CFD Solvers

simpleFoam is a steady-state solver for incompressible, turbulent flows using the SIMPLE (Semi-Implicit Method for Pressure Linked Equations) algorithm. SIMD Agent selects it for single-phase, incompressible problems without heat transfer where a converged mean-flow solution is sufficient.

When the agent selects this solver

• Single-phase, incompressible fluid (constant density)
• No heat transfer required
• Steady-state solution (time-averaged, converged, RANS)
• Mach number well below 0.3

Typical applications include pipe and duct flows, external aerodynamics at low speed, flow around buildings, and industrial equipment analysis.

Required files

Pressure field

simpleFoam uses kinematic pressure with dimensions [0 2 -2 0 0 0 0] (m²/s²). This is not pressure in Pascals; it is p/ρ.

// 0/p — kinematic pressure
dimensions  [0 2 -2 0 0 0 0];
internalField  uniform 0;

Time control

Since simpleFoam is steady-state, time stepping is iteration-based. Set endTime to the maximum number of iterations and deltaT to 1.

// system/controlDict
application  simpleFoam;
startTime    0;
endTime      1000;    // max iterations
deltaT       1;       // always 1 for steady-state
writeInterval 100;

Closed domains

If the domain has no patch with a fixed-value pressure boundary condition (fully enclosed geometry), you must set a pressure reference to avoid a singular matrix:

SIMPLE
{
    pRefCell  0;
    pRefValue 0;
}

Files never generated

The agent will never generate these files for simpleFoam because they belong to compressible or buoyancy solvers:

• 0/T, no energy equation
• constant/thermophysicalProperties, no thermodynamics
• constant/g, no buoyancy