CFD Analysis of a Smoking Pipe | Part 5 | SnappyHexMesh castellatedMesh ∇ OpenFOAM® v8

Hey there, let us go on in the training series of the smoking pipe. Today, in part number 5, we investigate into the OpenFOAM application snappyHexMesh, in particular, the castellated mesh creation. During the training video, we are going through the control file that sets the settings for snappyHexMesh while I am explaining the keywords in the castellatedMeshControls part.



After a general overview of the file is given, we are going to set-up the meshing parameters for our smoking pipe and start the first run while different error messages occur. As this meshing procedure was not performed in prior, several problems occurred, which we are resolving step by step until we get the final "first" mesh.


However, I was missing some parts such as the explanation of the »cell levels« which will be mentioned in the next video (addition to the castellatedMesh part 5).


Investigated topics of this video are:
00:00 Analyzing the snappyHexMeshDict
2:50 Explaining the control parameters of the castellatedMeshControls dictionary within the snappyHexMeshDict especially the keywords:
7:15 maxLocalCells
9:15 maxGlobalCells
10:45 minRefinementCells
7:15 maxLoadUnbalancing
13:00 nCellsBetweenLevels
14:00 features
15:25 refinementSurface
18:55 refinementRegions
21:25 locationInMesh
resolveFeatureAngle
22:05 allowFreeStandingZoneFaces

Set-up the control file of snappyHexMesh for the smoking pipe geometry
25:20 Creating the first castellated meshes
Resolving errors
Analyzing partially the output of the application
Showing the influence of the levels (x y) in combination with the feature angle approach


The training video took a lot of time (around 10 hours), even though I am not too happy about it based on missing information and the time one needs to watch it. Nevertheless, I hope that you are willing to follow and increase your knowledge regarding OpenFOAM and CFD.


You are welcomed to share it & comment on it & give feedback.
Keep foaming,
Tobi