Coupling OpenFOAM with Elmer?

tutu10 · April 10, 2019, 04:15

Hi,

in my company, we are thinking about building a simulation model containing fluidics (multiple components and phases), elasticity, electrical currents, and heat flow. For the fluidics part, OpenFOAM seems to be the best tool, whereas the rest can probably better be done in Elmer. So we are asking ourselves:

Can Elmer and OpenFOAM be coupled?

I have searched this forum and the web and found two projects attempting to do that:

ElmerFOAM (http://illinoisrocstar.github.io/Elm...FSI/index.html, thanks to Anil for the link in his "using multiple softwares..." thread), which seems to focus on mechanics,
OpenFOAM_Elmer (https://github.com/jvencels/OpenFOAM_Elmer), focused in Magnetohydrodynamics.

Both seem to work under Linux only, and both require patched versions of Elmer and OpenFOAM.
We are working under Windoze here, so Linux-only solutions would require a dedicated (or virtual) machine - our IT department would prefer to avoid that...
So at a first glance, none of those seems ideal to me.

Naively, I would imagine that one could write a solver for Elmer calling OpenFOAM at each iteration step, thereby implementing coupled iterations. But that is perhaps too naive and/or would be terribly inefficient.
Nevertheless, there seems to be a mechanism in OpenFOAM to communicate with an external code using file-based data transfer: http://www.openfoam.com/version-v3.0...on-control.php. I didn't look closer into that, however, but it may help.

So my questions are: has someone out there already tried (or thought about) such a coupling between Elmer and OpenFOAM? Does someone know more than I have found out so far? Has someone tried any of the two projects mentioned above?

Thanks for any input...
Mikiko

elvis · April 13, 2019, 08:19

Hi,

Have a look at https://www.precice.org
"PRE-cise C-ode I-nteraction C-ode E-nvironment"

This is done especially with FSI in mind

elvis · November 23, 2020, 14:48

EOF-Library is open-source coupling library for Elmer FEM and OpenFOAM simulation packages. A combination of all three results in very capable multiphysics modelling software.

April 10, 2019, 04:15	Coupling OpenFOAM with Elmer?	#1
tutu10 New Member Mikiko Join Date: Apr 2019 Posts: 1 Rep Power: 0	Hi, in my company, we are thinking about building a simulation model containing fluidics (multiple components and phases), elasticity, electrical currents, and heat flow. For the fluidics part, OpenFOAM seems to be the best tool, whereas the rest can probably better be done in Elmer. So we are asking ourselves: Can Elmer and OpenFOAM be coupled? I have searched this forum and the web and found two projects attempting to do that: ElmerFOAM (http://illinoisrocstar.github.io/Elm...FSI/index.html, thanks to Anil for the link in his "using multiple softwares..." thread), which seems to focus on mechanics, OpenFOAM_Elmer (https://github.com/jvencels/OpenFOAM_Elmer), focused in Magnetohydrodynamics. Both seem to work under Linux only, and both require patched versions of Elmer and OpenFOAM. We are working under Windoze here, so Linux-only solutions would require a dedicated (or virtual) machine - our IT department would prefer to avoid that... So at a first glance, none of those seems ideal to me. Naively, I would imagine that one could write a solver for Elmer calling OpenFOAM at each iteration step, thereby implementing coupled iterations. But that is perhaps too naive and/or would be terribly inefficient. Nevertheless, there seems to be a mechanism in OpenFOAM to communicate with an external code using file-based data transfer: http://www.openfoam.com/version-v3.0...on-control.php. I didn't look closer into that, however, but it may help. So my questions are: has someone out there already tried (or thought about) such a coupling between Elmer and OpenFOAM? Does someone know more than I have found out so far? Has someone tried any of the two projects mentioned above? Thanks for any input... Mikiko

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April 13, 2019, 08:19		#2
elvis Senior Member Elvis Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Sindelfingen, Germany Posts: 620 Blog Entries: 6 Rep Power: 24	Hi, Have a look at https://www.precice.org "PRE-cise C-ode I-nteraction C-ode E-nvironment" This is done especially with FSI in mind

November 23, 2020, 14:48		#3
elvis Senior Member Elvis Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Sindelfingen, Germany Posts: 620 Blog Entries: 6 Rep Power: 24	EOF-Library is open-source coupling library for Elmer FEM and OpenFOAM simulation packages. A combination of all three results in very capable multiphysics modelling software.