What openFoam solver for sandstorm?
 

Hi,

What solver do you recommend to use for a sandstorm simulation? I have 4 buildings (simple geometry) and I want to simulate the effect of a sandstorm on them (a part of them).

I thought to something like multiphase solver (ex bubbleFoam) - I work with OpenFoam.

Cristina

Hi Cristina,

It depends a bit what details (and how detailed) you are interested in. But I know of Jan Potac at Chalmers who looked at snow drift using twoPhaseEulerFoam. His report lives here. Perhaps that's a start ...

How to set a new patchField like "logarithmicVelocity" for openfoam?
 

Hi gwiering,

Thank you for the reply. I downloaded and tried to run the snowDrift simulation. I generated the mesh - it's ok but when I try to apply the twoPhaseEulerFoam solver I receive the error:

"Unknown patchField type logarithmicVelocity for patch type patch
Valid patchField types are : a long list of pathFields"

I followed the steps from the report and I compiled what it is in snowTwoPhaseEulerFoam folder - there is the "logarithmicVelocityFvPatchVectorField" source and header file. I used wmake all - and now there are set in my /opt/openfoam170/lib/linuxGccDPOpt/ folder the libraries: libphaseModel.so, libEulerianInterfacialModels.so and libkineticTheoryModel.so.

I don't know what is the problem but it is obvious that openfoam doesn't "see" the new patchField entitled: logarithmicVelocity. How to set it?

Cristina

Hi Cristina,

I guess your logarithmicVelocity boundary condition did not compile properly or there is some other problem. There is lots of info on the forum on how to make your own boundary conditions, so please shop around a bit. If you's just like to get started, I suggest you use a simple uniform BC for the inlet velocity, e.g.

How to see snow flakes/sand particules of simulation in paraview?
 

Hi gwierink,

I resolved the problem with that library. Now I have a question... How can I see the snow flakes (in my case sand particles) in paraview? (I'm speaking about the snowDrift project)
Earlier I realized to see some white flakes during my simulation(after I clicked on play button) but I didn't remember how I did it. I tried again many times but they don't appear anymore. (Where is Solid color I tried with pressure(p), velocity(Ua), alpha etc. Anyway as I remember I think it's something in animation View bar - Mode, Time but I don't know - I tried and tried but nothing...

Cristina