.foamcfd.org/Nabla/guides/...Guidese12.html. But the cylinder does not have "cover", and it looks like a "hole" not a cylinder in the domain.
1. how should I mesh the top and bottom of the cylinder in the method above?
2. how should I describe the cylinder itself like the image below and place it in the middle of the domain ( not connected with the top and bottom of the domain).
http://docs.salome-platform.org/salo...radquad_01.png
3. I also tried cylinderToCell in Cellset, while the whole domain is generated by blockMesh so that the boundary of the cylinder is not smooth, is there any way solve this?

If possible, I prefer the mesh generated by the native mesher in openFOAM. Any answer will be appreciated.

Many thanks,
Cloudy

Greetings Cloudy and welcome to the forum.

There are several examples of cylinder meshes here in the forum, some of which are listed in this sub-forum: http://www.cfd-online.com/Forums/ope...ing-blockmesh/

Anyway, one such example is this one: http://www.cfd-online.com/Forums/ope...tml#post370876

Best regards,
Bruno

Hi Bruno,

Thanks for you reply,
the 3-D Mesh in a cylinder describe a cylindrical domain, I would like to put the clyinder in a larger rectangular box while i dont know how to set the "face to face" mesh connection between the cylinder boundary and box.

I am reading the snappyHex mesh in the openFOAM guider, First he used a STL surface to describe the object bouondary but I didnt find how does he do that, is STL a native function in openFOAM? could you please attache me any tutorial for that?

Regards,
Cloudy

Greetings Cloudy,

There is something better than having to go around editing files. Use can use Blender with these two marvellous scripts:

• For creating a "blockMeshDict": http://openfoamwiki.net/index.php/SwiftBlock
• For creating a "snappyHexMeshDict": http://openfoamwiki.net/index.php/SwiftSnap

Best regards,
Bruno

Hi Bruno,

I downloaded blender and installed these two addons, and I also tried their example. While, after i import the examples and click the "write" button, there are some errors shown below:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/../../../../2.63/scripts/addons/swiftsnap/_init_.py", line 548, in execute os.makedirs(pathtrisurface)
File"....../2.63/python/lib/python3.2/os.py", line 152, in makedirs mkdir(name,mode)
OSError: [Errno 13] Permission denied: '/triSurface'
location:<unknown location>:-1

Any idea for these?

Regards,
Cloudy

Hi Cloudy,

Both instruction pages indicate that you need:
Which means that you'll need Blender 2.60 or 2.61 or 2.62... all available here: http://download.blender.org/release/

Best regards,
Bruno

Like Bruno says, stick to the compatible Blender versions. However, in this case, judging from the error message, it seems you are trying to put your files in a location where you do not have full write permissions.

K

Hi Bruno,

Thanks for your reply, I get the stl.file and locate it in trisurface. With command: blockMesh+snappyHexmesh -overwrite, I got the mesh for cylinder.

While the meshes around the cylinder are cut out, could I keep the mesh around the cylinder and remove the inner mesh instead?

Regards,
Cloudy

Hi Cloudy,

What you are looking for is this:
If you look at a "snappyHexMeshDict" file, you'll see comments like this one:
Best regards,
Bruno

Hi bruno,

I got some questions would like to ask you,

The first one, in snappyHexMesh tutorial (in OPENFOAM user guide), there are more cells around the car surface, which part in snappyhexDict is to achieve this?

Secondly, what does the "level" mean? for example,
refinementSurfaces
sphere.stl
{
level (2 2)
...
what are the real meaning of the numbers in the ()? any detailed explanation?

Finally, normally we need a blockMesh as a blackground mesh for snappyHex, for the cylinder case, if the blockMesh size is larger than the cylinder , the top/bottom surface generated is not smooth (https://sites.google.com/site/snappy...ightblock_.png)
while if i use small blockMesh , the surface of top/bottom is quite good (https://sites.google.com/site/snappy...mallblock_.png).
Since I need the background block as a water tank to test the forces on the cylinder, is that possible to use 2 blockMesh, one small block for generate cylinder and one for water tank? or could I use any utility like Cellset to "define" a small region in blockMesh as the background for cylinder ?

Many thanks,
Cloudy

I've answered you here: http://www.cfd-online.com/Forums/ope...tml#post378406 post #2

It would be nice if you didn't repeat the same questions in two separate threads. If you create a new one with basically the same question, edit your previous post indicating where you've moved your question to.