Curvilinear Solver Inputs

The YAML file format is used for specifying the information required to run the solver. The documentation below lists the name and type of each option. If an option is flagged as required then it must be included when the parent block is present. The default values and lower/upper bounds are also included for variables that have them. If an option is flagged as mutable then it can be modified on a solver restart. Each tab level in the YAML file should be 2 spaces. Blocks which can take multiple sub-blocks of an entry argument are prefaced by a -. Keywords in the YAML input file are case-insensitive.

Grid

This section defines the location of basic input files associated with the structured overset grid generated for the problem.


grid:
  curv:
    gridFile: <required>
    BCFile: <required>
    fileType:
    B2BFile:
    interpFile:
    IBINDFile:
    restartFile:
    RANSFile:
    initFile:
    loadInfoOnInit:
    subsetFile:
    initWithExactSolution:
    initVelocitiesWithXYZ:

curv
- Category of options to work with structured overset grids.
- gridFile (string(fileName), required)
  - Input file name for the grid file. This will be a Plot3D file. Refer to file formats page for details. More file formats may become available in future software releases. It is customary to use .x or .x.ihc extension for Plot3D files. The .ihc extension is used in the output grid that gets generated after running overset grid connectivity using curvSolver > task: connectivity.
- BCFile (string(fileName), required)
  - File specifying where the boundaries of the computational domain are. It is customary to use the .bc extension for BC files. These can be generated through LAVA custom CGT Tools.
  - Example format shown below:
```
!       Name GridNumber   Jmin  Jmax  Kmin  Kmax  Lmin  Lmax
!*********** *********** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****
        fuse 1               1    -1     1    -1     1     1
```
  - These names will be assigned a BC type in BC > names: <name>.
- fileType (string, default="plot3d")
  - Accepted Values: ["plot3d"]
  - Input grid file type. More file formats may become available in future software releases.
  - Plot3D
  - - Plot3D file format. Refer to file formats page for details.
- B2BFile (string(fileName), default="")
  - This file contains the block-to-block interface indices. This can be auto generated through connectivity by setting B2BExtractor > extractB2Bs: true or by using the B2BExtractor tool.
- interpFile (string(fileName), default="")
  - Interpolation file for fringe stecil donors. Required if grid has overset. This file is usually called INTOUT with no extensions. The INTOUT file is generated using curvSolver > task: connectivity
- IBINDFile (string(fileName), default="")
  - File containing known immersed boundary indices. Can also contain trip and transition trip strips represented as negative indices.
- restartFile (string(fileName), default="")
  - Restart file allows for a continuation of the solution. This preserves history of the solution. Cannot be used with initFile option. Restart files are written as restart.#######.rst where the number is based on number of iterations or timesteps. restart.latest.rst will be linked to the latest written restart files. If the user wants to construct a file to use as a restart file it must be a stream access Plot3D function file with the .rst extension.
- RANSFile (string(fileName), default="")
  - This file is used when the user wants to load in a pre-computed Reynold-Averaged Navier-Stokes solution. It will generate dummy qVec and turVec data and initialize a solution. It can be used in conjuction with user.F90 for special user-defined boundary conditions and/or source terms.
- initFile (string(fileName), default="")
  - Plot3D function file to use as initial conditions for the simulation. It must have the following fields in this order: pressure, velocityX, velocityY, velocityZ, temperature, turVar1 (optional), and turVar2 (optional). The restart file written by the code is also valid. This differs from a restart file in that no history from the previous simulation is preserved.
  - NOTE: If using loadInfoOnInit (described below) then the initFile should have a .rst extension.
- loadInfoOnInit (boolean, default=False)
  - Read the info file when using init to perform free stream correction. This option allows for a restart file to be used for initializing a simulation where the history is not wanted in the new simulation. The information includes freestream conditions and more. An example where this is needed is when a solution is being initialized from a different angle of attack.
  - NOTE: The user should remove all other data in restart.#######.info that is not freestream values for restarting unsteady cases when using this option.
- subsetFile (string(fileName), default="")
  - File used to define grid surface subsets and associated names for the subsets. It is used for defining actuator regions as well as for specifying surface output on non-BC surface subsets.
- initWithExactSolution (boolean, default=False)
  - Initialize the flow with a user-supplied dynamic link library (DLL) file defining the exact solution. Specifying a restart or initialization file along with this option will give an error.
- initVelocitiesWithXYZ (boolean, default=False)
  - Initialize the velocities in the X, Y, and Z directions with the X, Y, and Z grid coordinates, respectively, after all other initializations have been performed. This is useful for debugging.

Overset

This section defined parameters associated with performing grid overset connectivity.


overset:
  viscousStencilRepairDist:
  repairInviscidStencils:
  useExistingHoleCut:
  performHoleCutExplicitly:
  exactPointMatching:
  optimizeOverlap:
  useClusters:
  IBOrphanSearchDist:
  rayExtensionMaxIter:
  debugNode:
  octTreeFileName:
  surfPaintBlankingNIter:
  octTreeFloodIter:
  octTreeFloodWriteLast:
  octTreeFloodWriteIter:
  octTreeFloodWriteIncr:
  octTreeFloodSeeds:
    -
      pt:
  boundarySurfaces:
  periodicB2BsAreBoundaries:
  inOutFlowsAreBoundaries:
  internalFlow:
  nSphereSurface:
  nSphereVolume:
  curvatureFactor:
  edgeFactor:
  octTreeMinDepth:
  octTreeMaxDepth:
  octTreeCubesPerEdge:
  octTreeBBox:
  priority:
  explicitSurface:
  explicitJKL:
  writeExplicitCutters:
  writeBodyCutEdges:
  writeSurfDeviation:
  writeSurfBCClasses:
  writeUncertainNodes:
  writeBlankedSurfaceInfo:
  writeNameGroupedBCs:
  writeDistBandOrphData:
  distBandOrphBandLims:
  distBandOrphWriteAllHigher:
  distBandOrphWriteAllLower:
  zoneSpecific:
    -
      zones:
      explicitJKL:
      curvatureFactor:
      edgeFactor:
      octTreeMinDepth:
      octTreeMaxDepth:
      octTreeCubesPerEdge:
      priority:
      explicitSurface:
  explicitBlanking:
    -
      type: <required>
      zones:
      paintSource:
      xMin:
      xMax:
      rotationAngle:
      radius:
      radiusInner:
      nFacet:
      fileName:
      fileNames:
      fileType:
      offset:
      operator:
      variable:
      value:
      origin:
      normal:
      axis1Pt:
      axis2Pt:

viscousStencilRepairDist (float, lower bound=0.000, default=0.1000E-02)
- When donors are being searched for near a viscous wall during connectivity's donor search processess, or during wall-distance calculations, viscous surfaces must be projected onto each-other to properly account for the differences in which two grids can represent the same underlying surface. If a grid node is within this distance of a viscous wall node projected for this correction, it is also shifted. This value should be sized according to:
- - A) The size of the viscous geometry;
- - B) The expected boundary layer height.
- A good rule of thumb for this is the physical distance between a viscous wall node and its ~30th node from the wall in a curvilinearly-normal direction.
repairInviscidStencils (boolean, default=False)
- Perform viscous stencil repair projections during donor search for inviscid walls as well.
useExistingHoleCut (boolean, default=False)
- If true, connectivity will not run hole cutting at all, and assume the iblank array, if provided in the grid, has properly defined all hole regions and move directly to donor search.
performHoleCutExplicitly (boolean, default=False)
- If true, connectivity will not run implicit hole cutting, instead using the explicit cutters defined in the .yaml input file.
exactPointMatching (boolean, default=False)
- If overlapped surfaces are exactly point-matched then some in/out tests may be performed improperly. This options activates certain double-checking routines to try and handle this.
optimizeOverlap (boolean, default=True)
- Perform a fringe-reduction by blanking portions of grid if the resulting blanked grid can find better donors for its new fringes. Default is to optimize.
useClusters (boolean, default=True)
- Multiblock-connected blocks cannot cut each other.
IBOrphanSearchDist (integer, default=3)
- If an orphan is immersed, it will attempt to find a local donor node by locally stencil walking. This search distance is the jkl distance walked away from the immersed orphan.
- NOTE: If this distance is < 3 then no walk search is performed.
rayExtensionMaxIter (integer, default=10)
- In/out surface ray-casts by default only try to travel a certain distance within the surface octree. In very rare cases some nodes will need more iterations of this to properly find if they are in/out of the surface geometry.
debugNode ([integer, ...], default=0)
- Format is [iBlk, j, k, l]. If this is on, then information related to this node will be dumped to the screen and various optional information files will be written.
octTreeFileName (string, default="")
- If this is specified then the surface octree is written.
surfPaintBlankingNIter (integer, default=10)
- The max number of master iterations of the surface-painting blanking process using the flooded surface octree.
octTreeFloodIter (integer, default=1000)
- Maximum number of flood iterations performed using the octree for hole cutting. Increase if flooding fails.
octTreeFloodWriteLast (boolean, default=False)
- Will write the last iteration of the flooded surface-defining octree.
octTreeFloodWriteIter (integer, lower bound=0, default=0)
- Will write the specified iteration of the flooded surface-defining octree. Must be > 0.
octTreeFloodWriteIncr (integer, lower bound=0, default=0)
- Will write every defined iter increment during flooding of the surface-defining octree. Must be > 0.
octTreeFloodSeeds
- Specify locations where to start flooding surface octree.
- pt ([float , float , float], default=[0.000, 0.000, 0.000])
  - Physical [X, Y, Z] location of where to start flooding surface octree for internal flows.
boundarySurfaces ([string, ...], default=[""])
- Surfaces defining closed body for hole cutting.
periodicB2BsAreBoundaries (boolean, default=False)
- If this is True, connectivity will treat non-self-point-matched b2bs (translated or rotated) as portions of the closed boundary. This currently does not support partial b2bs.
inOutFlowsAreBoundaries (boolean, default=False)
- If this is True, connectivity will treat inlets and outlets as portions of the closed boundary. Does not count Riemann. Specifying boundarySurfaces ignores this option.
internalFlow (boolean, default=False)
- If this is True, connectivity will treat inlets, outlets, and non-self-point-matched b2bs (translated or rotated) as portions of the closed boundary. In order to use this, at least one entry must exist in octTreeFloodSeeds. Specifying boundarySurfaces ignores this option.
nSphereSurface (integer, lower bound=1, default=100)
- Number of fail-safe hemispherical rays used for surface cutting.
nSphereVolume (integer, lower bound=1, default=100)
- Number of fail-safe hemispherical rays used for volume cutting.
curvatureFactor (float, default=1.000)
- A value which is representative of the average surface curvature. The smaller, the less lenient the surface overlap checks will be w.r.t. curvature-based projection distance when determining if two surfaces are the 'same'. Increasing this value will make overlapping of surfaces easier, and can help if edge-cutting is occuring near the boundary. It stops being very effective after a value of 5.
edgeFactor (float, default=0.1000)
- A value which is representative of the average surface edge length. The smaller, the less lenient the surface overlap checks will be w.r.t. grid-scaled normal-based projection distance when determining if two surfaces are the 'same'.
octTreeMinDepth (integer, default=11)
- Minimum number of levels to build the surface octree.
octTreeMaxDepth (integer, default=15)
- Maximum number of levels to build the surface octree.
octTreeCubesPerEdge (float, default=2.000)
- Resolution of surface octree. Default is usually OK.
octTreeBBox ([float , float , float , float , float , float], default=[-0.1798+309, 0.1798+309, -0.1798+309, 0.1798+309, -0.1798+309, 0.1798+309])
- A limiting bounding box for the surface octree. Can be used to limit connectivity surface flooding/blanking to a specific region, which can be helpful for very high aspect ratio geometries. Format is [xMin, xMax, yMin, yMax, zMin, zMax]
priority (float, default=1.000)
- Change priority of all blocks. Can be helpful when making only a few blocks lower priority in the zone options section.
explicitSurface (integer, default=0)
- Can be 0 or 1. Explicit surfaces can only be blanked by explicit hole cuts (EHCs). Because of this, they should never have any 'geometry-internal' faces.
explicitJKL ([integer , integer , integer , integer , integer , integer], default=0)
- A range of a block which cannot be implicitly blanked. Can still be blanked by EHCs. Supplied list specifies [jMin, jMax, kMin, kMax, lMin, lMax]. This should be used as a last-resort hot-fix to prevent blanking when the user has no idea why something is being blanked.
writeExplicitCutters (boolean, default=False)
- Write all EHCs in Tecplot format with names ehcSurface.###.plt. Writing can fail for INTEL compilers.
writeBodyCutEdges (boolean, default=False)
- Write all edges cut by implicit surface to bodyCutEdges.dat.
writeSurfDeviation (boolean, default=False)
- Write the deviation (offset distances) of the surface mesh to surfaceDeviation.plt.
writeSurfBCClasses (boolean, default=False)
- Write all 'classes' of surface mesh BCs to surfaceBCClasses.plt.
writeUncertainNodes (boolean, default=False)
- Write all volume-cut uncertain nodes not near the wall to uncertainNodesNotNearWall_#.dat.
writeBlankedSurfaceInfo (boolean, default=False)
- Write relevant overset information of blanked surface to blanked_surf_info.plt.
writeNameGroupedBCs (boolean, default=False)
- Write all the BCs of the grid, grouped by name to nameGroupedBCs.plt.
writeDistBandOrphData (boolean, default=False)
- Writes orphan donor and receiver info into distBandedOrphanInfo.dat. Each zone of written file contains orphans whose distance to its interpolation point is within one of the distance bands defined in overset > distBandOrphBandLims. Additionally, all orphans with distances from their interpolations below or above the defined bands can be written to their own zones if overset > distBandOrphWriteAllLower or overset > distBandOrphWriteAllHigher are defined. Each Tecplot zone contains either the donor cells or the interpolation vectors for a specific band, and all zones have fields representing blockID, j, k, l, where jkl for donor cells pertains to the lower-left cell corner.
distBandOrphBandLims ([float, ...], default=[0.1000E-02, 0.1000E-01, 0.1000, 0.2000, 0.5000])
- A value list which is used to band orphan data written to distBandedOrphanInfo.dat if overset > writeDistBandOrphData is true. Distance bands are defined between successive values, which must be positive and stricly increasing.
distBandOrphWriteAllHigher (boolean, default=True)
- Writes all orphan data for orphans which have an interpolation distance above the highest band to a single Tecplot zone pair inside distBandedOrphanInfo.dat if overset > writeDistBandOrphData is defined as true.
distBandOrphWriteAllLower (boolean, default=False)
- Writes all orphan data for orphans which have an interpolation distance below the lowest band to a single tecplot zone pair inside distBandedOrphanInfo.dat if overset > writeDistBandOrphData is defined as true.
- WARNING: In the presence of many orphans, most of them may be banded here and could cause Tecplot to become slow.
zoneSpecific
- Entries in zoneSpecific will allow individual treatment of zones (overset optimization priority, etc.) and is the easiest way to fix issues with grid quality.
- zones ([string, ...], default=[""])
  - List of zones to have values specifically set for.
- explicitJKL ([integer , integer , integer , integer , integer , integer], default=0)
  - Refer to overset > explicitJKL above.
- curvatureFactor (float, default=1.000)
  - Refer to overset > curvatureFactor above.
- edgeFactor (float, default=0.1000)
  - Refer to overset > edgeFactor above.
- octTreeMinDepth (integer, default=11)
  - Refer to overset > octTreeMinDepth above.
- octTreeMaxDepth (integer, default=15)
  - Refer to overset > octTreeMaxDepth above.
- octTreeCubesPerEdge (float, default=2.000)
  - Refer to overset > octTreeCubesPerEdge above.
- priority (float, default=1.000)
  - The higher this value, the better the stencil 'quality' of the zone is artifically increased, which makes it more likely to be retained during overlap optimization.
- explicitSurface (integer, default=0)
  - Refer to overset > explicitSurface above.
explicitBlanking
- Entries here will explicitly blank zone nodes within geometric shapes defined either by triangulations or simple polygons.
- type (string, required)
  - Accepted Values: ["box", "cone", "sphere", "surfile", "jkl", "clip"]
  - The type of EHC shapes. All defined EHC options will cut both surface and volume, and are applied prior to IHC or optimization.
  - A) Geometric-type EHC options available:
  - box
  - - A box that is specified using xMin and xMax coordinates.
  - cone
  - - A cone that is specified using start and end coordinates/radii xMin/rMin and xMax/rMax.
  - sphere
  - - A sphere that is specified using centroid xMin and radius rMin.
  - All geometric-type EHC options may be rotated about the Cartesian axes using the rotationAngle entry.
  - B) File-type EHC options available:
  - surFile
  - - A closed surface triangulation can be specified using the fileName and fileType options.
  - C) Grid-type EHC options available:
  - jkl
  - - A [j,k,l] range may be specified using xMin and xMax integer (computational) coordinates.
  - D) Clipping-type EHC options available:
  - clip
  - - A clipping plane can be specified using the operator option, paired with the value + variable, origin + normal, or origin + axis1Pt + axis2Pt options.
  - Clipping lenience is set by the offset value. If no zones are provided, then this EHC will become a true clipping plane, i.e., it will limit the sizing of the connectivity octree.
- zones ([string, ...], default=[""])
  - List of zones to blank with this EHC object. If this is ommited then all grids will be used.
- paintSource (boolean, default=False)
  - Defines if the explicit hole cutter will generate sources for the surface-blanking painting routine. If this is True, then the cutter will only cut the surface, NOT the volume, and all surface faces cut will be marked to initiate the flooding routines. This option should only be used for connectivity hot-fixes.
- xMin ([float , float , float], default=[0.000, 0.000, 0.000])
  - First point supplied to a geometric EHC object:
  - - A) The lower jkl curvilinear grid index set.
  - - B) The lower left corner of a box.
  - - C) The starting point of a cone.
  - - D) The centroid of a sphere.
- xMax ([float , float , float], default=[1.000, 1.000, 1.000])
  - Second point supplied to a geometric EHC object:
  - - A) The upper jkl curvilinear grid index set.
  - - B) The upper right corner of a box.
  - - C) The ending point of a cone.
- rotationAngle ([float , float , float], default=[0.000, 0.000, 0.000])
  - Defines axis rotation [xrot, yrot, zrot] for geometric EHC objects (box, cone, sphere) around the barycenter.
- radius ([float, ...], default=[1.000, 1.000])
  - Radii at xMin and xMax when EHC type is cone or radius at xMin when EHC type is sphere.
- radiusInner ([float, ...], default=[1.000, 1.000])
  - Format is [xMin, xMax]. Inner tube radii at xMin and xMax when EHC type is cone, or inner radius of shell at xMin when EHC type is sphere.
- nFacet (integer, default=16)
  - Number of facets on EHC regions defined by curved geometric shapes [cone, sphere].
- fileName (string(fileName), default="file")
  - Filename for the closed EHC surface. Chosen over overset > explicitBlanking > fileNames.
- fileNames ([string, ...], default=["file"])
  - Filenames list for the closed EHC surface. Must be same fileType.
- fileType (string, default="tecplot")
  - Accepted Values: ["tri", "plot3d", "tecplot"]
  - Filetype of the closed EHC surface.
  - tri
  - - Triangulation Cart3D file format. Refer to cart3dTriangulations for details.
  - Plot3D
  - - Plot3D file format. Refer to file formats page for details.
  - Tecplot
  - - Tecplot PLT binary format file.
- offset ([float, ...], default=[0.1000E-11])
  - The offset distance from the EHC geometry within which nodes of the defined zones will also be blanked. This can be a list of offsets for each zone.
- operator (string, default="<")
  - Accepted Values: ["<", ">"]
  - The direction applied to a clip EHC type.
  - <
  - - Values for which variable is below the value specified are clipped.
  - >
  - - Values for which variable is above the value specified are clipped.
- variable (string, default="y")
  - Accepted Values: ["x", "y", "z"]
  - The X, Y or Z value for plane of clip EHC type. Must also supply value.
  - x
  - - Clip using a constant-X plane.
  - y
  - - Clip using a constant-Y plane.
  - z
  - - Clip using a constant-Z plane.
- value (float, default=0.000)
  - An X, Y or Z value for plane of clip EHC type. Must also supply variable.
- origin ([float , float , float], default=[0.000, 0.000, 0.000])
  - The origin of the clip EHC type. Must also supply normal or axis1Pt + axis2Pt.
- normal ([float , float , float], default=[0.000, 0.000, 0.000])
  - The normal of the clip EHC type. Must also supply origin.
- axis1Pt ([float , float , float], default=[0.000, 0.000, 0.000])
  - The local x axis of the clip EHC plane from the origin. Must also supply origin + axis2Pt.
- axis2Pt ([float , float , float], default=[0.000, 0.000, 0.000])
  - The local y axis of the clip EHC plane from the origin. Must also supply origin + axis1Pt.

Reference Conditions

This section defines parameters related to the freestream reference conditions.


referenceConditions:
  pressure: <required>
  temperature: <required>
  umag: <required>
  alpha: <required>
  beta:
  qref:
  cp:
  gamma:
  SLConst:
  SLRef:
  prandtl:
  area:
  length:
  span:
  momentCenter:
  turvarfac:
  turvarfac_k:
  turvarfac_w:
  tu:
  hrms:
  additionalNormalizations:
    -
      names:
      area:
      length:
      momentCenter:

pressure (float, required, lower bound=0.000, mutable)
- The reference pressure of the fluid in Pascal.
temperature (float, required, lower bound=0.000, mutable)
- The static temperature of the freestream in Kelvin.
umag (float, required, mutable)
- The magnitude of the freestream velocity in meters per second
alpha (float, required, mutable)
- The angle of attack of the freestream condition relative to the body frame of the geometry. This assumes a standard orientation of 'span in y'.
beta (float, default=0.000)
- The side-slip angle of the freestream condition relative to the body frame of the geometry. This assumes a standard orientation of 'span in y'.
qref (float, mutable, default=-1.000)
- Overides the dynamic pressure from \(\rho_{ref} U_{ref}^2\), only for load normalization. Used for hovering cases when freestream velocity is zero and \(Q_{ref}\) should use tip velocity.
cp (float, mutable, default=1005.)
- Specific heat at constant pressure of the working fluid in Joule per kilogram. Default corresponds to air.
gamma (float, mutable, default=1.400)
- Ratio of specific heats. Default corresponds to air.
SLConst (float, mutable, default=0.1450E-05)
- Constant used in Sutherland's Law for computing viscosity. Default corresponds to air.
SLRef (float, mutable, default=110.0)
- Reference temperature used in Sutherland's Law. Default corresponds to air.
prandtl (float, mutable, default=0.7200)
- Prandtl number of the working fluid. Default corresponds to air.
area (float, lower bound=0.000, default=1.000)
- Reference area used for normalization of aerodynamic coefficients.
length (float, lower bound=0.000, mutable, default=1.000)
- Reference length used for normalization of aerodynamic moments. Also used in reference timescale estimates in some upwind/centered blending functions.
span (float, lower bound=0.000, mutable, default=1.000)
- Reference length used for normalization of aerodynamic roll moments.
momentCenter ([float , float , float], mutable, default=[0.000, 0.000, 0.000])
- Point from which to take the aerodynamic moments about.
turvarfac (float, mutable, default=3.000)
- Used for SA turbulence model and should be set between 3-5 for fully turbulent simulations, 0.1 for free/fixed-transition simulations.
turvarfac_k (float, mutable, default=0.2250E-06)
- Used for two equation turbulence models. Non-dimensional farfield or ambient turbulent kinetic energy (will be multiplied by \(U_{ref}^2\) within the code).
turvarfac_w (float, mutable, default=125.0)
- Used for two equation turbulence models. Non-dimensional farfield or ambient specific turbulence dissipation rate (will be multiplied by \(U_{ref} / L_{ref}\) within the code).
tu (float, mutable, default=0.2400)
- Freestream turbulence intensity (%) using the Langtry-Menter transition model.
hrms (float, mutable, default=0.1000E-05)
- Used in Langtry-Menter transition model. Represents the surface roughness for the \(C_f\) correlations:
- ~ 0.25e-6m > highly polished,
- ~ 0.50e-6m > polished,
- ~ 3.33e-6m > painted.
additionalNormalizations
- This section may be used to set surface-specific reference length, area and moment center for user-specified surface families.
- names ([string, ...], default=["default"])
  - Names specified here correspond to the boundary condition subsets specified in grid > curv > BCFile for which to apply the custom normalizations to.
- area (float, default=1.000)
  - Refer to referenceConditions > area.
- length (float, default=1.000)
  - Refer to referenceConditions > length.
- momentCenter ([float , float , float], default=[0.000, 0.000, 0.000])
  - Refer to referenceConditions > momentCenter.