Funding OpenFOAM in 2017
We reached our funding target of €100 k for maintenance of OpenFOAM in 2017. Thanks to all the organisations and individuals who have contributed to the fund. Your positive response is an example to others that you appreciate that: (a) software maintenance cannot be ignored since it underpins the stable evolution of OpenFOAM; and, (b) OpenFOAM maintenance requires experts with combined skills in software design, programming, numerics and physics who need to be paid for their work.
The OpenFOAM Foundation needs €100 k to fund its activities in 2017, including:
- resolving issues as part of agile development of OpenFOAM, with quick-turnaround user feedback to improve software quality;
- maintaining quality through coding style compliance, commit rules, configuration management and test loops;
- releasing and packaging OpenFOAM, using build scripts and distributed version control;
- updating users regularly via social media, the main OpenFOAM website, and websites for OpenFOAM Download, OpenFOAM Issue Tracking and the OpenFOAM C++ Source Guide;
- open source licensing and IP management.
Specific Aims for 2017
We aim to improve software quality, targeting a 50% reduction in unresolved OpenFOAM issues. In particular, we want to repair the following areas of OpenFOAM, which requires significant code refactoring and/or rewriting.
- AMI, ACMI and cyclic interfaces.
- Heat transfer, including conjugate heat transfer (CHT).
- Particles and tracking (Lagrangian).
- Sources and constraints (fvOptions).
What is the Cost?
We propose that 20 companies pool €5 k each reach our target. If your company relies on OpenFOAM, you carry an operational risk associated with its decline through lack of funding. At a fraction of the cost of a single licence of most proprietary CFD software, €5 k is a small price to pay to mitigate this risk.
Options for Funding
The first option is to make a donation to the OpenFOAM Foundation (note that it does not have charitable status). If that is not possible, we could arrange a development project to work on the areas specified above, with a broad deliverable of new code (in OpenFOAM-dev) that resolves some outstanding issues. Alternatively, you can fund the OpenFOAM Foundation through OpenFOAM Core Support.
Support Us Today
Please contact us about funding OpenFOAM in 2017 using the form below. Become part of OpenFOAM’s future.