OpenFOAM

File:OpenFOAM+ParaView flow simulation.png for visualization]]

The name FOAM has been claimed to appear for the first time as a post-processing tool written by Charlie Hill, in the early 90s in Prof. David Gosman's group in Imperial College London.{{citation needed|date=February 2020}} As a counter argument {{Verify source|date=July 2019}}, it has been claimed that Henry Weller created the FOAM library for field operation and manipulation which interfaced to the GUISE (Graphical User Interface Software Environment) which was created by Charlie Hill for interfacing to AVS.

As a continuum mechanics / computational fluid dynamics tool, the first development of FOAM (which became OpenFOAM later on) was virtually always presumed to be initiated by Henry Weller at the same institute by using the C++ programming language rather than the de facto standard programming language FORTRAN of the time to develop a powerful and flexible general simulation platform. From this initiation to the founding of a company called Nabla Ltd, (predominantly) Henry Weller and Hrvoje Jasak carried out the basic development of the software for almost a decade.{{cite journal |last1=Chen |first1=Goong |last2=Xiong |first2=Qingang |last3=Morris |first3=Philip J. |last4=Paterson |first4=Eric G. |last5=Sergeev |first5=Alexey |last6=Wang |first6=Yi-Ching |title=OpenFOAM for Computational Fluid Dynamics |journal=Notices of the American Mathematical Society |date=2014 |volume=61 |issue=4 |pages=354–363 |doi=10.1090/noti1095|doi-access=free}}

For a few years, FOAM was sold as a commercial code by Nabla Ltd.,{{cite web |title=OpenFOAM |url=https://www.cfd-online.com/Wiki/OpenFOAM |website=CFD-Online |access-date=28 June 2019}}

on 10 December 2004, it was released under GPL and renamed to OpenFOAM.

In 2004, Nabla Ltd was folded. Immediately afterwards, Henry Weller, Chris Greenshields and Mattijs Janssens founded OpenCFD Ltd to develop and release OpenFOAM.{{cite web|url=http://openfoam.org/download/history/|title=Release History|first=Chris|last=Greenshields|date=3 April 2016|website=openfoam.org|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170729231137/https://openfoam.org/download/history/|archive-date=29 July 2017}} At the same time, Hrvoje Jasak founded the consulting company Wikki Ltd{{cite web|url=http://wikki.gridcore.se/company/about-us/|title=Wikki Ltd – About Us}} and maintained a fork of OpenFOAM called openfoam-extend, later renamed to [https://sourceforge.net/projects/foam-extend/ foam-extend].

In April 2008, the OpenFOAM development moved to using git for its source code repository.{{cite web|url=https://github.com/OpenCFD/OpenFOAM-history|title=OpenFOAM history repository|website=GitHub|date=15 January 2019}}

On 5 August 2011, OpenCFD transferred its copyrights and interests in OpenFOAM (source code) and documentation to the newly incorporated OpenFOAM Foundation Inc., registered in the state of Delaware, USA.{{Cite web |title=OpenFOAM Foundation, Company History |url=https://openfoam.org/company-history/ |access-date=2022-12-24 |website=openfoam.org |language=en-GB}}

On 8 August 2011, OpenCFD was acquired by Silicon Graphics International (SGI).{{cite web |url=http://www.sgi.com/company_info/newsroom/press_releases/2011/august/opencfd.html |title=Press Releases: SGI Acquires OpenCFD Ltd., the Leader in Open Source Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) Software |publisher=SGI |access-date=2012-12-18 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121206010926/http://www.sgi.com/company_info/newsroom/press_releases/2011/august/opencfd.html |archive-date=6 December 2012 }} On 12 September 2012, ESI Group announced the acquisition of OpenCFD Ltd,{{cite web |url=http://www.esi-group.com/corporate/finance/news/financial-press-release/acquisiton-of-opencfd-ltd-the-leader-in-open-source-software-in-computional-fluid-dynamics |title=Acquisition of OpenCFD Ltd., The leader in Open Source software in Computational Fluid Dynamics |publisher=ESI Group |date=2012-09-11 |access-date=2012-12-18 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121206053745/http://www.esi-group.com/corporate/finance/news/financial-press-release/acquisiton-of-opencfd-ltd-the-leader-in-open-source-software-in-computional-fluid-dynamics |archive-date=6 December 2012 }} becoming a wholly-owned subsidiary of ESI Group, and OpenCFD retaining its ownership of the OpenFOAM trademark.

On 25 April 2014, The OpenFOAM Foundation Ltd was incorporated in England, as a company limited by guarantee with all assets transferred to the UK and the US entity dissolved, together with changes to the governance of the Foundation. Weller and Greenshields left OpenCFD and formed CFD Direct Ltd in March 2015.{{cite web |url=http://cfd.direct/openfoam |title=OpenFOAM |publisher=CFD Direct |date=2015-03-25 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150329031412/http://cfd.direct/openfoam/ |archive-date=29 March 2015 }}

On 3 September 2024, Cristel de Rouvray, CEO of ESI Group officially resigned as Founder Member and director of The OpenFOAM Foundation Limited.

The OpenFOAM Foundation Ltd directors are Henry Weller, Chris Greenshields, and Brendan Bouffler.

The following are the three main variants of OpenFOAM:

1. OpenFOAM, Foundation, developed and maintained primarily by CFD Direct Ltd with a sequence based identifier (e.g. 6.0) (from 2011).{{Cite web |title=OpenFOAM Foundation: Release History |url=https://openfoam.org/download/history/ |access-date=2022-12-24 |website=openfoam.org |language=en-GB}}
2. OpenFOAM, OpenCFD, developed and maintained mainly by OpenCFD Ltd, (ESI Group company since 2012) with a date-of-release identifier (e.g. v1606) (from 2016).{{Cite web |title=Release history |url=https://www.openfoam.com/download/release-history |access-date=2022-12-24 |website=openfoam.com |language=en}}
3. The FOAM-Extend Project, mainly maintained by Wikki Ltd. (from 2009).

File:3840x1080_F16_OpenFOAM.jpg

In 2018, OpenCFD Ltd. and some of its industrial, academic, and community partners established an administrative body, i.e. OpenFOAM Governance, to allow the OpenFOAM's user community to decide/contribute the future development and direction of their variant of the software.{{cite web |title=OpenFOAM Governance |url=https://www.openfoam.com/governance/ |publisher=OpenCFD Ltd |access-date=10 August 2019}}

The structure of OpenFOAM Governance consisted of a Steering Committee and various Technical Committees. The Steering Committee comprised representatives from the main sponsors of OpenFOAM in industry, academia, release authorities and consultant organisations. The organisation composition of the initial committee involved members from OpenCFD Ltd., ESI Group, Volkswagen, General Motors, FM Global, TotalSim Ltd., TU Darmstadt, and Wikki Ltd.{{cite web |title=OpenFOAM Steering Committee |url=https://www.openfoam.com/governance/steering-committee.php |publisher=OpenCFD Ltd |access-date=10 August 2019}}

In addition, nine technical committees were established in the following areas: Documentation, high performance computing, meshing, multiphase, numerics, optimisation, turbulence, marine applications, and nuclear applications with the members from the organisations of OpenCFD Ltd., CINECA, University of Zagreb, TU Darmstadt, National Technical University of Athens, Upstream CFD GmbH, University of Michigan, and EPFL.{{cite web |title=OpenFOAM Technical Committees |url=https://www.openfoam.com/governance/technical-committees.php |publisher=OpenCFD Ltd. |access-date=10 August 2019}}

File:OpenFOAM-dir-structure.png]]

The OpenFOAM directory structure consists of two main directories:

• OpenFOAM-<version>: OpenFOAM libraries whose directory layout is shown in the side-figure
• ThirdParty: A set of third-party libraries

OpenFOAM computer simulations are configured by several plain text input files located across the following three directories:{{Cite web|url=https://www.openfoam.com/documentation/guides/latest/doc/openfoam-guide-case-structure.html|title = OpenFOAM: User Guide: Case structure}}

• system/
• controlDict
• fvSchemes
• fvSolution
• fvOptions (optional)
• other dictionaries (configuration files in OpenFOAM)
• constant
• polyMesh/
• other dictionaries
• 0/ or another initial time directory
• field files

Additional directories can be generated, depending on user selections. These may include:

• result time directories: field predictions as a function of iteration count or time
• postProcessing/: data typically generated by function objects data conversion, e.g. VTK

• Computer-aided design
• Computer-aided engineering
• Finite volume method
• ParaView, an open-source multiple-platform application for interactive scientific visualization
• VTK (file format)

{{reflist}}

• [https://openfoam.org/ OpenFOAM Foundation website]
• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EQCMR2LROM DLR: Future Aircraft Engineering – The Numerical Simulation]

{{Numerical analysis software}}

{{CAE software}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Openfoam}}

Category:2004 software

Category:C++ libraries

Category:Computational fluid dynamics

Category:Computer-aided engineering software for Linux

Category:Continuum mechanics

Category:Fluid dynamics

Category:Free science software

Category:Software using the GNU General Public License

Category:Free software programmed in C++

Category:Open Source computer aided engineering applications

Category:Scientific simulation software

Category:Software that uses VTK