Presenters

Eugene Villiers

Title: Development of a Unified Multi-physics Solution Framework in HELYX

Authors and Affiliation: Oliver Oxtoby, George Karpouzas, Jakub Knir, Pavlos Alexias, Daniel Deising, Salvatore Manuel Renda, Apostolos Krassas, Eugene de Villiers

 Abstract:
HELYX is an enterprise CFD software product that uses OpenFOAM libraries as the basis of its simulation engine. Although the OpenFOAM codebase provides very powerful capabilities in the context of computational physics, it lacks much of the consistency and interoperability of systems that is required by industry. This talk provides an overview of the new framework and systems created by Engys to address these shortcomings. The main contributions include:

1. A new material property library
2. Generalised solver assembly and execution environment
3. Universal single phase solver module
4. USF compatible thermal/species transport/dispersed Eulerian/Joule heating modules
5. Centralised coordinate frame and motion system

Several application examples are presented to demonstrate the new capabilities in various scenarios and plans for the future are discussed.

Ivan Shevchuk

Title:
"Investigation of ship maneuverability in fluid mud using OpenFOAM".

Abstract:
The talk will give an overview of the research activities which the author carried out on the field of ship maneuverability in fluid mud.

The OpenFOAM was selected as a main research tool and therefore required an extensive development of of the library as well as new solvers. However, the flexibility of OpenFOAM allowed to rapidly adjust it to the particular tasks and obtain a reliable and efficient simulation software.

Nout van den Bos

Title:
“An Anisotropic Pressure Fluctuation Model: Theory and Implementation in OpenFOAM”

Abstract:
In nuclear fuel rod bundles, turbulence-induced pressure fluctuations caused by axial flow can create small but significant vibration amplitudes, which can cause structural effects such as material fatigue and fretting wear. Fluid-structure interaction simulations can be used to model these vibrations, but for low-cost simulations, a model for the pressure fluctuations must be utilized. Driven by the goal to improve the currently used pressure fluctuation model, AniPFM (Anisotropic Pressure Fluctuation Model) was developed. AniPFM can model velocity fluctuations based on anisotropic Reynolds stress tensors, with temporal correlation through the transport and decorrelation of turbulence. From these velocity fluctuations and the mean flow properties, the pressure fluctuations are calculated. The fluid-structure interaction simulations are performed by simulating the fluid domain with OpenFOAM 8, and the structural domain with Deal.ii. The two solvers are coupled through preCICE. Since OpenFOAM is used to simulate the fluid domain, AniPFM is also implemented in OpenFOAM. The model was applied to several test cases, and it has shown promising results in terms of the prediction of both the pressure fluctuations as well as the vibration amplitudes. While further validation is necessary, the AniPFM has demonstrated its potential for cheaper simulations of turbulence-induced vibrations in industrial nuclear applications.