Verification of the Open Source Code, OpenFOAM to the External Flows

This paper aims to verify the applicability of OpenFOAM, the widely recognized open source CFD code, to external flows commonly found in aeronautical problems. To this end, several representative flow cases are selected first from subsonic to supersonic flow fields. Then, the computational results obtained from OpenFOAM are systematically compared against available data from experiments and other numerical codes. It was found that the strength and location of shock are well predicted and the effects of boundary conditions on the computed results are reviewed. Subsonic flow with massive separation is selected to validate the prediction capability of OpenFOAM. Based on the current results, the limitation and possibility of OpenFOAM was confirmed and for future study using OpenFOAM was suggested.