[det]

I am trying to convert mechanisms from Chemkin format for use in OpenFoam, but have not had any success getting the chemkinToFoam utility to work. I consistently get this error message with the transport file:

--> FOAM FATAL IO ERROR:
"ill defined primitiveEntry starting at keyword '!' on line 1 and ending at line 1"

I've tried 5 different mechanism file sets with the same result (sometime the error is for the first line, sometimes for the whole file). Does the utility work in OpenFoam 7?

Details:
OpenFoam7 running on Ubuntu 18.04 via Windows subsystem for linux (WSL)

[det]

I'm new to OpenFOAM, so would also be interested to hear if anyone uses this chemkinToFoam utility. Is it something that is functional, or a relic from previous versions?

[francescomarra]

Dear Daniel,
it should work, but in my experience the chemkin file has to be very compliant with the formatting rules of chemkin. Actually this is not the case for several mechanisms you can find in several websites. The chemkin program itself is able to recognize correctly several extensions and not perfectly conforming formats to chemkin rules.

Best regards,
Franco

[det]

Dear Franco,

Thank you for the note. I have noticed the inconsistency with Chemkin input files that you mention when I've converted them to Cantera cti format. But in that case, the error messages point me to the formatting problem; with chemkinToFoam, I get the same un-informative error no matter which input file set I use -- even the ones that are seemingly right on the Chemkin standard.

Daniel

[clapointe]

If it is indeed a problem with the transport files it is likely not a problem with the mech file; check out the chemFoam tutorials. You'll notice that they use a file named something like transportProperties that is in Foam format -- not chemkin format. As noted previously, openfoam can also be quite picky about the format of the mech file (chemkinToFoam will also read the mech thermo just fine, possibly with just minor edits).

Caelan

[det]

Caelan - Thank you for the note! I had been using the chemkin format transport file, as indicated by the chemkinToFoam help:

Usage: chemkinToFoam [OPTIONS] <CHEMKIN file> <CHEMKIN thermodynamics file> <CHEMKIN transport file> <OpenFOAM chemistry file> <OpenFOAM thermodynamics file>

As you suggested, I substituted the transportProperties file from the chemFoam tutorials, and that got me beyond the FATAL IO ERROR I was stuck on. Now I'm getting various errors related to the chemkin thermo file -- but at least stuff that I can work through.

It looks like the transportProperties file in the chemFoam tutorials is just a dud, with Sutherland As and Ts parameters set to zero. I'm modeling laminar diffusion flames, so the transport properties are important, and I'll need to figure out how to input that -- preferably from the chemkin file. So any suggestions on the best approach for that would be much appreciated.

[zhangyan]

Hi,
You may try my recently implemented reactingCanteraFoam:
https://github.com/ZhangYanTJU/reactingCanteraFoam

[ajithnair]

Hello. If you were able to solve the issue kindly post the solution. I would relally appreciate it. I have the same error implementing sandeago mechanism for ethylene.