CFD Online Discussion Forums - [blockMesh] Problem with running blockMesh

Hi All,

I am totally new to the world of openFoam and I have been trying to follow along with this tutorial: https://eddylicious.readthedocs.io/e...nnel_lund.html

In particular, I am stuck on step 4 in which the tutorial asks me to run "blockMesh." My problem is that I am running into fatal errors when I run "blockMesh" in the terminal. I am using Ubuntu 22 and OpenFOAM 10.

I have tried running blockMesh from different directories within the precursor folder, but always end up with some Fatal Error.

These are the errors I am getting:

// * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * //
Create time

Not deleting polyMesh directory
"/home/yoshiyagi/eddylicious/tutorials/channel_flow_lund_rescaling/precursor/constant/polyMesh"
because it contains blockMeshDict
Reading "blockMeshDict"

--> FOAM FATAL ERROR:
Cannot find file "system/blockMeshDict"

From function int main(int, char**)
in file blockMesh.C at line 159.

FOAM exiting
************************************************** ***********************************

Upon looking at the "/home/yoshiyagi/eddylicious/tutorials/channel_flow_lund_rescaling/precursor/system" folder, I indeed cannot find the file "blockMeshDict"

However, I do see a file named "blockMeshDict" in /home/yoshiyagi/eddylicious/tutorials/channel_flow_lund_rescaling/precursor/constant/polyMesh.

These are the files in the polyMesh folder:

blockMeshDict blockMeshDict.template channelMesh.py

I tried running "blockMesh" wtihin the above directory, but got another error:

// * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * //
Create time

--> FOAM FATAL ERROR:
cannot find file "/home/yoshiyagi/eddylicious/tutorials/channel_flow_lund_rescaling/precursor/constant/polyMesh/system/controlDict"

From function virtual Foam::autoPtr<Foam::ISstream> Foam::fileOperations::uncollatedFileOperation::rea dStream(Foam::regIOobject&, const Foam::fileName&, const Foam::word&, bool) const
in file global/fileOperations/uncollatedFileOperation/uncollatedFileOperation.C at line 539.

FOAM exiting
************************************************** ***************

I am at a loss in this tutorial as I think I have tried running blockMesh in other directories, but always get an error. Perhaps this issue is due to my inexperience with openFOAM and that I do not have the right environment or I am not calling blockMesh properly?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I also wanted to add that I also tried running the above commands using "sudo."

***************UPDATE***************************** *
I got blockMesh to run, but I am not sure if what I did was the right thing to do. I noticed that my errors were related to the directory "system/blockMeshDict".

So, what I did was copy the "system" folder to within the "/home/yoshiyagi/eddylicious/tutorial/channel_flow_lund_rescaling/precursor/constant/polyMesh". I did this because the "controlDict" file was within the "system" folder, but the "system" folder was not located in the same directory as "blockMeshDict".

I also had to copy "blockMeshDict" into the copied "system" folder. This is what my directory and its contents looks like now:

************************************************** ***********
/home/yoshiyagi/eddylicious/tutorials/channel_flow_lund_rescaling/precursor/constant/polyMesh

This is where I ran blockMesh and it worked.

This is where I added the files blockMeshDict
/home/yoshiyagi/eddylicious/tutorials/channel_flow_lund_rescaling/precursor/constant/polyMesh/system

the contents are:

blockMeshDict decomposeParDict fvOptions fvSolution
controlDict decomposeParDict~ fvSchemes sampleDict

************************************************** *********************************

blockMesh now works, but could someone confirm if this was the right method to getting blockMesh to work?