[UPengineer]

Hello,

I am very new to CFD and have been using OpenFOAM with HelyxOS interface for about 6 months (off and on) helping a professor with research.

I am currently setting up de Vahl Davis' square cavity natural convection benchmark. I have been successful in reconstructing it (seen in Figure 1) using a standard high-Re k-epsilon model and giving the dimensions and temperature differences that would have a Rayleigh Number where natural convection could take place.

My question regards boundary conditions in HelyxOS. In order to set up my boundary conditions I had to make my square cavity three dimensional since it appears HelyxOS is only able to select faces to set any thermal conditions. My mesh is shown in Figure 2.

Is there any way to select edges in HelyxOS as opposed to faces so this benchmark could be 2D and a truly correct de Vahl Davis benchmark?

Thank you,
Kramer

[skuznet]

In HelyxOS there is a patch type "empty" which you can use to make 2d case as in cavity example.

[UPengineer]

Originally Posted by skuznet

In HelyxOS there is a patch type "empty" which you can use to make 2d case as in cavity example.

Thank you for your reply skuznet.

Another way I found to do this if anyone else is still wondering is to set up bounds in the "empty" dimension and then make only one element of mesh. This way it is a pseudo 2D shape extruded in the 3rd dimension. The extrusion does not affect the behavior of the 2D shape, because there is a single unit of mesh. This also allows boundary conditions to be set to the extruded faces as if it were an edge boundary condition.