Post-processing

SU2 is capable of outputting solution files and other result files that can be visualized in a number of formats, including ParaView (.vtk), Tecplot (.dat for ASCII, .plt for binary), CGNS (.cgns), comma-separated values (.csv), or STL (.stl) depending on the problem.

At the end of each simulation (or at a a frequency specified by the user), SU2 will output several files that contain all of the necessary information for post-processing of results, visualization, and a restart. Note that when the code is compiled and running in parallel, only restart files will be generated during runtime to avoid overheads. The restart files can then be used as input to generate the visualization files using SU2_SOL. This will be done automatically if the parallel_computation.py script is used, but it can also be done manually at any time by calling SU2_SOL. In fact, this offers additional flexibility, as solution files in multiple formats can always be generated/regenerated as long as the original mesh and a restart file are available. SU2_SOL can be called from the command line like any of the other modules, in serial or parallel.

For a PDE analysis (direct solution), these files might look like the following:

• flow.dat or flow.vtk: full volume flow solution.
• surface_flow.dat or surface_flow.vtk: flow solution along the surface of the geometry.
• surface_flow.csv: comma-separated values (.csv) file containing values along the surface of the geometry.
• history.dat or history.csv: file containing the convergence history information.
• restart_flow.dat: restart file in an internal format for restarting simulations in SU2. Contains the flow solution at each node (description below).

For adjoint solutions, the file names are slightly different and depend on the particular objective chosen:

• adjoint.dat or adjoint.vtk: full volume adjoint solution.
• surface_adjoint.dat or surface_adjoint.vtk: adjoint solution along the surface of the geometry.
• surface_adjoint.csv: comma-separated values (.csv) file containing values along the surface of the geometry.
• history.dat or history.csv: file containing the convergence history information.
• restart_adj_cd.dat: readable restart file in an internal format for restarting this simulation in SU2. Note that the name of the objective appears in the file name. In this example, it is the coefficient of drag.