OVERFLOW CFD

Overview

OVERFLOW is a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) flow solver under development by NASA. It uses structured overset grids to simulate fluid flow, and is being used on projects for Aeronautics Research, Science, Space Technology, and Human Exploration Mission Directorates. The code is available to U.S. companies, universities, and individuals under an appropriate Software Usage Agreement. Use the NASA Software Catalogue links below to obtain the software.

Supported Versions

Mailing Lists

There are several ways to participate in the OVERFLOW community. The best way is to join the OVERFLOW email list which is used for code announcements and for general help from the OVERFLOW user group. Unfortunately, list archives are not available.

Users with NASA emails

You can join the email list directly. You can also unsubscribe on the same page.

You are also encouraged to join our Teams page.

External Users

You can join the email list by sending an email to overflow-join@lists.nasa.gov (no subject or body is needed). To unsubscribe, send an email to overflow-leave@lists.nasa.gov.

All Users

To contact only the developers (NASA civil servants), you can email larc-overflow-devs@mail.nasa.gov. This is useful if you have questions that are not applicable to the rest of the users or if your question is specific to non-public (proprietary, CUI, etc) information.

Resources

• User’s Manual ( ZIP )
• 2010 OVERFLOW Training Class Viewgraphs ( Introduction | Morning | Afternoon )
• 2014 OVERFLOW Training Class Viewgraphs (replaces 2010 Afternoon)
• Past Overset Grid Symposia (some with presentations available)

Companion NASA Software for Overset Grids

New users may also wish to obtain Chimera Grid Tools (CGT) and Pegasus 5, both from NASA Ames Research Center. These packages are needed to run many of the test cases that come with OVERFLOW. CGT is a collection of software tools for grid generation, pre- and post-processing, and visualization, tailored for overset grid systems. Pegasus 5 is a program used to assemble overset grids.

Chimera Grid Tools

• Home Page
• Request CGT from the NASA Software Catalog
• OVERGRID Training Seminars
  • Part 1 (5-13-2014)
  • Part 2 (5-20-2014)
  • Part 3 (5-29-2014)

Pegasus 5

• Home Page
• Request Pegasus 5 from the NASA Software Catalog

Selected Reference Papers

• W.M. Chan, R.J. Gomez III, S.E. Rogers, and P.G. Buning, “Best Practices in Overset Grid Generation,” AIAA-2002-3191, June 2002.
  ( DOI | NTRS )
• S.M. Murman, W.M. Chan, M.J. Aftosmis, and R.L. Meakin, “An Interface for Specifying Rigid-Body Motions for CFD Applications,” AIAA-2003-1237, Jan. 2003.
  ( DOI | NTRS )
• R.H. Nichols, R.W. Tramel, and P.G. Buning, “Solver and Turbulence Model Upgrades to OVERFLOW 2 for Unsteady and High-Speed Applications,” AIAA-2006-2824, June 2006.
  ( DOI | NTRS )
• R.H. Nichols, R.W. Tramel, and P.G. Buning, “Evaluation of Two High-Order Weighted Essentially Nonoscillatory Schemes,” AIAA J., Vol. 46, No. 12, Dec. 2008, pp. 3090-3102.
  ( DOI | PDF )
• R.W. Tramel, R.H. Nichols, and P.G. Buning, “Addition of Improved Shock-Capturing Schemes to OVERFLOW 2.1,” AIAA-2009-3988, June 2009.
  ( DOI | NTRS )
• P.G. Buning and T.H. Pulliam, “Near-Body Grid Adaption for Overset Grids,” AIAA-2016-3326, June 2016.
  ( DOI | NTRS )
• P.G. Buning and T.H. Pulliam, “Cartesian Off-Body Grid Adaption for Viscous Time-Accurate Flow Simulation,” AIAA-2011-3693, June 2011.
  ( DOI | NTRS )
• T.H. Pulliam, “High Order Accurate Finite-Difference Methods: as seen in OVERFLOW,” AIAA-2011-3851, June 2011.
  ( DOI | PDF )
• M.L. Childs, T.H. Pulliam, and D.C. Jespersen, “OVERFLOW Turbulence Model Resources Verification Results,” NAS Technical Report NAS-2014-03, NASA Ames Research Center, June 2014.
  ( NTRS )
• T.H. Pulliam, “Time Accuracy and the Use of Implicit Methods,” NASA Ames Research Center, 2014.
  ( PDF )
• R.H. Nichols, “Turbulence Models and Their Application to Complex Flows, Revision 4.01,” University of Alabama at Birmingham, 2008.
  ( Research Gate | PDF )
• J.M. Derlaga, C.W. Jackson, and P.G. Buning, “Recent Progress in OVERFLOW Convergence Improvements,” AIAA-2020-1045, Jan. 2020.
  ( DOI | NTRS )
• J.M. Derlaga, C.W. Jackson, and P.G. Buning, “A Parallel Symmetric Successive Overrelaxation Method for OVERFLOW,” AIAA-2021-2747, July 2021.
  ( DOI | NTRS )
• C.W. Jackson, D. Appelhans, J.M. Derlaga, and P.G. Buning, “GPU Implementation of the OVERFLOW CFD Code,” AIAA-2024-0042, Jan. 2024.
  ( DOI | NTRS )