DOI: 10.17587/prin.11.108-114

On the Development of a Module for Implementing Motion and Topological Changes in Computational Meshes and its Integration into the Graphical Shell for the OpenFOAM Platform

D. I. Chitalov, cdi9@yandex.ru, South Urals Federal Research Centre of Mineralogy and Geoecology of the UB RAS, Miass, Ilmen reserve, 456317, Chelyabinsk Region, Russian Federation

Corresponding author: Chitalov Dmitry I., Junior Researcher, South Urals Federal Research Centre of Mineralogy and Geoecology of the UB RAS, Miass, Ilmen reserve, 456317, Chelyabinsk Region, Russian Federation, E-mail: cdi9@yandex.ru

This article highlights aspects of designing a software module that provides the ability to adjust the geometry of computational meshes by realizing their motion and topological changes as part of numerical experiments in the field of continuum mechanics using the OpenFOAM platform. This type of modification of the mesh model is carried out as part of the preprocessing of a numerical experiment using the moveDynamicMesh utility and allows you to take into account a larger number of parameters of a real object or process in the numerical model. The module is integrated into the basic version of the graphical shell for working with the OpenFOAM platform, thereby expanding the capabilities of the graphical shell and making it effective for solving a larger list of problems in continuum mechanics. The relevance of the study is determined, the shortcomings of existing solutions are identified. A description of the moveDynamicMesh utility, the features of the formation of the corresponding dictionary file, and a list of its possible parameters that determine the characteristics of the numerical model are given. At the beginning of the article, the goal of the study and the set of tasks necessary for its achievement are formulated. The diagrams of the structure and logic of the module, as well as descriptions of the diagrams are given. A stack of technologies is presented, on the basis of which a module is implemented, including the language for implementing the logic of its operation and a framework for designing a graphic component. The results of module tests are presented on the example of one of the standard tasks of continuum mechanics included in the OpenFOAM distribution. The final conclusions, novelty and practical value of the study are formulated. The source code of the module is hosted on the hosting service of GitHub IT projects, the corresponding link is provided.

Keywords: numerical simulation, continuum mechanics, graphical user interface, OpenFOAM, Python 3.5, open source software, moveDynamicMesh utility, PyQt5, SQLite

pp. 108–114

For citation:
Chitalov D. I. On the Development of a Module for Implementing Motion and Topological Changes in Computational Meshes and its Integration into the Graphical Shell for the OpenFOAM Platform, Programmnaya Ingeneria, 2020, vol. 11, no. 2, pp. 108—114