Installing solids4foam from Source

Quickstart

Source a supported version of OpenFOAM, then download, build and test solids4foam-v2.1:

git clone --branch v2.1 https://github.com/solids4foam/solids4foam.git
cd solids4foam && ./Allwmake -j && cd tutorials && ./Alltest

The -j flag instructs Allwmake to use all available cores. For the latest nightly build, specify the development branch instead of v2.1. For a detailed installation guide, see below.

Detailed Installation Guide

Supported Versions of OpenFOAM/foam

solids4foam requires a working version of OpenFOAM or foam-extend. Currently, the following OpenFOAM versions are supported:

Optional fixes for the OpenFOAM installation

The solids4foam Allwmake script will ask you to fix files in the main OpenFOAM/foam installation. If you do not want to (or cannot) make these changes, please set the environmental variable S4F_NO_FILE_FIXES=1 before running the Allwmake script when building solids4foam, e.g.

> export S4F_NO_FILE_FIXES=1 && ./Allwmake -j

To make these fixes, follow the instructions from the Allwmake script when building solids4foam.

See the page on Optional Fixes for further details on these optional changes.

Dependencies

Beyond a working version of OpenFOAM or foam-extend, solids4foam does not have any mandatory dependencies; however, several optional dependencies are required to use the complete set of functionalities:

Note that, for running the tests, the OpenFOAM or foam-extend tutorials are also required. If preCICE is installed, this will enable additional tests.

Eigen

Before building solids4foam, the EIGEN_DIR environment variable can be set to the local Eigen installation location. If EIGEN_DIR is not set, then solids4foam will download a local copy of Eigen.

If you would like solids4foam not to use Eigen (e.g. due to version conflicts when using preCICE), set the S4F_NO_USE_EIGEN environment variable, e.g. add the following to your bashrc

> export S4F_NO_USE_EIGEN=1

PETSc

The binaries for PETSc can be installed on Ubuntu with

> sudo apt install petsc-dev

Or, on macOS with

> brew install petsc

Alternatively, and more generally, PETSc can be installed following the instructions at https://petsc.org/release/.

Once PETSC has been installed, the PETSC_DIR environment variable should be set to the installation location; this allows solids4foam to use it. If the PETSC_DIR environment variable is not set, then solids4foam will not use PETSc and functionalities that require PETSc will be disabled. For example, on Ubuntu you can do this with:

export PETSC_DIR=/lib/petsc

Or, if using homebrew, on macOS (you may need to update the version number)

export PETSC_DIR=/opt/homebrew/Cellar/petsc/3.17.2

gfortran

gfortran can be installed on Ubuntu with:

> sudo apt-get install gfortran

Or, on macOS with

> brew install gcc

solids4foam will use gfortran if the gfortran executable is found in the $PATH; if not, solids4foam will disable functionalities that require gfortran.

cfmesh

A small number of tutorials require the cartesianMesh utility from cfmesh. If the cartesianMesh executable is not found within the $PATH then the Allrun script within these tutorials will exit.

gnuplot

gnuplot can be installed on Ubuntu with:

> sudo apt-get install gnuplot

Or, on macOS with

> brew install gnuplot

Downloading the solids4foam Source Code

The solids4foam directory can be downloaded to any reasonable location on your computer; we suggest placing it in $FOAM_RUN/...

Archive file

solids4foam-v2.1 can be downloaded as an archive file:

• solids4foam-v2.1.zip: extracted with > unzip v2.1.tar.gz
• solids4foam-v2.1.tgz: extracted with > tar xzf unzip v2.1.tar.gz

Git repository: v2.1

solids4foam-v2.1 can be downloaded using

> git clone --branch v2.1 https://github.com/solids4foam/solids4foam.git

Git repository: latest development branch

The latest nightly build development branch can be downloaded with

> git clone --branch development git@github.com:solids4foam/solids4foam.git

Building solids4foam

Before building solids4foam, a compatible version of OpenFOAM or foam-extend should be sourced: see the table above. To build solids4foam, enter the solids4foam directory and execute the included Allwmake script, e.g.

> cd solids4foam
> ./Allwmake -j 2>&1 | tee log.Allwmake

Depending on your hardware, you can expect this build to last about 5 minutes.

If solids4foam is built successfully, you will be presented with the following message:

There were no build errors: enjoy solids4foam!
To test the installation, run:
    > cd tutorials && ./Alltest

If the build encounters errors, you will receive the following message:

** BUILD ERROR **"
There were build errors in the following logs:
<LIST OF COMPILATION ERRORS>

Please examine these logs for additional details

You can examine the source of the errors in the log.Allwmake file within the solids4foam parent directory. Additionally, please search https://www.cfd-online.com/Forums/openfoam-cc-toolkits-fluid-structure-interaction/ for similar errors. If you cannot find a resolution, please create a new thread at https://www.cfd-online.com/Forums/openfoam-cc-toolkits-fluid-structure-interaction/. Alternatively, if you believe you have encountered a bug, please create a new issue at https://github.com/solids4foam/solids4foam/issues.

Testing the Installation

As instructed, after a successful build, you can test the tutorials using the following commands, executed from the solids4foam parent directory.

> cd tutorials && ./Alltest

You can expect these tests to last a few minutes.

If the tests pass, you will receive the message:

All tests passed: enjoy solids4foam.

This means your solids4foam installation is working as expected.

If any of the tests fail, you will receive the message:

The solids4Foam solver failed in the following cases:
<LIST OF FAILING TUTORIALS>

or if the errors do not come from the solids4foam calls but elsewhere

The following commands failed:
<LIST OF FAILING COMMANDS AND TUTORIALS>

What Next?

Please see the tutorial guide.