Tutorial to set up a case for

chtMultiRegionFoam in OpenFOAM
2.0.0
Arpit Singhal
University of Luxembourg
March 3, 2014
The OpenFOAM-solver chtMultiRegionFoam is meant to be used for heattransfer between a solid and a fluid originally. As it does work with different
regions of different properties, the setup is therefore different from the other
OpenFOAM cases.
This tutorial is written for setting up a basic case for chtMultiRegionFoam
(cMRF) in an Openfoam.

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Contents

Contents
1 Introduction

2 Basic Workflow

3 chtMRF Case Setup

3.1 Geometry and Mesh . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.2 Creating the Regions . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.2.1 Declaring the Regions . . . . . . .
3.2.2 Defining the Region by Zones . . .
3.3 Splitting the Mesh . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.4 Necessary Files and Folders . . . . . . . .
3.4.1 Files setup by the user . . . . . . .
3.4.2 Files setup by OpenFOAM utilities

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4
4
5
5
6
7
8
9
15

4 Running the case

18

5 Using scripting

18

6 Appendice

21

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1 Introduction

1 Introduction
What is meant by multiregion multi physics modeling? It is inherently-coupled physics
on disparate continua (e.g. fluid, solid, different solids). In multiregion multi physics
separate governing equations for each continuum/region are solved, as shown in 1.1
seperate governing equations will be solved for Region 1 and Region 2 depending upon
their phase and represents a region interface. A region can be defined as coherent
continum of the same phase.

Figure 1.1: Example

Generally two different approaches to solving such problems are distinguished:
Monolithic: use same primitive variables, cast governing equations in terms of
these variables, solve a single coupled matrix equation system
Partitioned: separate governing equations, solve separate matrix equation systems,
couple at the boundary interface, sub-iterate until coupled convergence is reached
Here, we focus on partitioned approaches using OpenFOAMs multiregion functionality (conjugate heat/mass transfer). For a multiregion partitioned solver the working
steps are as follows:
1. Define multiple meshes, one for each region
2. Create field variables on each mesh
3. Solve separate governing equations on each mesh
4. Multiregion coupling at the boundary interface between regions
5. Subiterate until fully-coupled solution is reached

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2 Basic Workflow

2 Basic Workflow
The basic work flow for a case setup is explained in fig. 2.1.

Basic work ow of a chtMultiRegion case

Prepare a general OpenFoam Case

Create a Mesh of the full domain

Dene regions inside the domain

by selecting cells (using cellSet)

Create cell zones from

the created cellSets

Split mesh into regions

according to dened zones
Create patches and elds for all regions
Dene coupled patches
Dene boundary conditions
Dene region properties
changeDict

Run case

Figure 2.1: The case visualization in 2D

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3 chtMRF Case Setup

3 chtMRF Case Setup

In this case we have four different regions (Air1, Air2, Solid1 and Solid2). The
case is a simple set up with warm solid parts (Solid1 and Solid2), which are subjected
to fluid parts (Air1 and Air2). In this case we are not taking into account any airflow
(i.e. there is no inlet or outlet airflow) but the buoyancy effects are considered, while
solving the case. There will be heat transfer taking place between the warm solid parts
and the fluid parts.

3.1 Geometry and Mesh

A graphical representation of the geometry can be seen in Fig. 3.1.
The geometry is defined and then meshed using the OpenFOAM blockMesh tool. After

Air2_to_Air1
maxY

minX

maxX

Air1_to_Solid1

Air1_to_Solid2

minY
y

Solid1_to_Solid2

Figure 3.1: The case visualization in 2D

running the blockMesh utility by typing
$ blockMesh

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Air2_to_Solid2

3.2

Creating the Regions

the mesh is created as depicted in fig.3.2.

Figure 3.2: Mesh of the full domain

3.2 Creating the Regions

The regions are created in the domain depending upon their phases and they are created
on the basis of the zones defined.
3.2.1 Declaring the Regions
The regions and their property type are given in table 3.1.
Table 3.1: Table for region properties
Region

Type

Air1
Solid1
Air2
Solid2

fluid
solid
fluid
solid

Every region has several patches for which boundary or coupling conditions have to
be specified. Thus, a patch can be of the following two types:
boundary patch

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3.2

Creating the Regions

coupling patch
A boundary patch is a regular type patch for which the user may define any possible
boundary condition available in OpenFOAM. Coupling patches are those patches where
the solutions of the different regions are coupled. A coupling patch belongs to a socalled coupled patch pair. Such a pair consists of coinciding patches, one associated with
each region. Table 3.2 lists all patches, the region they belong to and their type for the
presented case.
Table 3.2: Table of patches
Patch
minX
maxX
minY
maxY
minZ
maxZ
Solid1 to Solid2
Air1 to Solid1
Air1 to Solid2
Air1 to Air2
Air2 to Solid2

Regions

Type

Air1, Solid1
boundary patch
Air2, Solid2
boundary patch
Solid1, Solid2
boundary patch
Air1, Air2
boundary patch
Air1, Air2, Solid1, Solid2 boundary patch
Air1, Air2, Solid1, Solid2 boundary patch
Solid1, Solid2
coupling patch
Solid1, Air1
coupling patch
Air1, Solid2
coupling patch
Air1, Air2
coupling patch
Air2, Solid2
coupling patch

3.2.2 Defining the Region by Zones

In the presented case the following regions must be created: Air1, Air2, Solid1 and
Solid2. In order to create these regions the domain is divided into zones. To do so a
subset of cells within the domain is selected to form a so-called cellSet. A cellSet is a
random selection of cells from the domain, whereas a zone is a coherent subset of cells
which finally can be used to define a region. According to the cellSets four zones are
defined which mark the different regions.
In order to define cellSets and cellZones a OpenFOAM commandline utility called setSet
(topoSet in newer versions of OpenFOAM) is used. This tool requires a dictionary-file as
input. Thus, within the case folder a file ending with .setSet must exist, which contains
the settings used to define the different cellSets/cellZones/regions in the domain. The
following command starts the utility with the dictionary file that contains the commands
to be executed.

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3.3

Splitting the Mesh

$ s e t S e t batch m a k e C e l l S e t s . s e t S e t
An example of the dictionary file of the presented case is attached for simplicity (Listing
1).
Listing 1: Extract from makeCellSets.setSet
1

c e l l S e t S o l i d 1 new boxToCell ( 0 0 0 ) ( 1 0 0 . 3 1 )
c e l l Z o n e S e t S o l i d 1 new s e t T o C e l l Z o n e S o l i d 1

c e l l S e t S o l i d 2 new boxToCell ( 10 0 0 ) ( 2 0 0 . 5 1 )
5 c e l l Z o n e S e t S o l i d 2 new s e t T o C e l l Z o n e S o l i d 2
c e l l S e t Air1 new boxToCell ( 0 0 . 3 0 ) ( 1 0 1 1 )
c e l l Z o n e S e t Air1 new s e t T o C e l l Z o n e Air1
10

c e l l S e t Air2 new boxToCell (1 0 0 . 5 0 ) ( 2 0 1 1 )

c e l l Z o n e S e t Air2 new s e t T o C e l l Z o n e Air2
The first two lines used in the .setSet file are briefly explained as:
cellSet

S o l i d 1 new boxToCell ( 0 0 0 ) ( 1 0 0 . 3 1 )

This creates a new cellSet from a selection of cells. The new action shows it will
be a new set. The name of the cellSet is Solid1 and the source for the cellSet-function
is the boxToCell function. The numbers in brackets are parameters to the boxToCellfunction: All cells contained within the rectangular box spanning between the points
with coordinates (0 0 0) and (10 0.3 1) are selected for the cellSet Solid1. The line
c e l l Z o n e S e t S o l i d 1 new s e t T o C e l l Z o n e S o l i d 1
builds a cellZoneSet from an existing cellSet (here using Solid1). Thus, within the
original domain a new zone has been created as depicted in fig.3.3.
This can be repeated in order to define the desired zones representing regions within
the domain.

3.3 Splitting the Mesh

After the user has defined all necessary regions by creating zones for them as described in
the previous section the mesh of the domain has to be split into several disjoint meshes.
Note that the originally created mesh of the full domain will be used within the regions.

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3.4

Necessary Files and Folders

Figure 3.3: Zone created by cellZone from the entire domain

Thus, proper grid resolution for the regional meshes must already be accounted for when
creating the mesh of the full domain.
$ s p l i t M e s h R e g i o n s c e l l Z o n e s o v e r w r i t e
The splitted mesh can be checked/visualized in paraview using the command as shown
in the listing3.3 for Air1
$

paraFoam touch r e g i o n Air1

Then in paraview, *.OpenFoam file should be loaded and can be visualized. The splitted
mesh is shown in fig. 3.4.

3.4 Necessary Files and Folders

A typical OpenFOAM case directory consists of the following three folders:
0
constant
system
This general case structure is also kept for multiregion cases. The final correct setup of
a multiregion case is shown in fig.3.5. Note that for each region a subdirectory containing

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3.4

Necessary Files and Folders

Figure 3.4: Splitted mesh

the information for the particular region exists. Some of the files are manually created
by the user while others are created by the OpenFOAM utilities. It is explained in the
further sections in detail.
In the following sections details about the individual directories will be given.
3.4.1 Files setup by the user
When starting a new multiregion case the directories and their content highlighted in
fig. 3.6 must be created manually by the user according to the problem definition.
0 directory: First, manually bring in the necessary field files as usual. For a chtMultiRegionFoam case it is necessary to have files for:epsilon, k, p, p rgh, T, U, Ychar and Ypmma.
These files are identical to what one would find in any other chtMultiRegionFoam case
/0-directory.
For the solid regions:T, Ychar and Ypmma are necessary, whereas for the fluid regions:epsilon, g, k,
are the required files.
constant directory: As is any standard OpenFOAM case, the constant folder must
contain a standard polymesh directory, including a standard blockMeshDict-file, which

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3.4

Necessary Files and Folders

Figure 3.5: Final case structure of a multiregion case before running the solver

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3.4

Necessary Files and Folders

11

Files for all desired elds

have to be created inside
0 directory by the user.

Folders for each region must

be created by the user. They
should contain default les for
any uid and solid.
Denes the geometry and
mesh the full domain.
Denes desired regions
and their property.
Folders for each region must
be created by the user. They
should contain default les
for any uid and solid. The
user must add and edit the
changeDictionaryDict

Figure 3.6: Case structure as prepared by the user before running scripts
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3.4

Necessary Files and Folders

12

created by splitMesh:
For each region a folder
is created inside the
0 folder and all originally
eld les from the 0
folder are copied into the
region folders
modied by changeDict:
boundary, initial and
coupling conditions for all
elds are modied according
to the changeDictionaryDict
le of the region
created by changeDict:
This le denes all the
patches of a particular
region.

created by splitMesh:

The mesh is splitted into

the dierent regions and
for every region a
separate mesh is dened.

Figure 3.7: Files and directories created by OpenFOAM utilities

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3.4

Necessary Files and Folders

13

defines the full domain and its mesh.

In contrast to a standard case, the files defining the other properties have to go into the
different regional folders, i.e. transportProperties and thermophysicalProperties
within the folders for fluid regions and solidThermophysicalProperties within the
folders for the solid regions as shown in listing3 and listing4 .
Within the constant-folder it is necessary to produce all the region folders. Additionally within the constant folder it also is necessary to build (or copy from elsewhere) a
file called regionProperties. This file assigns the physical phase to each region: Either
fluid or solid. An example for this file can be seen in the listing 2.
Listing 2: Extract from regionProperties
//

//

fluidRegionNames ( a i r 1 a i r 2 ) ;
solidRegionNames ( s o l i d 1 s o l i d 2 ) ;
// //
Inside the solver fluidRegions and solidRegions are treated differently by solving
different governing equations for each phase.
For the fluid regions the default constant files should be included from any chtMultiRegionFoam case/constant file. For the fluid regions, the fluid region should contain a
thermophysicalProperties file containing the properties of the fluid in the fluid region.
Like the Air1 thermophysicalProperties file contains:
Listing 3: Extract from Air1 thermophysicalProperties file
mixture
{
specie
{
nMoles
molWeight
}
thermodynamics
{

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1;
28.9;

3.4

Necessary Files and Folders

Cp
Hf
}
transport
{
mu
Pr
}

14

1000;
0;

1 . 8 e 05;
0.7;

}
Similarly for solid regions a solidThermophysicalProperties must exist with the
folder of the region, an example of such a solidThermophysicalProperties is given
for Solid1:
Listing 4: Extract from Solid1 solidThermophysicalProperties file
constSolidThermoCoeffs
{
// thermo p r o p e r t i e s
rho rho [ 1 3 0 0 0 0 0 ] 8 0 0 0 ;
Cp Cp [ 0 2 2 1 0 0 0 ] 4 5 0 ;
K
K
[ 1 1 3 1 0 0 0 ] 8 0 ;
// r a d i a t i o n p r o p e r t i e s
kappa kappa [ 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 ]
0;
sigmaS sigmaS [ 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 ]
0;
emissivity emissivity [0 0 0 0 0 0 0] 0;
// c h e m i c a l p r o p e r t i e s
Hf Hf [ 0 2 2 0 0 0 0 ] 0 ;
}
.
.
.
......
..
}

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3.4

Necessary Files and Folders

15

system directory: In the system directory, once again set up the folders for the regions.
In each region folder there should be a changeDictionaryDict file, which contains
details about the necessary fields in the region like T, U, etc.
Get a working controlDict file, for example from any tutorial into this folder. Afterwards get a dummy fvSchemes file. This one is the same as any other fvSchemes,
except for the different functions containing no values between the curly brackets. Furtheron one has to get a fvSolution which only defines the outer correctors into this
folder. It is optional to get a decomposeParDict file in case one opts for running parallel
computations. For all of the different regional folders: Get a decomposeParDict file
and get full fvSchemes and fvSolution files into the folders. For the latter ones, keep
in mind that they will be different for the fluids and for the solids.
3.4.2 Files setup by OpenFOAM utilities
Most of the necessary case files and folder (This is highlighted in 3.7 for the different
regions are created by automated generation using scripts and OpenFOAM utilities.
The most important OpenFOAM utilities for a multiregion case are:
splitMesh creates the polyMesh directories and their content within the constant/regionXYZ/
folders;
additionally it creates 0/regionXYZ/ directories for all regions and copies all the
field files existing in the 0 directory into the 0/regionXYZ/ directories
changeDictionary uses changeDictionaryDict files located in system/regionXYZ/ folders to create initial, boundary and coupling conditions for all fields existing in
0/regionXYZ/ directory for all regions
0 directory: During execution of splitMesh the user created field files are copied to
the region subdirectories. As a next step unnecessary fields are removed for some regions
(see extract given in Listing 5) and only those being part of the governing equations are
kept (for example solids are assumed to be stationary, thus no velocity field is required).
Listing 5: Extract from Allrun script
# remove f l u i d f i e l d s from s o l i d r e g i o n s
for i in solid1 solid2
do
rm f 0/ $ i /{mut , a l ph a t , e p s i l o n , k , p , U, p r g h }

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3.4

Necessary Files and Folders

16

done
# remove s o l i d f i e l d s from f l u i d r e g i o n s
for i in air1 air2
do
rm f 0/ $ i /{ Ychar ,Ypmma}
done
Now the initial, boundary and coupling conditions for all fields in every region have to
be specified appropriately. In order to do so the commandline utility changeDictionary
is used. For example for the region Air1 the following line must be executed:
$ c h a n g e D i c t i o n a r y r e g i o n Air1 > l o g . c h a n g e D i c t i o n a r y . Air1 2>&1
The utility expects a file called changeDictionaryDict to exist within the folder system/Air/.
Initial and coupling condition of the regions are defined with in changeDictionaryDict.
Boundary conditions for the boundaries on the outside of the complete simulation domain and boundary conditions or so-called coupling conditions for any of the coupling
patches between the regions are built using the following scheme: For example for region
Air1 in the changeDictionaryDict file contains the following code for the T field:
T
{
internalField
boundaryField
{
.
{
type
}

uniform 3 0 0 ;

zeroGradient ;

a i r 1 t o .
{
type c o m p r e s s i b l e : : t u r b u l e n t T e m p e r a t u r e C o u p l e d B a f f l e M i x e d ;
neighbourFieldName T;
...
}

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3.4

Necessary Files and Folders

17

}
}
In this example the boundary patches are all treated the same (using a wildcard ".*")
and are given the boundary conditions of type zeroGradient. For the coupling patch
there is special kind of boundary condition required (here
compressible::turbulentTemperatureCoupledBaffleMixed).
The keyword neighbourFieldName indicates that the T field of air1 is coupled to the
T field of the other regions.
Similarly for all other regions, the initial, boundary and coupling conditions must be
taken care of.
In each of the region folders a file called cellToRegion is created during execution of
the changeDictionaryDict command. The content of these files are like any other
field file but not associated to a specific field. The BC type is either zeroGradient or
calculated. Possibly other parameters would work as well, but only these have been
tested. In any case every coupling patches to other regions have to be defined of type
calculated whereas boundary patches (to outside of domain) are of type zeroGradient.
for Air1 the entry used is shown by listing 6
Listing 6: Extract from cellToRegion
boundaryField
{
maxY
{
type
}
minX
{
type
}
minZ
{
type
}
maxZ

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zeroGradient ;

zeroGradient ;

zeroGradient ;

4 Running the case

18

{
type
}
air1 to air2
{
type
value
}
air1 to solid2
{
type
value
}
air1 to solid1
{
type
value
}

zeroGradient ;

calculated ;
uniform 0 ;

calculated ;
uniform 0 ;

calculated ;
uniform 0 ;

constant directory: In the constant folder, the splitMesh utility creates a seperate
mesh for each region. This can be seen in the fig. 3.7

4 Running the case

After following each step as defined in the above tutorial. The case can be executed by
using the command in the terminal as depicted in the listing. 4
$ chtMultiRegionFoam

5 Using scripting
An Allrun can be explained as a script file which contains all the commands used to
execute the case, for example in this case the Allrun used can be seen as in Listing

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5 Using scripting

19

shown in 5.1. So just executing the Allrun will now run the case, instead of typing each
command seperately in the terminal.

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5 Using scripting

20

Figure 5.1: Allrun script

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6 Appendice

21

6 Appendice
Listing 7: Extract from Allrun
#!/ b i n / sh
cd ${0%/} | | e x i t 1

# run from t h i s d i r e c t o r y

RUNPAR=YES ;
# So urc e t u t o r i a l run f u n c t i o n s
. $WM PROJECT DIR/ b i n / t o o l s / RunFunctions

# (A) D e f i n i n g geometry and mesh o f f u l l domain

r u n A p p l i c a t i o n blockMesh

# (B) C r e a t i n g th e r e g i o n s i n two s t e p s :
#
1) d e f i n i n g c e l l S e t s
#
2 ) c r e a t i n g c e l l Z o n e s which d e f i n e th e r e g i o n s
r u n A p p l i c a t i o n s e t S e t batch m a k e C e l l S e t s . s e t S e t

# (C) S p l i t t i n g th e mesh a c c o r d i n g t o th e d e f i n e d r e g i o n s
r u n A p p l i c a t i o n s p l i t M e s h R e g i o n s c e l l Z o n e s o v e r w r i t e
exit
# (D) Remove u n n e c e s s a r y f i e l d f i l e s from r e g i o n s
#
# (D. 1 ) Remove f l u i d f i e l d s from s o l i d r e g i o n s
for i in solid1 solid2
do
rm f 0/ $ i /{mut , a l ph a t , e p s i l o n , k , p , U, p r g h }
done

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6 Appendice
# (D. 2 ) Remove s o l i d f i e l d s from f l u i d r e g i o n s
for i in air1 air2
do
rm f 0/ $ i /{ Ychar ,Ypmma}
done

# (E) D e f i n e i n i t i a l , boundary and c o u p l i n g c o n d i t i o n s

#
for all fields
#
of a l l regions
#
# loop over r e g i o n s
for i in air1 air2 solid1 solid2
do
c h a n g e D i c t i o n a r y r e g i o n $ i > l o g . c h a n g e D i c t i o n a r y . $ i 2>&1
done

# (F) RUN c a s e
# c h o o s e between PARALLEL o r SEQUENTIAL RUN
i f [ $RUNPAR = YES ] ;
then
echo Running i n p a r a l l e l mode ;
# Decompose
for i in air1 air2 solid1 solid2
do
decomposePar r e g i o n $ i > l o g . decomposePar . $ i 2>&1
done
# Run
mpirun . openmpi np 4 chtMultiRegionFoam p a r a l l e l > l o g
# Reconstruct
for i in air1 air2 solid1 solid2

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22

6 Appendice
do
r e c o n s t r u c t P a r r e g i o n $ i > l o g . r e c o n s t r u c t P a r . $ i 2 >&1
done
else
echo Running i n s e q u e n t i a l mode ;
# Run on s i n g l e p r o c e s s o r
chtMultiRegionFoam > l o g
fi
echo
echo c r e a t i n g f i l e s f o r paraview postp r o c e s s i n g
echo
for i in solid1 solid2 air1 air2
do
paraFoam touch r e g i o n $ i
done
# endof f i l e

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