beamFoam - Geometrically exact Simo–Reissner beam models implemented in OpenFOAM

This repository contains a cell-centred finite volume implementation of 3-D geometrically exact Simo–Reissner beam models in OpenFOAM. The default openfoam-v2306 is tested with OpenFOAM-v2306 but likely works with similar OpenFOAM versions from OpenFOAM.com.

How to install beamFoam

Run ./Allwclean and ./Allwmake scripts located in the top-level folder.

Thirdparty requirements

This repository uses Eigen library third party package. It has been tested with Eigen 3.3.7 release and there is a Allwmake script to install Eigen, if not found. the repository likely works with newer releases of Eigen too but it has not been tested.

How to run a test case

To run a test case, execute the ./Allclean and ./Allrun scripts located in the case. Each test case has its own README.md file describing the case.

Generating plots

Plotting scripts compatible with gnuplot utility are located in each test case. Execute the plots using command, gnuplot <file-name>

Post-processing using ParaView

The beam's deformed configuration can be observed using the 'Warp by Vector' filter with the pointW (point displacement) field.

Notes on the solver

1. The primary variables are displacement (W) and rotation (Theta) - 6 scalar degrees of freedom per cell.
2. This solver does not use blockMesh, but uses its own simple meshing utility createBeamMesh, which can be found in applications/utilities/.