Introduction

OpenFoam is the go to open source software for Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations. While it is mostly used for fluid simulations, it also has solvers for all kinds of physics. Running your OpenFoam simulation on Qarnot is as easy as uploading your case and launching a script. Here’s a walk-through of the different steps.

Versions

The test case uses OpenFoam v1912, but there are many versions available on Qarnot, which are given in the following table. To choose one, simply change the value of DOCKER_TAG in the script used to launch the calculation. 

If you are interested in another version, please send us an email at qlab@qarnot.com.

Test case

Please ensure that you have created a Qarnot account here.

This test case is based on the pitzDaily tutorial simulation. You can download the case folder here, which contains the mesh and case setup files. You should put it at the same folder level as the script to launch the calculation. Please note that it needs to be unzipped before it can be used on Qarnot.

Launching the case

Before starting a calculation with the Python SDK, a few steps are required:

• Retrieve the authentication token (here)
• Install Qarnot’s Python SDK (here)

Note: in addition to the Python SDK, Qarnot provides C# and Node.js SDKs and a Command Line.
Once everything is set up, the following script needs to be used to start the calculation.

Be sure you have copied your authentication token in the script (instead of <<<MY_SECRET_TOKEN>>>) to be able to launch the task on Qarnot.

openfoam.py

To launch this script, simply copy the preceding code in a Python script, put at the same level as the pitzDaily folder and execute python3 openfoam.py & in your terminal.

Results

At any given time, you can monitor the status of your task on the general web interface Console. The following figure shows a successful OpenFoam demo simulation on Qarnot’s console.

You should also now have a result folder in the output bucket and on your computer containing all the numerical results. You can open the pitzDaily.foam file to view the results in Paraview or any other viewer. You can also use our Paraview Web payload to view the results online if needed.

Wrapping up

That’s it! If you have any questions, please contact qlab@qarnot.com and we will help you with pleasure!
You can read more about a use case of OpenFoam on Qarnot here : Ascendance and Qarnot.