OpenGeoSys — The Complete Guide: Coupled Thermal, Hydraulic and Mechanical Simulation of the Subsurface
OpenGeoSys (OGS) is an open-source (BSD-3-Clause) finite element framework for modelling coupled processes in the subsurface. It is developed by a research community centred on UFZ in Germany and is used in research and design wherever flow, heat and stress influence one another.
OpenGeoSys
OpenGeoSys community (UFZ)
Finite element simulator for coupled thermal, hydraulic and mechanical processes in soil and rock — groundwater, geothermal, repositories.
Get it from the vendorWhat you get
- Coupled processes (THMC) — flow, heat transport, mechanics and chemistry.
- Porous media and fractured rock — both kinds of media are supported.
- Applications — groundwater, geothermal energy and underground storage.
- Repositories — research and design of nuclear waste repositories.
- Parallel runs — execution on high-performance computers.
Who it suits
Work is based on input files and scripts, with no graphical interface for building the model. OGS therefore suits researchers, graduate students and engineers with a background in numerical methods. For routine groundwater flow analysis, a dedicated tool such as MODFLOW is simpler.
Related tools
For a standard groundwater flow model — MODFLOW 6, and to drive it from Python — FloPy. To display result fields — ParaView.
MODFLOW 6
U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)
The world standard for groundwater flow and solute transport modelling, from the USGS.
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FloPy
USGS and FloPy developers
Build, run and post-process MODFLOW groundwater models from a Python script.
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MOOSE Framework
Idaho National Laboratory
A multi-physics finite-element framework from Idaho National Laboratory.
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ParaView
Kitware / Sandia / Los Alamos
Large-scale simulation post-processing — slices, streamlines and animation.
Get it from the vendorThe bottom line
When a problem needs true coupling of flow, heat and mechanics underground, OGS is one of the strongest open options — for those willing to work with input files.