Potential flow solver. More...

Detailed Description

Potential flow solver.

Original source file potentialFoam.C

Solver details
The potential flow solution is typically employed to generate initial fields for full Navier-Stokes codes. The flow is evolved using the equation:

$\laplacian \Phi = \div(\vec{U})$

Where:

$\Phi$	=	Velocity potential [m2/s]
$\vec{U}$	=	Velocity [m/s]

The corresponding pressure field could be calculated from the divergence of the Euler equation:

$\laplacian p + \div(\div(\vec{U}\otimes\vec{U})) = 0$

but this generates excessive pressure variation in regions of large velocity gradient normal to the flow direction. A better option is to calculate the pressure field corresponding to velocity variation along the stream-lines:

$\laplacian p + \div(\vec{F}\cdot\div(\vec{U}\otimes\vec{U})) = 0$

where the flow direction tensor $\vec{F}$ is obtained from

$\vec{F} = \hat{\vec{U}}\otimes\hat{\vec{U}}$

Required fields

U

:

Velocity [m/s]

Optional fields

p	:	Kinematic pressure [m2/s2]
Phi	:	Velocity potential [m2/s]
	:	Generated from p (if present) or U if not present

Options

-writep	:	write the Euler pressure
-writePhi	:	Write the final velocity potential
-initialiseUBCs	:	Update the velocity boundaries before solving for Phi

Definition in file potentialFoam.C.