How to implement a new boundary condition

• The implementations of the boundary conditions are located in

$FOAM_SRC/finiteVolume/fields/fvPatchFields/

• To add a new boundary condition, start by finding one that does almost what you want.
Copy that to your own implementation of a solver to link it statically to that solver. Compile
it with your solver without any modifications before you start modifying it.

• We will now try adding parabolicVelocityFvPatchVectorField to the simpleFoam

solver from OpenFOAM-1.5-dev to OpenFOAM-2.0.x (note: version change!), and use it for
the pitzDaily tutorial.

• Then we will check out the latest version of the same boundary condition from the OpenFOAM-
extend project at SourceForge, and compile and use it as a dynamic library.

Håkan Nilsson, Chalmers / Applied Mechanics / Fluid Dynamics 214

 Add parabolicVelocityFvPatchVectorField locally and statically
run
cp -r $FOAM_TUTORIALS/incompressible/simpleFoam/pitzDaily pitzDailyParabolicInlet
cd pitzDailyParabolicInlet
cp -r $FOAM_APP/solvers/incompressible/simpleFoam parabolicInletSimpleFoam
svn checkout http://openfoam-extend.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/\
openfoam-extend/trunk/Core/OpenFOAM-1.5-dev/src/finiteVolume/\
fields/fvPatchFields/derived/parabolicVelocity parabolicInletSimpleFoam
cd parabolicInletSimpleFoam

• Add parabolicVelocityFvPatchVectorField.C to the second line of Make/files, and

modify the final line to EXE = $(FOAM_USER_APPBIN)/parabolicInletSimpleFoam
• Add #include "parabolicVelocityFvPatchVectorField.H" in the header of your
simpleFoam.C file, so that the solver knows the new boundary condition.
• Do:
wclean
rm -rf Make/linux*
wmake
(Success – it seems to work also in 2.0.x!)
• The next step is to modify the case so that it uses the new boundary condition.

Håkan Nilsson, Chalmers / Applied Mechanics / Fluid Dynamics 215

 Use the parabolicVelocityFvPatchVectorField
• Run blockMesh on your pitzDailyParabolicInlet case.

• Modify the entry for the inlet boundary condition in 0/U to:
type parabolicVelocity;
n (1 0 0);
y (0 1 0);
maxValue 1;
value uniform (0 0 0); // Dummy for paraFoam
The contents of this entry must be in accordance with the constructor in the
parabolicVelocityFvPatchVectorField class. n is the direction of the flow, y is the
coordinate direction of the profile, and maxvalue is the centerline velocity.

• Run the case using parabolicInletSimpleFoam and view the cell center vectors at the
inlet patch in paraFoam. Note that for time 0, the default value (0 0 0) is used.

• You now have a boundary condition and a case that only work with this solver, and no
matter how you modify it you will not destroy anything else in OpenFOAM. When you are
sure that it works as it should you can add it globally so that it can be used for any solver
in OpenFOAM. We will do that now.

Håkan Nilsson, Chalmers / Applied Mechanics / Fluid Dynamics 216

 Compile your boundary condition as a new dynamic library
• From scratch: Copy the boundary condition to $WM_PROJECT_USER_DIR (from the OpenFOAM-
extend project at SourceForge):
mkdir -p $WM_PROJECT_USER_DIR/src/finiteVolume/fields/fvPatchFields/derived
cd $WM_PROJECT_USER_DIR/src/finiteVolume/fields/fvPatchFields/derived
svn checkout http://openfoam-extend.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/\
openfoam-extend/trunk/Core/OpenFOAM-1.5-dev/src/finiteVolume/\
fields/fvPatchFields/derived/parabolicVelocity/
cd parabolicVelocity

• We need a Make/files file:

parabolicVelocityFvPatchVectorField.C
LIB = $(FOAM_USER_LIBBIN)/libmyBCs
• We need a Make/options file:
EXE_INC = \
-I$(LIB_SRC)/finiteVolume/lnInclude
EXE_LIBS =
• Compile the dynamic library:
wmake libso

Håkan Nilsson, Chalmers / Applied Mechanics / Fluid Dynamics 217

 Use your boundary condition from the dynamic library
• Set up a new case:
run
cp -r $FOAM_TUTORIALS/incompressible/simpleFoam/pitzDaily \
pitzDailyParabolicInletDynamicLibrary
cd pitzDailyParabolicInletDynamicLibrary
blockMesh

Remember to specify the parabolicVelocity type in 0/U

• The boundary condition will not be recognized by any of the original OpenFOAM solvers
unless we tell OpenFOAM that the library exists.
Add a line in the system/controlDict file:

libs ("libmyBCs.so");

i.e. the library must be added for each case that will use it, but no re-compilation is needed
for any solver. libmyBCs.so is found using the LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable,
and if you followed the instructions on how to set up OpenFOAM and compile the boundary
condition this should work automatically.
• You can now set up the case as we did earlier and run it using the original simpleFoam
solver. Note that we never re-compiled the original simpleFoam solver, and if you do

Håkan Nilsson, Chalmers / Applied Mechanics / Fluid Dynamics 218

ldd ‘which simpleFoam‘ your new library will NOT show up since it is linked at run-
time (using dlopen).
 A look at the boundary condition
• The parabolicVelocityFvPatchVectorField boundary condition consists of two files:
parabolicVelocityFvPatchVectorField.C
parabolicVelocityFvPatchVectorField.H
• The .H-file is the header file, and it is included in the header of the .C-file.

• We can see (.H) that we create a sub class to the fixedValueFvPatchVectorField:

class parabolicVelocityFvPatchVectorField:
public fixedValueFvPatchVectorField
i.e. this is for Dirichlet (fixed) boundary conditions for vector fields.

• The class has the private data

//- Peak velocity magnitude
scalar maxValue_;
//- Flow direction
vector n_;
//- Direction of the y-coordinate
vector y_;

Håkan Nilsson, Chalmers / Applied Mechanics / Fluid Dynamics 220

 A look at the boundary condition
• The TypeName("parabolicVelocity"), used when specifying the boundary condition, is
defined.

• There are some public constructors and member functions that are defined in detail in the
.C-file.

• We used the third constructor when we tested the boundary condition, i.e. we read the
member data from a dictionary.

• The actual implementation of the boundary condition can be found in the updateCoeffs()
member function:

boundBox bb(patch().patch().localPoints(), true);

vector ctr = 0.5*(bb.max() + bb.min());
const vectorField& c = patch().Cf();
scalarField coord = 2*((c - ctr) & y_)/((bb.max() - bb.min()) & y_);
vectorField::operator=(n_*maxValue_*(1.0 - sqr(coord)));

Håkan Nilsson, Chalmers / Applied Mechanics / Fluid Dynamics 221

 A look at the boundary condition
• The member function write defines how to write out the boundary values in the time direc-
tory. The final line, writeEntry("value", os); writes out all the values, which is only
needed for post-processing.

• Find out more about all the variables by including the following in the end of the updateCoeffs
member function:

Info <<
"c" << c << endl;
Info <<
"ctr" << ctr << endl;
Info <<
"y_" << y_ << endl;
Info <<
"bb.max()" << bb.max() << endl;
Info <<
"bb.min()" << bb.min() << endl;
Info <<
"(c - ctr)" << c - ctr << endl;
Info <<
"((c - ctr) & y_)" << ((c - ctr) & y_) << endl;
Info <<
"((bb.max() - bb.min()) & y_)" <<
((bb.max() - bb.min()) & y_) << endl;
Info << "coord" << coord << endl;

Håkan Nilsson, Chalmers / Applied Mechanics / Fluid Dynamics 222