[me3840]

Hello all,

Trying to get into OpenFOAM. There's lots of tutorials that come with the code, but is there any documentation on each of the cases? Perhaps something that shows the geometry, describes the BCs, etc? The online documentation only contains 2 cases. Or am I just supposed to load these all up in different programs and piece together what's going on?

Thanks!

[nimasam]

well, there is no documentation for your purpose

run them, and figure out how they work

[holger_marschall]

Originally Posted by me3840

There's lots of tutorials that come with the code, but is there any documentation on each of the cases?

Unfortunately, no. Since its release in 2004 (i.e. as of now after approx. 10 years), there is a lack of documentation even on the top-level functionality using FOAM technology.

There are community activities around lectures and courses on OpenFOAM (see PhD Courses at Chalmers University of Technology, Prof. H. Nilsson - [link]). Moreover, there is the CoCoons Project on community-driven documentation of FOAM Technology [link], which has been launched in 2013. The current first phase is devoted to top-level documentation, which I understand you are after. Maybe you can contribute in some near future .

Originally Posted by me3840

The online documentation only contains 2 cases. Or am I just supposed to load these all up in different programs and piece together what's going on?

There has been the attempt(!) to write a document entitled 'FOAM - The Complete Guide'. However, this is simply the aggregation of the Users Guide and the Programmer's Guide. While the first is still maintained by ESI OpenCFD Ltd., the latter has been discontinued since version 1.6 vanilla (see [link]).

For now it is like you say. OpenFOAM has been seen first and foremost as a C++ library for computational continuum mechanics, that comes along with examples: i.e., numerous top-level applications (flow solvers and utilities), models and boundary conditions (etc.) using FOAM core technology (discretization, mesh and matrix engine, linear solvers, etc.). The tutorials have to be seen as part of these examples, showing the mere use of OpenFOAM (no more, no less).

Hope this helps.

best regards,
Holger