OpenFOAM® and the OpenFOAM Foundation

OpenFOAM is the leading free, open source software for computational fluid dynamics (CFD), owned by the OpenFOAM Foundation. It is developed and maintained by a group of dedicated individuals, most notably from CFD Direct, who willingly contribute their work free and open source, with the support and consent of the organisations that employ them. CFD Direct includes the creator, architect and co-founder of OpenFOAM, Henry Weller, and co-founder Chris Greenshields, who both manage OpenFOAM as Directors of the OpenFOAM Foundation.  OpenFOAM® is a registered trademark of OpenCFD Ltd, originally founded by Weller and Greenshields (and Mattijs Janssens).  CFD Direct is not affiliated, associated, authorized, or endorsed by OpenCFD Ltd.

Download OpenFOAM

Download OpenFOAM

Download the latest and development versions of OpenFOAM for Ubuntu and other Linux, Windows and macOS, and explore the history and archives.

OpenFOAM Introduction

About OpenFOAM

OpenFOAM is the leading free, open source software for computational fluid dynamics (CFD), managed and developed by CFD Direct and released by the OpenFOAM Foundation.

OpenFOAM Management

OpenFOAM Management

CFD Direct manages and maintains OpenFOAM with specialist software engineers with expertise in numerics, geometry/meshing, data processing, fluid dynamics and physical modelling

OpenFOAM Documentation | CFD Direct

OpenFOAM Documentation

Free OpenFOAM Documentation resource including the OpenFOAM User Guide, OpenFOAM Linux Guide and articles about the underlying technology.

OpenFOAM Videos

CFD Tips: OpenFOAM Videos

CFD Tips is our YouTube channel containing a series of free instructional videos for computational fluid dynamics (CFD) with OpenFOAM.

OpenFOAM Features | CFD Direct

OpenFOAM Features

OpenFOAM has an extensive set of features in meshing, core numerical methods, physical modelling and data analysis for a wide range of CFD applications.

OpenFOAM Licensing

OpenFOAM is licensed under the GNU General Public Licence. The GPL gives users the freedom to run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve the software. It attempts to preserve these freedoms by preventing the inclusion of open source software within non-free, closed sourced software products, by the following two rules.

  1. Software that includes source code licensed under the GPL inherits the GPL licence.
  2. If compiled binaries of software licensed under GPL are distributed, the source code must also be made available by the distributor.

The licence discourages sale of the software, in either original or modified form, because anyone purchasing the product could demand the source code and redistribute it for free. If a company or user modifies the software, e.g. as the basis of an in-house tool, the licence does not require them to redistribute those modifications.