COMPIT 2010 in Gubbio - TUHH

also means that agreements on standards and data transfer between different products are easier to
achieve.
Recently, the open-source CFD package OpenFOAM, has attracted a lot of attention in the maritime
CFD community, Schmode and Bertram (2009). In the hands of well-trained users, OpenFOAM
yields good results for a variety of complex maritime flows (seakeeping with six degrees of freedom;
cavitating flows around propellers; sloshing with breaking waves; etc.), see e.g. the 2009 Numerical
Towing Tank Symposium, www.uni-due.de/imperia/md/content/ist/nutts_12_2009_cortona.pdf. Zero
licensing fees, wide scope of applicability and access to source code for personal modification and
research (that may lead to doctoral degrees) make OpenFOAM very attractive, particularly in the academic
environment. Industry users, on the other hand, should take a more prosaic perspective: savings
in license fees may be far less than the added costs of training. Experienced CFD users have reported
(in personal communication) that it took them several months to two years to come to terms with
OpenFOAM. Nevertheless, Germanischer Lloyd has decided to employ both commercial CFD software
(CCM+ developed by CD-adapco) and OpenFOAM in parallel. The investment of considerable
resources in a “free” software package was motivated by co-operative projects with several academic
partners. However, it is fair to say that the bulk of professional consulting work continues to be based
on the use of commercial software products.
5. Conclusions
A systematic approach to software selection is recommended. The outlined procedure is intended to
prevent important items from being overlooked. Specifically labour cost associated with training and
lack of productivity are frequently underestimated. Companies should select software based on how
long training will take and how much man-time will be required for a trained user to complete a typical
project. This in turn depends on user-friendliness, software user community networks, vendor support,
etc. For key software, strategic considerations are important to ensure long-term support by vendors.
For professional CFD applications, labour costs are decisive. Therefore vendors should focus on faster
(i.e. more automated) grid generation and post-processing.
References
BERTRAM, V. (1993), Economical aspects of computational fluid dynamics (CFD), 19 th WEGEMT
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BERTRAM, V.; COUSER, P. (2007), CFD possibilities and practice, The Naval Architect, September,
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BRUCE, G. (2009), Management information systems in ship repair, 8 th Conf. Computer and IT Applications
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http://www.ssi.tu-harburg.de/doc/webseiten_dokumente/compit/dokumente/compit2009.pdf
COUSER, P. (2006), Selecting a suitable hull definition package, The Naval Architect, April, pp.42-
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COUSER, P. (2007), Software for hydrostatic analysis of floating structures during their design, The
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DIETRICH, L. (1988), CIM Trends for the nineties, CIM-IT/Systems Conference, McKinsey & Co,
Berlin
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