[albcem]

Hello all,

I am using PotentialFOAM to initialize the flow field in a rectangular channel to seed it into icoFOAM. Here are the boundary conditions:

inlet: impose velocity profile and zero pressure gradient

outlet: Fixed pressure and zero velocity gradient

walls of the channel: slip velocity boundary condition, zeroGradient on pressure


When I run potentialFOAM, I get the expected straight streamlines across the channel, but the velocity profile is smoothed out to a constant profile after a few cells downstream of the inlet. So at the outlet I have more or less constant velocity across the surface.

If I run icoFOAM, the velocity profile propagates gradually to the outlet across the channel as expected. So the inlet and outlet profiles closely resemble each other.

I am trying to understand if I can expect the potential flow solution to look similar to the fully evolved viscous solution, in which the inlet velocity profile is valid all through the channel. If not why?

Thanks.

C.