OpenFOAM Tutorial | Airfoil 2D

A two dimensional airfoil is the standard first aerodynamic case in OpenFOAM, because the geometry is simple while the setup exercises everything that matters: a far field boundary, a wall with a resolved boundary layer, and force coefficients as the output.

The case is defined in text dictionaries rather than in a panel. The mesh comes from blockMesh or from a converted external mesh, the boundary conditions live in the files of the initial time directory, and the force coefficients are computed by a function object declared in controlDict.

Two details decide whether the numbers are usable. The far field has to be far enough that it does not constrain the flow around the profile, and the first cell height at the wall has to match what your turbulence model expects, which you can estimate with the Y+ calculator.

Flow physics:

• External flow
• Steady
• High Reynolds number
• Low Mach number, subsonic
• Newtonian, single-phase, incompressible, non-reacting

Solver:

• simpleFoam

Tutorial case:

• $FOAM_TUTORIALS/incompressible/simpleFoam/airFoil2D

In this tutorial we will to learn how to simulate an Airfoil 2D using OpenFOAM. In this case, we will use the folder that comes by default with OF.