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Finemarine Tutorial
Finemarine Tutorial
FINE™/Marine 7.1rc
www.numeca.com
CONTENTS
TUTORIALS
BEGINNER
Tutorial 1: Driven Cavity 9
Tutorial 2: DTMB Combatant 27
3.1 C-Wizard Resistance 66
3.1.1 NUMECA Software 66
3.1.2 Prerequisites 67
3.1.3 Problem Description 67
3.1.4 Preparation 68
3.1.5 Part I - Project Setup 68
A. Start C-Wizard 68
B. C-Wizard Part l: Create & Set up Project 69
3.1.6 Part I - Domain & Mesh Setup 78
A. C-Wizard Part I: Domain Constructor & Mesh Setup 78
B. Mesh Generation 86
3.1.7 Part II - Flow Settings & Post Processing 89
A. C-Wizard Part II: Flow Settings 89
B. Launch & Control Computation 95
C. Post Processing 99
4.1 C-Wizard Open Water Application 102
4.1.1 Introduction 102
A. Problem Description 102
B. Objectives 102
C. Methodology 103
D. CPU Prerequisites 103
E. Estimated Engineering and Computing Time 103
F. Preparation 104
4.1.2 Part I: Automatic Setup (Project, Mesh and Flow Solver) 104
A. Project Management 105
B. Body Configuration 106
C. Flow Definition 108
D. Additional Inputs 109
E. Mesh Setup 110
4.1.3 Part II: Manual Mesh Generation (optional) 113
4.1.4 Part III: Manual Flow Solver Setup (optional) 119
4.1.5 Part IV: Computation Launch & Control 125
A. Task Manager tool 125
B. Monitor tool 126
4.1.6 Part V: Post-Processing 127
A. Result Analysis tool 128
B. CFView™ 132
5.1 C-Wizard Planing regime 138
5.1.1 Introduction 138
ADVANCED
1.1 Full Appended DTMB 176
1.1.1 Prerequisites 176
1.1.2 Problem Description 176
1.1.3 Preparation 177
1.1.4 Graphical User Interfaces 178
1.1.5 Mesh Generation 180
A. Import Geometry 180
B. Define Domain 184
C. Manipulate Domain 191
D. Boundary Conditions 206
E. Mesh Wizard 216
F. Save Project 251
1.1.6 Flow Settings 252
A. Physical Configuration 252
B. Boundary Conditions & Body Definition 254
C. Body Motion 259
D. Mesh Management 263
E. Initial Solution 264
F. Numerical Parameters 265
G. Computation Control 266
H. Launch & Control Computation 269
1.1.7 Post Processing 275
A. Visualize Free Surface (Color Contour) 275
B. Add Isolines on Free Surface 278
C. Generate Streamlines on Free Surface 280
Beginner
Driven Cavity — individual PDF
DTMB Combatant — individual PDF
"C-Wizard Resistance" (p. 66)
"C-Wizard Open Water Application" (p. 102)
"C-Wizard Planing regime" (p. 138)
Advanced
"Full Appended DTMB" (p. 176)
"Self-Propulsion" (p. 290)
"2D Falling Object" (p. 334)
Each of the tutorials starts from mesh generation and uses an existing geometry. The appropriate
files (and any other relevant files used in the tutorial) can be downloaded from the corresponding
links: download Beginner level files or download Advanced level files. In addition they are
available from the Products page of the Customer Area (www.numeca.be).
Some of the project files (mesh and project, excluding solution files) can also be found in the
demo cases package dedicated to ready-to-run demonstration cases and presented in the Demo
Cases section. This allows to quickly start a calculation and observe the behavior of
FINE™/Marine, without necessarily going through all the steps of the tutorials.
Several conventions are used in the tutorials to facilitate your learning process.
Following a short introduction, each tutorial is divided into 3 sections respectively related to mesh
generation, settings and calculation, and post-treatment.
Contact NUMECA local sales or support office for any question or information you may require. To
allow NUMECA local sales or support office to help you out within the shortest delays, please
provide a detailed description of the observed behavior and performed analysis.
Each of the tutorials starts from mesh generation and uses an existing geometry. The appropriate
files (and any other relevant files used in the tutorial) can be downloaded from the corresponding
link: download Beginner level files. In addition they are available from the Products page of the
Customer Area (www.numeca.be).
Some of the project files (mesh and project, excluding solution files) can also be found in the
demo cases package dedicated to ready-to-run demonstration cases and presented in the Demo
Cases section. This allows to quickly start a calculation and observe the behavior of
FINE™/Marine, without necessarily going through all the steps of the tutorials.
Several conventions are used in the tutorials to facilitate your learning process.
Following a short introduction, most of the tutorials are divided into 3 sections, respectively
related to mesh generation, settings and calculation, and post-treatment.
Inputs required to execute the tutorials are most often restricted to the geometry, either in a ".dom"
or CAD related format, and profiles of boundary conditions.
The sequence of actions to be executed are described through a numbered step-by-step approach.
Additional insight about some specific actions and/ or features is frequently added to further
illustrate the tutorial. This information is for the purpose of clarity and completeness, and should
not be executed. It appears as a note with a light blue background.
Contact your NUMECA local sales or support office for any questions or information you may
require. To allow NUMECA local sales or support office to help you promptly, please provide a
detailed description of the observed behavior and performed analysis.
NUMECA Software
The resolution of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) problems involves three main steps:
l spatial discretization of the flow equations,
l flow computation,
l visualization of the results.
To perform these steps, three software systems have been created:
l HEXPRESS™ (developed by NUMECA), is an automated all-hexahedral unstructured grid
generation system,
l ISIS-CFD, the flow solver (developed by the CNRS and the Ecole Centrale de Nantes), is a
3D unstructured flow solver able to simulate Euler or Navier-Stokes (laminar or turbulent)
flows,
l CFView™ (developed by NUMECA), is a highly interactive Computational Field
Visualization system.
It will be possible to learn how to:
l use the computation wizard mode integrated into the FINE™/Marine interface including the
C-Wizard mode,
l set up the resistance computation with extra conditions: actuator disk and additional external
forces,
l generate a computational mesh in automatic mode.
The tutorials consist of detailed information about physical and numerical parameters imposed
during the setup procedures. It is recommended to check the full information, although to save
time it would be useful to check the shell/ bash window since it will display interactively all the
important information while performing the C-Wizard procedures.
Tutorial 1
Driven Cavity
REF MARINE-001_rev_5
Content
• FINETM/Marine GUI
• HEXPRESSTM settings
• Project set-up
• Results in CFViewTM
Preparation:
• Start FINE™/Marine v71rc.
• For LINUX and UNIX systems, you can access the FINE™/Marine v7.1rc
graphical user interface with the following command line:
finemarine71rc -print
• For WINDOWS systems (WINDOWS 7 and older), you can access the
FINE™/Marine v71rc graphical user interface from the Start menu by going to
/Programs/NUMECA software/FineMarine71rc/FINE. In WINDOWS 8 you can
access it by going to the Start menu and clicking on Search. Under Apps, there
will be a section called Numeca software. Click on FINE(#-bits) in order to open
the FINE™/Marine v71rc graphical user interface.
• Enter the name of the new FINETM/Marine project: “Driven_Cavity”, click on Ok/Save
and then on Yes to start HEXPRESSTM.
• Close the Welcome to HEXPRESSTM dialog box and go to the CAD Manipulation
menu.
• Create a box with corner coordinates (0,0,0) and (1,1,1).
• Click on Create Domain, keep the default faceting settings, and click on Create to
save the domain in the “_mesh” folder under the name “Driven_Cavity” and click on
Yes to load the created domain.
• Go to Grid/Boundary Conditions…
or click directly on .
• Set the face type to EXT for the top patch.
• Close the dialog box.
Only SOL, MIR, and EXT conditions are allowed for FINETM/Marine projects.
• Open the Initial solution menu and set Vx to <1> m/s and click Ok.
• Open the Numerical schemes menu under Numerical parameters and
keep the defaults.
Menu Bar
Graphics Area
Information Area
Copyright © NUMECA International
Results in CFViewTM (1/3)
FINETM GUI – HEXPRESSTM – Project set-up – CFViewTM
Tutorial 2
DTMB Combatant
REF MARINE-002_rev_13
Content
• FINETM/Marine GUI
• HEXPRESSTM Settings
• Project Set-up
• Start Computation
• CFViewTM
Preparation:
• Start FINE™/Marine v7.
• For LINUX and UNIX systems, you can access the FINE™/Marine v7.1rc
graphical user interface with the following command line:
finemarine71rc -print
• For WINDOWS systems (WINDOWS 7 and older), you can access the
FINE™/Marine v71rc graphical user interface from the Start menu by going to
/Programs/NUMECA software/FineMarine71rc/FINE. In WINDOWS 8 you can
access it by going to the Start menu and clicking on Search. Under Apps, there
will be a section called Numeca software. Click on FINE(#-bits) in order to open
the FINE™/Marine v71rc graphical user interface.
• Go to Grid/Boundary Conditions…
• Or directly click on .
• Set the names and face types as in the figure below.
Example (2D):
• D = 1.0 (chord length = 1.0, 1 cell only)
• dx = 1/50 = 0.02 (50 cells desired) 1.0
y
→ Resulting nx = 5.64
x
• D = 1.0 (chord length = 1.0, 1 cell only)
• dy = 0.1/15 = 0.0067 (15 cells desired) → Resulting ny = 7.23
→ Number of refinements N = max(nx, ny) = 7.23 ~ 8
• In the Trimming tab keep all the surfaces to Not used for trimming.
• Click on Ok.
• Keep the default Snapping and Optimization settings.
The number of viscous layers are defined to cover the first cell size and in order to activate
the inflation method.
• Press Ok and Save the project in the “_mesh” folder as “DTMB”. Launch the
complete mesh generation by pressing the Start button in the Mesh Wizard.
• Save the mesh under the name “DTMB_scaled” in the “_mesh” folder and go
back to the FINETM/Marine interface by clicking on the Go back to project set-up
button.
• Click on Yes to link the project to the new mesh (information about the mesh
linked to the project can be found in the Mesh/Properties… menu).
• Go to Body definition.
• Select all patches.
• Click on Create body.
• Give the name “DTMB” and pres <Enter>.
• Click on Ok.
FINETM/Marine computes the forces and momentum of each body created and stores them
in the “eff_*.dat” files. The motions are stored in “Mvt_Bodyname.dat”.
It is also possible to create sub-bodies within a body and to compute the forces only on this
sub-body. They will also be stored in the “eff_*.dat” files.
Copyright © NUMECA International
Physical Configuration (5/6)
FINETM GUI – HEXPRESSTM – Project Set-up – Start Computation – CFViewTM
• Go to Body motion, deactivate the Activate Cardan Angle button and change
the motion law for the degree of freedom Tx0 to Imposed and 1/2 sinusoidal
ramp.
• Click on Edit…, define the settings of the law as presented below and click twice
on Ok to confirm.
To save time, the conversion of the outputs to CFViewTM format is only done at the end
of the computation. To check the results during the computation, please open CFViewTM
from the GUI (it will launch the conversion on actual saved results).
Menu Bar
Graphics Area
Surfaces Selection Area
Representation Area
Information Area
Copyright © NUMECA International
Y+ visualization
FINETM GUI – HEXPRESSTM – Project Set-up – Start Computation – CFViewTM
•By default, the solid patches are selected. Select the Y+ quantity from the
Quantities list.
• Click on the smooth color contour icon in the Representations panel.
• Duplicate the geometry around the mirror by clicking on Geometry/Repetition
on/off.
• By default, the solid patches are selected. Click on Gouraud in the menu
Render/Shading to display them rendered in the graphics area or directly click
on the button .
• Remove the boundaries of all solid patches by clicking on the icon .
• Select the Mass Fraction from the Quantities list.
• Click on the Iso Surface icon or click on Representation/Iso-Surface
and enter the value <0.5><Enter> in the keyboard input area.
• Click again on the Iso Surface icon to save it or on Representation/Isosurface.
• Select the surface (called “ISO Mass Fraction=0.5.D1”) in the Surfaces list by
right-clicking and Select. Then toggle the grid by clicking on the following icon.
• Click on the icon New under the Quantities list to create a new
quantity.
Under the Macros menu, the macro Represent_Free_Surface will perform the
previous actions in one go and allows to visualize the wave surface elevation directly.
Under Macros menu, the predefined macro Compute_Wetted_Area also computes the
wetted surface area.
The resolution of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) problems involves three main steps:
l spatial discretization of the flow equations,
l flow computation,
l visualization of the results.
To perform these steps, three software systems have been created:
l HEXPRESS™ (developed by NUMECA), is an automated all-hexahedral unstructured grid
generation system
l ISIS-CFD, the flow solver (developed by the CNRS and the Ecole Centrale de Nantes), is a
3D unstructured flow solver able to simulate Euler or Navier-Stokes (laminar or turbulent)
flows.
l CFView™ (developed by NUMECA), is a highly interactive Computational Field
Visualization system.
In this tutorial it is possible to learn how to:
l use the computation wizard mode integrated into the FINE™/Marine interface: C-Wizard
mode
l set up the resistance computation with extra conditions: actuator disk and additional external
forces
l generate a computational mesh in automatic mode.
Tutorial consists of detailed information about physical and numerical parameters imposed during
the setup procedures. User is invited to check the full information, although to save time it would
be useful to check the shell/bash window since all the important information while performing the
C-Wizard procedures will be displayed interactively in there.
Ship hull performance calculations become a classical procedure for marine CFD computations.
Decreasing the time of the complete simulation setup would simplify the procedure for
computations and provide quick and easy hull performance estimation as well as the resistance
curve for a particular hull. C-Wizard mode is introduced into FINE™/Marine software for these
purposes.
The goal of this tutorial is to provide step-by-step instructions for the C-Wizard mode resistance
calculation setup including additional numerical and flow parameters: Adaptive grid refinement,
actuator disk and external forces. The widely investigated full scale container ship (KCS) hull is
employed here for computation performance. The tutorial gives guidelines/best practices on the C-
Wizard mode computation and mesh setup, giving the flow and mesh settings details information.
Indeed, parameters are imposed automatically by the C-Wizard where the minimal user input is
required. Geometry patches merging recommendations are developed to support best practices for
the challenging geometrical features.
A full scale resistance computation for the KCS model is performed with the following settings:
l Reference length ( Lpp) = 245.509 m;
l Velocity = 3.0 m/s; Froude number = 0.06133;
l Draft of 9 m in the full scale ship frame of reference;
l Water density = 998.5986 kg/m³;
l Kinematic viscosity = 1.05 e-6m²/s.
1. Locate and copy the file "KCS_ hull_ SVA_ cf_ withnames_ cf2.x_ t" into your working
directory (download Beginner tutorial archive).
2. Start FINE™/Marine v7.1rc.
l For Linux systems, you can access the FINE™/Marine v7.1rc graphical user interface with the
following command line:
finemarine71rc -print
l For Windows systems (Windows 7 and older), you can access the FINE™ /Marine v7.1rc
graphical user interface from the Start menu by going to /Programs/NUMECA
software/FineMarine71rc/FINE. In Windows 8 you can access it by going to the Start menu
and clicking on Search. Under Apps, there will be a section called Numeca software. Click on
FINE(#-bits) in order to open the FINE™ /Marine v7.1rc graphical user interface.
Click here to start the C-Wizard setup...
A. Start C-Wizard
Launching the first part of the C-Wizard plugin is performed from the FINE™/Marine interface.
1.1. Open FINE™/Marine software.
1.2. C-Wizard plugin creates its own project as a step of the project setup procedure. Click on
Using the C-Wizard button to launch the wizard.
When starting the C-Wizard when there is a project already opened in the FINE™/Marine interface,
To save the ongoing project settings select No, then save the project and start from the Plugins menu
to launch the C-Wizard again.
It is recommended to start the C- Wizard mode computation from the empty FINE™/Marine
interface since there will be a full-chain project setup provided. Selecting Yes in the warning will
close the opened project without saving and a new setup procedure will be started.
Create Project
2.1.1. First change the units of the speed to m/s. Then create a project by clicking the Create
project button. In a browser define the project name in the directory of your choice.
2.2.1. Under Input geometry : select Parasolid/CATPart and click on the Import
Parasolid/CATPart file button ('*.x_t' and '*.CATPart' formats are available here).
The body configuration here is symmetric thus the half of the body is used. It is also possible to work
with the entire body geometries and create the half-body domain of computation. This is used for
speed up of the computation time.
2.2.2.2 Under section Body orientation, activate Positive-X axis for CoG to bow and Positive-
Y axis for CoG to side.
The orientation of the X-axis is required to avoid defining negative speeds in the following entries;
Y-axis direction will help to define the domain configuration.
2.2.2.3 Select Yes under section Is the body aligned with Cartesian axis?
This question sets the Cardan angles. When Yes is selected, Cardan angles are automatically set to
zero.
2.2.2.4 Select Automatic (=LOA) under section Body reference length. The reference length
will be automatically set to the Length Over All.
2.2.2.5 Select User defined and set the Z-coordinate to <9.0> under section Initial free surface
position.
2.2.2.6 Select Automatic (based on initial free surface) under section Body mass. The body
mass will be automatically calculated based on the equilibrium position.
2.2.2.7 Select Automatic (based on initial free surface) under section Center of gravity. The
center of gravity position will be automatically calculated based on the equilibrium position.
2.2.2.8 Keep the Trim and Sink in a Body motion(s) to solve active.
Scaling option supports the speed values and position of the free surface automated update to ensure
the Froude's similarity for the model and the full scale ship forces. Here the calculation is performed
for the full scale ship and recalculation is not required.
2.2.2.11 In Fluid model section: keep default properties for Air and click on the Water
properties database button to change the water properties to Fresh water at 18 °C. Click on OK
to validate the new properties.
When Activate body self update is active, the thrust of the actuator disk is automatically updated
during the computation such as Thrust = Drag at a prescribed interval. The interval corresponds to the
frequency value.
At this step, the file wizard.input is created and saved into the computation folder next to the .iec
project file. It consists of all the inputs recorded and computed by the wizard. The switch to
HEXPRESS™ interface is performed here: C-Wizard will generate domain and mesh automatically
respecting the geometry and input parameters (body configuration, orientation, free surface position
and etc.).
After pushing the Start mesh set-up button, HEXPRESS™ interface will become available and a
new window of C-Wizard activated. The interface has the following view:
Refinements on patches are applied accordingly to their names and to the mesh density level. Number
of cells per maximum length of the ship ( Loa) is fixed regardless the type of the ship. For example,
number of cells per Loa for the initial mesh size is set to 3 if coarse, 4 if medium and 5 if fine.
Thanks to this option, additional areas for refinement can be defined, such as the bow wave region for
instance. For the current Froude number additional refinement of the bow wave is not necessary to
have, thus this parameter is deactivated.
1.3. For the current computational project, geometry is checked and proper names are defined in
the CADfix software, thus:
The sensitive part of the computational project here is merging. The way merging is done can
influence the computational process and results as follows.
Two options are available from the C- Wizard mode: Merge faces with the same name and/or
Merge tangential faces.
C-Wizard reads the name of every patch and merges the ones that are adjacent and with the same
names in a manner: " Bow_1", " bow23", "bow_01" will be merged to one patch and named " bow".
This option is exactly the same as for the HEXPRESS™ ( Domain Manipulation ) and when
activated it checks if the neighbor patch has a tangent angle greater than a specified one and merge if
it is greater. This method is especially helpful when the geometry imported is a Parasolid file with
big number of patches.
Each time two faces are merged, the new face gets an ID (ID's are incremented one by one). It
assigns specific values for the future mesh refinement strategy according to the name of the patch.
By default, the name will be the one which leads to the higher refinement. Keywords and more
details can be found in the HEXPRESS™ documentation in the Marine Plugins description for
Domain and mesh setup (only for 3D).
Existing Domain_and_mesh_setup_only_3D plugin has been improved and modified towards the
new C-Wizard functionality, but also left available as the part of the HEXPRESS™ Plugins > Marine
menu.
1.5. Keep the default domain settings: User-defined domain size not active.
When not active, the default domain is set to 5Loa x 2Loa x 2Loa (but it depends on the Froude
number). Hence, these parameters can be recommended for the resistance computations with low
Froude number under 0.5.
1.9. In HEXPRESS™ , the following parameters based on the previous inputs are imposed:
l Domain with the internal free surface is created, merging by name is performed according to
the names of patches.
Initial mesh
1280 cells
Trimming:
All SOL patches are Used for trimming
MIR and EXT patches are Not used for trimming
Snap to geometry
Buffer insertion of Type II for all edges on the Mirror plane and External boundaries edges
Optimize
Max nb of orthogonality optimization iterations: 5
Minimal orthogonality threshold: 5.0
Viscous layer
Viscous layers are defined and computed for Solid boundaries only and if the face name does not contain
the word "deck" since there is usually no need to insert viscous layers (viscous effects from the air part
are negligible).
Fixed first layer thickness Method
Floating number of layers:
Minimum number of layers: 11
Maximum number of layers: 22
Active with First layer thickness <0.00539377>
for
Shaft: 13 layers
Hull_b1: 20 layers
Transom_b1: 13 layers
Bow_b1: 13 layers
B. Mesh Generation
2.1. Click the Start button in the Mesh Wizard to generate the mesh.
2.2. Once the mesh is generated, click the Go back to the project set- up button to start
FINE™/Marine GUI.
1.1.2. Keep default settings and click on Confirm to finalize flow settings setup.
Flow Settings
Automated C-Wizard setup will create the following settings. It can be checked through the
FINE™/Marine interface.
Time configuration:
Steady
Fluid model:
Fresh water at 18°C/Air
Flow model:
Reference length: 245.897423501 m
Reference velocity:3.0 m/s
Boundary conditions:
This method is applied to relax the condition of small time step required by the coupling of the flow
motion and the Newton's law. The QS method decreases the CPU time and remain stable even for the
larger time step, enabling the use of the sub- cycling acceleration method for the fraction volume
equation. This method is based on a succession of predicted body attitudes.
Dynamic parameters:
This part will respect the data computed by the C-Wizard_ Part_ ll and imposed in the C-
Wizard_Part_l ( external forces, etc.).
Mesh management: default
Initial solution:
Uniform values
Interface position (free surface) at 9.0 m
Additional models:
Actuator disc activated with settings imposed in the C-Wizard_Part_l
Numerical parameters: Adaptive grid refinement
It is not obligatory to set this number of partitions. When set to 7, the computation will take
approximately 10,5 hours on Linux 64-bit OS, Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3370 CPU @ (3.4 GHz, 8 cores,
16 GB RAM)
2.5. Click on Save Batch File for Linux OS and on Start button to start the computation.
2.6. It is also possible to check the results history through the Monitor during the run or
when the computation is finished.
In the Quantities to display menu, it is possible to select the quantities (residuals, forces,
momentum, motions variables) for which one you would like to follow the convergence history or
check the computed values. Multiple components or quantities from different runs can be
displayed together as presented below.
FIGURE 3.2
Velocity of the ship (Vx) reached and transition distance in the X direction (Tx)
C. Post Processing
3.1. To start the Post-processing, click on the CFView icon of FINE™/Marine toolbar.
3.2. In the appearing selection menu, keep the Traveling shot based on Vessel and activate Tz0,
Rx2, Ry1, Rz0 to open. Click the Ok button.
Thanks to the C-Wizard automated setup, all the imposed parameters for the Actuator disk during
the C-Wizard_Part_l. will be reflected in the Wake_flow_tool window.
3.5. Click on the Go button and flow parameters will be present in three additional views: Va, Vr
and Vtheta.
4.1.1 Introduction
A. Problem Description
A propeller open water simulation is a classical marine application of CFD. Simplifying and
automating its complete simulation setup would decrease the required engineering time, allowing
the user to easily and quickly obtain the open water performance curve. For these purposes the C-
Wizard mode is introduced into FINE™/Marine software.
The model scale propeller DTMB 4119 is employed here to calculate its performance:
l Propeller diameter = 0.3048 m;
l Propeller revolution rate = 600 rpm;
l Water inflow velocity = 2.54 m/s;
l Water density = 1,026 kg/m³;
l Water kinematic viscosity = 1.189 e-6 m²/s.
Water properties correspond to salt water at 15 degrees Celsius of the ITTC standards. Even
though only the computation corresponding to the operating point is performed, it is also
explained how to set up the computation to obtain the open water performance curve.
B. Objectives
The goal of this tutorial is to provide guidelines/ best practices for an open water calculation
through step-by-step instructions for the C-Wizard mode. Through its realization, the user will
learn how to:
l Use the wizard mode integrated into the FINE™/Marine interface called the C-Wizard;
l Set up an open water simulation;
l Generate a computational mesh in an automatic mode.
The present tutorial follows the general work flow of the C- Wizard mode, stressing and
highlighting the particularities of an open water application.
It is structured in five main sections:
l Part I describes the complete automatic project, mesh and flow solver setup.
l Part II and Part III describe in detail the mesh and flow solver setup respectively. These steps
are optional because they intend to enlarge user's knowledge about the work- flow in
HEXPRESS™ and FINE™/Marine but they are not strictly necessary for a smooth
experience while doing this tutorial.
l Part IV deals with launching the computation with the Task Manager tool and monitoring its
evolution with the Monitor tool.
l Part V is entirely devoted to the post-processing of the results, both global quantities with the
Result Analysis tool and field quantities with CFView™.
Since this tutorial consists of detailed information about physical and numerical parameters
automatically imposed during the setup procedures, the user is invited to check the shell/ bash
window since relevant information will be displayed there during the process.
D. CPU Prerequisites
In order to ensure a smooth FINE™/Marine experience, it is advised to use a computer with the
following resources:
l 4 GB of RAM (minimum 3GB);
l 7GB of disk space available to store all files;
l 64 bits machine with 48 cores (minimum 24 cores).
1. Locate and copy the file Acoustic_DTMB4119_cf.x_t into your working directory (download
Basic tutorial archive).
2. Start FINE™/Marine v7.1rc
l For Linux systems, you can access the FINE™/Marine v7.1rc graphical user interface with the
following command line:
finemarine71rc -print
l For Windows systems (Windows 7 and older), you can access the FINE™ /Marine v7.1rc
graphical user interface from the Start menu by going to /Programs/NUMECA
software/FineMarine71rc/FINE. In Windows 8 you can access it by going to the Start menu
and clicking on Search. Under Apps, there will be a section called Numeca software. Click on
FINE(#-bits) in order to open the FINE™ /Marine v7.1rc graphical user interface.
1. Click on Using the C-Wizard button to launch the wizard and then on Ok to confirm.
The C-Wizard plugin creates its own project as a step of the project setup procedure.
C-Wizard can also be launched by going to Plugins, then to Predefined and selecting the first
part of the wizard by clicking on C-Wizard_Part_l.
This first part of the wizard provides the user with a menu for the input parameters, extra
numerical models conditions, the domain creation and the mesh configuration setup.
If the C- Wizard is started when there is a project already opened in FINE™/Marine, a warning
To save the ongoing project settings select No, then save the project and return to the Plugins menu
to relaunch the C-Wizard_Part_l.
It is recommended to start the C-Wizard mode computation from the empty FINE™/Marine interface
since there will be a full-chain project setup provided. Selecting Yes in the warning window will
close the opened project without saving it and a new setup procedure will be started.
A. Project Management
2. Create a project by clicking on Create project button in the Project management section. In
a browser define the project name in the directory of your choice.
B. Body Configuration
6. In the Input geometry section, select Parasolid/CATPart and click on the Import
Parasolid/CATPart file button ('*.x_t' and '*.CATPart' formats are available here). Download
the Basic Tutorial Archive.
Import the downloaded Parasolid file Acoustic_DTMB4119_cf.x_t.
7. In the Fluid orientation section, select Negative X-axis.
8. In the Sense of rotation of the propeller section, select Y -> Z.
9. In the Center of the propeller (propeller frame) section, select User-defined and keep the
coordinates (0,0,0).
10. In the Is the body aligned with the X-axis? section, select Yes.
11. In the Reference length definition section, select Automatic (=Radius).
After the previous settings, the Body configuration menu should look as shown in the next
figure.
12. Click on the Next>> button to move to the Flow definition menu.
13. In the Rotational Speed definition (positive value(s) ) section, select Single speed and set
the speed to <600> [rpm].
It is also possible to obtain the open water performance curve. This can be done by activating the
Performance curve . Imposing Vmin [rpm] and Vmax [rpm] will set up the range of rotational
speeds, while the Speed Increment will define the number of computations. The list of speeds will
be generated automatically by pressing Enter after the Speed Increment definition.
14. In the Flow speed definition (positive value, from the inlet) section, set the flow speed to
<2.54> [m/s].
15. In the Scale Input data (Froude number similarity) section, do not activate the Scaling
factor.
16. In the Fluid model section, click on Water properties database button and choose salt
water at 15 degrees Celsius. Click on Ok button to validate these new properties.
After the previous settings, the Flow definition menu should look as shown in the next figure.
D. Additional Inputs
E. Mesh Setup
Refinements on patches are applied according to their names and to the mesh density level. Indeed,
names and mesh density level are defined in the Refinement dictionary.
20. In the Extra refinement of the wake field section, select Yes.
Thanks to this option, an additional cylindrical sector with isotropic refinements is defined to
accurately capture the wake field and vortical structures such as the tip and hub vortices.
21. In the Merge faces with the same name section, select Yes.
Here the sensitive part of the computational project is merging. The way merging is done can
influence the computational process and results. Two options are available in the C- Wizard mode:
Merge faces with the same name and/ or Merge tangential faces.
For C-Wizard projects, the priority is Merge faces with the same name . The reason is that the
propeller, by experience, can be generally represented by several common parts like: shaft, hub, cap,
tip, trailing edge, leading edge, pressure side and suction side. It is up to the user to define how many
parts will be present in the model. By defining patch names inside a CAD software, such as CADfix,
the user will ensure that groups of patches with the same name will be correctly defined depending on
the computation specifics. Once names are defined, the C-Wizard will automatically perform merging
and apply mesh parameters.
The refinement dictionary file contains the mesh setup for an open water computation. The next
table summarizes from the refinement dictionary the refinement parameters of the main patches of
an open water application. Criteria, the number of refinements and the diffusion level are provided
for each mesh density level (Coarse/ Medium/ Fine).
From this moment the user can either manually check the mesh definition and then manually
generate it, or continue with the C-wizard work-flow that will automatically generate the mesh.
The user is kindly invited to manually check the mesh to better understand the HEXPRESS™
work-flow and the parameters involved in the mesh setup.
29. Click on the Manually check the mesh first button to activate the HEXPRESS™ interface
(see image below) without immediately starting the mesh generation.
Based on all the previous input, HEXPRESS™ will take the following actions:
The next figure illustrates the computational domain with the propeller inside.
Since Merge faces with the same name was selected, all the patches with the same name were
merged.
Clicking on the Boundary conditions button the user can check how the external boundary
conditions of the domain were automatically defined and named: xmin, cylinder_side and xmax
correspond to the outlet, lateral and inlet boundaries respectively.
The mesh settings can be accessed through the Mesh Wizard menu of HEXPRESS™.
The next tables summarize the information and parameters contained in each section of the Mesh
Wizard menu.
Mesh generation
Click on the Start button in the Mesh Wizard menu to generate the mesh.
The mesh has a total number of cells of 7,516,260 including the viscous layer insertion.
Click on the Grid button in the HEXPRESS™ toolbar, select Mesh Quality ... and then use the
drop-down list of the Criterion section to check the value of each quality criterion. The next table
summarizes the most relevant criterion to be analyzed.
Criterion Value
Negative / Concave / Twisted cells 0/0/0
Minimum orthogonality 8.89 deg
Maximum cell non-orthogonality 18.52 (only one cell, else 13.8) deg
Maximum aspect ratio 9.56
Maximum expansion ratio 6.90
By generating the Fine mesh (41,944,521 cells) the quality of the grid can be improved but with a
larger computational effort. This improvement is reflected on these new values for the selected
criterion:
TABLE 4.2 Mesh quality summary for Fine mesh density level.
Criterion Value
Negative / Concave / Twisted cells 0/0/0
Before computing the whole performance curve, it is advisable to perform a mesh convergence study
with at least three geometrically embedded grids (Coarse, Medium and Fine) for a given operating
point.
Based on all the previous input, FINE™/Marine will set up the flow solver. The parameters
automatically defined during Part I can be checked through the Parameters section.
31. Click on Solver/Start button to start the computation, activate Parallel in Launching
mode section to select parallel computation and then click on Ok to go the Task Manager tool.
32. In the Task Arguments & Characteristics section, increase the Number of partitions up to
<48>
33. For Linux , click on the Save Batch File button and then on the Start button to start the
computation.
B. Monitor tool
34. It is also possible to check the results history through the Monitor tool during the run or when
the computation is finished by clicking on the Start Monitor button .
In the Quantities to display section, the user can select the quantities (residuals, forces,
momentum and motions variables) for which one would like to check the convergence history or
the computed values. Multiple components or quantities from different runs can be displayed
together as presented below.
FIGURE 4.1
Propeller thrust
The time span of the plots of the propeller thrust and torque starts at 0.5 s to exclude the large
initial transients which preclude the analyst from observing the details of the time evolution of
these global quantities.
In this last section of the tutorial, the post-processing of the computation is presented. First with
the Result Analysis tool integrated into FINE™/Marine for studying the convergence of quantities
such as forces, moments, motions etc. Secondly with CFView™ to analyze in depth field
quantities such as the pressure, the velocity and its second invariant.
38. Click on the Perform button to start the analysis. Within the computation folder one new
folder named Convergence_report_date_time is created containing a file named convergence_
report.info and another folder named as the computation itself. The *.info file is a text file
summarizing the inputs introduced in the Result Analysis tool.
The section devoted to the table of quantity values shown in this convergence report has been cut
(...) for illustrative purposes.
Convergence report
==================
Project: /OW_CWizard_Tutorial/OW_CWizard_Medium_Grid/OW_CWizard_Medium_
Grid.iec
Computation: computation_600.0rpm
Mesh: /OW_CWizard_Tutorial/OW_CWizard_Medium_Grid/_mesh/Acoustic_DTMB4119_
cf.igg
Average values
T Fx(Propeller) Mx(Propeller)
5.000000e-03 -4.227552e+03 2.107556e+02
1.000000e-02 -7.815498e+02 3.899476e+01
1.500000e-02 5.076460e+02 -2.566269e+01
Looking at the CPU time and convergence section of the convergence report, it is noticeable that
convergence was reached at:
Once the solution is converged, it is compared with the experimental data. The next table
summarizes the most relevant global quantities and compares experimental measurements with the
numerical simulation. The good agreement between the computation and the measurements can
be noted.
If the option Performance curve had been chosen in the Flow Definition section with a rotational
speed ranging from 600 rpm to 800 rpm and a speed increment of 50 rpm, the illustration of Kt,
10Kq and Efficiency for theses speeds would have led to the next plot. Once more, the good
agreement between FINE™/Marine and experimental measurements is remarkable.
39. In the FINE™/Marine toolbar, click on the CFView™ button to start the post-processing
of the flow field.
40. In the appearing menu Select result to open in CFView keep the Traveling shot based on
Propeller and do not activate Rx0, Ry0 and Rz0 to open. Click on the Ok button.
In the current tutorial pressure distribution, axial velocity and its second invariant colored by the
helicity are chosen for visualization.
41. In the CFView™ toolbar, click on the Macros menu and then select Group_patches_by_
type in order to ease the organization of the surfaces inside the Surfaces section.
The next pictures show the organization of the surfaces before and after the execution of the
macro.
FIGURE 4.4
After macro execution
42. Visualization of the pressure (normal stress) distribution on the propeller. The steps to perform
are:
a. Keep the default selection in the Surfaces menu;
b. Select Pressure (normal stress) in Quantities menu;
c. Click on the Smooth contour button in Contours & Iso Values section;
43. Visualization of the pressure (normal stress) distribution in the fluid. The steps to perform are:
l Keep the default selection in the Surfaces menu;
l Select Pressure (normal stress) in Quantities menu;
l Click on the Smooth contour button in Contours & Iso Values section;
l Click on the Colormap Set Range button and enter the values -6000 1000 to adjust the
colormap range;
l Choose Create Cutting Plane from the Geometry menu;
l Define the cutting plane:
l Point: (0,0,0);
l Normal: (0,1,0);
l Choose Quantity for the cutting plane.
l Click on the Apply button and Save if you would like to save the cutting plane as a surface.
l Click on the Smooth contour button in the Contours & Iso Values section;
l Click on the Colormap Set Range button and enter the values -4.0 0.5 to adjust the
colormap range.
l Click on the Iso Surface button in the Contours & Iso Values section, enter a positive
value of the second invariant, <50> for the present tutorial, to define the iso-surface and click
again on the same button to save it. This iso-surface will appear in the Surfaces menu;
l Select Helicity in the Quantities menu;
l Click on the Smooth contour button in Contours & Iso Values section.
5.1.1 Introduction
A. Problem Description
A high Froude number simulation is a complex marine application of CFD, as it requires accurate
meshing and settings to compute correctly the high velocity flows. Simplifying and automating its
complete simulation setup would decrease the required engineering time, allowing the user to
easily and quickly setup and launch those cases. For these purposes the C-Wizard in Planing
regime mode is introduced into FINE™/Marine software. This is the dedicated mode for high
Froude number computations. It has the particularity to automatically place the boat close to its
final position using the Savitsky prediction method, to accelerate the convergence.
The Naples Systematic Series C1 model is employed here to calculate its performances:
l Reference length = 2.611 m;
l Velocity = 7.0 m/s; Froude number = 1.38;
l Mass = 106.7 kg;
l Maximum beam at waterline = 0.743 m;
l Mean deadrise angle = 14.0 deg;
l Thrust line to CoG distance = 0.193 m;
l Thrust line to keel line angle = 0.0 deg
l Water density = 999.1026 kg/m³;
l Water dynamic viscosity = 0.001138 Pa.s.
Water properties correspond to fresh water at 15 degrees Celsius of the ITTC standards.
References
The Naples warped hard chine hulls systematic series, F. De Luca, C. Pensa
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oceaneng.2017.04.038
Towards CFD guidelines for planing hull simulations based on the Naples Systematic Series, S.
Mancini et A. Ramolini, ECCOMAS Marine 2017
The goal of this tutorial is to provide guidelines/ best practices for high Froude number calculation
through step-by-step instructions for the C-Wizard mode. Through its realization, the user will
learn how to:
l Use the wizard mode integrated into the FINE™/Marine interface called the C-Wizard;
l Set up a planing regime simulation;
l Generate a computational mesh in an automatic mode;
l Visualize the solutions.
C. Methodology
The present tutorial follows the general work flow of the C- Wizard mode, stressing and
highlighting the particularities of a Planing regime application.
It is structured in five main sections:
l Part I describes the complete automatic project, mesh and flow solver setup.
l Part II and Part III describe in detail the mesh and flow solver setup respectively. These steps
are optional because they intend to enlarge user's knowledge about the work- flow in
HEXPRESS™ and FINE™/Marine but they are not strictly necessary for a smooth
experience while doing this tutorial.
l Part IV deals with launching the computation with the Task Manager tool and monitoring its
evolution with the Monitor tool.
l Part V is entirely devoted to the post-processing of the results, both global quantities with the
Result Analysis tool and field quantities with CFView™.
Since this tutorial consists of detailed information about physical and numerical parameters
automatically imposed during the setup procedures, the user is invited to check the shell/ bash
window since relevant information will be displayed there during the process.
D. CPU Prerequisites
In order to ensure a smooth FINE™/Marine experience, it is advised to use a computer with the
following resources:
l 4 GB of RAM (minimum 3GB);
l 7GB of disk space available to store all files;
l 64 bits machine with 48 cores (minimum 24 cores).
F. Preparation
1. Locate and copy the file C1_ssa_cf.x_t into your working directory (download Basic tutorial
archive).
2. Start FINE™/Marine v7.1rc
l For Linux systems, you can access the FINE™/Marine v7.1rc graphical user interface with the
following command line:
finemarine71rc -print
l For Windows systems (Windows 7 and older), you can access the FINE™ /Marine v7.1rc
graphical user interface from the Start menu by going to /Programs/NUMECA
software/FineMarine71rc/FINE. In Windows 8 you can access it by going to the Start menu
and clicking on Search. Under Apps, there will be a section called Numeca software. Click on
FINE(#-bits) in order to open the FINE™ /Marine v7.1rc graphical user interface.
1. Click on Using the C-Wizard button to launch the wizard and then on Ok to confirm.
The C-Wizard plugin creates its own project as a step of the project setup procedure.
If the C- Wizard is started when there is a project already opened in FINE™/Marine, a warning
window will appear asking for the action to execute.
To save the ongoing project settings select No, then save the project and return to the Plugins menu
to relaunch the C-Wizard_Part_l.
It is recommended to start the C-Wizard mode computation from the empty FINE™/Marine interface
since there will be a full-chain project setup provided. Selecting Yes in the warning window will
close the opened project without saving it and a new setup procedure will be started.
A. Project Management
2. Create a project by clicking on Create project button in the Project management section. In
a browser define the project name in the directory of your choice.
B. Body Configuration
6. In the Input geometry section, select Parasolid/CATPart and click on the Import
Parasolid/CATPart file button ('*.x_t' and '*.CATPart' formats are available here). Download
the Basic Tutorial Archive.
Import the downloaded Parasolid file C1_ssa_cf.x_t.
7. In the Is the input half of the body? section, select No.
8. In the Body configuration section, select Cut body in two (with mirror plane).
9. In the Initial free surface position section, enter the value <0.1676899> [m].
10. In the Body mass section, enter the value <106.7> [kg].
This value is a correction applied to the predicted pitch value. Indeed, the Savitsky prediction method
has shown the tendency to over predict the pitch. Hence, one propose to apply by default a - 30%
correction on the predicted pitch, which is accurate in most cases. In this case, the default value would
have required few extra time steps, hence the value of -10% is taken instead.
After the previous settings, the Body configuration menu should look as shown in the next
figure.
C. Flow Definition
15. In the Speed definition (positive value(s) ) section, set the Single speed to <7.0> [m/s].
16. In the Scale Input data (Froude number similarity) section, do not activate the Scaling
factor.
17. In the Fluid model section, leave the default values.
After the previous settings, the Flow definition menu should look as shown in the next figure.
18. Click on the Next >> button to move to the Additional inputs menu.
This menu allows to activate an Actuator disk and/or a Drag based external force. This could
be used to pull the boat by its exact propulsion point. It is also possible to activate the Adaptive
grid refinement on free surface to improve the mesh quality around the free surface
automatically during the computation, and hence obtain a better definition of the wave pattern.
In this tutorial none of the option is used, to accelerate the computation time.
19. Click on the Next >> button to move to the Mesh setup menu.
E. Mesh Setup
Refinements on patches are applied according to their names and to the mesh density level. Indeed,
names and mesh density level are defined in the Refinement dictionary.
22. In the Merge faces with the same name? section, leave No.
Here the sensitive part of the computational project is merging. The way merging is done can
influence the computational process and results. Two options are available in the C- Wizard mode:
Merge faces with the same name and/ or Merge tangential faces.
23. In the Merge tangential faces? section, select Yesand enter the value <170.0> [deg]
This option is exactly the same as the one in HEXPRESS™ (Domain Manipulation) and when
activated it checks if the neighboring patch has a tangent angle greater than a specified one and merge
if it is greater. This method is especially helpful when the imported geometry contains a big number
of patches.
24. Click on the Advanced >>> button to check the additional parameters.
25. In the User-defined domain size section, do not activate it.
When not active, the default domain is set to a box with 1.5 LOA before the boat, 1.5 LOA below, 1.5
LOA on the side, 1 LOA above. The number of LOA behind the boat (in the wake) depends on the
Froude number: 3 LOA for Fr ≤ 1, 4 LOA for 1 < Fr < 1.5 and 5 LOA for Fr ≥ 1.5.
From the file savitsky.output stored in the project folder, one can retrieve the values of the Savitsky
prediction method.
Based on all the previous input, HEXPRESS™ will take the following actions:
The next figure illustrates the computational domain with the half boat inside.
Since Merge tangential faces was selected with the value <170.0> [deg], all the adjacent patches
with an angle between 170 and 180 degrees were merged.
Clicking on the Boundary conditions button the user can check how the external boundary
conditions of the domain were automatically defined and named in accordance with the global
reference frame: ymin_SYM, zmax, xmin, ymax, zmin and xmax.
The mesh settings can be accessed through the Mesh Wizard menu of HEXPRESS™.
The next tables summarize the information and parameters contained in each section of the Mesh
Wizard menu.
Mesh generation
Click on the Start button in the Mesh Wizard menu to generate the mesh.
The mesh has a total number of cells of 2,782,880 including the viscous layer insertion.
TABLE 5.1 Mesh quality summary for the Medium mesh density level.
Criterion Value
Negative / Concave / Twisted cells 0/0/0
Minimum orthogonality 21.39 deg
Maximum cell non-orthogonality 32 deg
Maximum expansion ratio 12.8
Based on all the previous input, FINE™/Marine will set up the flow solver. The parameters
automatically defined during Part I can be checked through the Parameters section.
Computation
control
Computation General As this computation is made to reach a steady state computation and the
control boat is placed in a position closed to the final one, those parameters are
variables appropriate.
Maximum number of non-linear iterations: 5
Convergence criteria 2 orders
Number of time steps: 2000
General > Solver method: Dynamic switch
Advanced The solver will automatically switch between PCGSTAB_MB and
BoomerAMG to use the most efficient pressure solver.
PCGSTAB_MB: 2 orders, maximum of 300 iterations
BoomerAMG: 3 orders, maximum of 60 iterations
Expert The goal here is to kill the potential numerical ventilation that could
parameters appear. The weighted deformation coefficient are also modified to allow
more deformation.
CIStreakCorrection_ : YES
CIAggressiveStreakCorrection_ : YES
WeightCoefModifLaw_ : 3.0 0.85
32. Click on Solver/Start button to start the computation, activate Parallel in Launching
mode section to select parallel computation and then click on Ok to go the Task Manager tool.
33. In the Task Arguments & Characteristics section, increase the Number of partitions up to
<48>
34. For Linux , click on the Save Batch File button and then on the Start button to start the
computation.
Once the solver has finished the computation, theTask Manager displays the computation status
in the TASK MANAGER INFO window, where the status is "finished" for pre-processing,
solver and post-processing.
B. Monitor tool
35. It is also possible to check the results history through the Monitor tool during the run or when
the computation is finished by clicking on the Start Monitor button .
In the Quantities to display section, the user can select the quantities (residuals, forces,
momentum and motions variables) for which one would like to check the convergence history or
the computed values. Multiple components or quantities from different runs can be displayed
together as presented below.
For the forces Fx and Fz, the time span of the plot starts at 0.012 s to exclude the initial peak which
preclude the analyst from observing the details of the time evolution of these quantities.
The computation has been made in Half body , hence the forces values need to be multiplied by a
factor 2.
In this last section of the tutorial, the post-processing of the computation is presented. First with
the Result Analysis tool integrated into FINE™/Marine for studying the convergence of quantities
such as forces, moments, motions etc. Secondly with CFView™ to analyze in depth field
quantities such as the pressure, the velocity and its second invariant.
39. In the Plot options section, select the Double the drag Fx for a half body simulation
option. This option will double the drag value, to obtain the full body drag.
40. Click on the Perform button to start the analysis. Within the computation folder one new
folder named Convergence_report_date_time is created containing a file named convergence_
report.info and another folder named as the computation itself. The *.info file is a text file
summarizing the inputs introduced in the Result Analysis tool.
The section devoted to the table of quantity values shown in this convergence report has been cut
(...) for illustrative purposes.
Convergence report
==================
Project: /Tutorial5_CW_Planing_regime/Tutorial5_CW_Planing_regime.iec
Computation: computation_7.0ms
Mesh: /Tutorial5_CW_Planing_regime/_mesh/C1_ssa_cf.igg
Average values
B. CFView™
41. In the FINE™/Marine toolbar, click on the CFView™ button to start the post-processing
of the flow field.
42. In the appearing menu Select result to open in CFView keep the Traveling shot based on
Vessel and only activate Tx. Click on the Ok button.
45. Visualization of the mass fraction on the hull. The steps to perform are:
The appropriate files (and any other relevant files used in the tutorial) can be downloaded from
the corresponding link: download Advanced level files. In addition they are available from the
Products page of the Customer Area (www.numeca.be).
Some of the project files (mesh and project, excluding solution files) can also be found in the
demo cases package dedicated to ready-to-run demonstration cases and presented in the Demo
Cases section. This allows to quickly start a calculation and observe the behavior of
FINE™/Marine, without necessarily going through all the steps of the tutorials.
Several conventions are used in the tutorials to facilitate your learning process.
Following a short introduction, each tutorial is divided into 3 sections respectively related to mesh
generation, settings and calculation, and post-treatment.
Inputs required to execute the tutorials are most often restricted to the geometry, either in a ".dom"
or CAD related format, and profiles of boundary conditions.
The sequence of actions to be executed are described through a step-by-step approach, in the form
of Arabic numbers.
Additional insight about some specific actions and/ or features is frequently added to illustrate the
tutorial further. This information is proposed for the purpose of clarity and completeness, and
should not be executed. It appears as a note with a light blue background.
The calculations executed to illustrate the behavior of the flow solver include a "reasonable"
number of grid points, so as to limit the computational resources required to complete the tutorials.
As a consequence, most of the underlying flow solutions must be considered as qualitative.
Additional mesh refinement may be required in some circumstances so as to obtain a more
quantitative picture.
Contact NUMECA local sales or support office for any question or information you may require. To
allow NUMECA local sales or support office to help you out within the shortest delays, please
provide a detailed description of the observed behavior and performed analysis.
The resolution of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) problems involves three main steps:
l spatial discretization of the flow equations,
l flow computation,
l visualization of the results.
In order to perform these steps, three software systems have been created:
l HEXPRESS™ (developed by NUMECA), is an automated all-hexahedral unstructured mesh
generator.
l ISIS-CFD (developed by the CNRS and the Ecole Centrale de Nantes), is a 3D unstructured
flow solver able to simulate Euler or Navier-Stokes (laminar or turbulent) flows.
l CFView™ (developed by NUMECA), is a highly interactive Computational Field
Visualization system.
These three software systems have been integrated in a unique and user-friendly Graphical User
Interface (GUI), called FINE™/Marine, allowing the solution of complete simulations of 3D
internal and external flows from the grid generation to visualization, without any file
manipulation, through the concept of a project. Moreover, multitasking capabilities are
incorporated, allowing the simultaneous treatment of multiple computations.
Tutorials shows how to:
l use the HEXPRESS™ user interface,
l generate a mesh with HEXPRESS™ ,
l progress in the mesh wizard to generate the mesh and multi-domain mesh,
l visualize a mesh,
l control the quality of the mesh,
l set up a computation in the FINE™/Marine interface,
l start/ stop the computation,
l visualize the results with CFView™, making an animation.
l import an external geometry.
1.1.1 Prerequisites
It is strongly recommended to perform basic tutorials 1 and 2 before starting this advanced
tutorial.
FIGURE 1.1
Appended DTMB 5415
1.1.3 Preparation
1. Locate and copy the file "DTMB5415_ Appended.X_ T" into your working directory
(download Advanced tutorial archive).
2. Start FINE™/Marine v7.1rc.
l For Linux systems, you can access the FINE™/Marine v7.1rc graphical user interface with the
following command line:
finemarine71rc -print
l For Windows systems (Windows 7 and older), you can access the FINE™ /Marine v7.1rc
graphical user interface from the Start menu by going to /Programs/NUMECA
software/FineMarine71rc/FINE. In Windows 8 you can access it by going to the Start menu
and clicking on Search. Under Apps, there will be a section called Numeca software. Click on
FINE(#-bits) in order to open the FINE™ /Marine v7.1rc graphical user interface.
FIGURE 1.2
HEXPRESS™
A. Import Geometry
1.1. Open FINE™/Marine, select Create a new project/ Creating a mesh and press OK.
1.2. Select a working directory, enter the project name Full_Appended_DTMB and press OK.
1.6. Select all bodies: left-click on the first body, hold the <Shift> button and left-click on the last
item (<Ctrl> + left-click also works to make multiple selections).
1.7. Right-click and hold on any highlighted item in the list to access the options menu and release
on Check. Wait a few seconds to have confirmation that the bodies are clean.
When the imported bodies are not clean, one needs to resort to for example CADfix.
The computational domain is usually defined as a box around the body.Standard domain sizes in
terms of Lpp or Loa are:
l Longitudinal (commonly X-axis) 5Lpp
l Lateral (commonly Y-axis) 1.5Lpp
l Normal (commonly Z-axis) 2Lpp
l Volume in space 15Lpp³
2.1. Click on Create Box under the CAD Manipulation menu in the Quick Access Pad (QAP).
2.2. For the first corner enter <-5.72,0,-8.33>.
2.3. Click on Apply.
2.4. For the second corner enter <22.88,8.58,3.11>.
2.5. Click on Apply.
2.6. Click on Accept.
2.14. Check that the body 'B1' is selected in the CAD Manipulation/ Visualization/Selection list
in the QAP.
2.15. Click on Create Domain under CAD Manipulation/Create/Edit and a rough initial
domain will be generated.
2.18. When satisfied, click on Create to save the domain file under the name "FA_DTMB_
domain" in the "/_mesh" subfolder of the project directory.
2.20. Use the Solid Toggle button to view the domain as wire-frame or solid.
Meshing actions in HEXPRESS™ are mainly done at the level of edge or face entities. To reduce
the engineering time spent during the mesh set-up, the number of edges and faces should be kept
to a minimum (process called domain simplification).This section will illustrate
l Manual merging of faces and edges
l Automatic merging of faces and edges
Click on Domain Manipulation in the QAP to expand the options.The following philosophy is
usually followed when merging edges and faces. By default, HEXPRESS™ captures all vertices
and edges in the domain. This means:
l Edges which represent a real geometrical feature or of great interest (possible cavitation,
separation, etc) should be kept.
l Edges not representing a feature can be merged together;
l Try to avoid vertices with a connectivity equal or larger than 4 (connected to 4 edges).
Typical workflow:
l First automatic face merge with high feature angle;
l Manual face merge;
l Automatic edge merge.
As a first step, the Automatic Face Merge option with large feature angle is used to merge faces
that are well aligned.
3.1.1. Click on Domain Manipulation in the QAP to expand the options.
3.2.1. Manual face merging follows to merge the remaining faces of interest. First, the feature
angle needs to be reset.
3.2.2. Click on the settings icon under Domain Manipulation in the QAP.
3.2.3. Set feature angle (degrees) to <0><Enter> (hence no restriction in merging operations).
3.2.4. Press Apply.
When manually merging, the edges/faces that will be merged are highlighted in green. If they do not
highlight, it is likely that the feature angle is set too high.
3.2.5. Press on the Face Merge icon and click on the edges in the figures below to merge the
neighboring faces:
After the face merging, the original vertices still remain (which will be captured during the mesh
generation).
3.3.1. Click on the display vertex icon under View/Display Options in the QAP to visualize
them (white dots in the display area).
3.3.6. Refresh the display by clicking twice on the vertex icon under View/Display Options
in the QAP to obtain the same result as in the following figure.
Edge Splitting
To prevent a low quality of the future mesh in difficult areas as intersections of sharp edges with the
body, it is recommended to split edges or faces in that vicinity for a further refinement during the
mesh generation, thus avoiding a high discretization of a large area and therefore the generation of
unnecessary cells.
3.4.1. Press on the Split Edges button under Domain Manipulation in the QAP.
3.4.2. Zoom in on the brackets and move the cursor near one of the trailing edges. The curve will
be highlighted in green and a white circle will indicate the splitting point.
3.4.3. Left-click at approximately 10% of the trailing edge length from the bracket's root, as
shown in the following figure. Repeat for the second bracket.
Starting from this step, user can continue with his own project files or use the domain file
called "Full_Appended_DTMB.dom" that is provided in the documentation package (stored
under Tutorials/_advanced/Tutorial_1/_dom/). For this purpose, click on Project/New and
import the domain (".dom").
D. Boundary Conditions
Before proceeding with the actual mesh generation, it is recommended to set the boundary
conditions. This section explains how to:
l Assign names to surfaces;
l Assign boundary condition types to surfaces.
4.4. First set the names and BC type for the bounding box as presented below:
This can be done every time a face is renamed correctly in order to ease the selection process.
4.5. Now rename and set the BC type for all the remaining surfaces as presented below:
Initial Mesh
5.1.6. Switch between wire-frame and shading view by clicking on under View/Display
Options in the QAP and show or hide the mesh using the mesh toggle button .
Free Surface
In FINE™/Marine, the free surface should be captured correctly. For this purpose, a refinement zone
should be created as an internal surface. Various ways of creating it are possible, but for the purpose
of this tutorial, a lofted surface between two polylines will be exemplified.
5.2.4. Enter the second coordinate <-5.72 8.58 0.248> in the input keyboard area and press
<Enter>.
Note that an internal surface can also be created using a plug-in. In the interface Plugins -> Marine
-> Internal surface creation. This will give an option to specify the height at which the internal
surface is located. Give <0.248> as the z constant surface value to get the internal surface as shown
in the above figure.
This step is probably the most important in terms of user interaction in HEXPRESS™ . Indeed, the
selected parameters directly dictate the computed mesh obtained with HEXPRESS™ . The adaptation
step consists of two successive actions: the refinement and the trimming. During the first one,
HEXPRESS™ adapts the initial mesh such that the cell sizes satisfy geometry dependent criteria.
With the second step, it removes cells intersecting the geometry or located outside the computational
domain.
Global Refinement
5.3.1.1. Select and open the Adapt to geometry menu in the Mesh Wizard.
5.3.1.2. Under the Global parameters tab, set the Maximum number of refinements to
<12><Enter>.
In order to limit the number of cells created during refinement, HEXPRESS™ subdivides cells
anisotropically as often as possible. A cell can thus be subdivided in 2, 4 or 8 cells.
The adaptation process successively bisects the cells flagged for refinement in one or several different
directions. The sizes of the initial mesh cells are therefore divided by a factor 2 N after N successive
refinements. This may result in an exponential growth of the total number of cells in the mesh, even
though the refinement may be confined to some areas of the computational domain. To bound the
number of cells, the user should set the maximum number of refinements to a reasonable
limit.Several global expert parameters are available when clicking on Advanced >>> button to
finely tune the mesh adaptation process. Since HEXPRESS™ is optimized for these defaults, any
modification may therefore alter the success of the meshing process. More details are available in the
User Manual.
The adaptation process is defined by three classes of criteria: curve, surface and volume criteria.
Surface criterion considers cells intersecting solid surfaces as candidates for refinement. Three criteria
are implemented and are respectively based on:
l a proximity between surfaces (Distance),
l a surface curvature measurement (Curvature),
l a specification of cell target sizes on the surfaces (Target cell sizes).
Volume criterion (found in Box Adaptation tab) is considering cells which are intersecting or
located inside a three-dimensional volume as candidates for refinement if their cell size is larger than
some user prescribed target size.
To save engineering time, surfaces belonging to a certain component of the ship or with similar
characteristics, can be grouped together so that the refinement parameters have to be set just once, for
the entire group. Note that the group names have to be unique.
To make a group:
5.3.2.2. Select the patches of interest in the list (multi selection with <Shift> or <Ctrl> key) or
interactively from the graphical window (<Ctrl> key for multiple selection), selected surfaces are
highlighted in yellow (click again on a surface to deselect it). Click the middle mouse button to
scroll through surfaces hidden after each other.
5.3.2.3. Click on Group.
5.3.2.4. Give a name to the group and press <Enter>. A "˜+"™ sign appears in front of the group.
5.3.2.5. Create the groups as presented in the following figure, by selecting the surfaces from the
list or interactively from the graphic area:
The refinement settings for the group 'bracket_ LE' will be given as example, complete the
parameters of all other groups as presented in the following table.
5.3.3.1. Click on Active.
5.3.3.2. Set Max nb. of refinements to <11> <Enter>.
5.3.3.3. Activate Curvature and Target cell sizes criteria.
5.3.3.4. Enter target cell sizes along X, Y and Z axis as <0.0017> <Enter>.
The Maximum number of refinements per surface ultimately controls the refinement of cells
The part of the shaft that is connected to the hull is displayed in the following figure.
The other parts of the shaft can be seen in the following figure.
Curve Refinement
5.3.4.1. Click on the Curve refinement tab. All the curves to be refined are highlighted in the
following figure, but individual parameters should be completed as presented in the following
table.
5.3.5.2. In this tutorial, a refinement box will be used to prepare a zone of refinement for the
actuator disk model, if such is applied.
5.3.5.3. Click on New.
5.3.5.4. Press <c> to place the first corner.
5.3.5.5. Left-click in the input keyboard area.
5.3.5.6. Enter the first coordinate <5.38 0.065 0.14> in the input keyboard area (values separated
with a space).
5.3.5.7. Press <Enter>.
5.3.5.8. Left-click in the input keyboard area.
5.3.5.9. Enter the second coordinate <5.43 0.265 -0.06> in the input keyboard area.
5.3.5.10. Press <Enter>.
5.3.5.11. Left-click in the graphics area to accept the box.
5.3.5.12. A yellow box appears in the window.
Refinement settings for the box:
5.3.5.13. Keep Active selected.
The option Volumic means the box volume will be refined. When not active, only the solid surfaces
inside the box will be refined
Trimming
The trimming step removes all the cells intersecting or located outside of the geometry.
5.3.6.1. Click on the Trimming tab.
Note that not all surfaces appear in the list: only all EXT, MIR and SOL surfaces which are planar.
The trimming step removes all the cells intersecting or located outside of the geometry.
way is to make cutting planes in the domain by clicking on the icon in the viewing buttons or
press <F5>:
Press <x> to make a x-constant cutting plane.
Holding the middle mouse button slides the plane.
Pressing <F1> access the dynamic view options to reorient the camera position.
Pressing <Esc > returns to the cutting plane options.
Pressing <Esc > once more removes the cutting plane.
After grid adaptation, a volumic mesh is created, meaning it is not projected or snapped onto the
actual model. The snapping step takes care of this process. By default, no user input is required.
The aim of this fully automated mesh generation step is to project the staircase mesh obtained after
the mesh adaptation on the surface to obtain a good quality body conforming mesh. In addition to a
simple projection on the geometry, this action involves sophisticated algorithms to recover lower
dimensional geometric features such as corners and curves in the mesh. These algorithms guarantee
that, when the mesh is projected onto the surface geometry, a mesh vertex is attached to each corner
of the geometry and that a path of mesh edges is attached to the curve.
Layers of additional cells (buffer insertion) are introduced into the mesh to create a body conforming
mesh.
Finally, the mesh is smoothed by moving points on the surface and in the volume.
5.4.1. Select the Snap to geometry step by ticking the yellow box in the Mesh Wizard.
5.4.2. Click on Step under Mesh Wizard in the QAP to proceed with the snapping step.
5.4.3. Display mesh and shading by clicking on the icons and under View/Display
Options in the QAP.
5.4.4. Left-click on Mesh quality icon in the toolbar to check the mesh quality.
5.4.5. Select successively the Negative, Concave, and Twisted Cells criteria.
Optimization
5.5.3. Display mesh and shading by clicking on the icons and under View/Display
Options in the QAP.
5.5.4. Left-click on the Mesh quality icon in the toolbar to check the mesh quality.
5.5.5. Select successively the Negative cells, Concave cells, Twisted Cells, and Orthogonality
as Criterion.
An important check of the mesh quality is to detect the presence of negative cells, i.e. cells with a
negative volume. Negative cells are not allowed in the final mesh to be used for the computation.
Concave or twisted cells are less likely to present robustness or stability issues for solvers, however
they should be prohibited.
When negative, concave or twisted cells are detected, they should be usually removed by changing
mesh adaptation settings. Please refer to the user manual for more details.
In case the optimizer cannot make the mesh valid then use relaxation, as a last resort to relax from
geometry. It is rarely used in marine applications.
Furthermore, the cell orthogonality, aspect ratio and expansion ratio can be controlled. There are
presented through histograms. Each bar represents the number of cells whose criterion value is
included in the bar interval. By left-clicking on one of the bars, the corresponding cells are displayed
In case the optimization step was unsuccessful, meaning negative, concave or twisted cells
remained, the box in front of the step would be red.
5.6.1. Select the Viscous layers step by ticking the yellow box.
5.6.2. Left-click on Viscous layers in order to view/edit the settings.
In the Global tab, the user can select two viscous layers insertion methods: with or without inflation.
By default, inflation with a floating number of layers is selected.
The width of the first cell close to the wall must be selected with care since the quality of the flow
solution will often depend upon the capture of the flow phenomena inside the boundary layers which
develop along the solid walls. Depending upon the turbulence model selected, NUMECA recommends
to locate the nearest grid point along the wall, at a distance that corresponds to parietal coordinate y+
ranging from 1-5 (low Reynolds number models) or 20-50 (high Reynolds number models). Besides,
FINE™/Marine proposes extended wall function models as well, which allows to use y+ range of 20-
50 for low Froude numbers and 50-300 for high Froude numbers.
The relation between the parietal coordinate y+ and width of the first cell close to the wall y is driven
by the Blasius equation, expressed as follows for turbulent flows:
where:
5.6.7. The viscous layer settings are first layer thickness, growth ratio and number of layers.
Commonly, the first layer thickness and growth ratio are the same for all surfaces.
5.6.8. Select all groups except the deck (use <Shift> key or drag the cursor over the groups names
in the list).
5.6.9. Click on Active.
5.6.10. Click on Compute to define the first layer thickness:
Note that the first layer thickness & stretching ratio can be set independently per surface.
HEXPRESS™ gives an indication about the appropriate number of viscous layers to insert. This
number is computed based on the current mesh after optimization (this indication is not available if
the optimization step is not performed yet). This value will be the minimum to activate the inflation
method.
The mesh statistics are contained in the ".qualityReport" file, but also retrieved in the
HEXPRESS™ GUI as described before.
Due to the complexity of this tutorial, the numerous number of steps which must be performed
and the small differences between software versions, slight variation of the mesh quality may
occur, but it should be in the range of the following values :
Number of cells : 3,100,000
No negative, concave and twisted cells
Minimal orthogonality 5 [deg]
Average orthogonality 80 [deg]
Maximal aspect ratio 150
Average aspect ratio 5
Maximal expansion ratio 12
Average expansion ratio 1.5
F. Save Project
6.1. Go to Project/Save or click on the Save icon and save the project under the '_mesh'
folder.
The mesh folder contains the mesh topology, geometry, grid points and the boundary condition types
among others:
l '.bcs': boundary conditions file,
l '.dom': geometry file,
l '.igg': topology file,
l '.hex': grid points file,
l '.rep': report file,
l '.dist': distance file,
l '.fnmb': FNMB connections,
6.2. Click on the Go back to project set- up button to impose the flow settings in the
FINE™/Marine GUI.
6.3. The Mesh properties menu appears. Check that the information is correct (Grid units set to
Meters) and click on Ok.
You are now back to the FINE™/Marine interface and ready to click on the link and proceed
with the computation setup!
A. Physical Configuration
General Properties
1.1.1. In the Physical configuration menu, double click on General parameters and keep
Steady active.
1.1.2. Click on Ok to confirm.
Fluid Model
1.2.1. Double click on Fluid model and keep Multi-fluid active and the default fluid settings.
Flow Model
The reference variables (length and velocity) are required to estimate the Reynolds and Froude
numbers. These numbers are used by the flow solver, in particular in the damping functions related to
the modeling of turbulence down the walls. The impact of the characteristic variables on the flow
solution is very limited, but it is advised to select values in accordance with reference values of the
geometrical domain and flow conditions. As an example, the reference length may be defined as the
length between perpendiculars. The reference velocity may be set to the average ship velocity.
C. Body Motion
3.11. Click on the Dynamic parameters tab, activate the Half Body option, and complete the
longitudinal and vertical position of gravity center and the mass:
l Set X_CG and Z_CG to <2.9><Enter> [m] and <0.15><Enter> [m] respectively;
l Set the Mass to <558><Enter> [kg].
D. Mesh Management
6.1. In the Numerical parameters menu, double click on Numerical schemes and keep the
default settings.
6.2. Press Ok to confirm.
Control Variables
7.1.1. In the Computation control menu, double click on the Control variables menu.
Impose the following computation settings under the General/Parameters menu:
l Maximum number of non-linear iterations: <4> <Enter>;
l Convergence criteria: <2> <Enter> orders;
l Save solution every: <25><Enter> time steps;
7.1.2. Under Time step parameters, set the Number of time steps to: <800> <Enter>.
7.1.3. Select (from the cascade list) the UNIFORM Time step law.
7.1.4. Tick the Activate sub-cycling acceleration box.
7.1.5. Set the Maximum number of sub-cycles to <5> <Enter>.
7.1.6. Set the Global time step value to <0.05> <Enter>.
7.1.7. Set the Target Courant number to <5><Enter>.
Depending upon the quality of the initial solution, the density of the mesh (number of nodes) and the
complexity of the underlying flow field, from a few hundred to a few thousand iterations are
typically required to reach convergence. The iterative process is stopped once the convergence criteria
is reached over the entire domain or the maximum number of iterations is executed on the finest grid
level.
Outputs
7.2.1. In the Computation control menu, double click on Outputs to select the output that will
be given.
7.2.2. In the Motion & force variables page, keep the default selected outputs as presented in the
following figure.
8.1. Click on the Save Project icon in order to save the project.
Start Computation
Parallel Computation
Parallel computations are launched through the Task manager. To do so, follow the steps below:
8.3.1. After clicking on the Start computation icon, select Parallel and click on Ok.
It is recommended to assign a maximum of 300.000 cells per partition, for each GByte of RAM
available.
The Task manager is loaded, a task is created and the corresponding simulation file is
automatically selected.
8.3.2. Enter the number of partitions (see the recommendation above).
8.3.3. Select the machines on which to run the computation by clicking on Machines selection &
balancing.
The pop up Task Manager window allows following the convergence history of the computation.
To save and stop a computation while running, theSuspend Solver icon should be pressed.
However, to stop the computation without saving, theKill Solver icon should be used.
Monitoring
Representation is typically executed in the form of color contours (smoothed or stripped) and/or
isolines. CFView™ also includes the possibility to interrogate the flow field locally ("local value")
and create 1D Cartesian plots. Advanced capabilities involving curve and/or surface integration can
also be accessed.
1.1. Click on the Render icon to view the shaded body (by default only the solid patches are
selected when loading a solution) and then on the Fit the View button.
1.2. Double click on Mass Fraction from the Quantities in QAP to select it (the quantity will be
marked by a green tick when active)
1.3. In the Representations area, click on the Contours & Iso-Values section to expand it.
The value of 0.5 of the mass fraction representing the contact surface between the two fluid - water
and air.
1.5. A new surface called "ISO Mass Fraction=0.5.D1" has been added in the Surfaces list and it
is displayed as a grid as presented below.
1.9. Click on the Smooth Contour icon in Representations/Contours & Iso Values to
visualize the colormap.
1.10. The pallet of colors can be optimized to the selected surface by clicking on the Colormap
Optimum Range icon in the toolbar.
1.11. Switch off the grid by clicking on the Toggle Grid icon in Representations/Grid.
1.12. Click on Opacity in Representations and decrease the value to about 0.65 by dragging the
cursor (by default set to 1).
1.13. Click on Toggle Light Contour icon under Representations/Lighting & shadows
menu, to activate the lighting effects.
1.14. To hide the ship's edges, select only the solid patches in the Surfaces list (use Type filter in
Surfaces/Filter, unselect All and select SOL patches) then press on the Toggle Boundary icon
.
1.15. To visualize the full domain, go to Geometry menu and select Repetition on/off. Use the
viewing buttons to show the final free surface elevation as presented in the following figure.
2.1. Click-left on "ISO Mass Fraction=0.5.D1" in the Surfaces list, then right-click and release
Select.
The above representation of color contour and isolines on free surface can also be obtained by
clicking on the Macros and selecting Represent_Free_Surface option. This will automatically
perform all the operations mentioned in the above steps and will give the representation of color
contour and isolines as shown in the figure above.
3.5. Check that only the "ISO Mass Fraction=0.5.D1" in the Surfaces list is selected.
5.1. Select all the solid patches only, in the Surfaces list, if not yet done.
5.2. From the Quantities list, select Pressure (normal stress).
5.3. Click on under Representations/Contours & Iso Values in the QAP then on in the
toolbar to optimize the color range.
5.4. Focus on an area of interest as the link between the shaft and the hull.
5.5. Press on Colormap Set Range icon in the toolbar and set range in the keyboard input
area as <-100 2500><Enter>.
6.3. Keep all solid patches selected in the Surfaces list, press the Render Gouraud icon to
visualize the shaded body.
6.4. Press on the Y Projection button of the viewing buttons to see the ship from aside.
6.5. Go to Geometry/Create Cutting Plane.. or press <L>.
6.6. Press on the X button from the Create Cutting Plane window to generate a Y-Z plane.
6.7. Use the left-write arrows from the Step Scrolling to move the cutting plane just before the
ship's bow. Decrease the Step value for more accurate translations, if needed.
6.8. Press Save and Close when the cutting plane is similar as in the following figure.
6.10. Click on the Vector Lines Parameters icon under Representations/Vector Lines in
QAP. Under the General tab, increase the number of points per line to <20000><Enter>, set
both as direction, tube as representation, volume as mode and velocity as color.
6.11. Click on Apply.
6.15. Press the Vector Lines icon under Representations/Vector Lines in QAP and then
click on the cutting plane where you want to draw the 3D streamlines from. The resulting
streamlines are presented in the following figure.
2.1.1 Prerequisites
The MOERI container ship (KCS) has been experimented by the Korean Institute for Ships and
Ocean Engineering (now MOERI) and conceived to provide data for both explication of flow
physics and CFD validation for a modern container ship. The present tutorial corresponds to a self
propulsion case at model scale corresponding to the case 2.3a, Hino (2005), used for the last
Gothenburg workshop.
The goal of this tutorial is to provide step-by-step instructions of the simulation of a typical self-
propulsion case to aid in the learning process of FINE™/Marine. The tutorial gives guidelines/
best practices on the complete mesh set- up, flow settings and post- processing, including
explanations for sliding grids for projects containing a ship and its propeller. Some geometrical
features make this a challenging and representative case to mesh. Upon completion of this tutorial,
the user should have covered the most relevant features present in FINE™/Marine and be
conversant with meshing techniques and simulation setup involving multiple domains.
A scale model resistance computation for the KCS model will be performed with the following
settings:
2.1.3 Preparation
1. Locate and copy the file kcs.dom into your working directory (download Advanced tutorial
archive).
2. Start FINE™/Marine v7.1rc.
l For Linux systems, you can access the FINE™/Marine v7.1rc graphical user interface with the
following command line:
finemarine71rc -print
l For Windows systems (Windows 7 and older), you can access the FINE™ /Marine v7.1rc
graphical user interface from the Start menu by going to /Programs/NUMECA
software/FineMarine71rc/FINE. In Windows 8 you can access it by going to the Start menu
and clicking on Search. Under Apps, there will be a section called Numeca software. Click on
FINE(#-bits) in order to open the FINE™ /Marine v7.1rc graphical user interface.
Click here to start the mesh generation...
A. Import Domain
1.1. Open FINE™/Marine, select Create a new project/Creating a mesh and press Ok.
B. Boundary Conditions
Before proceeding with the actual mesh generation, it is recommended to set the boundary
conditions. For practical reasons, rename all the surfaces accordingly and set boundary condition
type at the same time.
2.1. Click on the icon or select the Grid/ Boundary Conditions... menu.
2.2.a. Click on the surface name in the list (and see it highlighted in the view area)
or
2.2.b. Select directly in the graphics area by left-clicking on the surface (middle-click to scroll
through surfaces hidden after each other). Use <Ctrl> or <Shift> to make multiple selections both
in the list or interactively, in the graphics area.
2.3. Set EXT type for the bounding box (Ymin, Bottom, Top, Out, In) as presented below.
The following steps illustrate the mesh generation for the two domains:
Initial Mesh
Internal Surface
Adaptation
3.3.1.1. Select the Adapt to geometry step by ticking the yellow box.
3.3.1.2. Left-click on Adapt to geometry in order to view/edit the settings.
3.3.1.3. Under Global, set the Maximum number of refinements to <10>.
3.3.1.4 Click on the Surface refinement tab to activate it and apply the following refinements to
the respective surfaces.
Internal
10000 1.87 1.87 0.013 1000 Global
Surf
3.4. Activate the steps, keep the default settings and launch the mesh generation clicking on the
Start button in the wizard.
3.5.1. Select the Viscous layers step by ticking the yellow box.
3.5.2. Left-click on Viscous layers in order to view/edit the settings.
In the Global tab, the user can select one of the two viscous layer insertion methods available:
with or without inflation. By default, inflation with a floating number of layers is selected, this
default setting will be used in this tutorial.
3.5.3. Click on the Surface tab and apply the following viscous layer settings for the surfaces.
Hull 0.000922 8
Transom 0.000922 8
To mesh the region around the propeller choose prop from the Active domain drop-down menu
in the interface. The meshing procedure is the same as mentioned above.
Initial Mesh
4.1.1. The initial isotropic mesh for the propeller has 486 cells with 6 divisions in <x> axis and 9
divisions in <y> & <z> axes.
4.1.2. Click Ok.
4.1.3. Click Step or Start.
Adaptation
4.2.1.1. Select the Adapt to geometry step by ticking the yellow box.
4.2.1.2. Left-click on Adapt to geometry in order to view/edit the settings.
4.2.1.3. Under Global, set the Maximum number of refinements to <6>.
4.2.1.4. Left-click on the Curve refinement tab and select the 10 curves pertaining to the edges
of the blades (as presented in below figure) and group them under edge.
4.2.2. Click on the Surface refinement tab and apply the following refinements.
blade
(bf1,2,3,4,5)
3 000 2.0 Global
blade
(bb1,2,3,4,5)
4.3. Activate the steps, keep the default settings and launch the mesh generation by clicking on
the Start button from the wizard.
Tip(1,2,3,4,5) 0.00023 7
blade(bf1,2,3,4,5)
0.00023 7
blade(bb1,2,3,4,5)
Sliding patches are interfaces forming boundaries between two or more domains and referred as
FNMB (Full Non- Matching Boundary conditions) in HEXPRESS™ . In computations involving
multiple domains it is imperative to search and compute FNMB connections.
5.1. Click on Grid from the menu and select Non Matching Connections.
5.4. Delete from the list of Connections the "Not completed" items. To perform this action select
with the <Shift> key hold and left-click mouse button connection_4 to connection_8 and then
press Delete in the menu.
5.5. To ensure the correct Solid patches definition for the following computation, go to the
Boundary Conditions menu. Deleted connections will now have the UND boundary condition
Type . Select as it is described in the above "Boundary Conditions" section the UND type
boundary and set them up as SOL type.
6.1. Go to Project/Save or click on the Save icon and save the project in the '_mesh' folder.
6.2. Click on the Go back to project set- up button to impose the flow settings in the
FINE™/Marine GUI.
6.3. The Mesh properties menu appears. Check that the information is correct (Grid units set to
Meters) and click on Ok.
You are now back to the FINE™/Marine interface and ready to click on the link and
proceed with the computation setup!
The computation is run in two steps. First, the computation is run for 30s with a large time step of
0.03s and then for two seconds with a small time step value of 0.000526s to stabilize the propeller
thrust. The second computation will be restarted from first computation with input history from the
first computation.
A. Physical Configuration
General Properties
1.1.1. In the Physical configuration menu, double click on General parameters and keep
Steady active.
1.1.2. Click on Ok to confirm.
1.2.1. In the Physical Configuration menu, double click on Fluid model and keep Multi-fluid
active and default fluid settings.
1.2.2. Click on Ok to confirm.
Flow Model
2.4. In the "EXTERNAL" page, "Top" and "Bottom" patches are assigned "Prescribed
pressure" condition with "updated hydrostatic pressure" option as shown below. Assign "Far
field" condition to rest of the external patches.
D. Mesh Management
The displacement of mesh is defined under Mesh Management depending upon the motion
characteristics defined for the patches. The mesh can have either rigid motion or weighted
deformation based on whether the patches have fixed or solved motion for any of the degrees of
freedom.
6.1. In the Computation control menu, double click on Control variables menu.
Define the following computation settings under the General/Parameters menu:
l Maximum number of non-linear iterations: <8> <Enter>;
l Convergence criteria: <2> <Enter> orders;
l Save solution every: <50> <Enter> time steps.
6.2. Under Time step parameters section, set Number of time steps to <1000> <Enter>.
6.3. Select the Time step law as UNIFORM from the cascade list.
6.4. Choose the time step settings as shown in the picture.
Start Computation
Parallel Computation
Parallel computations can be launched through the Task manager. To do so, follow the steps
below:
7.3.1. After clicking on Start icon, select Parallel and click on Ok.
The Task manager is loaded, a task is created and the corresponding simulation file is
automatically selected.
7.3.2. Enter the number of partitions calculating as recommended above.
7.3.3. Select the machines on which to run the computation by clicking on Machines selection &
balancing.
7.3.4. Click on Start button to run the selected computation.
While the first computation is running, a second computation can be setup. A second computation
has to be run for two extra seconds with a smaller time step to stabilize propeller thrust. All the
settings are kept the same for second computation except for Initial Solution and time step value
in Control Variables.
8.4. Double Click on Control Variables and define the following computation settings under the
General/Parameters menu:
l Maximum number of non-linear iterations: <8> <Enter>;
l Convergence criteria: <2> <Enter> orders;
l Save solution every: <50> <Enter> time steps.
8.5. Under Time step parameters section, set Number of time steps to <4000> <Enter>.
8.6. Select the Time step law as UNIFORM from the cascade list.
8.7. Give the Time step value as <0.000526> [s].
8.8. Save the computation and launch it as explained for the previous case as soon as the first
computation is over.
I. Monitoring
To access CFView™ from the FINE™ graphical user interface, press the CFView™ icon
and choose Traveling shot based on boat from the pop-up menu.
Click on the link to start the CFView™ interface and proceed with the post-treatment of
the results!
Representation is typically executed in the form of color contours (smoothed or stripped) and/or
isolines. CFView™ also includes the possibility to interrogate the flow field locally ("local value")
and create 1D Cartesian plots. Advanced capabilities involving curve and/or surface integration can
also be accessed.
1.1. Click on the Macros option from the menu bar and select Group_Patches_By_Type. This
option will group the patches according to their type.
1.2. Click on the Render icon to view the shaded body (by default only the solid patches are
selected when loading a solution) and then on the Fit the View button.
1.3. Double click on Mass Fraction from the Quantities in QAP to select it (the quantity will be
marked by a green tick when active)
1.4. In the Representations area, click on the Contours & Iso-Values section to expand it.
1.5. Click on the Iso-Surface icon and enter the value <0.5><Enter> in the keyboard input
area, then click again on the Iso-surface icon to add the iso-surface in the list of available surfaces.
1.6. A new surface called ISO Mass Fraction=0.5.D2 has been added in the Surfaces list and it
is displayed as a grid as presented below.
1.10. Click on the Smooth Contour icon in Representations/Contours & Iso Values to
visualize the colormap.
1.11. The pallet of colors can be optimized to the selected surface by clicking on the Colormap
Optimum Range icon in the toolbar.
1.12. Switch off the grid by clicking on the Toggle Grid icon in Representations/Grid.
1.13. Click on Opacity in Representations and decrease the value to about 0.65 by dragging the
cursor.
1.14. Click on the Toggle Light Contour icon under Representations/Lighting &
shadows menu, to activate the lighting effects.
1.15. To hide the ship's edges, select the solid patches in the Surfaces list and press on the Toggle
Boundary icon .
2.1. Click-left on "ISO Mass Fraction=0.5.D2" in the Surfaces list, then right-click and release
Select.
3.1. First remove the free surface and the streamlines. Go to Update/Delete All.
3.2. Select all the solid patches only, in the Surfaces list, if not done yet.
3.3. From the Quantities list, select Pressure (normal stress).
3.4. Click on under Representations/Contours & Iso Values in the QAP then on in the
toolbar to optimize the color range.
3.5. Focus on an area of interest as Propeller.
3.6. Click on the Colormap Set Range icon in the toolbar and set range in the keyboard
input area as <-1500 6000><Enter>.
3.7. Click on the Toggle Light Contour icon in the Representations/Lighting & shadows
menu, to activate the lighting effects.
The next steps will enable visualizing streamlines on ship's hull below the free surface.
4.1. Select the Relative Velocity (double-click) in the Quantities menu.
4.2. Click on New under the Quantities menu.
4.3. Select Vector by Components. In the Name field give a name for the quantity as "RV_
Hull" and enter the values for the definitions as shown in the figure.
3.1.1 Prerequisites
It is strongly recommended to perform the beginner level tutorials 1 and 2 before starting this
tutorial. In this advanced tutorial the basic settings for meshing and the simulation will not be
described.
l 1GB of RAM
l 1.5GB of disk space available to store all files
l 64bits machine with at least 1 core
Estimated time:
l Meshing: 20 minutes
l Computation setup: 10 minutes
l Computation time: 9 hours
l Post-processing: 15 minutes
The goal of this tutorial is to provide step-by-step instructions for the simulation of a typical falling
or slamming marine case, in order to aid in the learning process of FINE™/Marine. The tutorial
gives guidelines/ best practices on the complete mesh set-up, flow settings including adaptive grid
refinement settings and post-processing, also applicable to other marine cases. The model is a 2D
falling object of prismatic shape. It reproduces the experimental tests performed to find out the
wave slamming pressure on high speed boats when a bow section of the hull fitted with pressure
sensors is dropped vertically into the water. The object has a base of 610 mm, 320 mm isosceles
edges, and a mass of 100 kilograms. It is falling from a height of 720 mm. Upon completion of
this tutorial, the user should have covered important features such as the adaptive grid refinement
procedure and the creation of an animation.
This simulation is challenging as the flow is fully unsteady with significant free surface
deformation. The falling 2D object is restricted to a downward vertical fall. This means that for
the model the mesh displacement definition will be set to rigid motion in the Y-direction. With
rigid mesh deformation the grid density should be very high throughout the domain to accurately
capture the free surface foam and breaking waves. This also means that the mesh is highly refined
in regions farther away from the impact location where the free surface is still at rest. For these
reasons, a very fine mesh may become an impractical approach. Instead of a domain with a very
high density grid, it is a best practice to start with a coarse mesh and activate the adaptive grid
refinement feature in the solver. Here, since the simulation is symmetric, only half of the model
will be used. This setup will be discussed in detail in the following sections.
3.1.3 Preparation
1. Locate and copy the file 2dprism_ ASCII- 1.stl into your working directory ( download
Advanced tutorial archive).
2. Start FINE™/Marine v7.1rc.
l For Linux systems, you can access the FINE™/Marine v7.1rc graphical user interface with the
following command line:
finemarine71rc -print
l For Windows systems (Windows 7 and older), you can access the FINE™ /Marine v7.1rc
graphical user interface from the Start menu by going to /Programs/NUMECA
software/FineMarine71rc/FINE. In Windows 8 you can access it by going to the Start menu
and clicking on Search. Under Apps, there will be a section called Numeca software. Click on
FINE(#-bits) in order to open the FINE™ /Marine v7.1rc graphical user interface.
FIGURE 3.2
HEXPRESS™
A. Domain Creation
1.1. Open FINE™/Marine and select Create a new project/Creating a mesh and press Ok.
1.2. Define the project name as 2D_Prism in the directory of your choice.
1.3. Once in HEXPRESS™ , click the Import triangulation <.stl> button to select the STL file
2dprism_ ASCII- 1.stl as previously downloaded. The STL file contains colors which help
HEXPRESS™ to immediately identify the faces.
B. Boundary Conditions
Before proceeding with the actual mesh generation, it is recommended to set the boundary
conditions.
C. Mesh Wizard
Initial Mesh
Adaptation
3.2.1. Select and open the Adapt to geometry menu in the Mesh Wizard.
3.2.2. Set the maximum number of refinements to 7 in the Global tab and the global diffusion to 4
(under Advanced >>>)
3.2.3. Go to the Surface refinement tab and select the 2 patches defining the prism and group
them under the name "2d_prism".
3.2.4. Set 7 refinements with a Target cell size of 0.005 in X and Y-directions.
The free surface mesh refinement will be fully driven by the solver during the adaptive grid
refinement cycles. So there is no need to create and refine the mesh at the free surface location.
3.3 Activate the Snapping and Optimization steps and launch the mesh generation by clicking
on the Start button in the wizard.
3.4 Go back to the Boundary conditions menu and change the "group_ 6" and "group_ 8"
patches to MIR.
D. Save Project
The mesh folder contains the mesh topology, geometry, grid points and the boundary condition types
among others:
l '.bcs': boundary conditions file,
l '.dom': geometry file,
l '.igg': topology file,
l '.hex': grid points file,
l '.rep': report file,
l '.dist': distance file,
l '.fnmb': FNMB connections,
l '.qualityReport': quality report file.
In addition a subdirectory named "cache" contains resulting mesh files after each step of the mesh
generation (for example "_snap.hex" as resulting mesh after snapping process). Hence, the user can
delete a step from the mesh wizard and immediately get the previous mesh step.
4.2. Click on the Go back to project set- up button to impose the flow settings in the
FINE™/Marine GUI.
4.3. The Mesh properties menu appears. Check that the information is correct (Grid units set to
Meters) and click on Ok.
You are now back to the FINE™/Marine interface and ready to click on the link and
proceed with the computation setup!
A. Physical Configuration
1.1. The list below gives all the settings that should be defined for the simulation. These are
standard settings. However, dedicated sections will follow for the body motion and mesh
management parameters.
Body Motion
1.2.1. In the Motion Definition tab from the Body Motion menu, only the degree of freedom Ty0
must be set to Solved (please click on the picture to enlarge it!)
1.3. Under the Mesh management menu, Ty0 should be set as Rigid. Indeed, the whole domain
including the mesh will move according to the body motion to avoid any weighted mesh
deformation. Hence the free surface will move through the domain which explains the reason
why adaptive grid refinement is mandatory.
B. Numerical Parameters
Numerical Schemes
2.1. In the Numerical parameters menu, adapt the numerical schemes to:
2.2.1. Under the Criterion tab of the Adaptive grid refinement menu, select the Free surface
(tensor) criterion type.
This criterion is preferred for unsteady flows, in this case it also helps to generate less refinements (so
minimize the grid density) in the presence of foam and breaking waves.
For the Target grid spacing normal to free surface input, enter the value <0.00165>.
For the target Grid Spacing Normal to the Free Surface dimension, a good practice is to use the
following formula:
T = dz(1+ε)/2
where ε is usually 30%, dz is the commonly recommended cell size normal to the free surface.
2.2.3. In order to ensure that this target is met by the adaptive grid refinement technique, set a low
value for the Minimum size limit for refined cells to <0>.
Control Variables
3.1.2. Under Time step parameters, complete Number of time steps to <10000>.
3.1.3. Select the Time step law ADAPTED TO COURANT NB from the drop down list .
3.1.4. Set the Courant Number to <0.3>.
3.1.5. Insert the Maximum time step value as <0.01>[s].
3.1.6. Set the Tmax to <5>[s].
The chosen time step law is "Adapted to Courant Number Law" . This law is adaptive meaning the
time step is not known in advance and it will be adapted after each time step, computed with the
objective to reach a target Courant number. For this law, the parameters are a target Courant Number,
a maximum value in seconds for the time step, and the maximum simulation time in seconds. For
highly unsteady cases and for a high level of accuracy, the target Courant number is set to 0.3 to use
the compressibility of the numerical scheme. This time step law is well adapted to impact simulations
since the speed of the interface is very important through the domain.
Outputs
3.2.1. In the Computation control menu, double click on Outputs to select the output to be
visualized.
3.2.2. In the Motion & force variables page, keep the default selected outputs.
3.2.3. In the Probes variables page, add the Mass Fraction probe from the list of Volume data
and define a frequency of <0.0005> second as presented in the following figure.
Monitoring
"Last saved result" allows to post-process the most recent save point (this result cannot be animated).
The "Unsteady result (reconstruction required)" option allows the user to select which solution probes
will be reconstructed. The user can also adjust the reconstruction and time step skipping intervals.
4.3.3. Select <4> as probe skip interval to only reconstruct 1 out of 4 probes.
4.3.4. Deactivate the traveling shot for the degree of freedom Ty0.
The traveling shot section defines the camera behavior in CFView™ : if the traveling shot is
following the body motion (previously defined in the computation setup), the camera will follow the
body along the active DOF. In that case, the user will have access to the relative velocity and if "no
traveling shot" is defined, the camera will remain fixed to an absolute position during the animation.
1.1. Once CFView™ is opened, click on Apply to load all time steps.
1.4. Show the grid by clicking on the Toggle Grid icon in Representations/Grid.
1.5. Click on the Smooth Contour icon in Representations/Contours & Iso Values to
visualize the scalar field and the colormap.
1.6. Click twice on the Z-icon in the viewing buttons and adapt the view by zooming in or out.
1.7. Go to the Geometry menu and click on Repetition on/off to see a duplicated solution.