Syntax:
fix ID emit/face/file mix-ID face filename boundary-ID keyword value ...
frac value = fraction = 0.0 to 1.0 fraction of particles to insert nevery value = Nstep = insert every this many timesteps perspecies value = yes or no region value = region-ID
Examples:
fix in emit/face/file air xlo input.data xlo fix in emit/face/file mymix ylo file.txt oneface frac 0.1 nevery 10
Description:
Emit particles from a face of the simulation box, continuously during a simulation. The particles are added using properties of the specified mixture and values read from an input file that can override those properties. The input file can thus be used to create an influx of particles that varies spatially over the surface of the face. This can be useful, for example, to model an object inserted into a plume flow where the flow has spatially varying properties. If invoked every timestep, this fix creates a continuous influx of particles thru the face.
The properties of the added particles are determined by the mixture with ID mix-ID and the input file. Together they set the number and species of added particles, as well as their streaming velocity, thermal temperature, and internal energy modes. Settings for a subsonic pressure boundary condition is also allowed. The details are explained below.
Only one face of the simulation box can be specified via the face argument. The 6 possible faces are xlo, xhi, ylo, yhi, zlo, or zhi. This command can be used multiple times to add particles on multiple faces.
On each insertion timestep, each grid cell with a face touching the specified boundary face performs the following computations to add particles. The particles are added at the beginning of the SPARTA timestep.
The molecular flux across a grid cell face per unit time is given by equation 4.22 of (Bird94). The number of particles M to add on a particular grid cell face is based on this flux and additional global, flow, and cell face properties:
The flow properties are defined for the specified mixture via the mixture command. Any or all them can be overridden by values in the input data file, which affect individual grid cells as described below.
If M has a fractional value, e.g. 12.5, then 12 particles are added, and a 13th depending on the value of a random number. Each particle is added at a random location on the grid cell face. The particle species is chosen randomly in accord with the frac settings of the collection of species in the mixture, as set by the mixture command. These can also be overridden by spatially varying number fraction values in the input data file, as described below.
The velocity of the particle is set to the sum of the streaming velocity and a thermal velocity sampled from the thermal temperature. The internal energy modes of the particle are determined by the trot and tvib settings and the rotate and vibrate options of the collide_modify command. Note that if the collide command has not been specified (free molecular flow), then no rotational or vibrational energy will be assigned to created particles.
If the final particle velocity is not directed "into" the grid cell, then the velocity sampling procedure is repeated until it is. This insures that all added particles enter the simulation domain, as desired.
The first timestep that added particles are advected, they move for a random fraction of the timestep. This insures a continuous flow field of particles entering the simulation box.
For 3d simulations, the input data file defines a 2d mesh of data points which conceptually overlays some portion or all of the specified face of the simulation box. For a 2d simulation, a 1d mesh is defined. The mesh is topologically regular, but can have uniform or non-uniform spacing in each of its two or one dimensions (for 3d or 2d problems). One or more values can be defined at every mesh point, which override any of the mixture settings defined by the mixture command. These are the flow properties discussed above (number density, streaming velocity, and thermal temperature), as well as the number fraction of any species in the mixture. Any value not defined in the input data file defaults to the mixture value.
For 3d simulations, a 2d mesh is defined in the file using I,J indices. (The 1d mesh for 2d simulations is described below). I and J map to any of the simulation box faces in this manner. A simulation box face has two varying dimensions (e.g. ylo face = x and z dimensions). The I index in the file corresponds to the "lowest" of these dimensions, where x < y < z. The J index in the file corresponds to the higher. Thus for face ylo, I = x and J = z. A low I or J value corresponds to a low x or z value, regardless of whether the mapping is to the ylo or yhi face. A 1d mesh for a 2d simulation is defined in an analogous manner, e.g. for face xlo, I = y.
For a 3d simulation, interpolation from values on the 2d mesh to any grid cell face that is on the corresponding simulation box face is done in the following manner. There are 3 cases to consider.
(a) For a grid cell face that is entirely inside the area defined by the file mesh, the centroid (center point) of the grid cell face is surrounded geometrically by 4 file mesh points. The 4 values defined on those 4 file points are averaged in a weighted manner using bilinear interpolation (described below) to determine the value for the grid cell face. This value is then used for the calculation described above for M = the number of particles to add on the cell face as well as the properties of the added particles.
(b) For a grid cell face that is entirely outside the area defined by the file mesh, no particles are added in that grid cell.
(c) For a grid cell face that partially overlaps the area defined by the file mesh, the extent of the overlap is computed. The centroid (center point) of the overlap area is surrounded geometrically by 4 file mesh points. The values for those 4 points are used as in (a) above to determine properties of particles added in that grid cell. Note that the area of insertion, used to calculate M, is the overlap area, which is smaller than the grid cell face area. Also, particles are only added within the overlap area of the grid cell face.
For a 2d simulation, the 3 cases are similar, except for (a) and (c) the centroid is the midpoint of a line segment, the centroid is surrounded by 2 file mesh points, and linear interpolation (described below) is performed to determine the value for the grid face.
The format of the input data file is a series of one or more sections, defined as follows (without the parenthesized comments). Note that one file can contain many sections, each with a different set of tabulated values. The sections can be a mix of 2d and 3d formats. SPARTA reads the file section by section, skipping sections with non-matching boundary IDs, until it finds one that matches the specified boundary-ID. The lines that follow must be in this order:
# plume ABC info (one or more comment or blank lines)
PLUME_ABC (boundary-ID is first word on line)
NIJ 4 10 (mesh size: Ni by Nj)
NV 3 (Nv = number of values per mesh point)
VALUES nrho temp Ar (list of Nv values per mesh point)
IMESH 0.0 0.3 0.9 1.0 (mesh coordinates in I direction)
JMESH ... (mesh coordinates in J direction)
(blank)
1 1 1.0 300.0 0.5 (I, J, value1, value2, ...)
1 2 1.02 310.0 0.5
...
4 10 3.0 400.0 0.7
This format is for a 3d simulation. For a 2d simulation, there are 3 changes:
"NIJ 4 10" is replaced by "NI 6" JMESH line is not included "I,J,value1,..." is replaced by "I,value1,..."
A section begins with a non-blank line whose first character is not a "#". Blank lines or lines starting with "#" can be used as comments between sections. The first line begins with a boundary-ID which identifies the section. The line can contain additional text, but the initial text must match the boundary-ID specified in the fix emit/face/file command. Otherwise the section is skipped.
The VALUES line lists Nv keywords. The list of possible keywords is as follows, along with the meaning of the numeric value specified for the mesh point:
The IMESH and JMESH lines must list values that are monotonically increasing.
Following a blank line, the next N = Ni x Nj lines (or N = Ni lines for a 2d simulation) list the tabulated values. The format of each line is I,J followed by Nv values. The N lines can be in any order, but all unique I,J (or I for 2d) indices must be listed.
Note that if number fractions are specified for one or more species in the mixture, then they override number fraction values for the mixture itself, as set by the mixture command. However, for each grid cell, the rule that the number fraction of all species in the mixture must sum to 1.0 is enforced, just as it is for the mixture. This means that number fractions of species not specified in the file or in the mixture may be reset (for that grid cell) to insure the sum = 1.0, as explained on the mixture command doc page. If this cannot be done, an error will be generated.
If the press keyword is used, this means a subsonic pressure boundary condition is used for the face, similar to how the subsonic keyword is used for the fix emit/face command. If just the press keyword is specified, but not the temp keyword, then it is similar to the "subsonic press NULL" setting for the fix emit/face command. If both keywords are used it is similar to the "subsonic press temp" setting for the fix emit/face command. The difference with this command is that both the press and temp values can be vary spatially across the box face, like the other keyword values.
The subsonic pressure boundary condition is uses the method of Fang and Liou (Fang02) to determine the number of particles to insert in each grid cell on the emitting face(s). They used the method of characteristics to calculate the mean properties of the incoming molecular flux, so that the prescribed pressure condition is achieved. These properties are then applied to calculate the molecular flux across a grid cell face per unit time, as given by equation 4.22 of (Bird94).
As explained above the input data file can specify both the pressure and temperature at the boundary or just the pressure. If specified, the temperature must be > 0.0. Currently, instantaneous values for the density, temperature, and stream velocity of particles in the cells adjacent to the boundary face(s) are computed and used to determine the properties of inserted particles on each timestep.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Caution must be exercised when using the subsonic boundary condition without specifying an inlet temperature. In this case the code tries to estimate the temperature of the flow from the properties of the particles in the domain. If the domain contains few particles per cell it may lead to spurious results. This boundary condition is meant more for an outlet than an inlet boundary condition, and performs well in cases where the cells are adequately populated.
IMPORTANT NOTE: When using a subsonic prsesure boundary condition, you should also use an appropriate boundary collision or chemistry model via the boundary or bound_modify or surf_collide or surf_react commands, so that particles hitting the surface disappear as if they were exiting the simulation domain. That is necessary to produce the correct subsonic conditions that the particle insertions due to this command are trying to achieve.
For 3d simulations, bilinear interpolation from the 2d mesh of values specified in the file is performed using this equation to calculate the value at the centroid point (i,j) in the grid cell face:
f(i,j) = 1/area * (f(i1,j1)*(i2-i)*(j2-j) + f(i2,j1)*(i-i1)*(j2-j) +
f(i2,j2)*(i-i1)*(j-j1) + f(i1,j2)*(i2-i)*(j-j1))
where the 4 surrounding file mesh points are (i1,j1), (i2,j1), (i2,j2), and (i1,j2). The 4 f() values on the right-hand side are the values defined at the file mesh points. The sum is normalized by the area of the overlap between the grid cell face and file mesh.
For 2d simulations, linear interpolation from the 1d mesh of values specified in the file is performed using this equation to calculate the value at the centroid poitn (i) in the grid cell line:
f(i) = 1/length * (f(i1)*(i2-i) + f(i2)*(i-i1)
= f(i1) + (i - i1)/(i2 - i1) * (f(i2) - f(i1))
where the 2 surrounding file mesh points are (i1) and (i2). The 2 f() values on the right-hand side are the values defined at the file mesh points. The sum is normalized by the length of the overlap between the grid cell line and file mesh.
The frac keyword can alter how many particles are added, which can be useful for debugging purposes. If frac is set to 1.0 (the default) then the number of particles added is the sum of the M values computed for each grid cell that overlaps with the mesh defined in the file, as described above. If frac < 1.0 then M is scaled by frac to determine the number of particles added in each grid cell. Thus a simulation with less particles can easily be run to test if it is setup correctly.
The nevery keyword determines how often particles are added. If Nstep > 1, this may give a non-continuous, clumpy distribution in the inlet flow field.
The perspecies keyword determines how the species of each added particle is randomly determined. This has an effect on the statistical properties of added particles.
If perspecies is set to yes, then a target insertion number M in a grid cell is calculated for each species, which is a function of the relative number fraction of the species, as set by the mixture nfrac command. If M has a fractional value, e.g. 12.5, then 12 particles of that species will always be added, and a 13th depending on the value of a random number.
If perspecies is set to no, then a single target insertion number M in a grid cell is calculated for all the species. Each time a particle is added, a random number is used to choose the species of the particle, based on the relative number fractions of all the species in the mixture. As before, if M has a fractional value, e.g. 12.5, then 12 particles will always be added, and a 13th depending on the value of a random number.
Here is a simple example that illustrates the difference between the two options. Assume a mixture with 2 species, each with a relative number fraction of 0.5. Assume a particular grid cell adds 10 particles from that mixture. If perspecies is set to yes, then exactly 5 particles of each species will be added on every timestep insertions take place. If perspecies is set to no, then exactly 10 particles will be added every time and on average there will be 5 particles of each of the two species. But on one timestep it might be 6 of the first and 4 of the second. On another timestep it might be 3 of the first and 7 of the second.
If the region keyword is used, then a particle will only added if its position is within the specified region-ID. This can be used to only allow particle insertion on a subset of the boundary face. Note that the side option for the region command can be used to define whether the inside or outside of the geometric region is considered to be "in" the region.
Restart, output info:
No information about this fix is written to binary restart files.
This fix computes a global vector of length 2 which can be accessed by various output commands. The first element of the vector is the total number of particles added on the most recent insertion step. The second element is the cummulative total number added since the beginning of the run. The 2nd value is initialized to zero each time a run is performed.
Restrictions:
Particles cannot be added on periodic faces of the simulation box. Particles cannot be added on z faces of the simluation box for a 2d simulation.
Unlike the fix emit/face command, no warning is issued if the specified emission face has an inward normal in a direction opposing the streaming velocity, as defined by the mixture. This is because the streaming velocity as defined by the specified mixture may be overridden by values in the file.
For that grid cell, particles will still be emitted from that face, so long as a small fraction have a thermal velocity large enough to overcome the outward streaming velocity, so that their net velocity is inward. The threshold for this is the thermal velocity for particles 3*sigma from the mean thermal velocity.
Related commands:
mixture, create_particles, fix emit/face
Default:
The keyword defaults are frac = 1.0, nevery = 1, perspecies = yes, region = none.
(Bird94) G. A. Bird, Molecular Gas Dynamics and the Direct Simulation of Gas Flows, Clarendon Press, Oxford (1994).