[mbox97]

Hi, I'm trying to run a bike simulation using the motorbike tutorial as a starting point. I've successfully run it on a single core and I'm now trying to run it in parallel on 6 cores,
The procedure I follow is:
surfaceFeatures
blockMesh
decomposePar
mpirun -np 6 snappyHexMesh -parallel -overwrite


After that I tried to run simpleFoam but it was stopping saying it couldn't find patchField Frame in processor*/0/p. I looked in the logs of patchSummary and it had the same error about the patchField.


In the snappyDict I created 3 different regions (frame and wheels) in order to have the wheels in rotation.



snappyHexMeshDict:

/*--------------------------------*- C++ -*----------------------------------*\
  =========                 |
  \\      /  F ield         | OpenFOAM: The Open Source CFD Toolbox
   \\    /   O peration     | Website:  https://openfoam.org
    \\  /    A nd           | Version:  9
     \\/     M anipulation  |
\*---------------------------------------------------------------------------*/
FoamFile
{
    format      ascii;
    class       dictionary;
    object      snappyHexMeshDict;
}
// * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * //

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


// 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
{
    bike
    {
        type triSurfaceMesh;    
        file "Bike.stl";
        regions
        {
            Front
            {
                name Front;
            }      

            Rear
            {
                name Rear;
            }
            
            Frame
            {
                name Frame;
            }
        }
    }

    refinementBox
    {
        type searchableBox;
        min (-1.0 -0.7 0.0);
        max ( 8.0  0.7 2.5);
    }
};



// 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 10;

    // 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 3;



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

    // Specifies a level for any cell intersected by its edges.
    // This is a featureEdgeMesh, read from constant/geometry for now.
    features
    (
        {
            file "Bike.eMesh";
            level 6;
        }
    );



    // 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
   {
       bike
       {
           level (6 7);
            regions
            {
                Front
                {
                    level (6 7);
                
         //Optional specification of patch type (default is         wall). No
             //constraint types (cyclic, symmetry) etc. are             allowed.
                    patchInfo
                    {
                    type wall;
                    inGroups (bikeGroup);
                    }
                }
                
                Rear
                {
                    level (6 7);
                    
                    patchInfo
                    {
                   type wall;
                      inGroups (bikeGroup);
                    }            
                    }
                    Frame
                {
                    level (6 7);
                    
                    patchInfo
                    {
                   type wall;
                      inGroups (bikeGroup);
                    }
                }
            }
        }
   }

    // 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
    {
        refinementBox
        {
            mode    inside;
            level   4;
        }
    }


    // 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 (3.0001 3.0001 0.43);


    // 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 2.0;

    //- Number of mesh displacement relaxation iterations.
    nSolveIter 30;

    //- 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 points on multiple surfaces (only for explicitFeatureSnap)
        multiRegionFeatureSnap false;
}



// 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
    {
        "(lowerWall|Bike).*"
        {
            nSurfaceLayers 1;
        }
    }

    // Expansion factor for layer mesh
    expansionRatio 1.0;

    // 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 0.3;

    // 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 60;

    // At non-patched sides allow mesh to slip if extrusion direction makes
    // angle larger than slipFeatureAngle.
    slipFeatureAngle 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
{
    #include "meshQualityDict"
}


// Advanced

// Write flags
writeFlags
(
    scalarLevels
    layerSets
    layerFields     // write volScalarField for layer coverage
);


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


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

patchSummary:

/*---------------------------------------------------------------------------*\
  =========                 |
  \\      /  F ield         | OpenFOAM: The Open Source CFD Toolbox
   \\    /   O peration     | Website:  https://openfoam.org
    \\  /    A nd           | Version:  9
     \\/     M anipulation  |
\*---------------------------------------------------------------------------*/
Build  : 9
Exec   : patchSummary -parallel
Date   : Nov 19 2021
Time   : 09:53:35
Host   : "marco-desktop-ubuntu"
PID    : 4293
I/O    : uncollated
Case   : /home/marco/OpenFOAM/marco-9/run/Bike/bike
nProcs : 6
Slaves : 
5
(
"marco-desktop-ubuntu.4294"
"marco-desktop-ubuntu.4295"
"marco-desktop-ubuntu.4296"
"marco-desktop-ubuntu.4297"
"marco-desktop-ubuntu.4298"
)

Pstream initialised with:
    floatTransfer      : 0
    nProcsSimpleSum    : 0
    commsType          : nonBlocking
    polling iterations : 0
sigFpe : Enabling floating point exception trapping (FOAM_SIGFPE).
fileModificationChecking : Monitoring run-time modified files using timeStampMaster (fileModificationSkew 10)
allowSystemOperations : Allowing user-supplied system call operations

// * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * //
Create time

Create mesh for time = 0

Time = 0

Valid fields:
    volScalarField    thickness
[1] 
[1] 
[1] --> FOAM FATAL IO ERROR: 
[1] Cannot find patchField entry for Frame
[1] 
[1] file: /home/marco/OpenFOAM/marco-9/run/Bike/bike/processor1/0/nut/boundaryField from line 25 to line 70.
[1] 
[1]     From function void Foam::GeometricField<Type, PatchField, GeoMesh>::Boundary::readField(const Foam::DimensionedField<TypeR, GeoMesh>&, const Foam::dictionary&) [with Type = double; PatchField = Foam::fvPatchField; GeoMesh = Foam::volMesh]
[1]     in file /home/marco/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-9/src/OpenFOAM/lnInclude/GeometricBoundaryField.C at line 184.
[1] 
FOAM parallel run exiting
[2] 
[2] 
[2] --> FOAM FATAL IO ERROR: 
[2] Cannot find patchField entry for Frame
[2] 
[2] file: /home/marco/OpenFOAM/marco-9/run/Bike/bike/processor2/0/nut/boundaryField from line 25 to line 63.
[2] 
[2]     From function void Foam::GeometricField<Type, PatchField, GeoMesh>::Boundary::readField(const Foam::DimensionedField<TypeR, GeoMesh>&, const Foam::dictionary&) [with Type = double; PatchField = Foam::fvPatchField; GeoMesh = Foam::volMesh]
[2]     in file /home/marco/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-9/src/OpenFOAM/lnInclude/GeometricBoundaryField.C at line 184.
[2] 
FOAM parallel run exiting
[2] 
[4] 
[4] 
[4] --> FOAM FATAL IO ERROR: 
[4] Cannot find patchField entry for Frame
[4] 
[4] file: /home/marco/OpenFOAM/marco-9/run/Bike/bike/processor4/0/nut/boundaryField from line 25 to line 70.
[4] 
[4]     From function void Foam::GeometricField<Type, PatchField, GeoMesh>::Boundary::readField(const Foam::DimensionedField<TypeR, GeoMesh>&, const Foam::dictionary&) [with Type = double; PatchField = Foam::fvPatchField; GeoMesh = Foam::volMesh]
[4]     in file /home/marco/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-9/src/OpenFOAM/lnInclude/GeometricBoundaryField.C at line 184.
[4] 
FOAM parallel run exiting
[4] 
[5] 
[5] 
[5] --> FOAM FATAL IO ERROR: 
[5] Cannot find patchField entry for Frame
[5] 
[5] file: /home/marco/OpenFOAM/marco-9/run/Bike/bike/processor5/0/nut/boundaryField from line 25 to line 58.
[5] 
[5]     From function void Foam::GeometricField<Type, PatchField, GeoMesh>::Boundary::readField(const Foam::DimensionedField<TypeR, GeoMesh>&, const Foam::dictionary&) [with Type = double; PatchField = Foam::fvPatchField; GeoMesh = Foam::volMesh]
[5]     in file /home/marco/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-9/src/OpenFOAM/lnInclude/GeometricBoundaryField.C at line 184.
[5] 
FOAM parallel run exiting
[5] 
[0] 
[0] 
[0] --> FOAM FATAL IO ERROR: 
[0] Cannot find patchField entry for Frame
[0] 
[0] file: /home/marco/OpenFOAM/marco-9/run/Bike/bike/processor0/0/nut/boundaryField from line 25 to line 58.
[0] 
[0]     From function void Foam::GeometricField<Type, PatchField, GeoMesh>::Boundary::readField(const Foam::DimensionedField<TypeR, GeoMesh>&, const Foam::dictionary&) [with Type = double; PatchField = Foam::fvPatchField; GeoMesh = Foam::volMesh]
[0]     in file /home/marco/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-9/src/OpenFOAM/lnInclude/GeometricBoundaryField.C at line 184.
[0] 
FOAM parallel run exiting
[0] 
[1] 
[3] 
[3] 
[3] --> FOAM FATAL IO ERROR: 
[3] Cannot find patchField entry for Frame
[3] 
[3] file: /home/marco/OpenFOAM/marco-9/run/Bike/bike/processor3/0/nut/boundaryField from line 25 to line 63.
[3] 
[3]     From function void Foam::GeometricField<Type, PatchField, GeoMesh>::Boundary::readField(const Foam::DimensionedField<TypeR, GeoMesh>&, const Foam::dictionary&) [with Type = double; PatchField = Foam::fvPatchField; GeoMesh = Foam::volMesh]
[3]     in file /home/marco/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-9/src/OpenFOAM/lnInclude/GeometricBoundaryField.C at line 184.
[3] 
FOAM parallel run exiting
[3] 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
MPI_ABORT was invoked on rank 3 in communicator MPI COMMUNICATOR 3 SPLIT FROM 0
with errorcode 1.

NOTE: invoking MPI_ABORT causes Open MPI to kill all MPI processes.
You may or may not see output from other processes, depending on
exactly when Open MPI kills them.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
[marco-desktop-ubuntu:04289] 5 more processes have sent help message help-mpi-api.txt / mpi-abort
[marco-desktop-ubuntu:04289] Set MCA parameter "orte_base_help_aggregate" to 0 to see all help / error messages

I can't figure out why it runs correctly on a single core and it does not in parallel. Please feel free to ask for any other useful file or piece of info. Thanks

[mbox97]

I managed to "solve" this problem by running decomposePar, snappyHexMesh in parallel, reconstructParMesh -constant, delete the 0 folder from the processor* folders, and force decomposePar again.

If anyone has a suggestion to overcome it without this decompose,delete files, decompose again dance let me know.
Cheers

[olesen]

Originally Posted by mbox97

I managed to "solve" this problem by running decomposePar, snappyHexMesh in parallel, reconstructParMesh -constant, delete the 0 folder from the processor* folders, and force decomposePar again.

If anyone has a suggestion to overcome it without this decompose,delete files, decompose again dance let me know.
Cheers

Some of the root problems are discussed in this issue:

https://develop.openfoam.com/Develop.../-/issues/2236


The upshot is that either you need to do a reconstructParMesh to establish proper parallel<->serial mappings for decompositions. Or you need to define your initial (serial) boundary conditions with the constraint types defined as regexs and then simply copy them into the decomposed 0/ directories.