CFD Direct

The Architects of OpenFOAM

OpenFOAM Support

CFD Direct Year 3: 2017-2018

OpenFOAM Unresolved Issues March 2018

In Year 3 of CFD Direct, we developed new functionality in OpenFOAM and maintained critical components of the code base, reducing the number of unresolved issues by 45%. We managed the OpenFOAM Foundation: promoting sustainable development, releasing OpenFOAM v5, packaging OpenFOAM-dev and publishing websites and documentation. We delivered 60 days of OpenFOAM Training, introducing our new “hybrid” classroom-virtual courses to host participants in person and remotely. We launched the new Cloud CFD course to teach inexpensive, secure, efficient CFD with CFD Direct From the Cloud™.

Sustainable OpenFOAM Development

Sustainable OpenFOAM Development

OpenFOAM is free, open source software for computational fluid dynamics (CFD). At the heart of OpenFOAM is a development kit (“SDK”), providing software and tools to build CFD applications, enabling users to customise their CFD, quickly and conveniently. CFD Direct includes OpenFOAM developers who maintain the SDK. We manage an environment for sustainable OpenFOAM development that involves: early public code release with rapid-turnaround user feedback; a network of developers, funding companies and users; and, co-ordinated code integration and maintenance.

Supporting CFD Analysis

Components of CFD

CFD analysis involves competency in fluid dynamics, physical modelling, meshing, numerical methods, data analysis, computing, programming. It is difficult to obtain knowledge and experience in these CFD competencies, even with broad access to information brought by today’s Internet. People are forced to rely heavily on colleagues or online forums because most CFD teaching is generally inadequate. At CFD Direct, it is our aim to support people to deliver timely, quality CFD analysis at a reasonable cost. Our belief in open source software means that the public are able to access information, such as numerical methods and physical models, through the source code of OpenFOAM. We supplement this by providing support and training services, and through our contributions to OpenFOAM, including free technical information.