Tutorials Guide

The solids4foam tutorials are organised into fluids, solids and fluid-solid interaction cases, where physical phenomena further categorise the solid tutorials:

tutorials
├── …
├── fluidSolidInteraction
│   └── …
├── fluids
│   └── …
└── solids
    ├── elastoplasticity
    ├── fracture
    ├── hyperelasticity
    ├── linearElasticity
    ├── multiMaterial
    ├── poroelasticity
    ├── thermoelasticity
    └── viscoelasticity

All solids4foam cases require a physicsProperties dictionary in the constant directory, where either a solid, fluid or fluidSolidInteraction analysis is specified, e.g.

//type  fluid;
type    solid;
//type  fluidSolidInteraction;

If a solid analysis is selected, then a solidProperties dictionary is required in the constant directory; similarly, the fluidProperties dictionary is required for a fluid analysis, and the fsiProperties dictionary for a fluid-solid interaction analysis. These dictionaries let us specify what type of solid, fluid or fluid-solid interaction analysis is to be performed.

Running the Tutorials Using a Native Installation

Tip

We suggest making a backup copy of the solids4foam tutorials in case you want to reset them. Alternatively, you can reset them with git.

Change the directory to the "run" directory (create the directory if needed):

> mkdir -p $FOAM_RUN && run

Copy the solids4foam tutorials to the run directory; note: it is assumed here that solids4foam is installed at $FOAM_RUN/..:

> cp -r $FOAM_RUN/../solids4foam/tutorials .

All solids4foam tutorials contain Allrun and Allclean scripts. To run a given tutorial case, navigate to its directory and execute the Allrun script; for example, this can be done for the hotSphere tutorial with

> cd $FOAM_RUN/../solids4foam/tutorials/solids/thermoelasticity/hotSphere
> ./Allrun

where we have assumed that solids4foam was downloaded to $FOAM_RUN/...

The tutorial results can be visualised in ParaView using one of the following commands:

> paraFoam
> paraFoam -nativeReader
> touch case.foam && paraview case.foam

Running the Tutorials using a Docker Installation

If you are using the solids4foam docker image, it is not convenient to directly open ParaView from within the image, so a workaround is to copy the tutorials to the shared directory in the docker container /shared:

> cd /shared
> cp -r $FOAM_RUN/../solids4foam/tutorials .

This /shared directory points directly to the $HOME directory on your physical computer (or where ever you mounted it). You can now open a second terminal (on your physical computer, NOT in the docker container) and use ParaView installed on your physical computer to view the cases in your $HOME directory.

Here is an example of using ParaView on your physical computer to view cases created in the docker container:

  • In the Docker terminal 
    > cd /shared
> cp -r $FOAM_RUN/../solids4foam/tutorials .
> cd tutorials/solids/thermoelasticity/hotSphere
> ./Allrun
  • In the terminal on your physical computer 
    > cd ~/tutorials/solids/thermoelasticity/hotSphere
> touch case.foam && paraview case.foam
> # or paraFoam
> # or paraFoam -nativeReader

Tutorial Guides