[RobertoCirolini]

Dear Foamers,

I have some problems using TopoSet.
I need to simulate a flow passing throw a porous media, please see the picture 1 attached. The pleat is a stl file.

The only thing I need is somehow to make that OpenFoam recognize my stl file as a CellZone.

The problem is: I have been using sHM, but when I split my mesh, (using surfaceFeatureExtract) it creates FaceZones and CellZones, because I enable in sHM to create a refinementSurface. Creating a CellZone is fine because I can, and I should, set in fvOptions my porous Media, but the flow does not pass through the other side of the pleat and I can not find a way to deal with sHM, so I decided to migrate to use TopoSet.

Using TopoSet I could manage creating a Cellzone for my stl file just when I create a blockMesh that involves all my pleat, not like in the picture. However, when I try to set TopoSet using the picture 1, OpenFoam gives me those CellZones, please see the other pictures.

The red part are my CellZones and they are different because I was playing around with SurfaceToCell, which means that the following code represents the picture 2.

here is the code I used for my topoSet:

{
      name filter;
      type cellSet;
      action new;
      source surfaceToCell; // select based on surface
//      source zoneToCell;
      sourceInfo
          {
        file            "$FOAM_CASE/constant/triSurface/testPleat.stl";

        outsidePoints   ((1 1 1));         // definition of outside
        includeCut      true;              // cells cut by surface
        includeInside   true;             // cells not on outside of surf
        includeOutside  false;             // cells on outside of surf
        useSurfaceOrientation false;  // use closed surface inside/outside
                                      // test (ignores includeCut,
                                      // outsidePoints)
        nearDistance    -1;//-1             // cells with centre near surf
                                            // (set to -1 if not used)
        //- If > 0 : include cells with distance from cellCentre to surface
        //  less than nearDist.
        curvature       0.9;                // cells within nearDistance
                                            // and near surf curvature
                                            // (set to -100 if not used)
          }
      }/**/

      {
    name pleat;
    type cellZoneSet;
    action new;
    source setToCellZone;
    sourceInfo
    {
    set filter;
    }
      }/**/

Has anyone already faced similar issues in OpenFOAM? Where could this come from?

Thank you very much for your time!

Roberto

[RobertoCirolini]

Hi again,

maybe my explanation was not very understandable. Please let me know.
But I still cannot manage to set my cellzone properly. I tried to use topoSet in a simple mode, a square. The square is a stl file and I made it in paraview. Therefore I used the following code to set my CellZone, and it works (for that square). Please, see the picture 4.

      {
      name filter;
      type cellSet;
      action new;
      source surfaceToCell; // select based on surface
      sourceInfo
          {
        file            "$FOAM_CASE/constant/triSurface/testPleat.stl";

        outsidePoints   ((1 1 1));         // definition of outside
        includeCut      false;              // cells cut by surface
        includeInside   true;             // cells not on outside of surf
        includeOutside  false;             // cells on outside of surf
        useSurfaceOrientation true;  // use closed surface inside/outside
                                      // test (ignores includeCut,
                                      // outsidePoints)
        nearDistance    -1;//-1             // cells with centre near surf
                                            // (set to -1 if not used)
        //- If > 0 : include cells with distance from cellCentre to surface
        //  less than nearDist.
        curvature       0.9;                // cells within nearDistance
                                            // and near surf curvature
                                            // (set to -100 if not used)
          }
      }

However when I use the pleat file I receive the picture 5 and I still cannot understand why my cellZone is like The red region is my CellZone

Is there somebody who could give me some hint, please?

Thank you in advance

[RobertoCirolini]

Any suggestions?

[RobertoCirolini]

Hi, just to finish this thread,

I have found a solution for my problem. Using topoSet I've just selected the other cells of my configuration in the picture 5, using "actions" and "invert". Besides I have also created two boxes "boxToCell" to delete the regions that were not important for my simulation, front and behind of my pleat. That is all.

Cheers,

Roberto