OpenFOAM at TACC

Last update: October 7, 2024

OpenFOAM logo The OpenFOAM (Open Field Operation and Manipulation) Toolbox is a free, open source Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software package providing an extensive range of features, from solving complex fluid flows involving chemical reactions, turbulence and heat transfer, to solid dynamics and electromagnetics.

OpenFOAM has two distributions and respective naming conventions:

  • OPENFOAM® (www.openfoam.com) is a registered trade mark of OpenCFD Limited, producer and distributor of the OpenFOAM software via www.openfoam.com.

    • OpenCFD is part of the ESI group, which is why it is usually referred to ESI-OpenCFD.
    • ESI-OpenCFD uses the numbering convention "vYYMM", for example: "v1706", which stands for having been released in June (6th month) of 2017.

  • The OpenFOAM Foundation (www.openfoam.org) was originally founded by OpenCFD and SGI in 2011, when SGI acquired OpenCFD back then.

    • This Foundation has permission to use the OPENFOAM® trade mark.
    • The OpenFOAM Foundation uses the numbering convention "I.J", for example: 4.0, 4.1 and 5.0.

Both distributions are actively developed, and each provide advantages depending on specific features or solvers required. For additional information on the difference between the two versions, refer here.

Environment Setup

Both distributions of OpenFOAM are available on TACC systems. Refer to the table below to load your desired version.

System Version Load with:
Frontera TBD
Stampede3 OpenFOAM 12 module load openfoam/12
OpenFOAM v2312 module load openfoam/v2312
Lonestar6 OpenFOAM 12 module load intel/24.1 impi/21.12 openfoam/12
OpenFOAM v2406 module load intel/24.1 impi/21.12 openfoam/v2406
Vista TBD

OpenFOAM places its cases in the directory defined by the $FOAM_RUN environment variable. TACC staff suggests using your $SCRATCH file space to run OpenFOAM cases. The following commands set this environment variable and create the $FOAM_RUN directory in the user's $SCRATCH directory.

login1$ export FOAM_RUN=$SCRATCH/My_OpenFOAM/12/run
login1$ mkdir -p $FOAM_RUN

Run Tutorials

Important

Do NOT run the following commands on any resource's login nodes. You may either submit a batch job, or start an interactive session using TACC's idev utility.

The following demonstrates running the OpenFOAM's Lid-driven Cavity Flow test case involving isothermal, incompressible flow in a two-dimensional square domain.

After creating an idev session, copy OpenFOAM's tutorials into the OpenFOAM work directory created above:

Version Command
OpenFOAM 12 c557-804$ cp -r $FOAM_TUTORIALS/incompressibleFluid/cavity .
OpenFOAM v2312 c557-804$ cp -r $FOAM_TUTORIALS/incompressible/icoFoam/cavity/cavity .

Change to the cavity case directory, then invoke the pre-processing tool, blockMesh, to generate the mesh. Then run the icoFoam solver.

c557-804$ cd cavity
c557-804$ blockMesh
c557-804$ icoFoam
c557-804$ exit
login1$

References