In Year 4 of CFD Direct, we developed new functionality in OpenFOAM and maintained critical components of the code base, reducing the number of unresolved issues by by 17%. We managed the OpenFOAM Foundation: promoting sustainable development, releasing OpenFOAM v6, packaging OpenFOAM-dev and publishing websites and documentation. We contributed 1383 man-hours of unfunded work in-kind to OpenFOAM, including organising and presenting at the OpenFOAM Open Day. We delivered 60 days of OpenFOAM Training, and provided low-cost cloud CFD with CFD Direct From the Cloud™, running 1.3 million core-hrs.
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 3: 2017-2018
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
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
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.