Free surface and VoF
Free-surface and multiphase VoF simulation in OpenFOAM
Track a sharp interface between two immiscible fluids — sloshing, filling, dam break, hull waterlines — with interFoam and its compressible and isoAdvector variants.
What it is
Volume of Fluid tracks the fraction of each cell occupied by one phase, which keeps a sharp interface between two fluids that do not mix. It is the standard approach for anything with a visible surface between liquid and gas.
What the application sets up
- Two-phase properties and the phase fraction field
- Initial fill level as a region, rather than a hand-edited setFields dictionary
- Interface compression and the Courant control a VoF run needs
- Atmosphere, inlet and wall conditions consistent with a two-phase field set
Typical uses
- Tank sloshing and baffle design
- Filling and emptying
- Dam break and wave impact
- Ship and hull waterline resistance
Industries
Sectors where this analysis is routinely asked for.
- Marine & offshore
- Water treatment
- Chemical process
- Civil hydraulics
What comes out
- Interface position over time
- Wave loads on structures
- Fill and drain times
- Entrained air locations
OpenFOAM solvers
interFoaminterIsoFoamcompressibleInterFoampotentialFreeSurfaceFoam
Selected and configured for you from the analysis type. You can still see every dictionary the application writes.
In every tier
This analysis type is in the free build. The free tier limits mesh size to 250,000 cells and solving to one core — not which physics you may use.
On accuracy, plainly.
Every analysis type is exercised end to end on every pass — its case is generated, meshed and run — which establishes that the setup is right, not that the answer matches your geometry. No CFD result is evidence until it is checked against something you trust: a measurement, a hand calculation, or a mesh-refinement study the application will run for you. Treat these results with the judgement you would apply to any CFD you set up yourself.