The Multiphase Capability of OpenFoam CFD Toolbox in Solving Flow Field in Hydraulic Structure

The widely known CFD-toolbox “OpenFOAM” is a well-designed C++ library that allows the numerical simulation of various Engineering problems. Owing to its object-orientated structure and the open source code concept, it is very flexible and can be adjusted to very specific problems. Therefore, the code analysis and its manipulation are possible. In general, the library is designed for tackling complex physical problems which can be described with the means of Partial Differential Equations (PDEs). These PDEs are then discretized on the basis of the Finite Volume Method (FVM) in space and with a Finite Differences Scheme in time. However, inappropriate documentation and the lack of a graphical user interface make the usage in the beginning more difficult than most commercial software. The aim of this study is to show the functionalities and capabilities of the toolbox for hydraulic engineering applications, including a short description of the meshing process, boundary condition and the numeric of the solvers. Therefore, a short overview of the applicability and the limitations of the solver “TwoPhaseEulerFoam and InterFoam” which is most commonly used in hydraulic Engineering are presented.