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Running Simulations with DINO

This section provides a complete overview of the DINO run directory including all input files, flags, and configuration parameters required to run simulations with DINO.
It is intended to help both new and experienced users understand how simulation setups are defined, how each parameter affects the run, and where to find corresponding examples.

Overview

A classical dino run folder is structured as follows:

  • dino_run/
    • data_hdf5/ HDF5 flow fields, 3D snapshots
    • data_hdf5_2dcuts/ HDF5 2D-plane extraction data
    • data_timevol/ Time-series probes, monitors, volume-integrated quantities
    • data_restart/ Restart files (checkpoints)
    • follow_on/ Next-step simulation inputs or continued runs
    • ctrl_turb_generation/ Turbulence generation control (pre-processing)
    • DINO_IN Main simulation input file

Running a DINO simulation requires several types of input data, ranging from global numerical settings to detailed physical models such as chemistry or transport properties.
The inputs can be grouped into the following categories:

Category Description Example File
Main Input File Defines simulation type, domain size, grid resolution, solver options, boundary conditions, etc. DINO_IN
Mechanism Files Define chemical kinetics and thermodynamic data for reacting flows. *.cti, *.mech, *.therm
IBM Geometry Inputs Define the geometry and boundary conditions for immersed boundary (IB) cases. IBGEOM_INPUT
Initial / Restart Files Provide initial conditions or restart data for continuing a simulation. restart.h5

Note

Some of these input files must be present in any DINO simulation, others are optional and depend on the type of calculation performed (e.g. two-phase flow). The following sections and links describe how to generate or fill these files.

Main Input File

The DINO_IN file is the main input file of all DINO simulations. It is a fortran namelist file that includes blocks encorporating all input flags to define solver types, time integration schemes, the used chemistry etc.

A list of all input flags and their possible values can be found here.

Mechanism Files

Chemical reactions are an essential part of all reactive flow simulations. Typically, the mechanisms that contain data to compute these reactions are stored in mechanism files that can be of various formats (e.g. .cti, .yaml).

The available mechanism in DINO are stored in the $DINO_HOME/WORK/CHEMISTRY/ directory and the user can specify the used mechanism in the DINO_IN file.

IBM Geometry Inputs

For flow around complex geometry, IBM will be used. A detailed input flag for IBM can be found here. The geometry can be defined using signed distance function in function phi() in $DINO_HOME/SOURCE/IBM/dino_ib_mod.f90 or a geometry file in $DINO_HOME/WORK/IBGEOM_INPUT/

Initial / Restart Files

The initial files include a simulation result from other solvers (e.g. a 1D flame profile from Cantera) or the simulation result from DINO (e.g. mapping a DNS result with different mesh settings). These files should be placed in the working directory.

The restart files are stored in your working directory in the subfolder $your-working-directory/data_restart/.