Mesh coupling between Liggghts and OpenFoam

Submitted by RobertG on Mon, 03/16/2015 - 11:24

I'm trying to couple an Liggghts simulation based on the Continuous Blending Mixer Tutorial, with an CFD OpenFoam Simulation.
Because of the distanz between the two screws (< 2r), it is problematic to implement the rotation of the of the screws with dynamicMeshing in OpenFoam.
It might be possible, to solve this problem with Immersed Boundary Methodes (IBM) in OpenFoam. That means the two screws-STL-Files are implementated as boundrycondtition. That way, it is possible to use the same mesh with out changing it.
Unfortunadly I have found only one implementation for the IBM in OpenFoam and this one uses an static boundary. That means, it is not possible to let it rotate.
This might be solved, if every timestep the dump-File STL-screw meshes are loaded from LIGGGHTS. Because the CFDEM-coupling works preaty much the same way. I don't mind doing this. But because of the rotation of the screws, the newly loaded boundary will overwrite informations like velocity and preasure in the new area.
Before I start implementing IBM in OpenFOAM and coupling OpenFOAM and LIGGGHTS, to get an unsatisfactory solution. Is there a better way, to solve this whole mess?

I hope some one can help me.

Best regards
RobertG