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Problems creating a volScalarField with expressionField function-object

Hi all,

Recently I have been trying to develop a boundary condition for convective heat transfer using swak4foam. For more information you can go to my last post regarding this problem (externalwallheatfluxtemperature-bc-h-function-twall). I'm still a bit lost about this matter, but, as a start, I tried to create a field named "hExtV" to define the convective heat transfer at the external wall (patch). To do so I have been reading all the documentation I have found about swak4foam.

Firstly, I tried to create the new field with funkySetFields. After it was executed a new file with the mentioned name was created in the coresponding region directory, as expected. After that, I tried to modify its value with the manipulatePachField function object, but an error appeared and I wasn't allowed to do that. Now I don't remember the error message, but I googled it and I found that executing the following function object it may be seen if the field was created successfully.

Code:

     listFields 

     {

         type listRegisteredObjects;

         region nameRegion;

     }

Obviously, the output of this FO in the log file didn't show the field created before with funkySetFields.

My second attempt was to create the field with the expressionField FO instead of funkySetFields. The field creation was successful as it can be seen in the output:

Code:

Creating expression field hExtV ... type:volScalarField

--> FOAM Warning : 

    From function simpleFunctionObject::simpleFunctionObject

    in file simpleFunctionObject/simpleFunctionObject.C at line 109

    'outputControlMode' not found in listFields

Assuming: timeStep

--> FOAM Warning : 

    From function simpleFunctionObject::simpleFunctionObject

    in file simpleFunctionObject/simpleFunctionObject.C at line 117

    'outputInterval' not found in listFields

Assuming: 1

Content of object registry <regionName> at start

                    Name             Type Autowrite

======================== ================ =========

                       T   volScalarField Yes

              betavSolid         IOobject No

                boundary polyBoundaryMesh No

               cellZones      regIOobject No

                    data         IOobject No

               faceZones      regIOobject No

                   faces         faceList No

               fvOptions         IOobject No

               fvSchemes       dictionary No

              fvSolution       dictionary No

                       h         IOobject No

                   hExtV         IOobject Yes

               neighbour        labelList No

                   owner        labelList No

                       p   volScalarField Yes

              pointZones      regIOobject No

                  points      vectorField No

     radiationProperties       dictionary No

            thermo:alpha         IOobject No

              thermo:rho         IOobject No

thermophysicalProperties       dictionary No

However, no field file is created in the corresponding region directory, so I cannot see the field values.

At this stage, I would like to know what I am doing wrong. What should I do in order to create the file in the region directory?

I attach the functions subdictionary specification so that you can see how I did it and the funkySetFields call I used.

Code:

functions

{



    hExtVExpression

    {

        type expressionField;

        outputControl timeStep;

        outputInterval 1;

        region <regionName>;

        fieldName hExtV;

        expression "0";

        dimension [1 0 -3 -1 0 0 0];

        autowrite true;

    }

     listFields 

     {

         type listRegisteredObjects;

         region <regionName>;;

     }

     hExtV_FO

     {

         type manipulatePatchField;

         outputControl timeStep;

         outputInterval 1;

         fieldName hExtV;

         region <regionName>;

         patchName conveccio_ext;

         expression "0.25*T";

         mask "true";

         writeManipulated true;

     }

Code:

funkySetFields -create -field hExtV -time 0 -expression '0' -dimension '[1 0 -3 -1 0 0 0]'

Many thanks in advance!

Alex

Well, after some trials I found out why expressionField function object didn't create the field file in the directory <time>/<region>/h_extV. The point is that when I opened this thread I had only checked the 0/<region> directory and, for some reason I can't figure out, the FO is not creating the field in the time 0 but it does for the following time steps. On the other hand, funkySetFields creates the field in the time 0 due to the -time 0 flag I used.

Besides that, I still have problems with the manipulatePatchField FO. As stated in the previous post, this FO cannot manipulate the field created with funkySetFields utility since it says that the field doesn't exist (the field file is created in the 0 time folder but it's not listed when listRegisteredObjects FO is applied). However, when the field is created by means of the use of manipulatePatchField FO it seems that it does manipulate the field according to what it shows the output of the solver (see below), but no <time>/<region>/h-extV file shows any value.

·extract of the solver's log file

Code:

Creating expression field h_ExtV ... type:volScalarField

Content of object registry <region> at start

                    Name             Type Autowrite

======================== ================ =========

                       T   volScalarField Yes

                                  (...)

                       h         IOobject No

                  h_ExtV         IOobject Yes

                                  (...)



swak4Foam: Setting default mesh

swak4Foam: Allocating new repository for sampledGlobalVariables

Manipulated field h_ExtV on patch conveccio_ext on 1224 faces with the expression "h_ext"

Time = 200





Solving for solid region (...)



Content of object registry <region>

                    Name             Type Autowrite

======================== ================ =========

                       T   volScalarField Yes     

                                 (...)



--> FOAM Warning : 

    From function ExpressionResult::getUniformInternal(const label size,bool noWarn)

    in file ExpressionResult/ExpressionResultI.H at line 332

    The minimum value 10.882353 and the maximum 10.882353 differ. I will use the average 10.882353

Manipulated field h_ExtV on patch conveccio_ext on 1224 faces with the expression "h_ext"

Rewriting manipulated field h_ExtV



                     (...)



Time = 1000





Solving for solid region <region>





Content of object registry <region>

                    Name             Type Autowrite

======================== ================ =========

                       T   volScalarField Yes

                                (...)

--> FOAM Warning : 

    From function ExpressionResult::getUniformInternal(const label size,bool noWarn)

    in file ExpressionResult/ExpressionResultI.H at line 332

    The minimum value 8.6192246 and the maximum 9.2404733 differ. I will use the average 9.2120186

Manipulated field h_ExtV on patch conveccio_ext on 1224 faces with the expression "h_ext"

Rewriting manipulated field h_ExtV

End

·extract of the 1000/<region>/h_extV file

Code:

dimensions      [1 0 -3 -1 0 0 0];



internalField   uniform 0;



boundaryField

{

    sim_lat1

    {

        type            symmetry;

    }

    sim_lat2

    {

        type            symmetry;

    }

    sim_sup

    {

        type            symmetry;

    }

    sim_inf

    {

        type            symmetry;

    }

    conveccio_ext //patch that should be modified with manipulatePatchField FO

    {

        type            zeroGradient;

    }

(...)

}

·extract of the controlDict file

Code:

functions

{



    hExtVExpression

    {

        type expressionField;

        outputControl none;//timeStep;

        outputInterval no;//1;

        region <region>;

        fieldName h_ExtV;

        expression "0";

        dimension [1 0 -3 -1 0 0 0];

        autowrite true;

    }

    listFields 

    {

        type listRegisteredObjects;

        outputControlMode timeStep;

        outputInterval 1;

        region fasana;     

    }

    hExtV_FO

    {

        type manipulatePatchField;

        outputControl timeStep;

        outputInterval 1;

        fieldName h_ExtV;

        region <region>;

        patchName conveccio_ext;

        variables ("h_ext{conveccio_ext/<region>}= T;");

        expression "h_ext";

        mask "true";

        writeManipulated true;

    }

}

At this stage I have a few questions:

1. Why does expressionField not create the field at the first time (time 0)? What should I do to make it create it?

2. Why is manipulatePatchField supposedly manipulating (and (re)writing) the field but no value is writen in the field file and it remains untouched with the same value time after time?

In the case I am testing h_extV takes (or at least that's what I want to) the same value than T field at the patch as you can see above in the controlDict code attached. Of course this is meaningless, it's just for testing and trying to understand how to use these FO's. Then I don't understand why the output says

Code:

The minimum value 8.6192246 and the maximum 9.2404733 differ. I will use the average 9.2120186

3. Does it mean that it is using the average value of the field in all the patch faces? I would like that each patch face had its own value based on its own T value.

I will appreciate any hint you can give me in regards of these FO's usage. If you need more info, just let me know!

Many thanks in advance,

Alex

Can anyone, please, give me some hint about my problems with creating and manipulating new fields?

Many thanks in advance.

Alex