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Selected Papers from the 15th OpenFOAM Workshop

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A special issue of Fluids (ISSN 2311-5521).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 October 2020) | Viewed by 34444

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Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Eric G. Paterson

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Guest Editor

Kevin T. Crofton Department of Aerospace and Ocean Engineering, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA
Interests: CFD; naval hydrodynamics; drag reduction; propulsion; bubble dynamics; cavitation

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue will publish selected papers from the 15th OpenFOAM Workshop, June 22–25, 2020 in Arlington, Virginia, USA. The workshop is hosted by the Crofton Department of Aerospace and Ocean Engineering at Virginia Tech.

During this community driven event, conference presentations and poster sessions will be held and work in progress is gladly seen as well. In addition to the conference aspect, trainings on OpenFOAM technology and other related software tools are held mostly from users for users. This underlines one of the goals of the workshop: bringing users, developers and researchers together and providing a nurturing ground for open discussions and future projects. The conference will cover the following main topics:

Aerodynamics;
Civil engineering;
Complex materials;
Compressible flows;
Fluid-structure interaction;
General CFD;
Heat and mass transfer;
Lagrangian methods;
Naval hydrodynamic;
Offshore and renewable energy;
Optimization and control;
Porous media;
Pre/post-processing;
Reacting flows;
Turbomachinery;
Turbulence modeling.

Papers presented in this workshop and having enough quality can be further considered for publication in Fluids. The papers will be peer-reviewed for the validation of research results, developments, and applications. In addition, submissions from others that are not associated with this workshop but with themes focusing on OpenFOAM are also welcome.

Prof. Eric G. Paterson
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Fluids is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Published Papers (11 papers)

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Research

23 pages, 5231 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Numerical Flow Characterization around a Type 209 Submarine Using OpenFOAM

by Ruben J. Paredes, Maria T. Quintuña, Mijail Arias-Hidalgo and Raju Datla

Fluids 2021, 6(2), 66; https://doi.org/10.3390/fluids6020066 - 3 Feb 2021

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 4520

Abstract

The safety of underwater operation depends on the accuracy of its speed logs which depends on the location of its probe and the calibration thoroughness. Thus, probes are placed in areas where the flow of water is smooth, continuous, without high velocity gradients, air bubbles, or vortical structures. In the present work, the flow around two different submarines is numerically described in deep-water and near-surface conditions to identify hull zones where probes could be installed. First, the numerical setup of a multiphase solver supplied with OpenFOAM v7 was verified and validated using the DARPA SUBOFF-5470 submarine at scaled model including the hull and sail configuration at

H / D = 5.4

and

F r = 0.466

. Later, the grid sensitivity of the resistance was assessed for the full-scale Type 209/1300 submarine at

H / D = 0.347

and

F r = 0.194

. Free-surface effect on resistance and flow characteristics was evaluated by comparing different operational conditions. Results shows that the bow and near free-surface regions should be avoided due to high flow velocity gradient, pressure fluctuations, and large turbulent vortical structures. Moreover, free-surface effect is stronger close to the bow nose. In conclusion, the probe could be installed in the acceleration region where the local flow velocity is

15 %

higher than the navigation speed at surface condition. A 4% correction factor should be applied to the probe readings to compensate free-surface effect. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Selected Papers from the 15th OpenFOAM Workshop)

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19 pages, 1245 KiB

Open AccessArticle

On the Use of a Domain Decomposition Strategy in Obtaining Response Statistics in Non-Gaussian Seas

by Griet Decorte, Alessandro Toffoli, Geert Lombaert and Jaak Monbaliu

Fluids 2021, 6(1), 28; https://doi.org/10.3390/fluids6010028 - 7 Jan 2021

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2735

Abstract

During recent years, thorough experimental and numerical investigations have led to an improved understanding of dynamic phenomena affecting the fatigue life and survivability of offshore structures, e.g., ringing and springing and extreme wave impacts. However, most of these efforts have focused on modeling either selected extreme events or sequences of highly nonlinear waves impacting offshore structures, possibly overestimating the actual load to be experienced by the structure. Overall, not much has been done regarding short-term statistics. Although clear non-Gaussian statistics and therefore higher probabilities of extreme waves have been observed in random seas due to wave–wave interaction phenomena, which can impact short-term statistics for the structural load, they have not been studied extensively regarding the assessment of the dynamic behavior of offshore structures. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models have shown their viability for studying wave–structure interaction phenomena. Despite the continuously increasing computational resources, these models remain too computationally demanding for applications to the large spatial domains and long periods of time necessary for studying short-term statistics of non-Gaussian seas. Higher-order spectral (HOS) models, on the other hand, have been proven to be efficient and adequate in studying non-Gaussian seas. We therefore propose a one-way domain decomposition strategy, which takes full advantage of the recent advances in CFD and of the computational benefits of HOS. When applying this domain decomposition strategy, it appeared to be possible to deduce response statistics regarding the impact of nonlinear wave–wave interactions. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Selected Papers from the 15th OpenFOAM Workshop)

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17 pages, 3991 KiB

Open AccessArticle

On the Evaluation of Mesh Resolution for Large-Eddy Simulation of Internal Flows Using Openfoam

by Zahra Seifollahi Moghadam, François Guibault and André Garon

Fluids 2021, 6(1), 24; https://doi.org/10.3390/fluids6010024 - 5 Jan 2021

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 3442

Abstract

The central aim of this paper is to use OpenFOAM for the assessment of mesh resolution requirements for large-eddy simulation (LES) of flows similar to the ones which occur inside the draft-tube of hydraulic turbines at off-design operating conditions. The importance of this study is related to the fact that hydraulic turbines often need to be operated over an extended range of operating conditions, which makes the investigation of fluctuating stresses crucial. Scale-resolving simulation (SRS) approaches, such as LES and detached-eddy simulation (DES), have received more interests in the recent decade for understanding and mitigating unsteady operational behavior of hydro turbines. This interest is due to their ability to resolve a larger part of turbulent flows. However, verification studies in LES are very challenging, since errors in numerical discretization, but also subgrid-scale (SGS) models, are both influenced by grid resolution. A comprehensive examination of the literature shows that SRS for different operating conditions of hydraulic turbines is still quite limited and that there is no consensus on mesh resolution requirement for SRS studies. Therefore, the goal of this research is to develop a reliable framework for the validation and verification of SRS, especially LES, so that it can be applied for the investigation of flow phenomena inside hydraulic turbine draft-tube and runner at their off-design operating conditions. Two academic test cases are considered in this research, a turbulent channel flow and a case of sudden expansion. The sudden expansion test case resembles the flow inside the draft-tube of hydraulic turbines at part load. In this study, we concentrate on these academic test cases, but it is expected that hydraulic turbine flow simulations will eventually benefit from the results of the current research. The results show that two-point autocorrelation is more sensitive to mesh resolution than energy spectra. In addition, for the case of sudden expansion, the mesh resolution has a tremendous effect on the results, and, so far, we have not capture an asymptotic converging behavior in the results of Root Mean Square (RMS) of velocity fluctuations and two-point autocorrelation. This case, which represents complex flow behavior, needs further mesh resolution studies. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Selected Papers from the 15th OpenFOAM Workshop)

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17 pages, 50720 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Coupled OpenFOAM-WRF Study on Atmosphere-Wake-Ocean Interaction

by John Gilbert and Jonathan Pitt

Fluids 2021, 6(1), 12; https://doi.org/10.3390/fluids6010012 - 30 Dec 2020

Viewed by 2825

Abstract

This work aims to better understand how small scale disturbances that are generated at the air-sea interface propagate into the surrounding atmosphere under realistic environmental conditions. To that end, a one-way coupled atmosphere-ocean model is presented, in which predictions of sea surface currents and sea surface temperatures from a microscale ocean model are used as constant boundary conditions in a larger atmospheric model. The coupled model consists of an ocean component implemented while using the open source CFD software OpenFOAM, an atmospheric component solved using the Weather Research and Forecast (WRF) model, and a Python-based utility foamToWRF, which is responsible for mapping field data between the ocean and atmospheric domains. The results are presented for two demonstration cases, which indicate that the proposed coupled model is able to capture the propagation of small scale sea surface disturbances in the atmosphere, although a more thorough study is required in order to properly validate the model. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Selected Papers from the 15th OpenFOAM Workshop)

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16 pages, 797 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Multi-Scale Localized Perturbation Method in OpenFOAM

by Erik Higgins, Jonathan Pitt and Eric Paterson

Fluids 2020, 5(4), 250; https://doi.org/10.3390/fluids5040250 - 19 Dec 2020

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2007

Abstract

A modified set of governing differential equations for geophysical fluid flows is derived. All of the simulation fields are decomposed into a nominal large-scale background state and a small-scale perturbation from this background, and the new system is closed by the assumption that the perturbation is one-way coupled to the background. The decomposition method, termed the multi-scale localized perturbation method (MSLPM), is then applied to the governing equations of stratified fluid flows, implemented in OpenFOAM, and exercised in order to simulate the interaction of a vertically-varying background shear flow with an axisymmetric perturbation in a turbulent ocean environment. The results demonstrate that the MSLPM can be useful in visualizing the evolution of a perturbation within a complex background while retaining the complex physics that are associated with the original governing equations. The simulation setup may also be simplified under the MSLPM framework. Further applications of the MSLPM, especially to multi-scale simulations that encompass a large range of spatial and temporal scales, may be beneficial for researchers. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Selected Papers from the 15th OpenFOAM Workshop)

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22 pages, 1232 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Anisotropic RANS Turbulence Modeling for Wakes in an Active Ocean Environment

by Dylan Wall and Eric Paterson

Fluids 2020, 5(4), 248; https://doi.org/10.3390/fluids5040248 - 18 Dec 2020

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2205

Abstract

The problem of simulating wakes in a stratified oceanic environment with active background turbulence is considered. Anisotropic RANS turbulence models are tested against laboratory and eddy-resolving models of the problem. An important aspect of our work is to acknowledge that the environment is not quiescent; therefore, additional sources are included in the models to provide a non-zero background turbulence. The RANS models are found to reproduce some key features from the eddy-resolving and laboratory descriptions of the problem. Tests using the freestream sources show the intuitive result that background turbulence causes more rapid wake growth and decay. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Selected Papers from the 15th OpenFOAM Workshop)

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16 pages, 1307 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Multi-Physics Modeling of Electrochemical Deposition

by Justin Kauffman, John Gilbert and Eric Paterson

Fluids 2020, 5(4), 240; https://doi.org/10.3390/fluids5040240 - 11 Dec 2020

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 3102

Abstract

Electrochemical deposition (ECD) is a common method used in the field of microelectronics to grow metallic coatings on an electrode. The deposition process occurs in an electrolyte bath where dissolved ions of the depositing material are suspended in an acid while an electric current is applied to the electrodes. The proposed computational model uses the finite volume method and the finite area method to predict copper growth on the plating surface without the use of a level set method or deforming mesh because the amount of copper layer growth is not expected to impact the fluid motion. The finite area method enables the solver to track the growth of the copper layer and uses the current density as a forcing function for an electric potential field on the plating surface. The current density at the electrolyte-plating surface interface is converged within each PISO (Pressure Implicit with Splitting Operator) loop iteration and incorporates the variance of the electrical resistance that occurs via the growth of the copper layer. This paper demonstrates the application of the finite area method for an ECD problem and additionally incorporates coupling between fluid mechanics, ionic diffusion, and electrochemistry. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Selected Papers from the 15th OpenFOAM Workshop)

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12 pages, 3118 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Numerical Simulation of an Air-Core Vortex and Its Suppression at an Intake Using OpenFOAM

by Martin Kyereh Domfeh, Samuel Gyamfi, Mark Amo-Boateng, Robert Andoh, Eric Antwi Ofosu and Gavin Tabor

Fluids 2020, 5(4), 221; https://doi.org/10.3390/fluids5040221 - 26 Nov 2020

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2542

Abstract

A common challenge faced by engineers in the hydraulic industry is the formation of free surface vortices at pump and power intakes. This undesirable phenomenon which sometimes entrains air could result in several operational problems: noise, vibration, cavitation, surging, structural damage to turbines and pumps, energy losses, efficiency losses, etc. This paper investigates the numerical simulation of an experimentally observed air-core vortex at an intake using the LTSInterFoam solver in OpenFOAM. The solver uses local time-stepping integration. In simulating the air-core vortex, the standard k − ε, realizable k − ε, renormalization group (RNG) k − ε and the shear stress transport (SST) k − ω models were used. The free surface was modelled using the volume of fluid (VOF) model. The simulation was validated using a set of analytical models and experimental data. The SST k − ω model provided the best results compared to the other turbulence models. The study was extended to simulate the effect of installing an anti-vortex device on the formation of a free surface vortex. The LTSInterFoam solver proved to be a reliable solver for the steady state simulation of a free surface vortex in OpenFOAM. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Selected Papers from the 15th OpenFOAM Workshop)

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14 pages, 1393 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Mitigating Thermal NOx by Changing the Secondary Air Injection Channel: A Case Study in the Cement Industry

by Domenico Lahaye, Mohamed el Abbassi, Kees Vuik, Marco Talice and Franjo Juretić

Fluids 2020, 5(4), 220; https://doi.org/10.3390/fluids5040220 - 25 Nov 2020

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 2122

Abstract

This work studies how non-premixed turbulent combustion in a rotary kiln depends on the geometry of the secondary air inlet channel. We target a kiln in which temperatures can reach values above 1800 degrees Kelvin. Monitoring and possible mitigation of the thermal nitric-oxide (NOx) formation is of utmost importance. The performed reactive flow simulations result in detailed maps of the spatial distribution of the flow, thermodynamics and chemical conditions of the kiln. These maps provide valuable information to the operator of the kiln. The simulations show the difference between the existing and the newly proposed geometry of the secondary air inlet. In the existing configuration, the secondary air inlet is rectangular and located above the base of the burner pipe. The secondary air flows into the furnace from the top of the flame. The heat release by combustion is unevenly distributed throughout the flame. In the new geometry, the secondary air inlet is an annular ring placed around the burner pipe. The secondary air flows circumferentially around the burner pipe. The new secondary air inlet geometry is shown to result in a more homogeneous spatial distribution of the heat release throughout the flame. The peak temperatures of the flame and the production of thermal NOx are significantly reduced. Further research is required to resolve limitations of various choices in our modeling approach. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Selected Papers from the 15th OpenFOAM Workshop)

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12 pages, 1338 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Modelling a Moving Propeller System in a Stratified Fluid Using OpenFOAM

by Christian T. Jacobs

Fluids 2020, 5(4), 217; https://doi.org/10.3390/fluids5040217 - 21 Nov 2020

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 3041

Abstract

Moving propeller systems can introduce significant disturbances in stratified environments by mixing the surrounding fluid. Restorative buoyancy forces subsequently act on this region/patch of mixed fluid, causing it to eventually collapse vertically and spread laterally in order to recover the original stratification. This work describes the use of an OpenFOAM solver, modified using existing functionality, to simulate a moving propeller system in a stratified environment. Its application considers a rotating KCD-32 propeller in a laboratory-scale wave tank which mimics published experiments on mixed patch collapse. The numerically-predicted collapse behaviour is compared with empirical data and scaling laws. The results agree closely, both qualitatively and quantitatively, thereby representing a successful step towards the validation of the numerical model. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Selected Papers from the 15th OpenFOAM Workshop)

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16 pages, 1504 KiB

Open AccessEditor’s ChoiceArticle

OpenFOAM Simulations of Late Stage Container Draining in Microgravity

by Joshua McCraney, Mark Weislogel and Paul Steen

Fluids 2020, 5(4), 207; https://doi.org/10.3390/fluids5040207 - 11 Nov 2020

Cited by 15 | Viewed by 3381

Abstract

In the reduced acceleration environment aboard orbiting spacecraft, capillary forces are often exploited to access and control the location and stability of fuels, propellants, coolants, and biological liquids in containers (tanks) for life support. To access the ‘far reaches’ of such tanks, the passive capillary pumping mechanism of interior corner networks can be employed to achieve high levels of draining. With knowledge of maximal corner drain rates, gas ingestion can be avoided and accurate drain transients predicted. In this paper, we benchmark a numerical method for the symmetric draining of capillary liquids in simple interior corners. The free surface is modeled through a volume of fluid (VOF) algorithm via interFoam, a native OpenFOAM solver. The simulations are compared with rare space experiments conducted on the International Space Station. The results are also buttressed by simplified analytical predictions where practicable. The fact that the numerical model does well in all cases is encouraging for further spacecraft tank draining applications of significantly increased geometric complexity and fluid inertia. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Selected Papers from the 15th OpenFOAM Workshop)

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