OpenFOAM
OpenFOAM is the free, open source CFD software developed primarily by OpenCFD Ltd since 2004. It is available on the Lovelace cluster through two modes:
Locally built (Recent release only)
Container based (Multiple historical releases provided - more can be added on request)
Option 1 provides a recent release built by the HPC Admin Team and optimized to run on the Lovelace cluster. It should be generally used when maximising performance, using new functionality in OpenFOAM or for reliability and ease of user.
Option 2 is based on the OpenFOAM images published here packaged as a Singularity container with some ‘wrapper’ scripts provided. These scripts enable users to run the containerised version as if it were locally installed. This option should be used when desiring reproducibility.
Locally Built
Warning
The current openfoam/2312 has a bug where its utilities are unavailable. Users are recommended to switch to a beta set of Spack modules for now using the approach documented in Accessing Software with Modules. This will be fixed in the next release.
To use the locally built version, load OpenFOAM as follows.
module --expert load openfoam
Note
Here, --expert is recommended because OpenFOAM, through its chain of dependencies, depends on the LLVM Suite which provides the Clang compiler. On the Lovelace cluster, the GCC compiler is loaded by default. Normally, the module system will refuse to load multiple compiler modules however the --expert flag tells the module system to ignore this and proceed anyway. Curios users could try running the command above without --expert and see the result. Unloading GCC with module rm gcc would also be an option.
After this, users can use the OpenFOAM suite as normal. For example, try:
icoFoam -help
Container Based
To use the contianer based approach, first see the available OpenFOAM versions:
module avail openfoam
[apraveen@uop-hpc ~]$ module avail openfoam
----------------------------------------------------- /scratch/cicd/jenkins/workspace/UoP-Spack/main/192/spack/share/spack/lmod/openmpi/5.0.5-skres45/Core -----------------------------------------------------
openfoam/2412-6y5xghw (L)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ /scratch/software/modules -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
openfoam/2206-container openfoam/2212-container openfoam/2306-container openfoam/2312-container openfoam/2506-container
As the name suggests, the versions suffixed with container are the container based versions. Let us pick openfoam/2312-container and load it.
module load openfoam/2312-container
Users can then run OpenFOAM utilities as normal:
[apraveen@uop-hpc ~]$ module load openfoam/2312-container
This is a Container based OpenFOAM module. Try running `openfoam-shell`.
[apraveen@uop-hpc ~]$ icoFoam -help
This is a Container based OpenFOAM module. Try running `openfoam-shell`.
Usage: icoFoam [OPTIONS]
Options:
-case <dir> Case directory (instead of current directory)
-decomposeParDict <file>
Alternative decomposePar dictionary file
-dry-run Check case set-up only using a single time step
-dry-run-write Check case set-up and write only using a single time step
-parallel Run in parallel
-postProcess Execute functionObjects only
-doc Display documentation in browser
-help Display short help and exit
-help-full Display full help and exit
Transient solver for incompressible, laminar flow of Newtonian fluids.
Using: OpenFOAM-2312 (2312) - visit www.openfoam.com
Build: _c39a0f64-20231220
Arch: LSB;label=32;scalar=64
Note particularly that the version is that which we picked earlier.
One more method is provided for working with this OpenFOAM installation. That is the openfoam-shell command mentioned in the output above. To start a shell session with OpenFOAM utilites, simply run openfoam-shell.
[apraveen@uop-hpc ~]$ openfoam-shell
This is a Container based OpenFOAM module. Try running `openfoam-shell`.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
========= |
\\ / F ield | OpenFOAM in a container [from OpenCFD Ltd.]
\\ / O peration |
\\ / A nd | www.openfoam.com
\\/ M anipulation |
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Container Recipes: https://develop.openfoam.com/packaging/containers
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Release notes: https://www.openfoam.com/news/main-news/openfoam-v2312
Documentation: https://www.openfoam.com/documentation/
Issue Tracker: https://develop.openfoam.com/Development/openfoam/issues/
Local Help: more /openfoam/README
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
System : Ubuntu 22.04.3 LTS (admin user: sudofoam)
OpenFOAM : /usr/lib/openfoam/openfoam2312
Build : _c39a0f64-20231220 OPENFOAM=2312 patch=0
Note
Different OpenFOAM components and modules may be present (or missing)
on any particular container installation.
Eg, source code, tutorials, in-situ visualization, paraview plugins,
external linear-solver interfaces etc.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Singularity> icoFoam -help
Usage: icoFoam [OPTIONS]
Options:
-case <dir> Case directory (instead of current directory)
-decomposeParDict <file>
Alternative decomposePar dictionary file
-dry-run Check case set-up only using a single time step
-dry-run-write Check case set-up and write only using a single time step
-parallel Run in parallel
-postProcess Execute functionObjects only
-doc Display documentation in browser
-help Display short help and exit
-help-full Display full help and exit
Transient solver for incompressible, laminar flow of Newtonian fluids.
Using: OpenFOAM-2312 (2312) - visit www.openfoam.com
Build: _c39a0f64-20231220
Arch: LSB;label=32;scalar=64
You can use openfoam-shell to run scripts. For example, if you a script called makefoam.sh:
openfoam-shell makefoam.sh
Finally, you can also use openfoam-shell as a shebang. For example, create a file as follows called, say, icofoamtest.sh :
#!/usr/bin/env openfoam-shell
icoFoam -help
Mark the file as executable
chmod +x icofoamtest.sh
And execute it:
[apraveen@uop-hpc ~]$ ./icofoamtest.sh
This is a Container based OpenFOAM module. Try running `openfoam-shell`.
Usage: icoFoam [OPTIONS]
Options:
-case <dir> Case directory (instead of current directory)
-decomposeParDict <file>
Alternative decomposePar dictionary file
-dry-run Check case set-up only using a single time step
-dry-run-write Check case set-up and write only using a single time step
-parallel Run in parallel
-postProcess Execute functionObjects only
-doc Display documentation in browser
-help Display short help and exit
-help-full Display full help and exit
Transient solver for incompressible, laminar flow of Newtonian fluids.
Using: OpenFOAM-2312 (2312) - visit www.openfoam.com
Build: _c39a0f64-20231220
Arch: LSB;label=32;scalar=64
The above output shows that icoFoam from the appropriate OpenFoam version was executed. Note that the OpenFOAM container based module must be loaded for this to work.