[NilsTilton]

Dear OpenFOAM community,

I am having an issue using the postProcess utility to sample data from a simulation that uses the fixedProfile boundary condition. I am using OpenFOAM version v2460 on a Mac OS. Here's the issue:

I am simulating a 2D Poisson equation of the form nabla^2=f(x,y) with Dirichlet conditions on all boundaries. I use the lapacianFoam solver and add the source term f(x,y) using fvOptions. I sample data from the completed simulation using the postProcess utility with the sampleDict file below. It samples the temperature at the cell centers.

FoamFile
{
version 2.0;
format ascii;
class dictionary;
object sampleDict;
}

type sets;
sets
{

CellCenters
{
type cellCentre;
axis xyz;
}

}
interpolationScheme cellPoint;
setFormat raw;
fields (T);


Everything works great when I apply uniform temperatures on all boundaries using OpenFOAM's "fixedValue" condition. I successfully sample data and compare with an analytical solution. However, when I modify my boundary conditions to apply variable temperatures along the boundaries, the simulation runs fine and I can plot the results using ParaView without issue. However, the postProcess utility outputs an error. For example, I apply the condition T=cos(y) along the west boundary using the following fixedProfile in my 0/T file:

west
{
type fixedProfile;
profile coded
name westBC

codeInclude #{ #};
code
#{
return scalar
(
cos(x)
);
#};
direction (0 1 0);
origin 0;

}

I try to sample the data using the command "laplacianFoam -postProcess -func sampleDict -latestTime"

I then get the following output to screen:

Create time

Create mesh for time = 4


SIMPLE: convergence criteria
field T tolerance 1e-10

Sampled set:
CellCenters -> raw

Time = 4
Reading field T

--> FOAM Warning :
--> FOAM FATAL IO ERROR: (openfoam-2406)


file: 4/T/boundaryField/west at line 1055 to 1071.

From static Foam::autoPtr<Foam::Function1<Type>> Foam::Function1<double>::New(const Foam::word &, const Foam::entry *, const Foam::dictionary &, const Foam::word &, const Foam:bjectRegistry *, const bool) [Type = double]
in file /Volumes/OpenFOAM-v2406/src/OpenFOAM/lnInclude/Function1New.C at line 140.

End


I looked at the 4/T file, and see it has something to do with the west boundary condition above. The lines 1055-1071 are:

boundaryField
{
west
{
type fixedProfile;
profile
{
type fixedProfile;
profile coded name westBC codeInclude #{ #};
code #{
return scalar
(
cos(x)
);
#};
direction ( 0 1 0 );
origin 0;
}
direction (0 1 0);
origin 0;
value nonuniform List<scalar>
32
(
0.998795456205
0.989176509965
0.970031253195
...
...

[NilsTilton]

For anyone that might run into this issue. I found I was able to postProcess, provided I used used runtime sampling. Basically I placed my sampleDict file within a function object in the controlDict file, as below. This read the data just fine. I'm guessing there is an issue with postProcess reading the time directories of a completed simulation using fixedProfile. But when run from sampleDict, it is getting the data directly from the solver?

functions
{

sampleDict // arbitrary name
{


type sets;
interpolationScheme cellPoint;
fields (T);
setFormat raw;
writeControl timeStep;
writeInterval 2;

sets
{

NodeValues // arbitrary name
{
type cellCentre;
axis xyz;
}

}
}
}