[snappyHexMesh] handling of baffle regions or surfaces with zero thickness with snappyHexMesh

StSchiff

Hello,

I'm struggeling with the creation of a mesh that includes a surface of zero thickness. I've tried various things so far.

1. Define the baffle region as a faceZone with the following entry in snappyHexMesh:

...
refinementSurfaces
{

baffle
{

level (3 3);
faceZone baffle;
cellZone baffle;
cellZoneInside inside;

}
...

}
...

Snappy then generates a nice mesh and the baffle region is nice and smooth. But then I'm stuck. Since 'baffle' is now a faceZone and not a boundary patch I can not define it as a wall and set boundary conditions.
I've tried using the 'createBaffles' command to turn the faceZone into a boundary patch which seems to work fine. But the checkMesh fail in various areas:
- Multiple regions which are not connected by any face
- 92254 conflicting points for multiply connected surfaces
- 52 skewfaces
Also simulation crashes when solving for p with a printStack error.

2. If I don't define the baffle region as a faceZone as seen in 1. but a normal surface, I end up with two intersecting patches in the baffle region which messes up my geometry.

So does anyone have any advice for me? Is there maybe another way to convert a faceZone into a patch? I've also considered 'createPatch', but since I don't know how to convert a faceZone into a faceZone, I'm stuck there as well.

I'd highly appreciate any suggestions!!
Regards
Stefanie