OOF2: The Manual

3.14. Boundary Conditions
	Chapter 3. Task Pages

3.14. Boundary Conditions

The Boundary Conditions Page is where boundary conditions are applied to the boundaries of a Mesh. There are a number of prerequisites for applying boundary conditions:

The Skeleton to which the Mesh belongs must have boundaries defined in it. Boundaries are automatically defined at the exterior edges and corners of all Skeletons when they're first created, so this isn't usually a problem. Boundaries cannot be defined directly on Meshes; they must be defined on Skeletons.
The Fields to which the boundary conditions apply must have been defined in the Fields Page.
The Equations to which the boundary conditions apply must have been activated in the Equations Page.

The Boundary Conditions Page is shown in Figure 3.23. At the top is the Mesh Chooser, which selects the Mesh (and the Skeleton and Microstructure in which it resides) to which boundary conditions will be added. Below the Mesh Chooser, on the left, is the Profile Pane, for defining named boundary condition Profiles. (Profiles determine how a boundary condition varies along its boundary.) Below the Chooser on the right is the Boundary Condition Pane, which lists and manages the conditions applied to the Mesh.

Figure 3.23. The Boundary Conditions Page

The Profile Pane

The Profile Pane consists of a list of named Profiles, and a set of buttons for managing them. The list gives the name and definition (scroll right) of each named Profile. Clicking on a Profile selects it for manipulation by the buttons at the bottom of the pane. Double clicking is equivalent to selecting a Profile and clicking the Edit button.

Named Profiles are not associated with a particular Mesh or Microstructure, so the operations in the Profile Pane are independent of the state of the Mesh Chooser.

The buttons at the bottom of the pane have the following functions:

The New button brings up a dialog box for creating a new named Profile. The new Profile will be automatically selected in the list.
The Rename button renames the selected Profile.
The Copy button copies the selected Profile. The copy will be automatically selected in the list.
The Save button saves the selected Profile in a file.
The Edit button edits the selected Profile. It brings up a dialog box that lets you change all of the Profile's parameters except its name.
The Delete button deletes the selected Profile. It's not possible to delete a Profile that's currently in use in a boundary condition.

The Boundary Condition Pane

The Boundary Condition Pane lists all of the boundary conditions assigned to the current Mesh. Clicking on an entry in the list selects it. Double clicking on an entry is the same as selecting it and clicking the Edit button.

Note

	Note
It is an error to try to create two Dirichlet or two floating boundary conditions that apply to the same degrees of freedom on the same boundary. Any operation that attempts to do this will cause an error. At this stage, it is still possible to create boundary conditions that have conflicting values, if they are applied to two different but intersecting boundaries. Such conflicts are not detected until the `Mesh` is solved.

It is an error to try to create two Dirichlet or two floating boundary conditions that apply to the same degrees of freedom on the same boundary. Any operation that attempts to do this will cause an error. At this stage, it is still possible to create boundary conditions that have conflicting values, if they are applied to two different but intersecting boundaries. Such conflicts are not detected until the Mesh is solved.

The buttons at the bottom of the pane operate on the selected boundary condition.

The New button creates a new boundary condition. The button brings up a dialog box, shown in Figure 3.24. The OK button creates a new condition with the specified parameters, and closes the dialog box. The Apply button creates a new boundary condition but does not close the dialog, allowing further conditions to be created. The Cancel button closes the box without creating any more boundary conditions. Note that pressing Apply and then OK attempts to create the same condition twice, which is an error.

Figure 3.24. New Boundary Condition Dialog
The Rename button renames the currently selected boundary condition.
The Copy button copies the currently selected boundary condition. It can be copied to another boundary in the same Mesh, or to another Mesh. It is an error if the destination boundary and Mesh are both the same as the source boundary and Mesh. If the current (source) Mesh is the same as the destination Mesh, then the copied boundary condition will be automatically selected in the list.
The Copy All button copies all of the boundary conditions from the current Mesh to another Mesh specified in a dialog box. If any of the boundary conditions conflict with existing boundary conditions on the destination Mesh, an error message will be raised and no boundary conditions will be copied.
The Edit button brings up a dialog box for editing the currently selected boundary condition. All of its properties other than its name can be changed. If the resulting boundary condition conflicts with another condition, an error message will be displayed and the original condition will be restored.
The On/Off button toggles whether the currently selected boundary condition is enabled or disabled. Boundary conditions can be temporarily enabled or disabled to observe their effect on a solution. The boundary condition information pane will indicate the status of the boundary conditions.
The Delete button deletes the currently selected boundary condition from the Mesh.


3.13. Equations		3.15. Solver

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