30. Use of environment probes

The identification tag for this tutorial is PDS-AAU. Pregenerated input files for this tutorial are found in the folder named PDS-AAU in the provided tutorial input files.

30.1. Tutorial overview

This tutorial covers:

  • Environmental probes
  • Probe data files in the results folder

30.2. Using probes to output environment data

Note

  • Probes are properties in ProteusDS that report specific simulation information in the form of output files. The type and location of the probe is specified in the property declaration.
  • The two types of probes are environmental probes and DObject probes.
  • There are several environmental probes available to be added to a simulation. Each environmental probe will output specific information about the environment at a given location, such as water velocity, water surface height, and wave statistics.
  • To view a list of available environmental probes, go to the environment input file in PST, right click and mouse over the Insert Property option. The Instrumentation drop down menu contains a list of available environmental probes to be added into a simulation.
  • Multiple probes can be used in the simulation by repeating the property declaration with different locations. All probe result data will appear in the same file listed in the order of declaration.
  • Open any available project with waves and current. Add a $WaterVelocityProbe to the environmental input file at the location (0,0,10) m.

Note

  • The $WaterVelocityProbe property is declared in the environment input file and the property must be followed by the Cartesian coordinates in the global frame of the desired location for the probe.
  • An output file called waterVelocityProbes.dat will be generated in the results folder.
  • The $WaterVelocityProbe will output the absolute particle velocity at a specified location in the domain.
  • Add a $SeaHeightProbe at the location (0,0) m. Add another $SeaHeightProbe at the location (2,0) m.

Note

  • The $SeaHeightProbes property is also declared in the environment input file and the property must also be followed by the Cartesian coordinate of the desired location for the probe in the X and Y direction. No Z coordinate is necessary as this probe reports the water height at a certain point on the X,Y plane.
  • Similar to the water velocity probe, an output file will appear in the results subfolder called seaheight_nxm.dat where the n and m values specify the X and Y location. This file will contain the sea height at the specified location for each time output during the simulation.
  • Run the simulation as done in previous tutorials.
  • Navigate to the project results subfolder and open the waterVelocityProbes.dat, seaheight_0x0.dat and seaheight_2x0.dat files.

Note

  • Notice that the current speed at the location specified is reported through the water velocity probe and the sea height changing due to the waves is reported through the sea height probes.