OpenFOAM
The OpenFOAM Foundation
CFD Training with OpenFOAM, 2025
Essential CFD² | Applied CFD² | Productive CFD¹ | Programming CFD²
¹Classroom Training, Cologne Germany and Chicago USA
OpenFOAM Funding 2025
Get a Maintenance Plan to fund OpenFOAM Sustainability and meet funders, core team and contributors at the OpenFOAM Hub.
The OpenFOAM Foundation
The OpenFOAM Foundation distributes OpenFOAM, produced by CFD Direct
- OpenFOAM is free and open source software
The OpenFOAM Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation that distributes OpenFOAM exclusively free and open source under the General Public Licence (GPL) v3. The Foundation owns the copyright of the code it distributes, making other versions of OpenFOAM “modified source versions” under the GPL.
- CFD Direct produces OpenFOAM from The OpenFOAM Foundation
CFD Direct includes OpenFOAM’s creator Henry Weller, OpenFOAM co-founder Chris Greenshields, core developer Will Bainbridge. Henry and Chris are also founders and Directors of The OpenFOAM Foundation.
- The Foundation distribution of OpenFOAM is the best
There is understandable confusion between “OpenFOAM” distributed from The OpenFOAM Foundation at this website, and modified distributions with the same name from elsewhere. The distributions are distinguishable by version numbering, with The Foundation using an incremental number, currently OpenFOAM v13. OpenFOAM from The Foundation is the best distribution because CFD Direct takes the initiative to redesign large components of OpenFOAM to improve usability, robustness and extensibility.
OpenFOAM
OpenFOAM is packaged for simple installation on Ubuntu Linux, which can be directly installed on Windows and macOS.
OpenFOAM Development
OpenFOAM is developed by contributors led by Henry Weller, creator of OpenFOAM and Director of CFD Direct & The OpenFOAM Foundation
Contributors to OpenFOAM
Discover the people behind OpenFOAM and how they contribute to the project.
Report a Bug
Help identify, report and fix bugs through the OpenFOAM issue tracking system
How to Contribute
Requirements for making effective, sustainable and meaningful contributions to OpenFOAM
OpenFOAM Maintenance Plans
Using OpenFOAM for critical applications? Ensure ongoing maintenance of OpenFOAM, prioritised to your needs.
Learn to use OpenFOAM
Access documentation, and enrol for training, from the OpenFOAM experts.
User Guide
General information about running OpenFOAM, compilation, solvers, models, mesh generation and post-processing.
OpenFOAM Training
CFD Training based on features to simplify use, and accelerate learning, from the main developers at CFD Direct.
C++ Source Guide
The C++ Source Guide, generated by Doxygen has links to source code, inheritance and collaboration diagrams, and more.
Free and Open Source
OpenFOAM is free and open source, distributed only under the
GNU General Public Licence v3