OpenFOAM has an extensive range of features to simulate anything from turbulent flows in automotive aerodynamics, to fires and fire suppression in buildings, involving combustion, chemical reactions, heat transfer, liquid sprays and films. It includes tools for meshing in and around complex geometries (e.g. a vehicle), and for data processing and visualisation, and more. Almost all computations can be executed in parallel as standard to take full advantage of today’s multi-core processors and multi-processor computers. The following lists contain some, but not all, of the available features in OpenFOAM with some links to further information.
Fluid Dynamics/Physical Modelling
- Turbulence modelling
- Thermophysical modelling
- Transport/rheology
- Multiphase flows
- Rotating flows with multiple reference frames (MRF)
- Rotating flows with arbitrary mesh interface (AMI)
- Dynamic meshes
- Compressible/thermal flows
- Conjugate heat transfer
- Porous media
- Lagrangian particle tracking
- Reaction kinetics / chemistry
Data Analysis
- ParaView post-processing
- Post-processing command line interface (CLI)
- Graphs and data monitoring
Geometry and Meshing
- Mesh generation for complex geometries with snappyHexMesh
- Mesh generation for simple geometries with blockMesh
- Mesh conversion tools
- Mesh manipulation tools
Numerical Solution
- Numerical method
- Linear system solvers
- ODE system solvers
Computing and Programming
- Equation syntax
- Libraries of functionality
- Parallel computing