Foam CFD: Collaborative Open-Source CFD

• The Open Source CFD Toolbox OpenFOAM provides a full source research environment for Computational Continuum Mechanics. In order to facilitate the interaction between researchers and institutions using OpenFOAM, Foam CFD provides FOAM-related on-line resources, project summary and development news as a part of the OpenFOAM project.

Direct numerical simulation of boxes of homogenous isotropic turbulence simulated using OpenFOAM.

FOAM and OpenFOAM

• The OpenFOAM (Open Field Operation and Manipulation) CFD Toolbox (also known as OpenFOAM) can simulate almost any problem in computational continuum mechanics. It is tailored in its structure and hierarchical design, allowing easy customisation, extensions and modifications by the user.
• The core technology of OpenFOAM is a flexible set of efficient C++ modules. These are used to build a collection of solvers, simulating specific problems in engineering mechanics; utilities, performing pre- and post-processing tasks ranging from simple data manipulations to visualisation and mesh processing; libraries, to create toolboxes that are accessible to the solvers/utilities, such as libraries of physical models.

Latest News

• Added some new PhD Theses related to OpenFOAM. to the OpenFOAM Theses page
• Announcing Third OpenFOAM Workshop organised by Politecnico di Milano on 10-11 July 2008. More details below. Special thanks to the organisers for the considerable effort in hosting the Workshop
• An introduction to OpenFOAM at the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia, 10/Jan/2008
• In the process of Virtuhcon Project Setup and on invitation of TU Bergakademie Freiberg a presentation on OpenFOAM capabilities and combustion modelling in Freiberg, Germany, in October 2007.
• A presentation on OpenFOAM capabilities for turbomachinery simulations an Universita degli Studi di Firenze in Florence, 5/Oct/2007
• Newly contributed Getting Started Guide contributed by Delphine Leroux of Institut de Mecanique des Fluides de Tolouse. Many thanks.
• A talk on the self-contained Fluid-Structure Interaction solver in OpenFOAM at the Fourth MIT Conference on CFD, Cambridge, MA 13-15/Jun/2007. The solver combines large structural deformation in the updated Lagrangian formulation and an incompressible fluid flow solver and has been developed in collaboration with dr. Zeljko Tukovic of Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture (FSB), University of Zagreb, Croatia.
• Announcing Second OpenFOAM Training and Workshop in Zagreb, Croatia 7-9 June 2007. More details below - hopefully, this will grow into an annual event.
• Presenting the work on Preconditioned linear solvers in Large Eddy Simulation at the with OpenFOAM at the 15th Annual Conference of the CFD Society of Canada, 27-31/May/2007.
• High Performance CFD Simulations with OpenFOAM. A one-day seminar in organisation of the Finnish IT Centre for Science (CSC) in Helsinki, Finland will be delivered by Dr. Hrvoje Jasak, Wikki Ltd on 4th April 2007. For more details please contact the organiser.
• The topic of the presentation at Politecnico di Milano on 15/Feb/2007 was OpenFOAM in internal combustion engines simulations. Concentrating on automatic mesh motion and topological changes needed to simulate in-cylinder flows, dr. Hrvoje Jasak of Wikki Ltd. and University of Zagreb, Croatia has given an overview of current development work and collaboration with the group of dr. Gianluca D'Errico at the Milan University.
• A presentation on OpenFOAM at the University of Manchester has been held on invitation of Dr. Andrew Masters has been held on 7/Feb/2007. Overview of library design, capabilities and development plans has been given by dr. Hrvoje Jasak of Wikki Ltd. and University of Zagreb, Croatia.
• Introductory talk on OpenFOAM at the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Carderock Division, a part of the Naval Sea Systems Command, US Navy. OpenFOAM activities currently include turbulent flow modelling, free surface and LES and will hopefully expand in the future. The work is supported by dr. Hrvoje Jasak through Wikki Ltd.
• OpenFOAM training session and local Workshop is held at University College Dublin, 23-24/Nov/2006. The Workshop is organised by Professor Alojz Ivankovic and dr. Aleksandar Karac and will be delivered by dr. Hrvoje Jasak of Wikki Ltd. and FSB Zagreb. Main topics are Finite Volume stress analysis, fluid-structure interaction and future OpenFOAM work at UC Dublin.
• OpenFOAM at SIMDI 06. Reporting good attendance and pleasant time oa the one-day Introductory Workshop on OpenFOAM Given as a part of Simulation and Data Intensive Fair 2006 (SIMDI 06), 17-18 of October 2006 organised by Wikki Ltd. and Gridcore AB. Many thanks to all who have attended and a special hello to the numerous Scandinavian friends of OpenFOAM.
• A keynote lecture at the 5th International Congress of Croatian Society of Mechanics, 21-23/Sep/2006 will be given by dr. Hrvoje Jasak of Wikki Ltd. The title of the paper is Multi-physics simulations in continuum mechanics, describing OpenFOAM software architecture and fluid-structure capabilites of the library.
• A new section on fluid-structure interaction in OpenFOAM with animations of a deforming pipe under a flow pulse has been added to the Development pages (3/Sep/2006).
• A new paper on automatic mesh motion, topological changes and mesh setup for in-cylinder internal combustion engine simulations with OpenFOAM from the OpenFOAM engine expert task force at the Politecnico di Milano. Special thanks go to Tommaso Lucchini for excellent work on valve motion with topological changes and custom engine solvers. The paper was presented at the High-Tech Engines and Cars (HTCES) Congress held in Modena, Italy in May/2006.
• A presentation on Object-Oriented Computational Continuum Mechanics with OpenFOAM at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Knoxville TN, USA will be given by dr. Hrvoje Jasak of Wikki Ltd. and University of Zagreb, Croatia on Friday 19/May/2006.
• Pre-compiled disk images of OpenFOAM version 1.3 for Mac OS X is available for download.
• In organisation of Professor Enrico Nobile, dr. Hrvoje Jasak of Wikki Ltd. will be giving a talk on OpenFOAM at the University of Trieste on Wednesday 26/Apr/2006. The talk will cover the basic design of OpenFOAM libraries, pre-implemented capabilities and an overview of current research projects using the software. A short abstract and more info will be available at the University web pages.
• Virtual Flow Lab based on OpenFOAM. As a part of the Tempus NUSIC lectures at the University of Zagreb, a set of test cases for experimentation with numerics and flow characteristics using OpenFOAM will be used for the first time. The lectures, presented by Dr. Hrvoje Jasak are a part of the MSc course in Aeronautical Engineering and will cover the Finite Volume discretisation and numerical solution methods for compressible flows.
• New PhD Thesis with OpenFOAM Dr. Petra Brajdic-Mitidieri has passed her PhD exam on 10/Mar/2006 at Imperial College London. Her Thesis project, titled Advanced Modelling of Elastohydrodynamic Lubrication has been completed at Imperial College under the supervision of Professor Hugh Spikes and Professor A. David Gosman (retired). The work was sponsored by SKF, a leading bearing manufacturer.
• Announcing the release of the new OpenFOAM version 1.3 on 29/Mar/2006. Several improvements and consolidations include the latest version of the gcc compiler, library re-organisation and improvements in parallel performance. For more detail, see the official release notes. Further ports and bug updates will be available soon.
• New porting effort: OpenFOAM port on FreeBSD is now available. An experimental Mac OS X distribution has also been prepared (for more details, on configuring the Mac installation, please contact Wikki Ltd.
• A presentation on OpenFOAM in engine simulations will be held at the Engine Research Center (ERC) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison on Friday 18/Nov/2005. On invitation of Professor Chris Rutland, director of ERC, dr. Hrvoje Jasak will be giving a short lecture on OpenFOAM design and capabilities, with examples of simulations relevant to in-cylinder internal combustion simulations using OpenFOAM.
• Lecture series on CFD in Valparaiso, Chile. On invitation of Professor Fernando Carvajal, dr. Hrvoje Jasak, has presented a series of lectures on CFD and the Finite Volume Method at the Federico Santa Maria Technical University in Valparaiso, Chile to the students at the Mechanical Engineering Department and other interested parties, 15/Oct-2/Nov/2005. As a part of the visit, a collaboration on simulations of free surface flows was set up.
• OpenFOAM training at the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), U.S. Department of Energy in Morgantown West Virginia, 4-8/Oct/2005. In an exciting new development, the multi-phase modelling group and developers of the well-known MFIX (Multiphase Flow with Interphase eXchanges) software are hosting a week-long training session on use and software development in OpenFOAM. This is a step towards the next-generation code development effort MFIX-NG where OpenFOAM will be used as the development platform. The group at NETL under the guidance of dr. Madhava Syamlal has expressed enthusiasm regarding the new platform and represents significant addition to the OpenFOAM developer community. Training was provided by the author and chief developer of OpenFOAM, dr. Hrvoje Jasak, Wikki Ltd.
• A page dedicated to Students and research using FOAM/OpenFOAM, including a repository of PhD Theses, partially or completely done using the code

OpenFOAM Workshops and Training

The Internal Combustion Engine Group of Politecnico di Milano announces the Third OpenFOAM Workshop to be held in Milan, Italy 10-11 July 2008.

The flexibility, efficiency and capabilities of OpenFOAM make it a powerful CFD tool to perform fundamental studies and industrial investigations of complex physical processes. The event intends to bring together developers and users of OpenFOAM, to promote collaborative activities, exchange information and share experiences in similar areas of interest.

The Workshop is split into thematic sessions, to help participants stay up-to-date by providing indications of emerging and developing ideas in each research area. Additional technical talks will be promoted on the use of OpenFOAM, including advanced programming and code customization.

For the benefit of new users and people interested in knowing the OpenFOAM code, a one-day Training Course will be provided the day before the Workshop (the 9th of July 2008).

For more details, please visit the Third OpenFOAM Workshop web pages.