Basic guide to OpenFOAM tutorials

Disclaimer: OpenFOAM is a registered trademark of OpenCFD Limited, the producer OpenFOAM

software. All registered trademarks are property of their respective owners. This guide is not approved or
endorsed by OpenCFD Limited, the producer of the OpenFOAM software and owner of the
OPENFOAM and OpenCFD trade marks.

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Basic OpenFOAM Tutorials Guide v1.0

1.

Introduction

Practically every question on how to learn OpenFOAM is answered by directing the aspiring
student to tutorials provided with the package. They are instructed to simply go through the
tutorials, run and play with them and learn through practice.
It is not far from the truth - we learn best by practice and any time you want to learn something
really well you need to practice it to drill the procedures into your memory. Theory is of course
fundamental, but its practice that makes the student skillful in any given field.
There are tens of solvers in OpenFOAM and each of them has few tutorials, so there is a lot to
work through. Naturally, at the beginning you will want to work on the field you are most
interested with, or need for your work or study, and thus you will need to choose a relevant
tutorial(s).
What I want to give you in this guide is a short instruction on each of listed tutorials. I will not go
deep into physics, equations and so on instead I will cover what happens in each of them from
the procedural side. How the case is set up, are there some additional steps taken, ho the mesh
is set up and some general remarks on physics and boundary conditions.
The tutorials, as found in OpenFOAM installation, are divided by solvers names each solver
has its own set of tutorials (few of them have only one).
Below you will find a list of solvers with descriptions taken from OpenFOAM official
documentation (to be found in UserGuide.pdf in OF installation or here
http://www.openfoam.org/features/standard-solvers.php). For each solver I have listed the
tutorials available (OF release 2.3.0), a short description of what is done and a screenshot of
the results.
Based on this list you can quickly select the one most useful for you at the time and use it to set
up a case you want to simulate.

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Basic OpenFOAM Tutorials Guide v1.0

2.

Basic

laplacianFoam - Solves a simple Laplace equation, e.g. for thermal diffusion in a solid
Tutorial name
flange

Description
Steady state heat transfer on a flange.
Dirichlet boundary conditions used, two
different temperatures. Includes mesh
conversion from Ansys mesh.

potentialFoam - Simple potential flow solver which can be used to generate starting fields for
full Navier-Stokes codes.
cylinder

pitzDaily

Solves potential (inviscid steady state) flow around a 2D cylinder. Uses

symmetry boundary condition. /system/controlDict shows how to
automatically generate analytical solution.
Potential flow over backward facing step. Potential flow solver can be
used to generate initial conservative velocity fields for any case (using
appropriate geometry). Utility to use: mapFields

ScalarTransportFoam - Solves a transport equation for a passive scalar

Name
pitzDaily

Rapid OF Blog

Description
Convection-diffusion problem with
temperature being convected with
velocity through Pitz- Daily problem
geometry.

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3.

Incompressible

adjointShapeOptimization - Steady-state solver for incompressible, turbulent flow of nonNewtonian fluids with optimization of duct shape by applying blockage in regions causing
pressure loss as estimated using an adjoint formulation
Tutorial name

Description

pitzDaily

Runs optimization of
Pitz Daily case to
reach Ua, pa
conditions at the exit.
Applies blockage
(alpha) in regions
which need to be
modified to reach the
desired conditions.

boundaryFoam - Steady-state solver for incompressible, 1D turbulent flow, typically to generate

boundary layer conditions at an inlet, for use in a simulation. Specify inlet velocity and get inlet
distributions of model-relevant turbulence variables.
Tutorial name

Description

boundaryLaunderSharma

Generates velocity distribution using Launder Sharma kepsilon turbulence model. Kinematic viscosity applied using .xy
file. Cyclic symmetry applied on front and back sides.
Generates a ./graphs directory with .xy files with velocity and LS k-epsilon model variables distribution for each saved time
step.

boundaryWallFunctions

Generates velocity and other turbulence variables distributions

using wall functions formulation. In this case inlet velocity = 0.

boundaryWallFunctionsProfile Uses formulation as the above but ./Allrun script is provided

which runs the case for a set of nu values 9different Re),
generates u+ and y+ values and generates plot comparing the
results with Spalding law.

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Figure I-1
Comparison of velocity profiles for the three tutorials

Figure I-2
Comparison of OpenFOAM solution to Spalding law

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Basic OpenFOAM Tutorials Guide v1.0

icoFoam - Transient solver for incompressible, laminar flow of Newtonian fluids

Tutorial name
cavity

Description
Lid-driven flow in a square shaped
cavity; incompressible and laminar,
basic hex mesh. Widely described in
OpenFOAM user guide.

cavityClipped
cavityGrade
elbow

The above case solved on a geometry with one bottom corner being cut out.
Cavity tutorial using mesh grading
Incompressible laminar flow through
an elbow with side pipe. Imports
mesh from a .msh file.

nonNewtonianIcoFoam - Transient solver for incompressible, laminar flow of non-Newtonian

fluids. Viscosity curve is defined in /constant/transportProperties file.
Tutorial name

Description

offsetCylinder

Flow of shear-thickening fluid around a

cylinder.

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pimpleDyMFoam - Transient solver for incompressible, flow of Newtonian fluids on a moving

mesh using the PIMPLE (merged PISO-SIMPLE) algorithm
Tutorial name

Description

mixerVesselAMI2D

Solid body motion case (mesh

topology unaltered) with arbitrary
mesh interface. Straight vanes
mixer rotor rotates inside mixer
vessel.

movingCone

Simple illustration of mesh

topology technique. A 2D cone is
translated through the domain and
the mesh topology is altered in
line with the movement. Cone
translation induces fluid
movement in the opposite
direction.

oscillatingInletACMI2D Simple illustration of solid body

movement technique +
oscillations set up in
dynamicMeshDict file. Part of the
mesh moves in relation to the rest
but its topology remains
unaltered. Includes also setup of
Arbitrary Mesh Interface.
propeller

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Propeller rotation simulated as a

solid body movement. Mesh
created with snappyhexmesh.
Refined mesh created by
running ./Allrun.pre which
includes surfaceFeatureExtract.
K-epsilon turbulence model used.
Tutorial also shows how to
calculate forces and moments on
the surface of the propeller.

Basic OpenFOAM Tutorials Guide v1.0

wingMotion

Wing rotation simulated as mesh

deformation. Mesh set up with
snappyHexMesh, initial flow field
(on fixed wing) calculated with
simpleFoam, then mapped onto
initial mesh for pimpleDyMFoam.
K-omega SST turbulence used,
moving mesh set up in
/constant/dynamicMeshDict
Picture to the right shows grid
points displacements.

pimpleFoam - Large time-step transient solver for incompressible, flow using the PIMPLE
(merged PISO-SIMPLE) algorithm
Tutorial name

Description

channel395

LES simulation of a flow through a

square shaped channel with
nonuniform initial velocity and
pressure distributions (a vector/value
applied to each node). Cyclic
symmetry boundaries at inlet, outlet
and sides of the channel.

elipsekkLOmega Turbulent flow of air around an

ellipse. kkL Omega (RANS)
turbulence model used. Shows also
how to build mesh automatically from
a smaller block (mirroring and
transformations).

pitzDaily

Rapid OF Blog

Well known Pitz Daily case solved by

pimple. K-epsilon turbulence used,
uniform inlet velocity and mesh
graded to fit the areas of greatest
velocity gradients.

Basic OpenFOAM Tutorials Guide v1.0

TJunction

Turbulent (k-epsilon) flow of air-like

fluid through T-Junction a duct with
two outlets. Created to test a case
with two outlets, so mesh is not
refined. Flow induced by pressure
difference.

TJunctionFan

As above + fan represented by

baffles introduced in the inlet duct
(createBafflesDict in /system
directory).

pisoFoam - Transient solver for incompressible flow

les:
Tutorial name

Description

motorBike

First runs motorBike case using simpleFoam and Spalart-Allmaras RANS

turbulence modeling. The mesh is set up using snappyHexMesh. Next,
clones the calculated flow field and copies LES setup files into case folder,
then runs the case using LES turbulence modeling.

pitzDaily

Large Eddy simulation of PitzDaily case. Mesh set up in the

same as for simpleFoam solver.
1-equation eddy SGS model.
k at inlet set as uniform fixed
value.
Does not converge to final
solution within the time specified.

pitzDailyMapped Geometry and overall setup as

above, k at the inlet set as
mapped.

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ras

Tutorial name

Description

cavity

Flow of air in a cavity, induced by the

movement of the upper wall. Basic mesh not
including boundary layers what is clearly
visible. Turbulence modeled with k-epsilon
model.

cavityCoupledU

General setup the same as for the case

above. Coupled PbiCCCG solver for U
vector used. It offers performance benefits if
the number of iterations in each direction is
similar (uniform orthogonal mesh).

shallowWaterFoam - Transient solver for inviscid shallow-water equations with rotation

Tutorial name

Description

squareBump

Simulates waves propagation on a

square shaped domain excited with a
central force represented as a height
difference. Run setFields before running
the case.

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simpleFoam - Steady-state solver for incompressible, turbulent flow

Tutorial name
airFoil2D

Description
Steady state flow of air around
airfoil, Newtonian fluid model,
Spalart-Allmaras turbulence, Ctype 2D mesh (imported from
external mesher)

mixerVessel2D

Air, k-epsilon turbulence, uses

m4 utility to create input file for
blockMesh (allows to use
mathematical formulations to
specify points location). Round
shape container with internal
rotor. Movement of rotor
simulated with the use of
additional, rotating frame of
reference, set up in fvOptions.

motorBike

RANS k-omega SST flow model

run on a motorbike + rider
model. Mesh created with
snappyHexMesh tool, initial flow
conditions created with
potentialFoam, forces and
moments calculated through
controlDict defined functions,
streamlines extracted for
external post processing.
Swirling flow in a pipe. Cyclic
mesh settings shown along with
parametric mesh setup (needs
to have Code Stream
activated), uses realizable kepsilon turbulence model.

pipeCyclic

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pitzDaily

Steady turbulent (RANS, k-e)

flow over backward facing step.
blockMesh hexagonal 2D mesh
showing advanced edge grading
approach to mesh refinements.

pitzDailyExptInlet

Geometry as above, inlet velocity time dependent (from experiment), set

up through type timeVaryingMappedFixedValue utility (needs separate file
with the values defined for U), K-epsilon turbulence model. Streamlines
for post processing generated through additional option in ControlDict.
Calculates wind velocity field
over a hill. Uses k-epsilon
turbulence model (RANS) with
model coefficients adjusted to be
appropriate for atmospheric
boundary layers modeling.
Terrain geometry created from a
STL file using snappyhexMesh.

turbineSiting

SRFSimpleFoam - Steady-state solver for incompressible, turbulent flow of non-Newtonian

fluids in a single rotating frame
Tutorial name

Description

mixer

3D simulation of a mixer section with

one blade, cyclic boundary
conditions on sides, k-omega SST
turbulence model, in this case
Newtonian fluid used, but possible to
use non-Newtonian fluids.

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4.

Compressible

rhoCentralFoam - Density-based compressible flow solver based on central-upwind schemes

of Kurganov and Tadmor
Tutorial name

Description

biconic25-55Run35 Laminar flow in a double cone duct.

Flow enters from a high velocity free
stream. Already converged solution
imported on blockMesh. Pressure
sampled on walls.
forwardStep

Laminar supersonic (Ma=3) flow

through a duct with straight vertical
obstacle. Artificial inviscid gas used,
defined in
constant/thermophysicalProperties to
have the sound of speed = 1m/s.
Development of shock waves can be
observed.

LadenburgJet60psi Cyclic symmetry solution of air laminar

flow field. Initial state loaded from
external source.

obliqueShock

Simulation of an oblique shock wave

development. The shock is created
using two different velocities-Mach
numbers at the inlet and top wall of the
domain. Laminar flow and normalized
gas (a = 1m/s) models used.

shockTube

Development of a pressure wave in a

simple tube. Wave generated using
setFields to assign pressure and
temperature in specific location

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wedge15Ma5

Normalized inviscid gas flow in a

domain with conical obstacle. Top
and bottom boundaries are set as
symmetry planes, thus the case in
fact models a flow over a cone. Flow
velocity is 5m/s, thus Ma=5 and
shock wave development is observed.

rhoLTSPimpleFoam Local time stepping transient solver for laminar or turbulent flow of
compressible fluids.
Tutorial name

Description

angledDuct

Flow of air through a duct with

porosity. Temperature dependent
(Sutherland's) transport model
used, k-epsilon turbulence. Porosity
added in system/fvOptions file.
Mesh created using m4 utility.

rhoPimplecFoam - Transient solver for laminar or turbulent flow of compressible fluids

Tutorial name

Description

angledDuct

Set up precisely as other angleDuct

cases. Differences due to solver
and run time can be observed.

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rhoPimpleDyMFoam - Transient solver for laminar or turbulent flow of compressible fluids for
HVAC and similar applications with moving mesh capability
Tutorial name

Description

annularThermalMixer Simulates a mixing process in a mixer

equipped with static baffles on the
external walls and moving rotor in the
center. Rotor movement treated as
solid body motion. Initial conditions set
through /constant/caseSettings
imported into 0 folder with appropriate
command in boundary conditions files.
Mesh created with snappyHexMesh.
There are two inlets of gas inner
(colder and faster) and outer (warmer and slower).

rhoPimpleFoam - Transient solver for laminar or turbulent flow of compressible fluids for HVAC
and similar applications
Tutorial name

Description

les

pitzDaily

Simulation of air flow through a

tube with backward step and a
nozzle at the exit. Inflow is set
as a turbulent with 2%
fluctuation in the flow direction
and 1% cross flow. 1 equation
eddy SGS model used.

ras

angledDuct

Flow of air though a square

shaped duct with a porous
section. Porosity added in
system/fvOptions file. Mesh
created using m4 utility; kepsilon turbulence used.

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cavity

Flow of air inside a square shaped

cavity, induced by the movement of
upper wall. K-omega SST
turbulence model used on a very
coarse mesh, thus the results are
only provisional.

mixerVessel2D Mixing of air in a simple straight

vaned 2D mixer. K-epsilon
turbulence used. Movement of
rotor introduced as additional frame
of reference.

rhoSimplecFoam - Steady-state SIMPLEC solver for laminar or turbulent RANS flow of

compressible fluids.
Tutorial name

Description

squareBend

Flow of air through a 180deg bend.

k-epsilon turbulence, Sutherland
transport models used. Lack of
boundary layer grid simple
blockmesh grid used.

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rhoSimpleFoam - Steady-state SIMPLE solver for laminar or turbulent RANS flow of

compressible fluids
Tutorial name

Description

angledDuctExplicit Air flow through square shaped

FixedCoeff
angled duct with a porosity section
(explicit porosity source).

sonicFoam - Transient solver for trans-sonic/supersonic, laminar or turbulent flow of a

compressible gas
Tutorial name

Description

laminar forwardStep

Supersonic (Ma=3) flow over

rectangle forward facing step.
Normalized inviscid gas used for
which sound speed = 1m/s.

schockTube

Simulation of air behavior when

half of the tube is set to have 10x
lower pressure. Eventual
equalization of pressure can be
observed. SetFields utility used
to set the initial pressure
distribution and sample tool used
to generate p, T and magU
distributions along the central
line of the tube.

nacaAirfoil

Launder-Sharma k-epsilon,
imported mesh with techniques
shown how to overcome high
skewness; contains also
technique to calculate the airfoil
force coefficients.

ras

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prism

Supersonic flow of air around a

prism. Top and bottom
boundaries are free stream. kepsilon turbulence model used.
Mesh including prism boundary
layer created using blockMesh.

sonicLiquidFoam - Transient solver for trans-sonic/supersonic, laminar flow of a compressible

liquid
Tutorial name
Description
decompressionTank
Models what happens when a valve of
pressurized water tank is opened. Includes
modeling of compressible liquid (barotropic
model) and pressure waves propagation.

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5.

Multiphase

cavitatingFoam - Transient cavitation code based on the homogeneous equilibrium model from
which the compressibility of the liquid/vapour mixture is obtained
Tutorial name

Description

LES

throttle

2D case of water flow through

a narrow duct (throttle). Flow is
induced by pressure difference
between two chambers;
barotropic compressibility model
used, Newtonian fluid model
used for both water and vapor.
Initially no vapor is present in the flow. Flow acceleration creates
pressure drop and induces cavitation around the flow jet.

throttle3D

Essentially 2D case, in terms of

hydraulic setup. The mesh is
refined and 10 cells are used in
the depth direction (z) instead
of 1. refineMesh utility used on
topological sets (topoSet).

throttle

Flow set up as for les/throttle.

Turbulence modeled with komega SST.

RAS

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compressibleInterDyMFoam - Solver for 2 compressible, isothermal immiscible fluids using a

VOF (volume of fluid) phase-fraction based interface capturing approach, with optional mesh
motion and mesh topology changes including adaptive re-meshing.

Tutorial name

Description

sloshingTank2D Movement of water inside a cyclically heeling sloshing tank.

compressibleInterFoam - Solver for 2 compressible, isothermal immiscible fluids using a VOF

(volume of fluid) phase-fraction based interface capturing approach.

Tutorial name

Description

deepCharge2D 2D case of the physical setup described

below. The same utilities and settings
used otherwise.

Picture to the left shows the water

volume fraction (alpha.water) at time
step 50. Picture below shows static
pressure contours at one of the initial
steps.
deepCharge3D Before the start of the calculation, there
is a volume filled with water up to half of
its height. setFields utility is used to
insert a sphere of 10x the pressure and
(T+278) inside the water column of
initially uniform pressure and
temperature. Expansion of the sphere is
simulated on a basic hexagonal mesh
(blockMesh).
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compressibleMultiphaseInterFoam - Solver for more than 2 compressible, isothermal

immiscible fluids using a VOF (volume of fluid) phase-fraction based interface capturing
approach

Tutorial name

Description

damBreak4phase Simulation of 4 immiscible

fluids release. First picture
shows the initial state,
second end state. The
fluids become sorted by
specific weight. Laminar
case.

interDyMFoam - Solver for 2 incompressible, isothermal immiscible fluids using a VOF (volume
of fluid) phase-fraction based interface capturing approach, with optional mesh motion and
mesh topology changes including adaptive re-meshing.

Tutorial name

Description

damBreakWithObstacle 3D dam brake case a column of

water released against centrally
located obstacle. Mesh dynamically
refining to the front of the wave based
on volumetric fraction of water. Mesh
adaptation set through
constant/dynamicMeshDict.

DTCHull

Duisburg Test Case container ship

hull simulation. Mesh created with
snappyHexMesh and refined using
surface STL file. The hull movement
treated as solid body movement with
6 degrees of freedom (no mesh
changes). k-omega SST turbulence
model used.

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floatingObject

Floating of a cuboid simulated as internal

mesh deformations. Floating object
inserted into a basic hex mesh with
topoSet utility. K-epsilon turbulence
model used.

mixerVesselAMI

3 D simulation of mixing tank. Movement

of the rotor modeled as solid body
motion. Simulates mixing water with air.
Mesh created with snappyHexMesh and
refined with surfaceFeatureExtract utility
and 3 separate STL files for Gas Inlet,
Stirrer and Outlet.

sloshingTank2D

Sloshing tank simulated as solid body motion (mesh unaltered).

libsampling tool used to extract walls pressure (ControlDict)

sloshingTank3D

3D case of a solid body motion sloshing

tank water movement simulation.

testTubeMixer

Test tube rocking on rotating table.

Modeled as slid body Motion, mesh is
unaltered. Motion described in
dynamicMeshDict.

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interFoam - Solver for 2 incompressible, isothermal immiscible fluids using a VOF (volume of
fluid) phase-fraction based interface capturing approach.

Tutorial name
laminar
capillaryRise

Description
Natural wall contact driven rise of
water in a capillary channel.
ConstantAlphaContactAngle =
45deg set in 0/alpha.water file.

damBreak

Release of a water column in

air environment against a
vertical obstacle. Laminar flow
model used and basic coarse
hexagonal mesh.

les

nozzleFlow2D

LES simulation of high

velocity fuel jet with static
air atmosphere. refineMesh
utility used to improve mesh
quality at the fuel-air
interface.

ras

damBreak

Release of water column in air

environment against a vertical
obstacle. Transient RANS
turbulent flow modeling with kepsilon turbulence model, waterair surface tension has to be set
in constant/transportProperties
file. Initial water column set with
setFields utility.

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damBreakPorous
Baffle

Dam break case with additional vertical porous baffle

extending from the mid-length of the center obstacle.
CreateBaffles utility used, along with setFields for initial
distribution.

waterChannel

Gravitational flow of
water through a
narrow channel,
originating in a
slightly higher placed
chamber. The
channel mesh is built
using extrudeMesh
utility. K-omega SST
turbulence model
used. Inlet, outlet and atmosphere fluxes calculated using
additional entries in ControlDict.
Water flowing over weir
barrier. RANS turbulent
flow modeling with kepsilon turbulence model.
setFields used for initial
water distribution along
with initial conditions
attached in 0 directory,
which specify water flow
rate.

weirOverflow

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interMixingFoam - Solver for 3 incompressible fluids, two of which are miscible, using a VOF
method to capture the interface

Tutorial name

Description

damBreak

Dam break case with 3 phases of

which 'water' and 'other' are miscible.
The miscibility is expressed through
diffusion coefficient to be found in
/constant/transportProperties file.
Initial phases distribution in space set
by setFields utility.

interPhaseChangeDyMFoam - Solver for 2 incompressible, isothermal immiscible fluids with

phase-change (e.g. cavitation). Uses a VOF (volume of fluid) phase-fraction based interface
capturing approach, with optional mesh motion and mesh topology changes including adaptive
re-meshing.

Tutorial name

Description

propeller

A ship propeller simulation including

cavitation. Propeller mesh is created with
snappyHexMesh including surface
refinements. It is embedded in rotating block
of the domain mesh (solid body rotation).
Mesh is not refined along the simulation.
Initially no vapor is present in the water and
relative propeller water motion is 0. Flow
velocity is then ramped up to 15m/s within
0.01s and propeller rotation to 628 1/s. Picture to the right shows
propeller velocity with vapor volume overlayed as contours.

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interPhaseChangeFoam - Solver for 2 incompressible, isothermal immiscible fluids with phasechange (e.g. cavitation). Uses a VOF (volume of fluid) phase-fraction based interface capturing
approach

Tutorial name

Description

cavitatingBullet

Simulation of water cavitation caused by

rapid movement of a bullet. The apparent
bullet speed it 20m/s, flow is laminar and
initially no water vapor is present in the
domain. Mesh created with snappyHexMesh.

LTSInterFoam - Local time stepping (LTS, steady-state) solver for 2 incompressible, isothermal
immiscible fluids using a VOF (volume of fluid) phase-fraction based interface capturing
approach

Tutorial name

Description

DTCHull

Set up virtually the same as

InterDyMFoam example for the same
geometry. Lacks information on the hull
movement due to static mesh. Thanks to
local time stepping the speed of
calculation is significantly higher than for
dynamic mesh and global time step.
Options included in ControlDict extract
forces and moments for every saved time
step.

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MRFInterFoam - Multiple reference frame (MRF) solver for 2 incompressible, isothermal

immiscible fluids using a VOF (volume of fluid) phase-fraction based interface capturing
approach
Tutorial name

Description

mixerVessel2D

Water (0.25 volume) and air being mixed in a simple 2D mixer. Laminar
flow model used; rotor movement introduced as an additional rotating
frame of reference.

MRFMultiphaseInterFoam - Multiple reference frame (MRF) solver for incompressible fluids

which captures the interfaces and includes surface-tension and contact-angle effects for each
phase

Tutorial name

Description

mixerVessel2D

Mixing of 4 varying density phases. Rotor movement set using additional

rotating frame of reference. Simple multiphase settings: separate transport
properties for each phase and phase-to-phase surface tension set in
/constant/transportproperties.

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multiphaseEulerFoam Solver for n incompressible fluids with one phase dispersed, e.g. gas
bubbles in a liquid.

Tutorial name

Description

bubbleColumn

Simulation of air bubbles rising up inside a water

columns. Inlet is located at the bottom, where
volumetric ratio of air and water is 0.5 each and the
inflow velocity of air is 0.1 m/s. Flow is laminar and
mesh is created in blockMesh. Initial water column
created with setFields utility.

dambreak4hase

Water, oil, mercury and air released from the

left wall against the obstacle in the center.
Laminar flow model used and coarse mesh
88x142x1. Interfacial interactions, pair by
pair, described in
/constant/transportProperties.

damBreak4phase Fine mesh (344x570x1) simulation of the

Fine
case described above. Pockets of entrapped
air visible.
Picture for the previous case shows the same
time snapshot The overall flow structure is
similar, but differences in multiphase structure
is clearly visible.
mixerVessel2D

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Straight vanes quasi 2D mixer with 4 different

density fluids and spinning rotor at the center.
The rotor spins thanks to the usage of
additional rotating frame of reference
assigned to the rotor mesh cells. Interfacial
interactions (drag, heat transfer...) included in
constant/interfacialProperties and
transportProperties file.

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multiphaseInterFoam - Solver for n incompressible fluids which captures the interfaces and
includes surface-tension and contact-angle effects for each phase
Tutorial name

Description

damBreak4phase 4 phases present. Phase properties set in

/constant/transportproperties. In this case
each phase has a separate transport model
defined and on phase-phase level only the
interfacial surface tension (sigma) is defined).

dambreak4phase
Fine

Fine mesh case of the simulation described

above. Details of multiphase structure
differences visible, while overall flow shape is
very similar.

settlingFoam - Solver for 2 incompressible fluids for simulating the settling of the dispersed
phase

Tutorial name

Description

dahl

Sludge settling simulation. Volumetric

fraction Alpha initially is very low, but with
inflow it reaches the maximum packing limit.
Transport properties of the sludge set in
/constant/transportProperties file.

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tank3D

Settling of sludge in a tank with one inlet (the

ribs), 3 outlets (on top side) and a conveying
belt (bottom, far end). Properties set as for the
previous case.

twoLiquidMixingFoam - Solver for mixing 2 incompressible fluids.

Tutorial name

Description

lockExchange

Density difference driven mixing of water and 1%

more dense sludge inside an inviscid walls
column. Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities develop.

twoPhaseEulerFoam - Solver for a system of 2 incompressible fluid phases with one phase
dispersed, e.g. gas bubbles in a liquid
Tutorial name
laminar

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Description
bubbleColumn

Laminar case of air being

released from the bottom of
still water column. Air bubbles
diameter kept constant
(constant/phaseProperties)

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bubbleColumnIATE

fluidizedbed

mixerVessel2D

LES

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bubbleColumn

Interfacial Area Transport

Equation used to estimate air
bubbles diameters distribution
(constant/phaseproperties).
The equation calculates the
rate of bubbles break up and
coalescence. Qualitative
difference in the air behavior
clearly visible as the air tends
to form larger voids throughout
the simulation time.
Laminar case of particles
column being injected with air
stream from the bottom. Even
though the drag model used is
the same as for RAS case
described below, the flow
pattern differs dramatically.

Simple straight vanes mixer

where half of the internal
volume is initially filled with
water. Rotor movement
introduced as additional
rotating frame of reference.
m4 script used to create
blockMesh input and rotor
defined using topoSet.
Inflow of air at the bottom with
0.1 m/s and alpha = 0.5.
Separate files for air and water
thermophysical and turbulence
properties.
/constant/phaseProperties file
contains phase properties i.e.:
surface tension, drag,
blending, aspect ratio, heat
transfer, virtual mass and
other.

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RAS

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bubbleColumn

Initial boundary conditions set

up exactly as in LES case.
Here, k-epsilon turbulence
model is used and the case
converges within the
simulation time to a stable 2phase flow pattern, unlike LES
case.

fluidizedBed

Simulation of dispersed
particles column behavior
when hot air is blowed in
from the bottom. Particles
are assumed to be of
spherical shape and
constant radius
(constant/phaseProperties).

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6.

Heat transfer

buoyantBoussinesqPimpleFoam
incompressible fluids

Transient

solver

Tutorial name

Description

hotRoom

Shows how constant

temperature point heat source
influences the behavior of a
static volume of air. Natural
convection occurs. K-epsilon
turbulence model and
Boussinesq Newtonian fluid
model used.

for

buoyant,

turbulent

flow

of

BuoyantBoussinesqSimpleFoam - Steady-state solver for buoyant, turbulent flow of

incompressible fluids
Tutorial name

Description

hotRoom

Set up exactly as transient

solver case above. For this
simple case, steady state solver
takes half the pseudo-time steps
to converge. Slight difference in
the maximum velocity value can
be observed

iglooWithFridges

A half-sphere of cold air with two

warm cubes placed inside.
Simulation shows development
of natural air convection.
Snappyhexmesh used to create
mesh, k-epsilon turbulence used.

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buoyantPimpleFoam - Transient solver for buoyant, turbulent flow of compressible fluids for
ventilation and heat-transfer

Tutorial name

Description

hotRoom

Hot room case, as described

above. Does not use Boussinesq
approximation; equation of state
employed instead.

buoyantSimpleFoam - Steady-state solver for buoyant, turbulent flow of compressible fluids

Tutorial name

Description

buoyantCavity

Natural convection of air inside a

closed cavity, of which one of the
vertical walls is hot and the other
cold. Temperature difference of 19.6
deg drives an up-flow of hot and
down-flow of cold air. k-omega SST
turbulence model used and basic
mesh. Tutorial also provides a
technique to obtain values relevant to
be compared with experiment.

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circuitBoardCooling

Cooling of two high

temperature baffles
representing circuit boards.
Heat is transferred to air flowing
through the domain. One of the
baffles generates heat at
100W/m2.

externalCoupledCavity

Buoyant cavity case with

boundary conditions modified
using external procedure. For
this case temperatures of the
walls are increase by 1deg
each time step until they
equalize.

hotRadiationRoom

Room with a 227deg C cube in

one of the corners, filled with
27degC air. The radiation of the
cube is modeled to show how it
influences the temperature of
the air. Natural convection
develops, driven by the heat of
the cube and cold ceiling and
floor. k-epsilon turbulence
modeling is used.

hotRadiationRoomFvDOM Case set up as above, but

Discrete Ordinates model is
used instead of P1, to simulate
the influence of radiation.

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chtMultiRegionFoam - Combination of heatConductionFoam and buoyantFoam for conjugate

heat transfer between a solid region and fluid region

Tutorial name

Description

multiRegionHeater

T shaped solid heater is

surrounded by water in the
bottom section, by two
solids on the sides of the
upper section and by air
over the top. The bottom of
the heater is 500deg warm,
the temperature in the rest
of domain is 300deg initially.
Additionally, there is 0.01m/s
flow in X direction assigned to the air and water. Left solid is isolated
from the heater.

snappyMultiRegionHe General arrangement as

ater
above, only air used at the
bottom instead of water,
and no thermal isolation
used for left solid. Mesh
created with
snappyHexMesh. Top air is
given initial velocity of
0.1m/s, 10 times more than
the bottom.

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chtMultiRegionSimpleFoam - Combination of heatConductionFoam and buoyantFoam for

conjugate heat transfer between a solid region and fluid region, including steady-state turbulent
flow of compressible fluids
Tutorial name

Description

heatExchanger

Forced flow of air through a

bundle of warm water filled
pipes. There is a straight
vanes rotor at the bottom
(fvOptions->MRF and
createBaffles) and the water
is modeled as a porous
region. There are two
domains each with
separate blockMesh and
separate set of
thermophysical properties
and boundary conditions.

multiRegionHeaterRa Initial box divided into 3

diation
solid and 2 fluid zones
(topoSet,
splitMeshRegions). Each
zone has its own fvSolution,
fvSchemes,
thermophysicalProperties
and boundary condition files
generated. The heater is
200deg hotter than the rest
and heat transfer to the
neighboring solids and air
can be observed along with natural convection inside the air domain.

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