[Harak]

Hey guys,

I'm working with OF for quite a year by now and I thought I knew the basics about blockMesh but I got a little bit confused about 2D meshes.

OF always operates in 3 dimensions, so all geometries are generated in 3 dimensions. When I want to setup a 2D case, I just define the empty boundary condition on boundaries normal to the 3rd dimensions. Well, so far so good.
How many cells do I have to have at this 3rd dimension? I looked up some tutorial cases and all of them have just 1 cell. That's what I've thought to be right but I couldn't find anything saying this to be just 1 cell! Am I right by assuming that 2D cases MUST have ONLY 1 cell in the 3rd dimension or is it also possible to have more cells?

Thanks

[akidess]

More than one cell in the third dimension makes no sense. Why refine in a direction without gradients?

[Harak]

Originally Posted by akidess

More than one cell in the third dimension makes no sense. Why refine in a direction without gradients?

Because I want to simulate a beam with a circular cross section in a flow channel and therefore I need more than 1 plane in the 3rd dimension. As you know, it's necessary to have 5 planes to define a circle with blockMesh (see attached image).



For my case, I would therefore need 5 cells in the 3rd dimensions. That's why I'm asking

So, is it possible to simulate this in 2D?

Thanks

[akidess]

I don't understand your drawing. Your geometry is confined to the XY-plane? Then only use one cell in Z direction and you're done. If you're domain is axisymmetric, use a wedge.