OpenFOAM is a free software that can run fluid dynamic simulations with features on par with Ansys and is compatible with stl files created on blender or other 3D object generating softwares Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about OpenFOAM?

OpenFOAM doesnt have a UI like Ansys or other competitors have, and its doesnt have a very intuitive documentation, so for a person new to fluid dynamics, its difficult to understand various settings/options available and would require understanding of many principles of fluid dynamics Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Ayushi P.

Project Intern

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

11/12/2022

"A free open-source CFD software with wide variety of applications"

5/5

What do you like best about OpenFOAM?

OpenFOAM can be used for heat transfer problems, and fluid dynamics. It also has mesh generation utilities and can be used for complex multiphase problems as well. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about OpenFOAM?

OpenFOAM software does not have a GUI. It is completely based on C++ and thus requires some coding knowledge. There's a steep learning curve while starting with OpenFOAM. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Madhan Kumar P.

Post-Doctoral Fellow

Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

12/13/2022

"Best opensource CFD software"

4/5

What do you like best about OpenFOAM?

Fully opensource and freedom to modify the source code. It also has good documentation and user base. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about OpenFOAM?

The inbulit snappyhexmesh still lacks the capability to create meshes with proper inflation layers. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Verified User in Research

Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

10/27/2022

"Why OpenFoam"

4.5/5

What do you like best about OpenFOAM?

OpenFOAM is open-source and free. It works for both Linux and Windows OS. The codes in Openfoam are written in C++ and the entire OpenFOAM can be automated using python. The visualizer Paraview that comes with OpenFOAM is handy for visualization. The software Paraview can also be interpreted by coding in python using Paraview libraries. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about OpenFOAM?

The coding of OpenFOAM is quite challenging to understand. Only a few communities of people work with OpenFOAM since there is a lack of resources for teaching OpenFOAM. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Verified User in Research

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

6/10/2022

"Definitely worth the effort"

5/5

What do you like best about OpenFOAM?

Implementing new features that interest you and benefiting from the existing architecture, which includes everything from efficient parallelism to moving mesh and topology changes, along with a large number of pre-implemented models and solvers, will make your work much more fun. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about OpenFOAM?

If you wouldn't particularly care about using Linux, managing code organization and reading C++ can be a problem, but most people find it relatively easy. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Recommendations to others considering OpenFOAM:

OpenFOAM is nice for code developers due to the architecture it allows. The procedural is good for code programmers (or scientists) Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is OpenFOAM solving and how is that benefiting you?

OpenFOAM has a strong pedigree in simulating large eddies, multiphase flow, burning and spraying, free surface flows, etc., all of which work massively in parallel and work very well. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Verified User in Higher Education

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

6/21/2021

"OpenFOAM Review"

5/5

What do you like best about OpenFOAM?

1. The flexibity to modify the code as per my problem makes it the best CFD solver for me

2. While other solvers serve as a blackbox wherein the users don't know what computations are going in the background, OpenFOAM allows you to view the entire code to have a gist of what goes into the making of a solver

3. Creating and meshing any geometry becomes so much meaniful and interesting once you know the concept behind it Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about OpenFOAM?

The only thing that is missing in OpenFOAM is the graphical user interface while the computations are ongoing. This makes it very difficult to monitor the desired parameters during runtime Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Recommendations to others considering OpenFOAM:

Best software to start with CFD. Make sure to go through the user guide which will solve most of the problems you'll encounter Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is OpenFOAM solving and how is that benefiting you?

I have solved a lot of Computational Fluid Dynamics problem using OpenFOAM in fields ranging from aerodynamics to heat transfer. I have got some highly interesting results which I have also presented at a conference. It is because of OpenFOAM that I have got to understand the undelying concepts of Computational Fluid Dynamics Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Nandula Sai Ujjwal k.

Aerospace Engineeer

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

8/2/2021

"The Best Open Source CFD Toolkit"

5/5

What do you like best about OpenFOAM?

OpenFoam for me gave me an amazing opportunity to learn CFD from the ground up in the sense of building solvers. I have become a daily user due to this. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about OpenFOAM?

Nothing much to dislike. A kind suggestion would be to include more compressible flow solvers integrated with combustion related solvers. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Verified User in Higher Education

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

8/2/2021

"A flexible, customizable CFD library for multiphysics CFD Problems"

4.5/5

What do you like best about OpenFOAM?

Open-sourced, the backend code can be modified and recompiled to solve new physics Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about OpenFOAM?

The initial learning curve is difficult and industry adoption is difficult due to absence of GUI Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Alessandro P.

R&D Engineer

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

7/28/2020

Business partner of the seller or seller's competitor, not included in G2 scores.

"A free powerful CFD tool that suits research activities and not only"

5/5

What do you like best about OpenFOAM?

It's free,opensource, with advanced settings Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about OpenFOAM?

GUI is missing and it requires a skilled user Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Recommendations to others considering OpenFOAM:

Prepare "templates" for the simulation that you are going to run. This way, only the firts time it will take time to set a simulation. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is OpenFOAM solving and how is that benefiting you?

I used openFOAM to solve external aerodynamics and multiphase flow. The main benefit is that the settings are advanced, so that you can have a deep control of the numerics. Moreover, you can integrate by coding several features, including on time visualization of residuals and parameters control.

When I used openFOAM for my master thesis project, I improved a lot my knowledge in the field of CFD. In general, commercial software are mostly used as black boxes. With openFOAM you have a higher degree of freedom that, on the other hand, requires a good knowledge of how a CFD code solves the Navier-Stokes equations.

OpenFOAM, compared to a commercial software, requires more human work-time. Therefore, when used in a company, a tradeoff between the cost of a specialized worked vs the cost of buying licenses must be considered.

If you are skilled in computer programming, you can integrate openFOAM with other tools to perform multi-physics simulation or to develop your improvemente to existing numerical models, as for example, turbulence models and more.

The drawback of OpenFOAM is the difficulty in using it. A user must be very skilled compared to when using a commercial software. The absence of the GUI needs you to setup everything by txt files, which might be initially hard, but, on the other hand, offers very good auotmation opportunities.

What I found really hard is to have a good opensource mesher. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.