[seryi]

Hello everyone!

I am trying to simulate the flow around an inclined flat plate (I edited the files from the motorbike tutorial), the computational domain was created using blockMesh. I exported an STL file from Inventor but the quality was very poor, so I decided to refine the geometry in Salome by creating a mesh.
In the SnappyHexMeshDict I am using the name of my solid as it is in the STL file and defined it as a wall. After running SnappyHexMesh the mesh is created but then, when visualizing in paraview I get a warning on terminal "Cannot find any patch or group names matching <name of my STL file>" in the polyMesh file. However, in paraview the mesh is created in the solid. I don't know what I am doing wrong.


Thanks in advance!

[AtoHM]

Welcome to the forum Sergio.


Without further information it is hard to say. You say you have a poor quality stl and created a "mesh" in Salome. What do you mean with mesh here? A refined stl or a finite volume mesh? I assume its the first, but be careful with the nomenclature here.
Then going to snappy, there are several things that could be wrong, we need to have a look at the snappyHexMeshDict and maybe also the blockMeshDict you are using. You can also share the case, if its not confidential.


Best regards.

[seryi]

Hello AtoHM,

Thank you for your reply and sorry for the confusion, I actually refined the stl file in Salome.

/*--------------------------------*- C++ -*----------------------------------*\
  =========                 |
  \\      /  F ield         | OpenFOAM: The Open Source CFD Toolbox
   \\    /   O peration     | Website:  https://openfoam.org
    \\  /    A nd           | Version:  10
     \\/     M anipulation  |
\*---------------------------------------------------------------------------*/
FoamFile
{
    format      ascii;
    class       dictionary;
    object      blockMeshDict;
}

// * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * //

convertToMeters 1;

vertices
(
    (-10 0 -10)   // vertex 0 
    (50 0 -10)    // vertex 1 
    (-10 10 -10)  // vertex 2
    (50 10 -10)   // vertex 3
    
    (-10 0 10)  // vertex 4
    (50 0 10)   // vertex 5 
    (-10 10 10) // vertex 6
    (50 10 10)  // vertex 7
);

blocks
(
    hex (0 1 3 2 4 5 7 6) (120 20 40) simpleGrading (1 1 1)
);

boundary
(
    frontAndBack
    {
        type patch;
        faces
        (
            (0 2 3 1)
            (6 4 5 7)
        );
    }
    inlet
    {
        type patch;
        faces
        (
            (6 2 0 4)
        );
    }
    outlet
    {
        type patch;
        faces
        (
            (3 7 5 1)
        );
    }
    lowerWall
    {
        type wall;
        faces
        (
            (0 1 5 4)
        );
    }
    upperWall
    {
        type patch;
        faces
        (
            (2 6 7 3)
        );
    }    
);

// ************************************************************************* //

/*--------------------------------*- C++ -*----------------------------------*\
  =========                 |
  \\      /  F ield         | OpenFOAM: The Open Source CFD Toolbox
   \\    /   O peration     | Website:  https://openfoam.org
    \\  /    A nd           | Version:  10
     \\/     M anipulation  |
\*---------------------------------------------------------------------------*/
FoamFile
{
    format      ascii;
    class       dictionary;
    object      snappyHexMeshDict;
}
// * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * //

// Which of the steps to run
castellatedMesh true;    // make basic mesh?
snap            true;    // decide to snap back to surface?
addLayers       true;   // decide to add viscous layer? Better to add only after a good mesh!


// Geometry. Definition of all surfaces. All surfaces are of class
// searchableSurface.
// Surfaces are used
// - to specify refinement for any mesh cell intersecting it
// - to specify refinement for any mesh cell inside/outside/near
// - to 'snap' the mesh boundary to the surface
geometry
{
    standalonePanel
    {
        type triSurfaceMesh;
        file "standalonePanel.stl";
        name standalonePanel;
    }


    refinementBox
    {
        type searchableBox;
        min (-5 0 -10);
        max (15 10 10);
    }

};

// Settings for the castellatedMesh generation.
castellatedMeshControls
{

    // Refinement parameters
    // ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    // If local number of cells is >= maxLocalCells on any processor
    // switches from from refinement followed by balancing
    // (current method) to (weighted) balancing before refinement.
    maxLocalCells 100000;

    // Overall cell limit (approximately). Refinement will stop immediately
    // upon reaching this number so a refinement level might not complete.
    // Note that this is the number of cells before removing the part which
    // is not 'visible' from the keepPoint. The final number of cells might
    // actually be a lot less.
    maxGlobalCells 2000000;

    // The surface refinement loop might spend lots of iterations refining just a
    // few cells. This setting will cause refinement to stop if <= minimumRefine
    // are selected for refinement. Note: it will at least do one iteration
    // (unless the number of cells to refine is 0)
    minRefinementCells 10;

    // Allow a certain level of imbalance during refining
    // (since balancing is quite expensive)
    // Expressed as fraction of perfect balance (= overall number of cells /
    // nProcs). 0=balance always.
    maxLoadUnbalance 0.10;


    // Number of buffer layers between different levels.
    // 1 means normal 2:1 refinement restriction, larger means slower
    // refinement.
    nCellsBetweenLevels 3;



    // Explicit feature edge refinement
    // ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    // Specifies a level for any cell intersected by its edges.
    // This is a featureEdgeMesh, read from constant/geometry for now.
/*    features
    (
        {
            file "standalonePanel.eMesh";
            level 6;
        }
    );
*/


    // Surface based refinement
    // ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    // Specifies two levels for every surface. The first is the minimum level,
    // every cell intersecting a surface gets refined up to the minimum level.
    // The second level is the maximum level. Cells that 'see' multiple
    // intersections where the intersections make an
    // angle > resolveFeatureAngle get refined up to the maximum level.

    refinementSurfaces
    {
        standalonePanel
        {
            // Surface-wise min and max refinement level
            level (3 3);

            // Optional specification of patch type (default is wall). No
            // constraint types (cyclic, symmetry) etc. are allowed.
            patchInfo
            {
                type wall;
            }
        }
    }

    // Resolve sharp angles
    resolveFeatureAngle 30;


    // Region-wise refinement
    // ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    // Specifies refinement level for cells in relation to a surface. One of
    // three modes
    // - distance. 'levels' specifies per distance to the surface the
    //   wanted refinement level. The distances need to be specified in
    //   descending order.
    // - inside. 'levels' is only one entry and only the level is used. All
    //   cells inside the surface get refined up to the level. The surface
    //   needs to be closed for this to be possible.
    // - outside. Same but cells outside.

    refinementRegions
    {
        refinementBox
        {
            mode    inside;
            level   4;
        }
    }


    // Mesh selection
    // ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    // After refinement patches get added for all refinementSurfaces and
    // all cells intersecting the surfaces get put into these patches. The
    // section reachable from the insidePoint is kept.
    // NOTE: This point should never be on a face, always inside a cell, even
    // after refinement.
    locationInMesh (-0.8567333524755063 1.7537462815845348 0.8570109183772807);


    // Whether any faceZones (as specified in the refinementSurfaces)
    // are only on the boundary of corresponding cellZones or also allow
    // free-standing zone faces. Not used if there are no faceZones.
    allowFreeStandingZoneFaces true;
}



// Settings for the snapping.
snapControls
{
    //- Number of patch smoothing iterations before finding correspondence
    //  to surface
    nSmoothPatch 3;

    //- Relative distance for points to be attracted by surface feature point
    //  or edge. True distance is this factor times local
    //  maximum edge length.
    tolerance 2.0;

    //- Number of mesh displacement relaxation iterations.
    nSolveIter 30;

    //- Maximum number of snapping relaxation iterations. Should stop
    //  before upon reaching a correct mesh.
    nRelaxIter 5;

    // Feature snapping

        //- Number of feature edge snapping iterations.
        //  Leave out altogether to disable.
        nFeatureSnapIter 10;

        //- Detect (geometric only) features by sampling the surface
        //  (default=false).
        implicitFeatureSnap false;

        //- Use castellatedMeshControls::features (default = true)
        explicitFeatureSnap true;

        //- Detect points on multiple surfaces (only for explicitFeatureSnap)
        multiRegionFeatureSnap false;
}



// Settings for the layer addition.
addLayersControls
{
    // Are the thickness parameters below relative to the undistorted
    // size of the refined cell outside layer (true) or absolute sizes (false).
    relativeSizes true;

    // Per final patch (so not geometry!) the layer information
    layers
    {
        "(lowerWall|standalonePanel).*"
        {
            nSurfaceLayers 1;
        }
    }

    // Expansion factor for layer mesh
    expansionRatio 1.0;

    // Wanted thickness of final added cell layer. If multiple layers
    // is the thickness of the layer furthest away from the wall.
    // Relative to undistorted size of cell outside layer.
    // See relativeSizes parameter.
    finalLayerThickness 0.3;

    // Minimum thickness of cell layer. If for any reason layer
    // cannot be above minThickness do not add layer.
    // Relative to undistorted size of cell outside layer.
    minThickness 0.1;

    // If points get not extruded do nGrow layers of connected faces that are
    // also not grown. This helps convergence of the layer addition process
    // close to features.
    // Note: changed(corrected) w.r.t 17x! (didn't do anything in 17x)
    nGrow 0;

    // Advanced settings

    // When not to extrude surface. 0 is flat surface, 90 is when two faces
    // are perpendicular
    featureAngle 60;

    // At non-patched sides allow mesh to slip if extrusion direction makes
    // angle larger than slipFeatureAngle.
    slipFeatureAngle 30;

    // Maximum number of snapping relaxation iterations. Should stop
    // before upon reaching a correct mesh.
    nRelaxIter 3;

    // Number of smoothing iterations of surface normals
    nSmoothSurfaceNormals 1;

    // Number of smoothing iterations of interior mesh movement direction
    nSmoothNormals 3;

    // Smooth layer thickness over surface patches
    nSmoothThickness 10;

    // Stop layer growth on highly warped cells
    maxFaceThicknessRatio 0.5;

    // Reduce layer growth where ratio thickness to medial
    // distance is large
    maxThicknessToMedialRatio 0.3;

    // Angle used to pick up medial axis points
    // Note: changed(corrected) w.r.t 17x! 90 degrees corresponds to 130 in 17x.
    minMedianAxisAngle 90;


    // Create buffer region for new layer terminations
    nBufferCellsNoExtrude 0;


    // Overall max number of layer addition iterations. The mesher will exit
    // if it reaches this number of iterations; possibly with an illegal
    // mesh.
    nLayerIter 50;
}



// Generic mesh quality settings. At any undoable phase these determine
// where to undo.
meshQualityControls
{
    #include "meshQualityDict"
}


// Advanced

// Write flags
writeFlags
(
    scalarLevels
    layerSets
    layerFields     // write volScalarField for layer coverage
);


// Merge tolerance. Is fraction of overall bounding box of initial mesh.
// Note: the write tolerance needs to be higher than this.
mergeTolerance 1e-6;

Best regards.

[seryi]

Hello AtoHM.

Thanks for your reply and sorry for the consufion. I actually refined the stl in Salome.
I tried to reply including the blockMeshDict and SnappyHexMeshDict files in the "Go Advanced" option but the reply is not posted.

[AtoHM]

Just copy and paste the content of the dictionaries here. The stl would help to understand your geometry and check consistency of the dimensions.

[seryi]

blockMeshDict:

/*--------------------------------*- C++ -*----------------------------------*\
========= |
\\ / F ield | OpenFOAM: The Open Source CFD Toolbox
\\ / O peration | Website: https://openfoam.org
\\ / A nd | Version: 10
\\/ M anipulation |
\*---------------------------------------------------------------------------*/
FoamFile
{
format ascii;
class dictionary;
object blockMeshDict;
}

// * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * //

convertToMeters 1;

vertices
(
(-10 0 -10) // vertex 0
(50 0 -10) // vertex 1
(-10 10 -10) // vertex 2
(50 10 -10) // vertex 3

(-10 0 10) // vertex 4
(50 0 10) // vertex 5
(-10 10 10) // vertex 6
(50 10 10) // vertex 7
);

blocks
(
hex (0 1 3 2 4 5 7 6) (120 20 40) simpleGrading (1 1 1)
);

boundary
(
frontAndBack
{
type patch;
faces
(
(0 2 3 1)
(6 4 5 7)
);
}
inlet
{
type patch;
faces
(
(6 2 0 4)
);
}
outlet
{
type patch;
faces
(
(3 7 5 1)
);
}
lowerWall
{
type wall;
faces
(
(0 1 5 4)
);
}
upperWall
{
type patch;
faces
(
(2 6 7 3)
);
}
);

// ************************************************** *********************** //

snappyHexMeshDict:

/*--------------------------------*- C++ -*----------------------------------*\
========= |
\\ / F ield | OpenFOAM: The Open Source CFD Toolbox
\\ / O peration | Website: https://openfoam.org
\\ / A nd | Version: 10
\\/ M anipulation |
\*---------------------------------------------------------------------------*/
FoamFile
{
format ascii;
class dictionary;
object snappyHexMeshDict;
}
// * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * //

// Which of the steps to run
castellatedMesh true; // make basic mesh?
snap true; // decide to snap back to surface?
addLayers true; // decide to add viscous layer? Better to add only after a good mesh!


// Geometry. Definition of all surfaces. All surfaces are of class
// searchableSurface.
// Surfaces are used
// - to specify refinement for any mesh cell intersecting it
// - to specify refinement for any mesh cell inside/outside/near
// - to 'snap' the mesh boundary to the surface
geometry
{
standalonePanel
{
type triSurfaceMesh;
file "standalonePanel.stl";
name standalonePanel;
}


refinementBox
{
type searchableBox;
min (-5 0 -10);
max (15 10 10);
}

};

// Settings for the castellatedMesh generation.
castellatedMeshControls
{

// Refinement parameters
// ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

// If local number of cells is >= maxLocalCells on any processor
// switches from from refinement followed by balancing
// (current method) to (weighted) balancing before refinement.
maxLocalCells 100000;

// Overall cell limit (approximately). Refinement will stop immediately
// upon reaching this number so a refinement level might not complete.
// Note that this is the number of cells before removing the part which
// is not 'visible' from the keepPoint. The final number of cells might
// actually be a lot less.
maxGlobalCells 2000000;

// The surface refinement loop might spend lots of iterations refining just a
// few cells. This setting will cause refinement to stop if <= minimumRefine
// are selected for refinement. Note: it will at least do one iteration
// (unless the number of cells to refine is 0)
minRefinementCells 10;

// Allow a certain level of imbalance during refining
// (since balancing is quite expensive)
// Expressed as fraction of perfect balance (= overall number of cells /
// nProcs). 0=balance always.
maxLoadUnbalance 0.10;


// Number of buffer layers between different levels.
// 1 means normal 2:1 refinement restriction, larger means slower
// refinement.
nCellsBetweenLevels 3;



// Explicit feature edge refinement
// ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

// Specifies a level for any cell intersected by its edges.
// This is a featureEdgeMesh, read from constant/geometry for now.
/* features
(
{
file "standalonePanel.eMesh";
level 6;
}
);
*/


// Surface based refinement
// ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

// Specifies two levels for every surface. The first is the minimum level,
// every cell intersecting a surface gets refined up to the minimum level.
// The second level is the maximum level. Cells that 'see' multiple
// intersections where the intersections make an
// angle > resolveFeatureAngle get refined up to the maximum level.

refinementSurfaces
{
standalonePanel
{
// Surface-wise min and max refinement level
level (3 3);

// Optional specification of patch type (default is wall). No
// constraint types (cyclic, symmetry) etc. are allowed.
patchInfo
{
type wall;
}
}
}

// Resolve sharp angles
resolveFeatureAngle 30;


// Region-wise refinement
// ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

// Specifies refinement level for cells in relation to a surface. One of
// three modes
// - distance. 'levels' specifies per distance to the surface the
// wanted refinement level. The distances need to be specified in
// descending order.
// - inside. 'levels' is only one entry and only the level is used. All
// cells inside the surface get refined up to the level. The surface
// needs to be closed for this to be possible.
// - outside. Same but cells outside.

refinementRegions
{
refinementBox
{
mode inside;
level 4;
}
}


// Mesh selection
// ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

// After refinement patches get added for all refinementSurfaces and
// all cells intersecting the surfaces get put into these patches. The
// section reachable from the insidePoint is kept.
// NOTE: This point should never be on a face, always inside a cell, even
// after refinement.
locationInMesh (-0.8567333524755063 1.7537462815845348 0.8570109183772807);


// Whether any faceZones (as specified in the refinementSurfaces)
// are only on the boundary of corresponding cellZones or also allow
// free-standing zone faces. Not used if there are no faceZones.
allowFreeStandingZoneFaces true;
}



// Settings for the snapping.
snapControls
{
//- Number of patch smoothing iterations before finding correspondence
// to surface
nSmoothPatch 3;

//- Relative distance for points to be attracted by surface feature point
// or edge. True distance is this factor times local
// maximum edge length.
tolerance 2.0;

//- Number of mesh displacement relaxation iterations.
nSolveIter 30;

//- Maximum number of snapping relaxation iterations. Should stop
// before upon reaching a correct mesh.
nRelaxIter 5;

// Feature snapping

//- Number of feature edge snapping iterations.
// Leave out altogether to disable.
nFeatureSnapIter 10;

//- Detect (geometric only) features by sampling the surface
// (default=false).
implicitFeatureSnap false;

//- Use castellatedMeshControls::features (default = true)
explicitFeatureSnap true;

//- Detect points on multiple surfaces (only for explicitFeatureSnap)
multiRegionFeatureSnap false;
}



// Settings for the layer addition.
addLayersControls
{
// Are the thickness parameters below relative to the undistorted
// size of the refined cell outside layer (true) or absolute sizes (false).
relativeSizes true;

// Per final patch (so not geometry!) the layer information
layers
{
"(lowerWall|standalonePanel).*"
{
nSurfaceLayers 1;
}
}

// Expansion factor for layer mesh
expansionRatio 1.0;

// Wanted thickness of final added cell layer. If multiple layers
// is the thickness of the layer furthest away from the wall.
// Relative to undistorted size of cell outside layer.
// See relativeSizes parameter.
finalLayerThickness 0.3;

// Minimum thickness of cell layer. If for any reason layer
// cannot be above minThickness do not add layer.
// Relative to undistorted size of cell outside layer.
minThickness 0.1;

// If points get not extruded do nGrow layers of connected faces that are
// also not grown. This helps convergence of the layer addition process
// close to features.
// Note: changed(corrected) w.r.t 17x! (didn't do anything in 17x)
nGrow 0;

// Advanced settings

// When not to extrude surface. 0 is flat surface, 90 is when two faces
// are perpendicular
featureAngle 60;

// At non-patched sides allow mesh to slip if extrusion direction makes
// angle larger than slipFeatureAngle.
slipFeatureAngle 30;

// Maximum number of snapping relaxation iterations. Should stop
// before upon reaching a correct mesh.
nRelaxIter 3;

// Number of smoothing iterations of surface normals
nSmoothSurfaceNormals 1;

// Number of smoothing iterations of interior mesh movement direction
nSmoothNormals 3;

// Smooth layer thickness over surface patches
nSmoothThickness 10;

// Stop layer growth on highly warped cells
maxFaceThicknessRatio 0.5;

// Reduce layer growth where ratio thickness to medial
// distance is large
maxThicknessToMedialRatio 0.3;

// Angle used to pick up medial axis points
// Note: changed(corrected) w.r.t 17x! 90 degrees corresponds to 130 in 17x.
minMedianAxisAngle 90;


// Create buffer region for new layer terminations
nBufferCellsNoExtrude 0;


// Overall max number of layer addition iterations. The mesher will exit
// if it reaches this number of iterations; possibly with an illegal
// mesh.
nLayerIter 50;
}



// Generic mesh quality settings. At any undoable phase these determine
// where to undo.
meshQualityControls
{
#include "meshQualityDict"
}


// Advanced

// Write flags
writeFlags
(
scalarLevels
layerSets
layerFields // write volScalarField for layer coverage
);


// Merge tolerance. Is fraction of overall bounding box of initial mesh.
// Note: the write tolerance needs to be higher than this.
mergeTolerance 1e-6;


// ************************************************** *********************** //

[seryi]

I managed to create the mesh.
I just needed to refine my stl file even more and use:
'snappyHexMesh -overwrite'