keywords:openfoam,openfoam foundation,cfd,computational fluid dynamics
description:. Read More OpenFOAM Funding 2021 Get a Maintenance Plan to fund OpenFOAM Sustainability and meet funders, core team and contributors at the OpenFOAM Hub. Read More CFD Training with OpenFOAM, 2021 Essential CFD | Applied CFD | Programming CFDLive Virtual Training on Europe and Americas time zones Schedule and Book OpenFOAM and The OpenFOAM Foundation OpenFOAM is free, open source software […]
Close Latest News Funding OpenFOAM in 2022 31st October 2021 OpenFOAM v9 | Patch Releases 3rd September 2021 OpenFOAM 9 Released 20th July 2021 Download v9 | Ubuntu 20th July 2021 Download v9 | Linux 20th July 2021 Download v9 | macOS 20th July 2021 OpenFOAM
The OpenFOAM Foundation
. Read More OpenFOAM Funding 2021
Get a Maintenance Plan to fund OpenFOAM Sustainability and meet funders, core team and contributors at the OpenFOAM Hub.
Read More CFD Training with OpenFOAM, 2021
Essential CFD | Applied CFD | Programming CFD
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OpenFOAM is free, open source software for CFD from the OpenFOAM Foundation.
OpenFOAM is the leading free, open source software for computational fluid dynamics (CFD)
OpenFOAM is the leading free, open source software for computational fluid dynamics (CFD), owned by the OpenFOAM Foundation and distributed exclusively under the General Public Licence (GPL). The GPL gives users the freedom to modify and redistribute the software and a guarantee of continued free use, within the terms of the licence.
OpenFOAM was created by Henry Weller in 1989 under the name “FOAM” and was released open source as “OpenFOAM” by Henry Weller, Chris Greenshields and Mattijs Janssens in December 2004. Since then, OpenFOAM has continued to be managed and developed with new versions being released to the public each year. The current version is 9. In 2014, the development line of OpenFOAM, known as “OpenFOAM-dev” was released publicly on GitHub.
The OpenFOAM Foundation is the independent distributor of OpenFOAM
The OpenFOAM Foundation is the organisaton which holds the copyright of the OpenFOAM software and documentation, whose purpose is to manage and distribute OpenFOAM as free, open source software for the benefit of its users. It is a registered company, limited by guarantee based in England. As such, it has no share capital or shareholders, but has individual members committed to free, open source software, who run the organisation on a voluntary basis. It has no employees and any annual profit is retained within the organisation and cannot be distributed to members. OpenFOAM® is a registered trademark of OpenCFD Ltd, licensed to the OpenFOAM Foundation in 2011 so that it could distribute its software under under that name.
OpenFOAM is available for Linux , macOS and Windows 10
OpenFOAM is packaged for simple installation on Ubuntu Linux. The packaged version is thenincludedin a Docker imagethat can be installed on other Linux distributions and macOS. 2 versions are available for installation:
OpenFOAM v9, the latest version releaseOpenFOAM-dev, the (stable)developmentversion,packaged weekly
The packages for Ubuntu can be installed directlyon MS Windows 10,and on older Windows systems using a virtual machine.
OpenFOAM is developed by contributors, primarily from CFD Direct
OpenFOAM is developed and maintained by individuals who contribute their work to the project, with the support and consent of the companies that employ them. The project operates through a network of trust between the individuals, where greater authority is given to contributors who consistently produce high quality work and demonstrate long term commitment.
Contributions are made under the OpenFOAM Contributor Agreement (to facilitate enforcement of the free, open source licence), signed either by the individual, or by the organisation that employs them. The principal contributors to OpenFOAM are: Henry Weller (OpenFOAMs creator), Chris Greenshields (OpenFOAM co-founder) and Will Bainbridge from CFD Direct Ltd. There is a growing list of contributors, who test and improve various aspects of OpenFOAM.
OpenFOAM is kept reliable and robust by timely resolution of issues reported by users to the OpenFOAM Issue Tracking System. Everyone who reports an issue, where the behaviour of OpenFOAM does not meet reasonable expectations, is making a useful contribution.
OpenFOAM is funded by those who benefit from it
At the heart of OpenFOAM is a unique, and highly extensible, software development kit (“devkit”) for CFD, consisting of 1 million lines of C++ code. OpenFOAM includes hundreds of robust CFD applications built from the devkit, which can be extended and customised, quickly and conveniently. The applications are used to create CFD simulations by industry, academic, and research and government institutes, across all fields of engineering and science.
OpenFOAM — and especially the devkit — must be maintained to a high standard for organisations to enjoy the benefits of using OpenFOAM. CFD Direct employs software engineers, led by Henry Weller, that maintain OpenFOAM. Companies fund new functionality in OpenFOAM through contracted development and support with CFD Direct. Maintenance plans are available to businesses to support the cost of ongoing maintenance of OpenFOAM, giving priority to issues that affect them most.
The OpenFOAM Foundation represents the interests of OpenFOAM users
The OpenFOAM Foundation is run by individuals whose priority is to make CFD accessible and inclusive. It ensures that OpenFOAM will always be free and open source (only) and maintains OpenFOAM beyond the control of any large organisation who might put commercial interest ahead of the interests of the users. It ensures that OpenFOAM is developed and maintained to meet broad needs of all users, rather than to limited needs of one or two large corporations.
The OpenFOAM Foundation takes responsibility for enforcing the licence of OpenFOAM, to protect the rights of contributors who make a conscious decision to release their work free and open source. Users should welcome and encourage licence enforcement, because without it, the contributors — who are the lifeblood of OpenFOAM — would inevitably withdraw their support.
OpenFOAM
OpenFOAM is packaged for simple installation on Ubuntu Linux, which can be directly installed on Windows 10 and is available as a Docker image for other Linux and macOS
Ubuntu SLES/openSuSE Fedora CentOS Debian RHEL macOS Windows Latest NewsFunding OpenFOAM in 2022The cost of sustaining OpenFOAM is currently € 250k per year. Organisations with commercial depen Read More OpenFOAM v9 | Patch ReleasesFor Ubuntu 18.04LTS, 20.04 LTS, 21.04, 21.10, Windows 10 and Docker images for other Linux and macOS Read More OpenFOAM 9 ReleasedThe OpenFOAM Foundation is pleased to announce the release of version 9 of the OpenFOAM open source Read More Download v9 | UbuntuFor Ubuntu 18.04LTS, 20.04LTS, 21.04 Read More Download v9 | LinuxOpenFOAM 9 for Linux distributions including Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) v7+, CentOS v7+, Fedora Read More Download v9 | macOSOpenFOAM 9 for macOS 10.14+ . Uses Docker to provide a self-contained environment that includes cod Read More OpenFOAM Maintenance Plans
Using OpenFOAM for critical applications? Ensure ongoing maintenance of OpenFOAM, prioritised to your needs.
Read More Learn to use OpenFOAM
Access documentation, and enrol for training, from the OpenFOAM experts.
User Guide
General information about running OpenFOAM, compilation, solvers, models, mesh generation and post-processing.
Read more OpenFOAM Training
CFD Training based on features to simplify use, and accelerate learning, from the main developers at CFD Direct.
Read More C++ Source Guide
The C++ Source Guide, generated by Doxygen has links to source code, inheritance and collaboration diagrams, and more.
Read More Free and Open Source
OpenFOAM is free and open source, distributed only under the GNU General Public Licence v3
OpenFOAM Licensing OpenFOAM Development
OpenFOAM is developed by contributors led by Henry Weller, creator of OpenFOAM and Director of CFD Direct background-repeat:no-repeat;background-position:center}#layers-widget-column-7-746{background-repeat:no-repeat;background-position:center}#layers-widget-column-7-143{background-repeat:no-repeat;background-position:center}#layers-widget-column-7-265{background-repeat:no-repeat;background-position:center}
Back to top OpenFOAM Funding 2021 - Please take 1 minute to read
The cost of sustaining OpenFOAM is currently € 250k per year. With well over 10,000 users of OpenFOAM, that’s less than € 25 per user per year. Compare that to some single-user licences of commercial CFD software that are 1000 times more expensive!
OpenFOAM cannot be funded through individual donations since fewer than 1% of people generally donate to something that they can otherwise obtain for free. Instead, organisations with commercial dependence on OpenFOAM should contribute to the cost of sustaining it.
The OpenFOAM Foundation provides Maintenance Plans for organisations to support sustainability. There are three levels of Plan: Gold(€20k per year); Silver(€5k); and, Bronze(€1k). The funding supports a full-time team of core developers with combined skills in software design, programming, numerics, science and engineering, mainly at CFD Direct (including OpenFOAM’s creator, Henry Weller).
Find out more about Maintenance Plans
Productive CFD in OpenFOAMThe latest version of OpenFOAM includes new tools to enable more productive CFD: post-processing command line interface; template cases; case setup, e.g. foamGet; monitoring simulations, e.g. foamMonitor; quick documentation, e.g. foamInfo; code customisation, e.g. foamNewBC;
so that users waste less time on routine tasks and more time on important issues.
Read More about Productive CFD in OpenFOAM
Effective CFD with OpenFOAMEffective CFD involves creating simulations through a process of design: Prototype– building a representative solution; Production– refining the solution by an iterative design process; Packaging – making the solution reliable, cost effective and repeatable.
. Read More OpenFOAM Funding 2021 Get a Maintenance Plan to fund OpenFOAM Sustainability and meet funders, core team and contributors at the OpenFOAM Hub. Read More CFD Training with OpenFOAM, 2021 Essential CFD | Applied CFD | Programming CFDLive Virtual Training on Europe and Americas time zones Schedule and Book OpenFOAM and The OpenFOAM Foundation OpenFOAM is free, open source software […]