Chapter 4 OpenFOAM cases

This chapter deals with the file structure and organisation of OpenFOAM cases. Normally, a user would assign a name to a case, e.g. the tutorial case of flow in a cavity is simply named cavity. This name becomes the name of a directory in which all the case files and subdirectories are stored. The case directories themselves can be located anywhere but we recommend they are within a run subdirectory of the user’s project directory, i.e.$HOME/OpenFOAM/${USER}-9 as described at the beginning of chapter 2. One advantage of this is that the $FOAM_RUN environment variable is set to $HOME/OpenFOAM/${USER}-9/run by default; the user can quickly move to that directory by executing a preset alias, run, at the command line.

The tutorial cases that accompany the OpenFOAM distribution provide useful examples of the case directory structures. The tutorials are located in the $FOAM_TUTORIALS directory, reached quickly by executing the tut alias at the command line. Users can view tutorial examples at their leisure while reading this chapter.

OpenFOAM v9 User Guide - Chapter 4 OpenFOAM cases