OpenFOAM v11 User Guide - 3.6 Standard solvers

3.6 Standard solvers

With the introduction of solver modules in OpenFOAM v11, the number of solver applications has much reduced. The applications which are relevant, including foamRun and foamMultiRun, are located in the $FOAM_SOLVERS directory, reached quickly by typing sol at the command line. These solver applications are listed in the following section.

There are also some legacy solver applications, which either have not been replaced yet by new solver modules or are included for teaching purposes. They are provided in the $FOAM_APP/legacy directory are listed in the subsequent section below.

3.6.1 Main solver applications

foamRun

Loads and executes an OpenFOAM solver module either specified by the optional solver entry in the controlDict or as a command-line argument.

foamMultiRun

Loads and executes an OpenFOAM solver modules for each region of a multiregion simulation e.g. for conjugate heat transfer.

boundaryFoam

Steady-state solver for incompressible, 1D turbulent flow, typically to generate boundary layer conditions at an inlet, for use in a simulation.

chemFoam

Solver for chemistry problems, designed for use on single cell cases to provide comparison against other chemistry solvers, that uses a single cell mesh, and fields created from the initial conditions.

potentialFoam

Potential flow solver which solves for the velocity potential, to calculate the flux-field, from which the velocity field is obtained by reconstructing the flux.

3.6.2 Legacy solver applications

electrostaticFoam

Solver for electrostatics.

magneticFoam

Solver for the magnetic field generated by permanent magnets.

mhdFoam

Solver for magnetohydrodynamics (MHD): incompressible, laminar flow of a conducting fluid under the influence of a magnetic field.

laplacianFoam

Solves a simple Laplace equation, e.g. for thermal diffusion in a solid.

financialFoam

Solves the Black-Scholes equation to price commodities.

dsmcFoam

Direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) solver for, transient, multi-species flows.

mdEquilibrationFoam

Solver to equilibrate and/or precondition molecular dynamics systems.

mdFoam

Molecular dynamics solver for fluid dynamics.

dnsFoam

Direct numerical simulation solver for boxes of isotropic turbulence.

adjointShapeOptimizationFoam

Steady-state solver for incompressible, turbulent flow of non-Newtonian fluids with optimisation of duct shape by applying ”blockage” in regions causing pressure loss as estimated using an adjoint formulation.

icoFoam

Transient solver for incompressible, laminar flow of Newtonian fluids.

shallowWaterFoam

Transient solver for inviscid shallow-water equations with rotation.

porousSimpleFoam

Steady-state solver for incompressible, turbulent flow with implicit or explicit porosity treatment and support for multiple reference frames (MRF).

rhoPorousSimpleFoam

Steady-state solver for turbulent flow of compressible fluids, with implicit or explicit porosity treatment and optional sources.

PDRFoam

Solver for compressible premixed/partially-premixed combustion with turbulence modelling.