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(Tool) OpenFOAM

OpenFOAM is 'a C++ toolbox for the development of customized numerical solvers, and pre-/post-processing utilities for the solution of continuum mechanics problems, including computational fluid dynamics (CFD)' [1]

This page contains my notes about OpenFOAM. OpenFOAM is originally developed under Linux, my need is to get it working under Windows.

I downloaded a Windows installer of OpenFOAM version 1.5 from the Sourceforge project 'openfoam-mswin', which worked conveniently.

OpenFOAM collaborates with other tools:

• OpenFOAM designer (main screen screenshot (png), about screen screenshot (png)) (executable at C:\cfd\OpenFOAM-1.5\bin\ofdesign.exe)
• ParaView (screenshot (png) (executable at "C:\Program Files\ParaView 4.0.1\bin\paraview.exe")

Implications of OpenFOAM being developed under Linux for Windows users

Linux has case sensitive filenames, where Windows does not. Therefore, OpenFOAM cannot simply be compiled under Windows, as it uses different files that are distinguised by their case, for example 'Vector.H' and 'vector.h'.

Luckily, there are some Windows (32 and 64 bit) binaries. The common drawbacks of these appy:

• DLL Hell
• Need to set PATH, clashing op versions. This can be easily overcome by writing a shell script that temporarily does so. Some suppliers, like blueCAPE have written such a script for you

OpenFOAM examples

• OpenFOAM examples

OpenFOAM errors

• OpenFOAM errors

External links

• OpenFOAM homepage
• OpenFOAM wikipedia page
• blueCAPE's blueCFD page

References

1. OpenFOAM wikipedia page as of 2013-11-14

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