[fedvasu]

Hi Foamers,

I have been tirelessly trying out different permutation and combination of layer control parameters, so that I can get proper boundary layers and y+ < 1, but to no good effect, when I increase nSurfaceLayers to 10, no layers are added at all, I have a complex geometry, which rotates.

/*--------------------------------*- C++ -*----------------------------------*\
| =========                 |                                                 |
| \\      /  F ield         | OpenFOAM: The Open Source CFD Toolbox           |
|  \\    /   O peration     | Version:  2.2.1                                 |
|   \\  /    A nd           | Web:      www.OpenFOAM.org                      |
|    \\/     M anipulation  |                                                 |
\*---------------------------------------------------------------------------*/
FoamFile
{
    version     2.0;
    format      ascii;
    class       dictionary;
    object      snappyHexMeshDict;
}
// * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * //

// Which of the steps to run
castellatedMesh true;
snap            true;
addLayers       true;

geometry
{

    ImperialBlade.stl 
    {
        type triSurfaceMesh;
    }
    
    
    outerCylinder.stl
    {
        type        triSurfaceMesh;
        name        outerCylinder;
        regions
        {
            ascii
            {
                 name       outerCylinder;
            }
        }
    }    
};



// Settings for the castellatedMesh generation.
castellatedMeshControls
{

    // Refinement parameters
    maxLocalCells  2000000;

    maxGlobalCells 3000000;
    
    minRefinementCells 0;

    
    maxLoadUnbalance 0.10;


    nCellsBetweenLevels 3;
    
    
    features
    (
        {
	  file   "ImperialBlade.eMesh";
	  level    5;
        }

	{
	  file "outerCylinder.eMesh";
	  level 0;
	}

    );



    refinementSurfaces
    {
        ImperialBlade.stl
        {
            level       (5 5);
        }
	  
	outerCylinder
        {
            level       (0 0);
        }
 
    }

    // 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
    {
        
       outerCylinder
        {
            mode        inside;
            levels      ((1E15 0));
        }
        
    }


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

    // NOTE: This point should never be on a face, always inside a cell, even
    // after refinement.
    locationInMesh (-677.989649107597 -873.503400652118 1357.52027014113);


    allowFreeStandingZoneFaces true;
}



// Settings for the snapping.
snapControls
{
    
    nSmoothPatch 3;

    
    tolerance 4.0; // 1.0;

    //- Number of mesh displacement relaxation iterations.
    nSolveIter 300;

    
    nRelaxIter 5;

    
    nFeatureSnapIter 30;
}



// 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 false;

    // Per final patch (so not geometry!) the layer information
    layers
    {
        "ImperialBlade.*"
         {
            nSurfaceLayers 10;
         }
    }

    // Expansion factor for layer mesh
    expansionRatio 1.2;

    finalLayerThickness 0.1;

    
    minThickness 0.01;

    
    nGrow 0;

    // Advanced settings

    // When not to extrude surface. 0 is flat surface, 90 is when two faces
    // are perpendicular
    featureAngle 30;

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

    // 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 0;

    // Stop layer growth on highly warped cells
    maxFaceThicknessRatio 0.6;

    // 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;


    
    nLayerIter 40;
}



// Generic mesh quality settings. At any undoable phase these determine
// where to undo.
meshQualityControls
{
    //- Maximum non-orthogonality allowed. Set to 180 to disable.
    maxNonOrtho 65;

    //- Max skewness allowed. Set to <0 to disable.
    maxBoundarySkewness 20;
    maxInternalSkewness 4;

    //- Max concaveness allowed. Is angle (in degrees) below which concavity
    //  is allowed. 0 is straight face, <0 would be convex face.
    //  Set to 180 to disable.
    maxConcave 80;

    //- Minimum pyramid volume. Is absolute volume of cell pyramid.
    //  Set to a sensible fraction of the smallest cell volume expected.
    //  Set to very negative number (e.g. -1E30) to disable.
    minVol 1e-13;

    
    minTetQuality -1; // 1e-30;

    //- Minimum face area. Set to <0 to disable.
    minArea -1;

    //- Minimum face twist. Set to <-1 to disable. dot product of face normal
    //- and face centre triangles normal
    minTwist 0.01;

    //- minimum normalised cell determinant
    //- 1 = hex, <= 0 = folded or flattened illegal cell
    minDeterminant 0.001;

    //- minFaceWeight (0 -> 0.5)
    minFaceWeight 0.05;

    //- minVolRatio (0 -> 1)
    minVolRatio 0.01;

    //must be >0 for Fluent compatibility
    minTriangleTwist -1;


    // Advanced

    //- Number of error distribution iterations
    nSmoothScale 4;
    //- amount to scale back displacement at error points
    errorReduction 0.75;

    // Optional : some meshing phases allow usage of relaxed rules.
    // See e.g. addLayersControls::nRelaxedIter.
    relaxed
    {
        //- Maximum non-orthogonality allowed. Set to 180 to disable.
        maxNonOrtho 75;
    }
}


// Advanced

// Flags for optional output
// 0 : only write final meshes
// 1 : write intermediate meshes
// 2 : write volScalarField with cellLevel for postprocessing
// 4 : write current intersections as .obj files
debug 0;


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

I am using this tool to guess the minimum wall distance in terms of finalLayer thickness and expansionratio, but I haven't been able to get y+ less than 50, with any combinations I have used.

my blade thickness is 1.25 mm and I am using boundary layer displacement thickness to be 2 times of that, that means final layer thickness of 1 and contracting down to, 1.5e-5 m (desired distance from the blade surface)

why is it so hard to get correct y+ and wall distance from the blade in snappy-Hex,
I mean is there a tool which could tell average, this is just frustrating.

[openfoam_user]

To begin try to add only 1 cell. And check that the mesh is OK. Then only add more cells in the boundary layer.
Stéphane.

[fedvasu]

Originally Posted by openfoam_user

To begin try to add only 1 cell. And check that the mesh is OK. Then only add more cells in the boundary layer.
Stéphane.

you mean nSurfaceLayers 1; with the wall distance and then start adding more layers?

Thank you Stéphane,