• Boundary conditions are extremely important. See also Chapter (), where the boundary conditions are described.
• OpenFOAM uses similar set-up as other solvers.
• At the inlet (flow inlet) to the computational domain the flow rate is usually prescribed. The rest of variables are reconstructed (extrapolated).
• At the outlet the static pressure is set (its mean value).
• At the rigid walls velocity is zero.
• For rotational components the Multiple Reference Frame (MRF) is used.
• For steady-state computations the initial conditions have no influence to the results.
• For steady-state computations the initial conditions just help to make the case run.

The quantities to be set are following:

• static pressure p
• velocity vector U
• turbulent kinetic energy k
• specific turbulence dissipation omega

The initial and boundary conditions for all variables are set in files located in directories named by numbers. Typically directory 0 is recommended to start a simulation from. Initial conditions are set in parameter internalField putting the values into the cell centers. At boundaries, initial conditions are set individually by parameter value.

Copy the initial and boundary condition from 0.org directory to 0:

# cp -r 0.org/* 0

Following table shows recommended model of boundary conditions for computed variables:

The shortcuts from the table above have following meaning:

• fRV – flowRateVelocity prescribes fixed flow rate
• hTP – hydrostaticTotalPressure sets the total pressure at a patch including linear distribution of hydrostatic pressure in the gravity direction with respect to a reference value pInletCenter (e.g. ) in the center of a patch.
• tIKEI – turbulentIntensityKineticEnergyInlet, intensity = 0.05, corresponds to turbulence intensity 5%
• fV – fixedValue, e.g. velocity at the wall (0 0 0), or omega at inlet
• fMV – fixedMeanValue, is the same as fixed value, e.g. for pressure, but certain freedom is allowed to keep the variable average equal to meanValue
• zG – zeroGradient, the flux is zero in direction perpendicular to the surface
• kWF – kqRWallFunction is a standard wall function for k for incompressible flow
• oWF – omegaWallFunction is a standard wall function for omega for incompressible flow
• mI – mixingInterface, averaged quantity is mapped from the neighbour patch
• iO – inletOutlet is by default zeroGradient, but changes to fixedValue when velocity vector direction points inside the computational domain (backward flow)

See also Chapter (), where the boundary conditions are described.