diff --git a/src/OpenFOAM/primitives/chars/wchar/wchar.H b/src/OpenFOAM/primitives/chars/wchar/wchar.H
index c731a3dc8149154b127fe51d60c700b41f3f70ca..61519a51d345032b8e96e262035b7009d8eba642 100644
--- a/src/OpenFOAM/primitives/chars/wchar/wchar.H
+++ b/src/OpenFOAM/primitives/chars/wchar/wchar.H
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
   =========                 |
   \\      /  F ield         | OpenFOAM: The Open Source CFD Toolbox
    \\    /   O peration     |
-    \\  /    A nd           | Copyright (C) 2009-2009 OpenCFD Ltd.
+    \\  /    A nd           | Copyright (C) 2009-2010 OpenCFD Ltd.
      \\/     M anipulation  |
 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 License
@@ -31,6 +31,10 @@ Description
 SourceFiles
     wcharIO.C
 
+SeeAlso
+    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UTF-8
+    http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Unicode/Character_reference
+
 \*---------------------------------------------------------------------------*/
 
 #ifndef wchar_H
@@ -48,10 +52,10 @@ class Ostream;
 
 // * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * IOstream Operators  * * * * * * * * * * * * //
 
-//- Output via a normal char
+//- Output wide character (Unicode) as UTF-8
 Ostream& operator<<(Ostream&, const wchar_t);
 
-//- Output string via normal char
+//- Output wide character (Unicode) string as UTF-8
 Ostream& operator<<(Ostream&, const wchar_t*);
 
 
diff --git a/src/OpenFOAM/primitives/chars/wchar/wcharIO.C b/src/OpenFOAM/primitives/chars/wchar/wcharIO.C
index 47a5ed056024b78a174ed6e35281fad1057106ec..9796d4b6eb9658eb4f8f68c8ff6fe8e3683a9f38 100644
--- a/src/OpenFOAM/primitives/chars/wchar/wcharIO.C
+++ b/src/OpenFOAM/primitives/chars/wchar/wcharIO.C
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
   =========                 |
   \\      /  F ield         | OpenFOAM: The Open Source CFD Toolbox
    \\    /   O peration     |
-    \\  /    A nd           | Copyright (C) 2009-2009 OpenCFD Ltd.
+    \\  /    A nd           | Copyright (C) 2009-2010 OpenCFD Ltd.
      \\/     M anipulation  |
 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 License
@@ -22,11 +22,6 @@ License
     along with OpenFOAM; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation,
     Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA
 
-Description
-    Reads a char from an input stream, for a given version
-    number and File format. If an ascii File is being read, then the line
-    numbers are counted and an erroneous read is reported.
-
 \*---------------------------------------------------------------------------*/
 
 #include "error.H"
@@ -38,7 +33,68 @@ Description
 
 Foam::Ostream& Foam::operator<<(Ostream& os, const wchar_t wc)
 {
-    os.write(char(wc));
+    if (!(wc & ~0x0000007F))
+    {
+        // 0x00000000 - 0x0000007F: (1-byte output)
+        // 0xxxxxxx
+        os.write(char(wc));
+    }
+    else if (!(wc & ~0x000007FF))
+    {
+        // 0x00000080 - 0x000007FF: (2-byte output)
+        // 110bbbaa 10aaaaaa
+        os.write(char(0xC0 | ((wc >> 6) & 0x1F)));
+        os.write(char(0x80 | ((wc) & 0x3F)));
+    }
+    else if (!(wc & ~0x0000FFFF))
+    {
+        // 0x00000800 - 0x0000FFFF: (3-byte output)
+        // 1110bbbb 10bbbbaa 10aaaaaa
+        os.write(char(0xE0 | ((wc >> 12) & 0x0F)));
+        os.write(char(0x80 | ((wc >> 6) & 0x3F)));
+        os.write(char(0x80 | ((wc) & 0x3F)));
+    }
+    else if (!(wc & ~0x001FFFFF))
+    {
+        // 0x00010000 - 0x001FFFFF: (4-byte output)
+        // 11110ccc 10ccbbbb 10bbbbaa 10aaaaaa
+        os.write(char(0xF0 | ((wc >> 18) & 0x07)));
+        os.write(char(0x80 | ((wc >> 12) & 0x3F)));
+        os.write(char(0x80 | ((wc >> 6) & 0x3F)));
+        os.write(char(0x80 | ((wc) & 0x3F)));
+    }
+    else if (!(wc & ~0x03FFFFFF))
+    {
+        // 0x00200000 - 0x03FFFFFF: (5-byte output)
+        // 111110dd 10cccccc 10ccbbbb 10bbbbaa 10aaaaaa
+        os.write(char(0xF8 | ((wc >> 24) & 0x03)));
+        os.write(char(0x80 | ((wc >> 18) & 0x3F)));
+        os.write(char(0x80 | ((wc >> 12) & 0x3F)));
+        os.write(char(0x80 | ((wc >> 6) & 0x3F)));
+        os.write(char(0x80 | ((wc) & 0x3F)));
+    }
+    else if (!(wc & ~0x7FFFFFFF))
+    {
+        // 0x04000000 - 0x7FFFFFFF: (6-byte output)
+        // 1111110d 10dddddd 10cccccc 10ccbbbb 10bbbbaa 10aaaaaa
+        os.write(char(0xFC | ((wc >> 30) & 0x01)));
+        os.write(char(0x80 | ((wc >> 24) & 0x3F)));
+        os.write(char(0x80 | ((wc >> 18) & 0x3F)));
+        os.write(char(0x80 | ((wc >> 12) & 0x3F)));
+        os.write(char(0x80 | ((wc >> 6) & 0x3F)));
+        os.write(char(0x80 | ((wc) & 0x3F)));
+    }
+    else
+    {
+        // according to man page utf8(7)
+        // the Unicode standard specifies no characters above 0x0010FFFF,
+        // so Unicode characters can only be up to four bytes long in UTF-8.
+
+        // report anything unknown/invalid as replacement character U+FFFD
+        os.write(char(0xEF));
+        os.write(char(0xBF));
+        os.write(char(0xBD));
+    }
 
     os.check("Ostream& operator<<(Ostream&, const wchar_t)");
     return os;
@@ -51,10 +107,10 @@ Foam::Ostream& Foam::operator<<(Ostream& os, const wchar_t* ws)
     {
         for (const wchar_t* p = ws; *p; ++p)
         {
-            os.write(char(*p));
+            os  << *p;
         }
     }
-    os.check("Ostream& operator<<(Ostream&, const wchar_t*)");
+
     return os;
 }