OpenFOAM

OpenFOAM
Original authorsHenry Weller and Hrvoje Jasak
DevelopersCFD Direct Ltd. / OpenCFD Ltd. / Wikki Ltd., and community
Initial release10 December 2004 (2004-12-10)
Stable release
v13 8 July 2025 (2025-07-08) / v2312 22 December 2023 (2023-12-22)
Written inC++
Operating systemUnix / Linux / Windows
TypeComputational fluid dynamics, simulation software, fluid structure interaction
LicenseGPL-v3.0-or-later
Websiteopenfoam.org / openfoam.com
Repository

OpenFOAM (Open Field Operation And Manipulation) is a C++ toolbox for the development of customized numerical solvers, and pre-/post-processing utilities for the solution of continuum mechanics problems, most prominently including computational fluid dynamics (CFD).

The OpenFOAM software is used in research organisations, academic institutes and across many types of industries, for example, automotive, manufacturing, process engineering, environmental engineering and marine energy.

OpenFOAM is open-source software which is freely available and licensed under the GNU General Public License Version 3, with the following variants:

  1. OpenFOAM, released by OpenCFD Ltd. (with the name trademarked since 2007) first released as open-source in 2004. (Note: since 2012, OpenCFD Ltd is wholly-owned subsidiary of ESI Group)
  2. FOAM-Extend, released by Wikki Ltd. (since 2009)
  3. OpenFOAM, released by OpenFOAM Foundation. (since 2011)