CFD Direct

The Architects of OpenFOAM

CFD Resources and Articles

CFD Direct Year 5: 2019-2020

CFD Direct Year 5: 2019-2020

In Year 5 of CFD Direct, we developed new functionality in OpenFOAM and maintained critical components of the code base. We managed the OpenFOAM Foundation: promoting sustainable development, releasing OpenFOAM v7, packaging OpenFOAM-dev and publishing websites and documentation. We delivered 60 days of OpenFOAM Training, and provided low-cost cloud CFD with CFD Direct From the Cloud™ to over 500 subscribers, including custom images to run 100s of automated production simulations.

OpenFOAM Training & COVID-19

OpenFOAM Training & COVID-19

Many countries have imposed travel restrictions, limited gatherings and encouraged people to self-isolate and work from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic. CFD Direct is therefore re-scheduling some classroom OpenFOAM training as Virtual Training using a video conference between the instructor and participants. Participants work on CFD problems through a remote desktop to OpenFOAM running in the cloud. All machines are accessible to the instructor who can then assist with any problems. Virtual courses will run over a longer schedule and include an extra assistant to support participants during the training.

OpenFOAM v8 Training

CFD Direct Live Virtual Training

In Autumn 2020 – Winter/Spring 2021, 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 8 release of OpenFOAM. The training uses new features in OpenFOAM v8 for more productive and effective CFD. All courses are delivered as live virtual training due to Covid-19 travel restrictions in 2020 into 2021. Essential and Applied CFD courses are available: 28 Sep – 2 Oct, 19-23 Oct, 2-6 Nov and 1-5 Feb (2021). Programming CFD is available 22-24 Sep, 6-8 Oct and 26-28 Jan, 23-25 Feb (2021).

Maintaining a CFD Capability

Maintaining a CFD Capability

Your organisation has an expert in CFD with OpenFOAM. They deliver critical results to problems no one else can solve. They have worked there as long as you can remember. Then one day they announce they are leaving and years of experience and know-how walks out of the door. “That-person-left syndrome”, as we call it, is a failure in maintenance which CFD Direct can help with. We provide development, support, training and cloud services to limit the impact of that-person-left syndrome, building a sustainable CFD capability for our customers with OpenFOAM.

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.