In March 2025, CFD Direct celebrated its 10th anniversary. CFD Direct was founded by Henry Weller (creator of FOAM), Chris Greenshields (OpenFOAM co-founded) and Jenya Collings in March 2015. It maintains, develops and manages OpenFOAM, released via The OpenFOAM Foundation. Over the past 10 years it has improved the quality, usability, robustness and consistency of OpenFOAM, bringing evident benefit to all its users. CFD Direct also provides services to users of OpenFOAM, including development, CFD support and consultancy, OpenFOAM training and cloud computing (CFDDFC®).
CFD Direct ® | About
CFD Direct manages and develops OpenFOAM, and provides OpenFOAM Training and Support, pursuing its mission to make CFD accessible and inclusive.
OpenFOAM Development
Our team undertakes OpenFOAM Development projects and code customisation, with experience of managing and executing over 100 development projects.
CFD Support
Our CFD Support includes support for the use, installation and configuration of the OpenFOAM software and help with all aspects of CFD practice in OpenFOAM.
CFD Direct Year 9: 2023-2024
In Year 9 of CFD Direct, we built on the success modular solvers and non-conformal coupling in OpenFOAM. We replaced liquid film functionality and improved dynamic mesh, including mesh-to-mesh mapping, decomposition and redistribution, to the point that OpenFOAM can simulate internal combustion engines including piston and value motion. We managed the OpenFOAM Foundation, releasing OpenFOAM v11, packaging OpenFOAM-dev and publishing websites and documentation. We provided training and cloud services to OpenFOAM users, and began creating a new course “Productive CFD.”
CFD Direct Year 8: 2022-2023
In Year 8 of CFD Direct, we made some very significant developments to OpenFOAM, including non-conformal coupling, modular solvers and redesign of the dynamic mesh functionality. We managed the OpenFOAM Foundation, releasing OpenFOAM v10, packaging OpenFOAM-dev and publishing websites and documentation. We provided 63 days of OpenFOAM Training to users around the world, supported by the release of our book, “Notes on Computational Fluid Dynamics: General Principles”. We released Web CFD Direct From the Cloud (CFDDFC®), providing OpenFOAM which can be accessed from a remote desktop running in a web browser.
CFD Direct Year 7: 2021-2022
In Year 7 of CFD Direct, our developments of OpenFOAM included a generalised load balancer for parallel running . We provided core maintenance, including standardisation of fluid properties, and repaired issues, e.g. to stablise multiphase simulations. We managed the OpenFOAM Foundation, releasing OpenFOAM v9, packaging OpenFOAM-dev and publishing websites and documentation. We produced our book , “Notes on Computational Fluid Dynamics: General Principles”, delivered 56 days of Live Virtual OpenFOAM Training, and provided cloud CFD with CFDDFC® to over 1000 subscribers.
Overview of CFD with OpenFOAM
Overview of CFD is a free, one hour webinar from CFD Direct which discusses how to develop competency in computational fluid dynamics. It presents CFD as a design cycle and describes the challenges faced by CFD practitioners and and the skills required to meet those challenges.
OpenFOAM Training | Course Catalogue
Choose the right course(s) for you from our program of OpenFOAM Training courses — Essential CFD, Applied CFD, Productive CFD and Programming CFD
OpenFOAM Training | Academic On-site
Our academic on-site OpenFOAM Training covers the technology, programming and practice of CFD. We teach CFD that produces reliable, relevant data for innovative, peer-reviewed research.
OpenFOAM Training | Industry On-site
Our industry on-site OpenFOAM Training covers the technology, programming and practice of CFD. We teach CFD to overcome challenges and deliver reliable analyses, quickly and repeatedly.