OpenFOAM
≈ 4 min read
Names in other languages
No names in other languages are held for this entry yet.
Article bodies are English and are not machine-translated. A name in another language is not a translation of the article.
OpenFOAM (Open Field Operation And Manipulation) is a C++ toolbox for the development of customized numerical solvers, and pre-/post-processing utilities for the solution of continuum mechanics problems, most prominently including computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The OpenFOAM software is used in research organisations, academic institutes and across many types of industries, for example, automotive, manufacturing, process engineering, environmental engineering and marine energy. OpenFOAM is open-source software which is freely available and licensed under the GNU General Public License Version 3, with the following variants: # OpenFOAM, released by OpenCFD Ltd. (with the name trademarked since 2007 ) first released as open-source in 20041. (Note: since 2012, OpenCFD Ltd is wholly-owned subsidiary of ESI Group) # FOAM-Extend, released by Wikki Ltd. (since 2009) # OpenFOAM, released by OpenFOAM Foundation. (since 2011)
OpenFOAM (Open Field Operation And Manipulation) is a C++ toolbox for the development of customized numerical solvers, and pre-/post-processing utilities for the solution of continuum mechanics problems, most prominently including computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The OpenFOAM software is used in research organisations, academic institutes and across many types of industries, for example, automotive, manufacturing, process engineering, environmental engineering and marine energy. OpenFOAM is open-source software which is freely available and licensed under the GNU General Public License Version 3, with the following variants: OpenFOAM, released by OpenCFD Ltd. (with the name trademarked since 2007 ) first released as open-source in 2004. (Note: since 2012, OpenCFD Ltd is wholly-owned subsidiary of ESI Group) FOAM-Extend, released by Wikki Ltd. (since 2009) OpenFOAM, released by OpenFOAM Foundation. (since 2011)
OpenFOAM Governance
In 2018, OpenCFD Ltd. and some of its industrial, academic, and community partners established an administrative body, i.e. OpenFOAM Governance, to allow the OpenFOAM's user community to decide/contribute the future development and direction of their variant of the software. The structure of OpenFOAM Governance consisted of a Steering Committee and various Technical Committees. The Steering Committee comprised representatives from the main sponsors of OpenFOAM in industry, academia, release authorities and consultant organisations. The organisation composition of the initial committee involved members from OpenCFD Ltd., ESI Group, Volkswagen, General Motors, FM Global, TotalSim Ltd., TU Darmstadt, and Wikki Ltd. In addition, nine technical committees were established in the following areas: Documentation, high performance computing, meshing, multiphase, numerics, optimisation, turbulence, marine applications, and nuclear applications with the members from the organisations of OpenCFD Ltd., CINECA, University of Zagreb, TU Darmstadt, National Technical University of Athens, Upstream CFD GmbH, University of Michigan, and EPFL.
Structure
]]
Software structure
The OpenFOAM directory structure consists of two main directories: OpenFOAM-<version> : OpenFOAM libraries whose directory layout is shown in the side-figure ThirdParty : A set of third-party libraries
Simulation structure
OpenFOAM computer simulations are configured by several plain text input files located across the following three directories: system/ controlDict fvSchemes fvSolution fvOptions (optional) other dictionaries (configuration files in OpenFOAM) constant polyMesh/ other dictionaries 0/ or another initial time directory field files Additional directories can be generated, depending on user selections. These may include: result time directories: field predictions as a function of iteration count or time postProcessing/ : data typically generated by function objects data conversion, e.g. VTK
See also
Computer-aided design Computer-aided engineering Finite volume method List of computational fluid dynamics software ParaView, an open-source multiple-platform application for interactive scientific visualization VTK (file format)
References
External links
OpenFOAM Foundation website DLR: Future Aircraft Engineering – The Numerical Simulation
Text derived from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1375366529 under CC BY-SA 4.0; modifications have been made.