I am running the Ahmed benchmark case downloaded from cfdsupport, and I get a different drag coefficient compared to what is in the report on the website (experimental value: 0.2850, website value 0.2848, my value 0.305). This is a fairly significant difference. I am using the files exactly as downloaded, in TCAE-Lite version 25.10. What would be the reason for this difference in drag prediction?

I have a pre-built mesh in cgns format which consists of a half-wing, symmetry plane and a half-sphere as the outer boundary. I can successfully import the mesh into TCAE-Lite. I want to set the half-sphere up with a freestream boundary condition (so that it can act as inlet and outlet), but there seems to be no option for this. Is there any way to run this type of geometry in TCAE-Lite, or do I need to physically split the half-sphere boundary into an inlet and outlet portion? Note that it is important that the volumetric mesh is kept as-is (the intention of this work is to look at results from different codes using the same mesh).

Hi everyone,

I’m running a steady-state simulation of a centrifugal compressor impeller and I keep running into an issue where the residuals settle but don’t properly converge, even after several thousand iterations. The solution looks stuck, and I’d like to understand if the problem is with my setup, mesh, or solver controls.

Case setup

• Geometry: Centrifugal compressor impeller with inlet passage and outlet

• Mesh: ~1.6 million cells, generated in TurboGrid and exported as cgns into TCAE

• Interfaces: Mixing plane, 7 mixing planes total across 2 interfaces

• Fluid: Air, perfect gas; μ = 1.78e-5, ρ = 1.2, p = 1 atm (defaults)

• Rotation: 110,000 RPM (tested both +111000 and −111000, same behavior)

• Flow regime: Transonic option enabled

Boundary conditions

• Inlet:

  • Total pressure = 1 atm

  • Total temperature = 288.15 K

  • Turbulence intensity = 5% (k = 82.14)

  • Turbulence length scale = 0.015 m (blade height) → ω = 604.207

• Outlet:

  • Mass flow = 0.35 kg/s

• Walls: No-slip, adiabatic, standard wall functions

Solver settings

• Turbulence model: k-ω SST (default values)

• Numerics: Second order, non-orthogonal mesh correction enabled

• Under-relaxation factors: Set to 0.15 (started higher but reduced due to stability issues)

• Physical limits:

  • p: 50,000 – 800,000 Pa

  • ρ: 0.1 – 100

  • v: 0 – 800 m/s

  • T: 250 – 700 K

• Initial conditions:

  • p = 1 atm

  • T = 288.15 K

    v = 0 , 0, 148 Got it from a 1D code as the absolute velocity at the inlet.

  • k = 0.01

  • ω = 100

Problem

Residuals drop initially but then flatten out and refuse to converge further. Monitors also don’t stabilize in a meaningful way, I think the monitors get stuck because the residuals do not drop further. I have tried with the fixed mean static pressure outlet condition as well but still the same thing. One thing I suspect is that I think there maybe be some unsteadiness in the flow which maybe causing this, is there a way to set a pseudo time scale or something. Any help would be appreciated!

Hi,

I have a problem with report at the end?

Program made all 3000 iteration ( about 1.200.000 pcs), but at the end is allways problem with the report: (see picture below).

Thanks.

Hi,

I have a problem with report at the end?

Program made all 3000 iteration ( about 1.200.000 pcs), but at the end is allways problem with the report: (see picture below).

Thanks.

I have been trying to run the the NASA HECC tutorial provided by TCAE. The tutorial has a very dense mesh and takes verylong to run and make a speedline. In order to save computation time I tried two methods:

1. I reduced the mesh and ran the simulation for only one point on the speedline (the one with the highest efficiency). 

2. I ran the whole tutorial as is and just skipped the first two points 

Both methods do not result in convergence at all. I am not sure what is going wrong. I have tried to adjust the relaxation factors annd still nothing works to get convergence.

What can i do to fix this?

Hello,

I found you have changed the Spitfire TCFD example few versions ago so as it applies 1.5AoA - or -1.5 It does not matter actually in this scope - by rotating velocity vector and aiming to get it rotated as expected by setting forces axes rotated in Runtime evaluated quantities, so this should apply to the final report. I've simplified the example - to get faster results - and found that in the report forces are never rotated as expected despite that Coefficients are rotated, you can test this by changing the Forces in Runtime evaluated quantities to 0,0,1,1,0,0 in the example and see that only Coefficients are changed in the report.

Tested on TCAE 25.03v1

I am looking to simulate the power output of an in pipe axial turbine, I don't have any experience in CFD simulations and I've decided to brake down the project into 3 parts, first I am going to simulate just the pipe in which the turbine is going to be housed, then a static state with the turbine in the pipe, and finally setup the rotation of the turbine.

I've made a quick 3D model of the pipe and I tried copying the setup from the pipe example, I ran into a problem where the mesher consumes all the available RAM on the computer and locks it up, I assume the STL mesh has a hole somewhere but I couldn't find it, I've had issues before with glitches in STL meshes made in Rhinoceros 3D, the modeling program I used, so I decided to recreate the pipe example with the STLs from the example, and that meshed successfully, but I got an error in the TCFD part "TCFD calculation failed. Please consult the chapter 'Rescue list' in the TCAE Manual for possible reasons of the failure.", I couldn't find the Rescue list chapter in the manual online.

Also the TCAE Output gives this error:
"Application decomposePar failed.
For detailed information check error log at: "C:\Users\Name\Desktop\CFD Test\CFD_test\simulationRun1\TCFD\logRun\solve-err-decomposePar-stationary-1.log"".

And in that log file is:
"--> FOAM FATAL IO ERROR:
Cannot find patchField entry for Co1_pipe-wall_wall

file: C:/Users/Name/Desktop/CFD Test/CFD_test/simulationRun1/TCFD/stationary/0/nut/boundaryField from line 32 to line 54.

    From function void Foam::GeometricField<Type, PatchField, GeoMesh>::Boundary::readField(const Foam::DimensionedField<TypeR, GeoMesh>&, const Foam::dictionary&) [with Type = double; PatchField = Foam::fvPatchField; GeoMesh = Foam::volMesh]
    in file /opt/OpenFOAM-dev/src/OpenFOAM/lnInclude/GeometricBoundaryField.C at line 184.

FOAM exiting"

Attached is a rough diagram of how will the setup work.

I don't have an idea what to try next, and would be thankful for any assistance.

I have just installed v24.10 of TCAE-Lite. Initially I installed under Linux, sicne that is where I would really like to use the software. Having downloaded the pipe tutorial I load the case and get this message "Project configuration not fully valid according to TCAE-Lite 24.10 and may have been auto-corrected." When I try to run, I get a message that the caluclation cannot be started, and that the project contains some problems. Upon using the check option, it says that there is no geometry loaded for solid component 1. The stl file does exist in commonData\TMESH\imported and I can load it into ParaView with no issues.

So I then tried installing under Windows. In this case it does not complain about the geometry. However, when I try to run I still get a failure, which is "Failed to execute "netgenSTLMesh" (error 2)." It asks me to check an error log (mesh-err-07-netgenMesh-component1.log), but this file does not exist (there is no netgenmesh log file, and the mesh-err-07 file is called mesh-err-07-mergeMultiMeshes.log.

Can anyone provide details as to why the FEA meshing fails under Windows, and why the geometry does not work under Linux?

Hello,

I tried to run the benchmark cases NACA0012 and now I am at TCAE module. I have noticed that the running time of TCAE is long and I want to accelerate it but I haven't found places to set the number of processors. Is  that means the module cannot be computed in parallel? By the way, no my CPU utilization is low but memory is full. 

Thanks for help.

Hello, I tried to run the benchmarks case DJI9450 that I downloaded from CFD SUPPORT. But the  CFD calculation failed after 100 hours running and it showns that "Application redDyMsolver failed" . And there was nothing in the error log. I haven't change anything except the number of processor. Would it be OK if I run it again?

Thanks for your help.

Hello CFDSupport Team,

I am experiancing a slight problem in Paraview during simulation. Window where residuals shall be seen is a bit strange. Is this some kind of a driver problem? Do you might give me any hint where to look?

New TCAE 24.03 Release

We're happy to announce the release of the latest version of TCAE simulation software - Version 24.03! 

TCAE continues to be the go-to solution for engineers seeking powerful, user-friendly, and cost-efficient simulation software that can tackle complex engineering challenges with ease.

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Title: TCAE 24.03 Introduction

Date: Thu, Apr 11, 2024 

Time: 3:00 PM CEST

Duration: Approximately 1 hour

Agenda:

Overview of TCAE Version 24.03. Live demonstration showcasing the user-friendly interface, advanced features, and fast solvers 

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