CFD Direct

The Architects of OpenFOAM

CFD Resources and Articles

OpenFOAM HPC with AWS EFA

External Aerodynamics of a Vehicle with OpenFOAM

In November 2018, Amazon Web Services (AWS) announed Elastic Fabric Adapter, a network interface for HPC applications running on EC2. We previewed the EFA technology, running benchmark CFD simulations with OpenFOAM, presented previously: (1) strong scaling – 97 m total cells, external aerodynamics around a car; (2) weak scaling – 100 k cells per core, flow over a weir. At 1008 cores, EFA delivered linear scaling in the strong scaling test and ~70% scaling in the weak scaling test. With linear strong scaling, EFA enables faster solutions for the same cost simply by running on more cores. The combination of open source software, C5n instances and EFA provides impressive HPC, at a price accessible to all.

OpenFOAM HPC with AWS C5n

Flow over a Weir with Hydraulic Jump

CFD Direct From the Cloud™ (CFDDFC) is a Marketplace Product for AWS EC2, that provides a complete platform with OpenFOAM and supporting software running on Ubuntu Linux. It enables simple, fast creation of a cluster of instances to run CFD with OpenFOAM. We tested Amazon EC2 C5n instances, launched in November 2018, on 2 cases of steady-state, external aerodynamics around a car and transient simulation of water flowing over a weir. With meshes of 50-100 million cells, results showed 70%-90% scaling at 504 cores. The cost of the simulations was in the order of $100, compared to $100,000+ to purchase on-premises hardware and licences of proprietary software.

CFDDFC v7.0 Released

CFDDFC v7.0 Released

CFD Direct is pleased to announce the release of version 7.0 of CFD Direct From the Cloud™ (CFDDFC), the leading marketplace product for CFD on Amazon Web Services. CFDDFC v7.0 includes OpenFOAM v7, ParaView v5.6.0, OpenMPI v3.1.4 and FreeCAD v0.18.3, running on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS. CFDDFC v7.0 supports Elastic Network Adapter and Elastic Fabric Adapter which provide higher network performance on C5n instances. This delivers good parallel scaling performance on clusters of instances up to 1000 cores. The command line interface includes new options from simple launch of clusters and monitoring of costs.

CFD Direct Year 4: 2018-2019

OpenFOAM Unresolved Issues 2011-2019

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 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.

OpenFOAM v7 Training 2020

OpenFOAM Training 2019

In Spring 2020, CFD Direct is running its OpenFOAM Training courses — Essential CFD, Applied CFD, and Programming CFD — fully updated with the latest features of the new version 7 release of OpenFOAM. Essential and Applied CFD courses are available — with some remote places for remote attendance — on: 3-6 Feb, London UK; 24-27 Feb, Houston USA; 11-15 May, Virtual; 15-19 Jun, Virtual. Programming CFD is available as Virtual Training on 28-30 Jan, 17-19 Mar, 9-11 and 7-9 Jul.

OpenFOAM Sustainability 2018

OpenFOAM Sustainability

OpenFOAM sustainability involves developing software that meets critical needs of users, through a balance of resources, technology, investment and institutional support. The critical needs are availability, usability, robustness and extensibility. The critical work required to meet those needs are publishing, repair and redesign. Employers rarely allocate time to individuals to contribute critical work, so it is generally left to “career maintainers” at CFD Direct. With limited funding, decisions about the critical work are made by those who fund and/or contribute the work, via The OpenFOAM Hub.