Overview of CFD with OpenFOAM

What is computational fluid dynamics (CFD)?

What is computational fluid dynamics (CFD)?  The Internet describes it in a variety of ways, e.g. a method, tool, technique, science, etc.  In our book, Notes on CFD: General Principles we defined it as the prediction of fluid motion and forces by computation using numerical analysis, generally extended to include heat, thermodynamics, chemistry and solids.  Our definition emphasises the practice of CFD (the prediction of …), because we are concerned about people “doing” CFD effectively to deliver useful, reliable results. More theoretical or abstract descriptions (e.g. Wikipedia: “a branch of fluid mechanics”) detract from the underlying purpose of CFD.

What do we expect with CFD?

Once we establish CFD as a practice, we can set reasonable expectations from it.  Take something like painting.  In theory, it is merely a form of art, but imagine trying to paint without any prior training or experience.  What tools do you need?  How do you use them correctly?  What about composition?  Starting from a blank canvas, what do you do?  Once you start, how does the painting develop?  What do you do when you make a mistake?  People doing CFD find themselves asking similar questions, often without anything to guide them in the right direction.  At the same time their manager or supervisor asks for a progress update, equivalent to “is the painting finished yet?”, when they themselves don’t know how to paint.

Overview of CFD with OpenFOAM

Overview of CFD with OpenFOAM is our free, one hour webinar describing CFD practice from the viewpoint of experienced practitioners.   Our experience extends from the core maintainers of OpenFOAM (Henry Weller, Will Bainbridge) to leading CFD trainers (Chris Greenshields, Aidan Wimshurst).  We outline the goal of reaching a level of competency in CFD in which a practitioner has the confidence to carry out CFD analysis repeatedly to a defined standard in a timely manner.  We describe the practice of CFD as a classic design cycle involving planning, building, testing and evaluation, shown below.

The process is similar to painting, in which the painter plans the next change to the picture, gathers the tools, applies the paint, then stands back to assess the change.  Greater competency equates to faster, smaller iterations around the cycle.  But developing that competency takes a lot of time without the necessary guidance.  Our webinar discusses how to accelerate towards competency, acquiring the necessary skills to do so.

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… our free one hour webinar Overview of CFD with OpenFOAM.

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