Fortran+OpenFOAM Coupling

Chen · April 13, 2026, 8:40am

The case I am dealing with involves fluid coupling under Lagrangian and Eulerian frameworks (no solid involved), using OpenFOAM-v2312. A volume force is calculated on the Fortran side, and the OpenFOAM side reads this volume force to solve the Navier-Stokes equation, obtains the velocity and passes it back to Fortran. The calculation is carried out on a uniform orthogonal grid. Both force and velocity are stored at the grid center. I want to know if preCICE-v3.1.1 and openfoam-adapter-v1.3.0 support the reading of volume forces at the grid centers?

Makis · April 14, 2026, 5:27pm

In the version you ask for (OpenFOAM adapter v1.3.0), forces are not read in the cell centers.

However, in the latest state of the develop branch, and included in the next release (v1.4.0, in the next few weeks), there are drag forces, for this use case:

github.com/precice/openfoam-adapter

FF/DragForce.C

develop

#include "DragForce.H"
#include "coupledVelocityFvPatchField.H"

using namespace Foam;

preciceAdapter::FF::DragForce::DragForce(
    const Foam::fvMesh& mesh,
    const std::string nameFd)
{
    if (mesh.foundObject<volVectorField>(nameFd))
    {
        adapterInfo("Loaded existing particle force object " + nameFd, "debug");
        F_d_ = const_cast<volVectorField*>(
            &mesh.lookupObject<volVectorField>(nameFd));
    }
    else
    {
        adapterInfo("Creating a new drag force object " + nameFd, "debug");
        F_d_ = new volVectorField(
            IOobject(

This file has been truncated. show original

Chen · April 16, 2026, 8:13am

Thanks Makis, that’s very helpful. I’ll keep an eye on the v1.4.0 release.

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Fortran+OpenFOAM Coupling

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