TwoPhaseFlow

The TwoPhaseFlow library adds new surface tension and phase change models to OpenFOAM and provides benchmark cases for verification.

Documentation

The available models and solvers are documented in the paper:

Scheufler, H., & Roenby, J. (2023). "TwoPhaseFlow: A Framework for Developing Two Phase Flow Solvers in OpenFOAM". OpenFOAM® Journal, 3, 200–224. https://doi.org/10.51560/ofj.v3.80

For examples of applications and extensions of the TwoPhaseFlow library, have a look at the citing articles on google scholar.

Getting Started

Prerequisites

Requires an installed OpenCFD version of OpenFOAM (v1812 or later) from https://www.openfoam.com.

The master branch currently (april 2026) compiles with OpenFOAM-v2406 to v2512. For older OpenFOAM versions (down to v1812) please checkout the appropriate branch. Don't expect older branches to be regularly updated or bug fixed. Use a newer OpenFOAM version if possible.

OpenFOAM.org versions are not supported.

Installing

    git clone https://github.com/DLR-RY/TwoPhaseFlow
    cd TwoPhaseFlow
    # To compile e.g. with OpenFOAM-v2112 checkout the appropriate branch with:
    # git checkout of2112
    ./Allwmake
    ./get-gmsh.sh # will install gmsh version 306 as gmshv306
    # For AMR with DLB:
    git submodule update --init --recursive
    cd modules/multiDimAMR/
    ./Allwmake

Running testsuite

Make sure that the desired OpenFOAM installation is sourced e.g. v2512 and that python is installed with a version >= 3.6 (miniconda is a great option, but anaconda works as well)

    python -m venv env # creats virtual python enviroments (optional step)
    pip install oftest

    py.test # runs the tests
    py.test --writeNSteps=1 run/ # test all testcases in run

Authors

• Henning Scheufler

License

This project is licensed under the GPL v3 License - see the LICENSE.md file for details.

Running benchmarks

    ./get-gmsh.sh # Install gmsh
    pip install casefoam

The run/benchmark cases are run with

    cd run/benchmark/phaseChange/suckingInterface/
    python genCases.py # Generates the study cases based and template case (here StefanProblem)
    ./Allrun # Runs all the created testcases
    python getResults.py # See results

Alternatively, the runAll.sh can be executed in the folder.

Note: Some cases use the slurm queuing system and call sbatch Allrun_Slurm in the Allrun script, so you might need to modify it in the template case.

Known issues

Duplicity entry warnings in log file

For some of the solvers, depending on the libraries loaded with libs(...) in the controlDict, the log file may contain:

Duplicate entry isoAlpha in runtime table reconstructionSchemes
[stack trace]
=============
#1      platforms/linux64GccDPInt32Opt/lib/libgeometricVoF.so
...

This is because both the TwoPhaseFlow library libVoF.so and the OpenFOAM library libgeometricVoF.so add the reconstrucionSchemes to the runTime selection table. If for instance some loaded library links libincompressibleMultiphaseSystems.so, this loads libgeometricVoF.so and we get the conflict. The solver will, however, use the libVoF.so version as it should so the warnings can be safely ignored.

Adaptive mesh refinement with multiple regions with OpenFOAM-v1812

AMR with multiple regions does not work in version of1812 but it is fixed in newer versions.

To fix this, apply the patches (assumes OpenFOAM is already source):

    cp  patches/multiRegionAMR.patch $WM_PROJECT_DIR
    cp  patches/tableBase.patch $WM_PROJECT_DIR
    cp  patches/surfaceFieldValue.patch $WM_PROJECT_DIR
    cd $WM_PROJECT_DIR
    git apply multiRegionAMR.patch
    git apply tableBase.patch
    git apply surfaceFieldValue.patch
    ./Allwmake

Important note: These patches are only possible if you have write access to your OpenFOAM-v1812 installation. After applying the pathes your OpenFOAM-v1812 installation will no longer be identical to the official OpenFOAM-v1812 release.

For details see:

https://gitlab.com/openfoam/core/openfoam/-/work_items/1676

https://gitlab.com/openfoam/core/openfoam/-/work_items/1753