CFD Results - How to analyse OpenFOAM data with ParaView - 25-minute Tutorial

In this video we explain how to use Paraview to analyze CFD data:

Installing paraview

Loading data
How to load the mesh & field data in Paraview.

Surface Methods
- Surface pressure map
- Surface friction map
- Surface velocity map
- Surface streamlines using SurfaceLIC

Volume Methods
- 2D slices (sections)
- 2D streamlines
- 3D Isosurfaces

State files
Saving & loading your project setup using paraview state files

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The AirShaper videos cover the basics of aerodynamics (aerodynamic drag, drag & lift coefficients, boundary layer theory, flow separation, reynolds number...), simulation aspects (computational fluid dynamics, CFD meshing, ...) and aerodynamic testing (wind tunnel testing, flow visualization, ...).

We then use those basics to explain the aerodynamics of (race) cars (aerodynamic efficiency of electric vehicles, aerodynamic drag, downforce, aero maps, formula one aerodynamics, ...), drones and airplanes (propellers, airfoils, electric aviation, eVTOLS, ...), motorcycles (wind buffeting, motogp aerodynamics, ...) and more!

[BombermanOfComet]

I am currently writing my Bachelor-Thesis with OpenFOAM and this video is really helpful. It gets me an good overview for post processing. A tutorial well made. Thank you for the good work here :)

[obkf-too]

Finally someone explaining things the right way. Thanks for the tutorial.

[eduserenza]

Very clear presentation, I am thinking in start study CFD with OpenFoam, I did not know about that big capability of OpenFoam.
Really is impressive!

[DhruvHaldar-bf]

Thanks for this, I am in the process of validating the drivAer case (notchback) with our commercial solver.

[docd]

Clear, concise, informative and interesting - excellent.

[thucpham]

Clear and informative! Thank you so much!!

[AlvaroLleonartMoix-gw]

Hi there! Perfect tutorial and explanation! I would like to know when do we know if our data is normalized or not? I've read that dimensional values are known as "no normalized data" and adimensional values are know as "normalized data". Could you tell me where I can find this information in my OpenFoam folders? Thanks!

[Rahmahhusayn]

hello, nice and understandable tutorial, thank you sir. I would like to ask why we need to subtract with wallshearstress? is the P*A the total forces already? so that if we want to get the pressure force need to subtract with wallshearstress?

[saveriolecce]

Hi. I think your channel is very interesting. I have one question about this video. When you computed the total force acting on the vehicle, why are you subtracting instead of summing the wall shear stresses? Is that becasue you are interested only in the pressure forces rather than in the effect of both pressure and friction or I am just missing something?

[marvin]

Thank you so much! It really helped me with my project!

[ahmetkirhan]

Hello Sir, Thanks a lot for this tutorial. I have a question. What is the formula for Cp for compressible flow and how can we apply it to paraview?

[MarcelNKemet]

NB: wallShearStress vector data is not included by default. You need to specify it as a function in system/controlDict.

[LT]

question, in paraview 5.12.0-RC, when you search for "generate normals" it is greyed out and i can not select it? why would that be?

[alvarolleonart]

Hi there! How could I obtain the wallShearSress if I already did the simulation and it does not appear in paraView? Do i need to change any file or include "wallshearstress" somewhere? It would be very helpful to know some information, I need this variable to calculate my forces on my 3D F1.
Thanks!

[LT]

Hello : ) I love this video as well as your other videos. I JUST started learning cfd and fea this week. It is a very overwhelming subject. With that in mind, do you have the video that shows how you made the "virtual wind tunnel", meshing and the use of OpenFOAM?

Thank you :)

[HoaiThanh-wmze]

why is the total force calculated by (p*normal-wallshear)*rho. as I know this is need by equation (p*normal+wallshear)*rho. what is the correct?

[architsaxen]

Can you please let me know how can I clear a surface feature error for open manifolds in my geometry?

[simprolougebycadkonstrukti]

Hello, very nice tutorial! Thank you!
One question:
Do the forces and tourque relate to the Center origin of the car? So to coordinates of 0 0 0 in world space?
So if my cog would be middle of front axis in the car 3d model, would the force pull on that point?
Hope you understand my question…

[esarworks]

Hello, Thanks for the tutorial, its very helpful for someone new to ParaView. I wanted to know if you could share some info on what computational resources were need to run the DrivAre model. Runtime, CPU, hours, etc. that kind of thing.

[peterb]

Why does the data from OpenFOAM (pressure, velocity, etc.) sometimes now show up? Just a grey block in the display portal/window? I use Salome to make my meshes. Typically I past the new mesh in another case file and usually run into this issue.