OpenFPCI: Open source FOAM to ParaFEM Coupling Interface
The package allows the coupling of the finite element package ParaFEM to a computational fluid dynamics package OpenFOAM-Extend. The motivation behind this coupling, is to provide a framework for which users can model fluid structure interaction problems using high performance computing services.
This package requires OpenFOAM-Extend, ParaFEM and an external fluid structure interaction library, which can be installed through the following websites.
ParaFEM: https://sourceforge.net/projects/parafem/
OpenFOAM-Extend: https://openfoamwiki.net/index.php/Installation/Linux/foam-extend-4.0
FSI Library: https://openfoamwiki.net/index.php/Extend-bazaar/Toolkits/Fluid-structure\_interaction
The library represents a direct coupling between ParaFEM and OpenFOAM-Extend, through OpenFPCI plugins. The OpenFPCI plugings compromise a series of Fortran subroutines, that used ParaFEM's highly parallel implementation, and a C++ wrapper.
The project tree presents the directories within OpenFPCI. Only the src/solidSolvers/paraFEM directory has been expanded, as these are the important files required to install and run OpenFPCI. The table below then provides a brief description of each of the directories in the project tree, in particular those within src/solidSolvers/paraFEM
| Directory | Purpose |
|---|---|
| doc | It contains the documentation for the current and previous version of OpenFPCI, created using robodoc. |
| run | It contains example test cases. |
| HronTurek | This is the validation test case, based of the Turek and Hron benchmark. |
| src | It contains two directories and a script. SolidSolvers contains the OpenFPCI files whilst fluidSolvers contains user implemented fluidSolvers for the FSI library. These are not required for OpenFPCI but add additional capabilites. |
| openfpci.sh | This is the installation script, that can be run to install OpenFPCI |
| fem_routines | It contains the Fortran files that are used to solve specific engineering problems. The suffix parafem is followed by the files purpose. parafeml.f90 is used to solve the deformation of a linear elastic material undergoing small strain. parafemnl.90 is used to solve the deformation of a linear elastic material undergoing large strain and parafemutil.f90 contains useful subroutines for debugging, I/O and adding external loads. |
| largeStrain | It contains the C++ class files (.H and .C) that act as a wrapper around the parafemnl.f90 Fortran file. |
| smallStrain | It contains the C++ class files (.H and .C) that act as a wrapper around the parafeml.f90 Fortran file. |
Foam-Extend and ParaFEM must be downloaded and compiled prior to the installation of the OpenFPCI link. It is suggested that users follow the links provided above to install the relevent pacakges suitable for their systems. Once these packages have been compiled and installed the OpenFPCI can be downloaded using the following command:
git clone https://github.com/SPHewitt/OpenFPCI
The third-party FSI library and OpenFPCI can be downloaded and compiled using the openfpci.sh script present in the src directory. The script assumes that both Foam-Extend and ParaFEM are installed with the system OpenMPI. The following command can be followed to install the software, where the paths should be replaced:
echo "export PARAFEM_DIR=path/to/parafem-code/parafem" >> ~/.bashrc
echo "export FOAM_DIR=path/to/foam/foam-extend-x.x" >> ~/.bashrc
. ~/.bashrc
cd OpenFPCI/src
./openfpci.sh
The software has been tested with Foam-Extend-4.0 and ParaFEM.5.0.3 on a linux desktop running Ubuntu 16.04. The code has further been tested to The Computational Shared Facility at Manchester, the SGI system in Leeds (Polaris), The XC30 Cray system in Ediburugh (Archer) and the Tianhe2 Machine in Guangzhou China.
The modules used on each of the systens is summarised below:
On a linux desktop the code uses openmpi-1.6.5 if another mpi package exists i.e. mpich the script will fail.
Prerequisites:
- OpenMPI: Version 1.6.5 .
- GCC compilers: gcc 5.x .
- Ubuntu 16.04
The application has been tested with gnu/4.9.1 package and system openmpi version 1.6.5. The default compilers on the system are intel so these need to be swapped for the gnu compilers.
module load mpi/gcc/openmpi/1.8-ib
module load compilers/gcc/4.9.0
The application has been tested with gnu/4.9.1 package and system openmpi version 1.6.5. The default compilers on the system are intel so these need to be swapped for the gnu compilers.
module swap intel/"version" gnu/4.9.1
module load openmpi/1.6.5
module swap PrgEnv-cray PrgEnv-gnu/5.1.29
module swap gcc/6.3.0 gcc/5.3.0
For any assistance please contact sam.hewitt@manchester.ac.uk