Workshop: CFD on HPC – OpenFOAM example

9 Jun 2025, 09:00 → 11 Jun 2025, 12:00 Europe/Ljubljana

ZOOM

Pavel Tomšič (Faculty for Mechanical Engineering, University of Ljubljana)

Excerpt: The three-day workshop is aimed at researchers, engineers, students and others interested in CFD and OpenFOAM (OF). Basic and advanced applications of the open source fluid simulation system OpenFOAM will be presented. The workshop will take place over three consecutive mornings via the Zoom system.

Description: In the three-day course, the use of the OpenFOAM software package, which is currently the most developed open-source CFD system, will be demonstrated. As the name itself suggests, it is an open-source system that any user can enhance according to their needs. Initially, the use of ParaVIEW, a graphical environment for visually reviewing and processing data from OpenFOAM, will be shown. This will be followed by an explanation of how the OpenFOAM environment, with demonstrations of simple examples. Since the foundation of CFD is the mesh, the use of three open-source mesh generators will be demonstrated: GMSH, BlockMesh, and SnappyHexMesh. Subsequently, the application of various areas within the OpenFOAM environment will be explained and demonstrated, including:

• Fluid transport
• Transient simulations
• Transient data processing (animation, particles in flow)
• Multiphase flows
• Multi-region simulation (Multi-region)
• Using the Python environment to steer OpenFOAM simulations
• Running cases in an HPC system utilizing OpenFOAM's parallel capabilities
  
  

Difficulty: Advanced

Language: According to applications

Date and time:  09. 06. 2025 from: 9:00 - 13.00 
                            10. 06. 2025 from: 9:00 - 13:00
                            11. 06. 2025 from: 9:00 - 13.00

Max. number of participants: 30

Virtual location: ZOOM

Prerequisite knowledge: The basics of the Linux operating system and the basics of fluid mechanics and Python programming.

Target audience: The training is aimed at students and staff in academia and industry who want to learn more about the OpenFOAM open source CFD platform.

Workflow: The training is on-line, in the mornings. The interactive work is done via remote access to the HPC system at ULFS. 

After the workshop you wil:

• Be able to connect to HPC@ULFS with NoMachine client and work in HPC Linux environment
• Understand the theoretical background of the Computational Fluid Mechanics (CFD), especially of the Finite Volume Method (FVM)
• Be able to set up CFD mesh using different open source programs for CFD mesh design (OF – Block Mesh, GMSH)
• Be able to setup complete OF case (mesh, pysical model, inital and boundary conditions, ...)
• Be able to setup and run various OF cases in parallel on an HPC cluster
• Be able to preview and post-process OF results

 

 

Organiser:

Lecturers:

Ime:	Dr. Aleksander Grm
Opis:	Aleksander Grm graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Physics from the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics at the University of Ljubljana. He then completed a Master's degree in Applied Mathematics at ICTP/SISA in Trieste, Italy. After the MSc, he continued his studies at the University of Kaiserslautern in Germany and obtained a PhD in Industrial Mathematics. After the PhD, he worked partly in academia and fully in industry. In 2014, he moved to the University of Ljubljana to work in basic and applied research and to teach young people mechanics and mathematics at the engineering level.
E-mail:	aleksander.grm@fs.uni-lj.si

Ime:	Dr. Pavel Tomšič
Opis:	He is a research assistant at ULFE and is well qualified for several HPC related topics. He is actively involved in efforts to raise competencies in the field of supercomputing, such as the Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe (PRACE). He is also coordinator of Erasmus + project SCtrain - a strategic partnership for the transfer of knowledge from supercomputing between Slovenia, Austria, the Czech Republic and Italy. As part of the EuroHPC project for the establishment of European National Competence Centers in the field of supercomputing (EuroCC), he is the champion for Training and Skills Development for NCC Slovenia.
E-naslov:	pavel.tomsic@fs.uni-lj.si

---

Monday 9 June

Introduction to supercomputers, supercomputing world, benefits for the research and industrial needs ( • What is a shared memory computer? The concept architecture and real hardware. • Introducing the participants to modern hardware, HPCs, EuroHPC project • Using HPC-FS and NoMachine client in desktop environment • Linux background)

Convener: Pavel Tomšič (Faculty for Mechanical Engineering, University of Ljubljana)

Introduction to Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) ( • About CFD • Theoretical background • Different methods • Pros and cons of the method • Introduction to FVM)

Convener: Aleksander Grm

Setting up environment for OpenFOAM, description of the basic program environment and running of basic programs (• Overview of OpenFOAM • Workflow and background • How to use OpenFOAM • Main Components • Parallel construct on HPC).

Convener: Aleksander Grm

Tuesday 10 June

Basic usage of OpenFOAM I (• geometry and meshing • mesh manipulations • physical modelling and numerical simulations • initial and boundary conditions)

Hands-on with OpenFOAM I (• Running simple cases sequentially o How to prepare the OF case o Running the OF case o Results preview – ParaVIEW introduction)

Convener: Aleksander Grm

Wednesday 11 June

Basic usage of OpenFOAM II ( • HPC / Cloud – OF parallel run • OF post-processing tools • OF complex simulations – basic steps • OF format conversions)

Hands-on with OpenFOAM II (• Advanced cases of OF usage o Configuration for parallel case run o Running parallel OF cases o Advanced usage of OF – foil case )

Convener: Aleksander Grm