Inconsistent OpenFOAM results using Pointwise & blockMesh
 

Hello,

I am running a simple simulation of flow between two plates within OpenFOAM and comparing the results from both blockMesh (BM) and Pointwise (PW) meshes. I've successfully run simulations for each, however, the results from the PW mesh are inconsistent with the BM (and effectively theoretical), even with identical case files and mesh dimensions.

I have only just started using PW, and I expect there might be an error in my setup, but I followed online tutorial instructions.


Here are the issues I am seeing from the PW results:

-Number of iterations for Ux and Uy are constant at 1000 throughout simulation. (compared to 4, 3 ... 0 for BM)
-residuals level off at 1e-3, when specified to be 1e-6 (see attached)
-Velocity profile is not symmetric about the centerline (see attached where centerline is at y=.013)

Ultimately I'm looking for help on the Pointwise to OpenFOAM process.

Thanks

Can you post output from checkMesh for both meshes, and some pictures of grids?

Sure. Here are the checkMesh outputs and zoomed-in screenshots of each mesh and Wireframe.

The mesh files match each other, it's the boundary files that have some differences. I've attached them to this post.

Here is the process I followed in Pointwise
- Selected the Solver (OpenFOAM)
- Imported the database from SolidWorks or created it within PointWise itself
- Dimensioned the connectors
- Assembled the domains
- Assigned boundary conditions
- Assembled the block
- Exported the files

Are there certain steps for assigning boundaries in Pointwise for OpenFoam that I might be missing?

Hi, did you figure out the problem? I am dealing with this issue now. I am running two same cases with blockMesh and Pointwise and surprisingly the results are different!

Thank you,

This might not solve your problem but try

running this utility on the pointwise mesh case.

renumberMesh

Hi, in my case the issue was that blockMesh was scaling the geometry by 0.1, something that I forgot to implement in Pointwise. Basically, the mesh I had created in Pointwise was 10 times the size of that created by blockMesh, hence the inconsistency.