Visualizing Force Chain Data in Paraview

MFiX How to
#1

Dear MFIX Support Team,

I am writing to seek guidance regarding the visualization of force chain data in Paraview, as it relates to my usage of the MFIX software.

I have successfully obtained the “.pvd” files containing force chain data from MFIX, and I am eager to visualize and analyze this important information. However, I am currently facing challenges in effectively plotting the force chains in Paraview.

Specifically, I am uncertain about the proper steps to take within Paraview in order to visualize the force chain data from the “.pvd” files. While I have managed to load the data into Paraview, I am unsure about the subsequent steps needed to create a clear and informative visualization of the force chains.

I am reaching out to you in the hope that you could provide me with guidance and instructions on how to correctly plot the force chain data using Paraview. Any information, tutorials, or best practices you could share would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you very much for your time and consideration. I am looking forward to your assistance and insights on this matter. Please let me know if there are any additional details or files I can provide to facilitate the troubleshooting process.

Best regards,
Yaxiong Yu

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#2

The Paraview forum is at https://discourse.paraview.org/

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#3

First, I would suggest you visualize the force chain in the MFiX GUI, since the setup is automatic. If this is not sufficient for you, the basic steps are:

  1. Load the force chain pvd file in Paraview.
  2. Attach a line glyph to each point
  3. Use FORCE_CHAIN_ORIENTATION as the orientation array. Use FORCE_CHAIN_LENGTH as the scale array. Set the scale factor to 1.
  4. Make sure the Masking glyph mode is set to “All points”

You can get more fancy by rendering the line as a tubes (adjust the line thickness) or applying a tube filter to the line glyph and vary the tube radius based on a variable (say force magnitude or overlap).

This assumes you are familiar with Paraview. As Charles mentioned, please consult the Paraview forum for specifics about Paraview usage.

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