OpenFOAM CFD.

Hi All,

I posted this question over on http://www.locostbuilders.co.uk, but there's a different demographic here so I'll ask here also...

Currently I'm working overseas from where the car is and we won't be back there for some time so I'm dealing with the enforced separation by working on the body design and finalizing everything else anything else I can think of.

To that end I'm trying to get a proper understanding out of the use of openFOAM to do CFD analysis of the various ideas i have for the body shape and get some idea of what does / doesn't work.

OpenFOAM by the way is open source so free to download - use, you just need to put the effort into learning the thing. The learning curve on the software I've found steep, and the resources available limited.
Typically the software is run on Linux, but I've bought a version (50 Euro) ported for use on Windows.

What I've not found is any other like minded people such as myself specifically interested in the the automotive application of the software that are willing to talk / share information on how to get reasonably good and reasonably reliable results from the software.

The only form to date I've found of any use is CFD Online which is useful to search but not so good for the noob questions.

So if anyone out there is attempting the same as myself or can point me at a forum more suited to the task that'd be great.

For your entertainment a video created from a recent run: StreamLine02.avi - YouTube

Nothing...

Ive used FEA software (Finite Element Analysis) for structures and some limited CFD work.

I can also program in about 10-15 languages.... cant promise anything but in my experience even explaining the problem to someone else can help solve it for you.

I would love to do some CFD work on the GT40......

Andy

I'm familiar with a range of CFD codes - mainly used to simulate flight at hypersonic speeds. There is the good old ANSYS package, which now includes Fluent. If I was you I would either use Fluent or Ansys CFX. CFX is a pressure-based code, but that won't be a problem unless you go hypersonic speeds.

The Ansys package as well as Fluent is 'widely available' - I would say that almost every University that offers Engineering will have an Ansys license.

I've used a lot of CFD codes and I would not to go OpenFOAM.

Cheers