Open Source Computational Fluid Dynamics

An MSc course to gain extended knowledge in Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)

using open source software.

Zoltn Herndi
Department of Fluid Mechanics
Budapest University of Technology and Economics

Open Source CFD @ Budapest University of Technology and Economics 1

Course description
Introduction to OpenFOAM simulations (and linux, gnuplot, paraview).
Installation on several Linux distributions and virtual systems.
Solution of simple fluid dynamics problems using OpenFOAM.
Detailed introduction to OpenFOAM software components:
pre-processing (meshing tools and utilities)
solving (standard applications, user applications)
post-processing (ParaView).
Single phase stationary and transient flows, turbulence, compressible flows.
Multiphase and reactive flows.
Extension of OpenFOAM capabilities by program code development in C++.
Individual projects using OpenFOAM.
Further open source CFD tools.

Course website:
http://www.ara.bme.hu/~hernadi/OpenFOAM

Open Source CFD @ Budapest University of Technology and Economics 2

Planned schedule
week 1: introduction to OpenFOAM, installing
week 2: solving simple fluid flow problems
week 3: studying software components
week 4: stationary and transient flows
week 5: turbulent and compressible flows, student project proposals deadline
week 6: multiphase and reactive flows, final list of individual project proposals
week 7: OpenFOAM programming (C++), individual project declarations
week 8: mid-term exam
week 9: advanced programming tools
week 10: other open-soruce tools
week 11: experiments and simulations
week 12-14: presentations of individual projects

Final grade:
The grading is based on 1 mid-term exam (50% in final grade) and an individual
project (50% in final grade). In-class activity will be rewarded by bonus points.

Open Source CFD @ Budapest University of Technology and Economics 3

Introduction to OpenFOAM
Open source Field Operation And Manipulation
C++ toolbox, mainly designed for Computational Fluid Dynamics
Linux is fully supported by OpenFOAM.

Open Source CFD @ Budapest University of Technology and Economics 4

Linux operating system
Linux comes in different flavours: distributions.
Most popular Linux distributions are e.g. Arch Linux, CentOS, Debian, Fedora,
Mageia, Manjaro, Linux Mint, openSUSE, PCLinuxOS, Slackware, Ubuntu.
Different distributions have different desktop environments,
but the linux command-line in very similar.
The command-line can be accessed through a terminal emulator,
e.g. gnome-terminal, LXTerminal, rxvt, xterm.

Open Source CFD @ Budapest University of Technology and Economics 5

Commands for navigating in file system
Command Description
ls list directory contents
ls -l (use a long listing format)
ls -ltr (long listing, sort by time, reverse order)
ls --help (to see other options)
man ls manual of ls command (to exit press q)
cd .. change directory to parent (relative to $PWD)
cd /bin change directory to /bin (absolute position)
cd ~/OpenFOAM change directory to $HOME/OpenFOAM
pwd print name of current/working directory
echo HOME display a line of text: HOME
echo $HOME display a variable: $HOME
cd change directory to $HOME
find -name OpenFOAM find files or directories named OpenFOAM
man find manual of find command (to exit press q)
which ls locate a command

Open Source CFD @ Budapest University of Technology and Economics 6

Commands for texts in files
Command Description
cd $WM_PROJECT_DIR change directory to OpenFOAM installation
cat Allwmake print file content
less Allwmake print file content and scroll (exit: q)
(type /app to search, n for next, N for previous)
wc Allwmake print newline, word, and byte counts
wc -w Allwmake print word counts
man wc manual for wc command
head Allwmake output first part of file
tail Allwmake output last part of file
grep echo Allwmake print lines matching a pattern
sort Allwmake sort lines of text
sort -r Allwmake sort lines of text, reverse order
tac Allwmake print file content, reverse order
grep -ri piso src find files with content (-i: ignore case)
sort Allwmake | uniq omit repeated lines in sorted output
man sed; man awk manuals of more advanced text processing

Open Source CFD @ Budapest University of Technology and Economics 7

Commands for manipulating files
Command Description
cp Allwmake ~/test1 copy file
mv ~/test1 ~/test2 rename file
mv ~/test2 ~/OpenFOAM/ move file
rm ~/OpenFOAM/test2 remove file
mkdir ~/test make directory
rmdir ~/test remove empty directory
man rm manual for rm command (see -r option!)
cat Allwmake >~/test create file by redirecting
tac Allwmake >~/test overwrite file by redirecting
sort <~/test >>~/sorted sort redirected input and save output
sort <~/test >>~/sorted sort redirected input and add output
chmod 000 ~/test change file mode (check with ls -l)
chmod u+rw ~/test change file mode (check with ls -l)

Note: Read (4), write (2), execute (1). E.g. rwxr-xr-x = 755, rw-r--r-- = 644.

Open Source CFD @ Budapest University of Technology and Economics 8

Job control and performance monitoring
Command Description
ps list current processes
ps aux | less list all processes
top interactive display of processes
kill kill/terminate process
free -h report free memory
df -h report disk space usage
du -sh estimate file space usage

Notes:

Use TAB button for auto-completion of commands!

Visit http://linuxcommand.org for learning more commands.

Recommended text editor GUI: gedit

Open Source CFD @ Budapest University of Technology and Economics 9

Installing OpenFOAM
Linux is fully supported by OpenFOAM.
On non-Linux systems, you can use a virtualization platform, e.g. VirtualBox.
You can download a VirtualBox image file from the course website:
http://www.ara.bme.hu/~hernadi/OpenFOAM/virtualbox.html
If you have Linux installed, you can install OpenFOAM from
http://www.openfoam.org/download/
Easy installation is possible on Ubuntu and derivatives (e.g. Linux Mint,
Lubuntu).
For these systems, you don't need to compile OpenFOAM source code.
Source pack distribution can be downloaded and compiled.
If you use Git version control system, you can compile OpenFOAM source
code with the latest fixes.

Warning: Compiling OpenFOAM from source usually take several hours! Be patient!

Open Source CFD @ Budapest University of Technology and Economics 10

Testing OpenFOAM installation
If OpenFOAM is installed, several Linux environment variables are available, e.g.

Variable Description
$WM_PROJECT_DIR OpenFOAM installation directory
$FOAM_RUN OpenFOAM user directory
$FOAM_TUTORIALS OpenFOAM tutorials directory

Note: You can list other environment variables by:

echo $FOAM_<TAB><TAB>

env | grep 'WM\|FOAM' | less

The usual way of testing OpenFOAM is to run a simple simulation:

mkdir -p $FOAM_RUN
cp -r $FOAM_TUTORIALS $FOAM_RUN
cd $FOAM_RUN/tutorials/incompressible/icoFoam/cavity
blockMesh
icoFoam
paraFoam

Open Source CFD @ Budapest University of Technology and Economics 11

OpenFOAM cases
The basic directory structure:

Open Source CFD @ Budapest University of Technology and Economics 12

How OpenFOAM solvers work
Partial differential equation

is represented using high-level C++ syntax inside the solver:

solve
(
fvm::ddt(rho, U)
+ fvm::div(phi, U)
- fvm::laplacian(mu, U)
==
- fvc::grad(p)
);
Numerical treatment settings (discretization schemes and linear-solvers) are inside
OpenFOAM cases (fvSchemes, fvSolution), e.g.
divSchemes
{
default none;
div(phi,U) bounded Gauss linearUpwind grad(U);
}

Open Source CFD @ Budapest University of Technology and Economics 13