[Bnitter]

Hello!
I'm new to OpenFoam, and i'm simulating an rotating impeller using an AMI and meshing with snappyHexmesh.

The original case works fine, but when i try to scale the models, i get following error code when simulating:

Start meshing
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

   - Create background mesh
   - Extract feature edges for AMI
   - Meshing using snappyHexMesh (~ 1 minute)
   - Build 2D mesh


--> FOAM FATAL ERROR: 
Cannot find patch back in the source mesh.
Valid patch names are 
2
(
front
VAWT_patch24311
)


    From function Foam::label findPatchID(const Foam::polyBoundaryMesh&, const Foam::word&)
    in file extrudeMesh.C at line 141.

FOAM exiting

   - Modify boundaries for AMI
   - Modify boundary type


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
End Meshing


   - Copy 0.org to 0
   - Decompose the mesh


--> FOAM FATAL IO ERROR: 
keyword startFace is undefined in dictionary ".top"

file: .top from line 60 to line 60.

    From function const Foam::entry& Foam::dictionary::lookupEntry(const Foam::word&, bool, bool) const
    in file db/dictionary/dictionary.C at line 566.

FOAM exiting

   - Renumber the mesh again
[0] 
[0] 
[0] --> FOAM FATAL ERROR: 
[0] renumberMesh: cannot open case directory "/mnt/3CAEE65EAEE61066/Hydro_Brake_cases/Project_cases/HYDRO_BRAKE_Savonius_case8/processor0"
[0] 
[0] 
FOAM parallel run exiting
[0] 
   - Start simulation (this will need some time)
[0] 
[0] 
[0] --> FOAM FATAL ERROR: 
[0] pimpleDyMFoam: cannot open case directory "/mnt/3CAEE65EAEE61066/Hydro_Brake_cases/Project_cases/HYDRO_BRAKE_Savonius_case8/processor0"
[0] 
[0] 
FOAM parallel run exiting
[0] 
   - End

I have tried both scaling the models directly in SnappyHexmeshdict, and to scale the geometry and AMI stl files. I get the same error message for both methods.

Help is much appreciated.
Best regards Bjørnar

[Bnitter]

Anyone? I still have the same problem. Im trying to scale the models with a factor of 50, while keeping the Thickness equal to 0.05 (For a 2D simulation). I manually scaled the STL. files for the AMI and the rotating impeller in Inventor, and the background mesh scaled in BlockMeshDict. Are there any more files i have to change in order to have it functional?


BlockMeshDict:

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

scale   1;

vertices
(
    (-50 -50 0)       //  0
    (50 -50 0)        //  1
    (50 50 0)         //  2
    (-50 50 0)        //  3
    (-50 -50 0.05)    //  4 
    (50 -50 0.05)     //  5
    (50 50 0.05)      //  6
    (-50 50 0.05)     //  7
);

blocks
(
    hex (0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7) (50 50 1) simpleGrading (1 1 1)
);

edges
(
);

boundary
(
    inlet
    {
        type patch;
        faces
        (
            (0 4 7 3)
        );
    }
    
    outlet
    {
        type patch;
        faces
        (
            (2 6 5 1)
        );
    }
    top
    {
        type patch;
        faces
        (
            (3 7 6 2)
        );
    }
    bottom
    {
        type patch;
        faces
        (
            (1 5 4 0)
        );
    }
    back
    {
        type patch;
        faces
        (
            (0 3 2 1)
        );
    }
    front
    {
        type patch;
        faces
        (
            (4 5 6 7)
        );
    }
);

mergePatchPairs
(
);

// ************************************************************************* ///

SnappyHexmeshDict

/*--------------------------------*- C++ -*----------------------------------*\
| =========                 |                                                 |
| \\      /  F ield         | OpenFOAM: The Open Source CFD Toolbox           |
|  \\    /   O peration     | Version:  3.0.0                                 |
|   \\  /    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       false;


// Geometry. Definition of all surfaces. All surfaces are of class
// searchableSurface.
// Surfaces are used
// - to specify refinement for any mesh cell intersecting it
// - to specify refinement for any mesh cell inside/outside/near
// - to 'snap' the mesh boundary to the surface
geometry
{
    cylinder.stl
    {
        type        triSurfaceMesh;
        name        cylinder;
    }
};



// Settings for the castellatedMesh generation.
castellatedMeshControls
{

    // Refinement parameters
    // ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    // If local number of cells is >= maxLocalCells on any processor
    // switches from from refinement followed by balancing
    // (current method) to (weighted) balancing before refinement.
    maxLocalCells 100000;

    // Overall cell limit (approximately). Refinement will stop immediately
    // upon reaching this number so a refinement level might not complete.
    // Note that this is the number of cells before removing the part which
    // is not 'visible' from the keepPoint. The final number of cells might
    // actually be a lot less.
    maxGlobalCells 2000000;

    // The surface refinement loop might spend lots of iterations refining just a
    // few cells. This setting will cause refinement to stop if <= minimumRefine
    // are selected for refinement. Note: it will at least do one iteration
    // (unless the number of cells to refine is 0)
    minRefinementCells 0;

    // Allow a certain level of imbalance during refining
    // (since balancing is quite expensive)
    // Expressed as fraction of perfect balance (= overall number of cells /
    // nProcs). 0=balance always.
    maxLoadUnbalance 0.10;


    // Number of buffer layers between different levels.
    // 1 means normal 2:1 refinement restriction, larger means slower
    // refinement.
    nCellsBetweenLevels 2;



    // Explicit feature edge refinement
    // ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    // Specifies a level for any cell intersected by its edges.
    // This is a featureEdgeMesh, read from constant/triSurface for now.
    features
    (
        {
            file        "cylinder.eMesh";
            level       3;
        }

    );



    // Surface based refinement
    // ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    // Specifies two levels for every surface. The first is the minimum level,
    // every cell intersecting a surface gets refined up to the minimum level.
    // The second level is the maximum level. Cells that 'see' multiple
    // intersections where the intersections make an
    // angle > resolveFeatureAngle get refined up to the maximum level.

    refinementSurfaces
    {
        cylinder
        {
            level       (3 3);

            faceType    boundary;
            cellZone    cylinder;
            faceZone    cylinder;
            cellZoneInside  inside;
        }
        
       
    }

    // 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
    {
        
    }


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

    // After refinement patches get added for all refinementSurfaces and
    // all cells intersecting the surfaces get put into these patches. The
    // section reachable from the locationInMesh is kept.
    // NOTE: This point should never be on a face, always inside a cell, even
    // after refinement.
    locationInMesh (0.0001 -0.005 0.0001);


    // Whether any faceZones (as specified in the refinementSurfaces)
    // are only on the boundary of corresponding cellZones or also allow
    // free-standing zone faces. Not used if there are no faceZones.
    allowFreeStandingZoneFaces true;
}



// Settings for the snapping.
snapControls
{
    //- Number of patch smoothing iterations before finding correspondence
    //  to surface
    nSmoothPatch 3;

    //- Relative distance for points to be attracted by surface feature point
    //  or edge. True distance is this factor times local
    //  maximum edge length.
    tolerance 4.0; // 1.0;

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

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

    // Feature snapping

        // Number of feature edge snapping iterations.
        // Leave out altogether to disable.
        nFeatureSnapIter 10;

        // Detect (geometric only) features by sampling the surface
        // (default=false).
        implicitFeatureSnap false;

        // Use castellatedMeshControls::features (default = true)
        explicitFeatureSnap true;

        // Detect features between multiple surfaces
        // (only for explicitFeatureSnap, default = false)
        multiRegionFeatureSnap true;
}



// 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 true;

    // Per final patch (so not geometry!) the layer information
    layers
    {
       
    }

    // Expansion factor for layer mesh
    expansionRatio 1.4;

    // Wanted thickness of final added cell layer. If multiple layers
    // is the thickness of the layer furthest away from the wall.
    // Relative to undistorted size of cell outside layer.
    // See relativeSizes parameter.
    finalLayerThickness 1.0;

    // Minimum thickness of cell layer. If for any reason layer
    // cannot be above minThickness do not add layer.
    // Relative to undistorted size of cell outside layer.
    minThickness 0.1;

    // If points get not extruded do nGrow layers of connected faces that are
    // also not grown. This helps convergence of the layer addition process
    // close to features.
    // Note: changed(corrected) w.r.t 17x! (didn't do anything in 17x)
    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 3;

    // 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 10;

    // Stop layer growth on highly warped cells
    maxFaceThicknessRatio 0.5;

    // 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;


    // Overall max number of layer addition iterations. The mesher will exit
    // if it reaches this number of iterations; possibly with an illegal
    // mesh.
    nLayerIter 50;
}



// 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-16;

    //- Minimum quality of the tet formed by the face-centre
    //  and variable base point minimum decomposition triangles and
    //  the cell centre. This has to be a positive number for tracking
    //  to work. Set to very negative number (e.g. -1E30) to
    //  disable.
    //     <0 = inside out tet,
    //      0 = flat tet
    //      1 = regular tet
    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;
    }
}



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


// ************************************************************************* //