Difference between thermophysicalProperties and transportProperties in OpenFoam
 

Hello.

I am new to OpenFoam and CFD as well. In some tutorial cases (I am using buoyantPimpleFoam), in 'Constant' folder there is 'thermophysicalProperties' file present and sometimes 'transportProperties' file present. And sometimes both the files are present.

[ In OpenFoam version 7, buoyantPimpleFoam folder - 'BernardCells' case has both the files present. But 'hotRoom' and 'hotRoomBoussinesq' cases have only 'thermophysicalProperties' file present. ]

Can anyone please explain the differences please? Which file to use for which cases?

Thanks in advance.

Some time ago the buoyantPimpleFoam and buoyantBoussinesqPimpleFoam solvers (as well as the simple variants) were combined. Previously, using the boussinesq variant required a number of thermophysical constants to be read -- from transportProperties. Since then a new Boussinesq equation of state handles thermophysical properties instead of computing them inside the solver with properties read from transportProperties. So my first guess is that the "transportProperties" file in the BernardCells tutorial is leftover from when it was once used and is now redundant. This can be tested by removing the transportProperties file from the tutorial and trying to run it (indeed, I've tested this theory and found it to be true -- you can as well).

Caelan

Thank you so much for the explanation. It helped a lot to clarify things. Much appreciated.