Nonintrusive proper generalised decomposition for parametrised incompressible flow problems in OpenFOAM

The computational cost of parametric studies currently represents the major limitation to the application of simulation-based engineering techniques in a daily industrial environment. This work presents the first nonintrusive implementation of the proper generalised decomposition (PGD) in OpenFOAM, for the approximation of parametrised laminar incompressible Navier–Stokes equations. The key feature of this approach is the seamless integration of a reduced order model (ROM) in the framework of an industrially validated computational fluid dynamics software. This is of special importance in an industrial environment because in the online phase of the PGD ROM the description of the flow for a specific set of parameters is obtained simply via interpolation of the generalised solution, without the need of any extra solution step. On the one hand, the spatial problems arising from the PGD separation of the unknowns are treated using the classical solution strategies of OpenFOAM, namely the semi-implicit method for pressure linked equations (SIMPLE) algorithm. On the other hand, the parametric iteration is solved via a collocation approach. The resulting ROM is applied to several benchmark tests of laminar incompressible Navier–Stokes flows, in two and three dimensions, with different parameters affecting the flow features. Eventually, the capability of the proposed strategy to treat industrial problems is verified by applying the methodology to a parametrised flow control in a realistic geometry of interest for the automotive industry. •Proper generalised decomposition for parametrised incompressible Navier–Stokes flows.•Nonintrusive implementation of the PGD in the industrially validated solver OpenFOAM.•Seamless exploitation of OpenFOAM SIMPLE algorithm for the spatial step of the PGD.•Offline computation of a reduced basis with no a priori knowledge of the solution.•Inexpensive online characterisation of the flow via interpolation of the PGD solution.•Application to flow control problems of interest for the automotive industry.