GeoChemFoam – A fully-parallel pore-scale physics numerical solver package for the energy transition
ARCHER2-eCSE10-02
PI: Dr Hannah Menke (Heriot-Watt University)
Co-I(s): Julien Maes (Heriot-Watt University), Dr Gavin Pringle (EPCC, University of Edinburgh)
Technical staff: Dr Gavin Pringle (EPCC, University of Edinburgh)
Subject Area:
GeoChemFOAM is the world’s most advanced open source pore-scale numerical simulator based on the widely used Computational Fluid Dynamics code OpenFOAM. It has been developed for the study of heat transfer, transport, multiphase flow, and chemical reaction in porous media and has direct applications in various fields, including energy storage, environmental remediation, and materials science. GeoChemFOAM has diverse applications in clean energy research, including:
- Hydrogen storage
- CO2 capture and storage
- Fuel cells and geothermal energy
- Upscaling permeability in reservoirs
- Contaminant transport and building materials.
The work carried out in this eCSE project will directly accelerate the ability of the scientific community to study these processes efficiently by providing them with a code that is optimised for high performance computing systems. Two previously ‘inherently serial’ routines in OpenFOAM were parallelised, resulting in the memory of multiple compute nodes now being instantly available when using the code. This will enable simulations on larger datasets to be carried out, enabling GeoChemFoam users and the wider OpenFOAM community to carry out more sophisticated research.
The work done during this project has made GeoChemFoam v5.1 and a 64-bit version of OpenFOAM centrally available on ARCHER2. Comprehensive user documentation is provided in the GeoChemFoam wiki [1], facilitating easy access and installation for all ARCHER2 users.
[1] https://github.com/GeoChemFoam/GeoChemFoam/wiki/GeoChemFoam-on-ARCHER2
Information about the code
GeoChemFoam is an open source code based on the OpenFOAM CFD toolbox. It is developed at the Institute of GeoEnergy Engineering, Heriot-Watt University. The overarching goal of the code is to simulate reactive transport in porous media applications at the pore-scale.
GeoChemFoam v5.1 is now available on ARCHER2.
For more details on GeoChemFoam, including how to run it on ARCHER2, please see the wiki.
ARCHER2 instructions are included in the user wiki section.
Technical Report
Coming soon – currently under embargo