Thanks for your help,
Eric

On Wed, Jan 15, 2014 at 3:34 PM, Guyer, Jonathan E. Dr. <
[email protected]> wrote:

> On Jan 15, 2014, at 2:55 PM, Eric Bruning <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> > I'm calculating the gradient of a CellVariable using faceGrad:
> > Efield = -phi.faceGrad
> > and would like to plot the value of the magnitude of the vector as a
> scalar field.
> >
> > Is there a simple way to do this? I can get locations of each of the
> faces, but they don't naturally reshape into something I can display as an
> image / pcolormesh - or if they do I couldn't find how to do it in the docs
> or on a mailing list.
>
> FaceVariables can be tricky to visualize (actually vectors are easier than
> scalars, generally)
>

I have a working vector plot, which I can color according to vector
magnitude, so that also does most of what I need.  I understand why the
face values are tricky to visualize as they're staggered even for an
ordinary grid.

In the case of a simple thunderstorm charge distribution (see
https://twitter.com/deeplycloudy/status/423575182997876736/photo/1), the
vectors are so large between the charge layers that the vector plot is
rather noisy and hard to interpret. Hence my desire for a simpler way to
visualize the magnitude.


> > An average of the values at each face for each cell of the underlying
> mesh would be fine.
>
> That basically describes a plot of phi.grad.mag. Let us know if that
> doesn't do what you want.
>
> I was having some misgivings about the first- vs. second-order
discretization, hence my preference for phi.faceGrad, although you're
correct that phi.grad would do what I want.

More generally, I like to be able to understand the underlying coordinate
geometry so I can do other things with the solution values.

Thanks,
Eric


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