Our mission is to make computational fluid dynamics (CFD) accessible and inclusive by developing free, open source CFD software — OpenFOAM — and providing services to its users.
OpenFOAM Training
Unlock the power of OpenFOAM to deliver robust CFD solutions. Essential, Applied, Programming and Cloud OpenFOAM Training courses from the Architects of OpenFOAM.
OpenFOAM Development
Our team undertakes OpenFOAM Development projects and code customisation, with experience of managing and executing over 100 development projects.
OpenFOAM Support
OpenFOAM Support, direct from the founders and architect of OpenFOAM, covering software deployment and operation, CFD practice, and code customisation.
Learn Effective CFD
OpenFOAM provides leading CFD software to thousands of people within academia and industry for free. However, CFD is inherently complex and competency in CFD requires more than simply “learning the software package”. Our 4 OpenFOAM Training courses build CFD competency through a process of solution design with course prices equivalent to 1-2 weeks of payroll cost of a CFD engineer or 2% of a single core, commercial CFD licence. Our schedule includes classroom courses in UK, Germany and USA, with Live Virtual attendance worldwide, and on-site training for groups of 5 or more.
OpenFOAM v7 Training
In Autumn 2019, CFD Direct is running its OpenFOAM Training courses — Essential CFD, Applied CFD, Programming CFD and Cloud CFD — fully updated with the latest features of the new version 7 release of OpenFOAM. Essential and Applied CFD courses are available: 24-27 Sep, London UK; 15-18 Oct, Chicago USA; 30 Oct – 1 Nov and 5-7 Nov, Virtual Training; 12-15 Nov, Munich Germany. Programming CFD is available 11-13 Sep and 2-4 Oct as Virtual Training. We use new features in OpenFOAM v7 for more productive and effective CFD.
OpenFOAM HPC with AWS EFA
In November 2018, Amazon Web Services (AWS) announed Elastic Fabric Adapter, a network interface for HPC applications running on EC2. We previewed the EFA technology, running benchmark CFD simulations with OpenFOAM, presented previously: (1) strong scaling – 97 m total cells, external aerodynamics around a car; (2) weak scaling – 100 k cells per core, flow over a weir. At 1008 cores, EFA delivered linear scaling in the strong scaling test and ~70% scaling in the weak scaling test. With linear strong scaling, EFA enables faster solutions for the same cost simply by running on more cores. The combination of open source software, C5n instances and EFA provides impressive HPC, at a price accessible to all.
OpenFOAM HPC with AWS C5n
CFD Direct From the Cloud™ (CFDDFC) is a Marketplace Product for AWS EC2, that provides a complete platform with OpenFOAM and supporting software running on Ubuntu Linux. It enables simple, fast creation of a cluster of instances to run CFD with OpenFOAM. We tested Amazon EC2 C5n instances, launched in November 2018, on 2 cases of steady-state, external aerodynamics around a car and transient simulation of water flowing over a weir. With meshes of 50-100 million cells, results showed 70%-90% scaling at 504 cores. The cost of the simulations was in the order of $100, compared to $100,000+ to purchase on-premises hardware and licences of proprietary software.