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Restarting a Fine Grid Case from a Coarse Grid Solution Print E-mail
Many users have asked for a method to obtain a solution on a coarse grid and then use it as the initial guess for a finer grid.  This option can be done using the Map utility in CFD-Toolkit. 
The steps to perform this operation are as follows:

Create coarse grid system:  The first step is to create the coarse grid system of the geometry in CFD-GEOM.  In this example the following coarse grid is used.  Save the coarse grid system as a DTF file, such as coarse_grid.DTF.

Set up and run the problem:  Open the coarse_grid.DTF file in CFD-ACE-GUI and set up the problem.  Once the setup is complete, submit it to the solver to be run.
Copy the Simulation:  Once the simulation has completed running, copy the coarse_grid.DTF file into another file, such as fine_grid.DTF.   The fine_grid.DTF has all the settings that the coarse_grid.DTF has, but still has the coarse grid system.
Create the Fine Grid:  Go to CFD-GEOM and open the coarse_grid.GGD file if it is not already open.  Create the fine grid now by changing the number of grid points.  Only the number of grid points are changed and no modifications are made to the geometry shape.  Also be careful not to delete or recreate any entity. Save the DTF file as fine_grid.DTF by selecting the Update Grids Only option.  Now fine_grid.DTF consists of the finer grid system but retains all the model setup options from the coarse grid simulation.
Map Solution Data:  The solution data in the fine_grid.DTF file is still from the coarse grid solution and therefore not consistent with the fine grid system.  To map the solution data from the coarse grid DTF file to the fine grid DTF file, we can use CFD-Toolkit.  The first thing to do is launch CFD-Toolkit.  (Note:  On Windows systems, choose Start-->Run-->CFD-Toolkit.)  Go to the File View/Manipulate --> Map DTF File.  Once it has been selected, the following window will be active.

The source file will be coarse_grid.DTF, which contains the solution data for the coarse grid simulation.  The destination file will be fine_grid.DTF, which consists of the same settings as coarse_grid.DTF.  Once these files have been input, select the Zone Data option, which will map the solution data from one file to another.  There are three options for Zone Data: Node, Cell, Face.   To map the data, select all of the options (Node, Cell, and Face).  Click Map to perform the mapping.  
Run the Fine Grid Model:  The last step is to run the fine_grid.DTF file.  Open the file in CFD-ACE-GUI.  All the settings used to run the coarse_grid.DTF file will be retained.  The only modification needed for the model setup is the initial condition.  Go to the IC tab (shown right) and select Previous Solution.  The restart filename will be fine_grid.DTF, since the solution data was mapped onto fine_grid.DTF.  The final step is to submit it to the solver.

Once the run is complete, you can import both of the files into CFD-VIEW and analyze the results.  Below are some results obtained to demonstrate the advantage of using a finer grid.  The results on the left are from coarse_grid.DTF and the results on the right are from fine_grid.DTF.  As you can see, a much more accurate solution is obtained using the finer grid.
      

coarse_grid.DTF                                                         fine_grid.DTF
The example above showed specifically how to use the CFD-Toolkit Map File function to interpolate solution data from a coarse grid to a fine grid for restart purposes.  You can also use the CFD-Toolkit Map File function to map Simulation Data, BC Data, or VC Data between any two DTF files.  For example, you could have two totally different grid topologies but you know that all the Sim Data should be the same (Sim Data are items like problem type, model options, and solver control settings). Likewise you could have very complex VC settings that you want to copy from one DTF file to another.  When mapping BC or VC data, CFD-Toolkit lets you choose the criteria that define a "match" (e.g., name only, name and type, etc.).
If you have any questions about this feature or would like us to discuss some other topic in the future, please let us know.

ESI CFD Support Team
 
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