Computational Fluid Dynamics - software and materials

 Hi friends,

Are you interested in computational fluid dynamics simulations? 

If you are a beginner, let me introduce you various software/tools available now and reference materials for learning them. This may help you to know most of the possible options you have to start with your CFD simulation work.

Prerequisites for CFD analysis:

1. Fundamentals regarding the phenomena to be analyzed viz. Fluid mechanics, Turbulence, Heat transfer, chemical reactions, phase change processes etc as per the requirement I love the text book by Yunus A. Cengel in this aspect
2. Theory behind CFD analysis. Discretization models, solution methodologies, various solvers. Good references for these aspects are the books by Andersen, Patankar, Malalasekhera, Ferziger and Peric  The user guide and theory guides of various CFD software also help in software specific implementation of various models. Lectures of Lorena A Barba
3. Software package installed in PC

There are various software and tools available for CFD analysis in both commercial and open source domains.

Commercial CFD solvers:

1. ANSYS FLUENT
2. ANSYS CFX
3. ANSYS POLYFLOW
4. Hyper works AcuSolve
5. PHOENICS
6. STAR CCM+ 
7. COMSOL Multiphysics and many more

Open source CFD solvers:

1. Open FOAM
2. SU 2 etc

 Code yourself: 
 You can write your own codes for the problems you want to solve. There are various research groups which are taking initiatives for the same, CFD - Open Source. 

1.  Lorena A Barba group link 
2.  Chalmers university of technology link
3.  Open FOAM itself gives that opportunity (custom codes can be written in C++ language and added to Open FOAM package). 

Pre and post processing tools:
For setting up the CFD problem, one requires to define the domain (in terms of geometry) and corresponding grid (also called as mesh). Once the results are obtained from the solver, they can be visualized using various tools. Following is the list of various tools available for the purpose

Commercial:

1. ANSYS Design modeler
2. ANSYS Meshing
3. ANSYS ICEM CFD
4. Gambit
5. Solid Works/Pro E/CATIA/Rhinoceros etc CAD software for geometry preparation
6. Hyper Mesh
7. Pointwise 
8. TGrid and more

Open source:

1. Salome
2. Gmsh
3. TetGen
4. Open FOAM blockMesh, snappyHexMesh
5. enGrid and more

Tutorials and materials:
Tutorials for various software and tools given above are widely available online now-a-days. Some of them are given here for reference.

Resource	Software/tool	Link
Cornell university	FLUENT	https://confluence.cornell.edu/display/SIMULATION/FLUENT+Learning+Modules
Learn CAx	FLUENT, CFX, GAMBIT, ICEM CFD, TGrid, Solid Works, STAR CCM+,	https://learncax.com/courses
FLUENT	FLUENT	user manual, tutorial guide and theory guide
Open FOAM (ESI group)	Open FOAM	https://www.openfoam.com/documentation/tutorial-guide/
Chalmers university	Open FOAM	http://www.tfd.chalmers.se/~hani/kurser/OS_CFD/
Source forge	Open FOAM	http://foam.sourceforge.net/docs/Guides-a4/OpenFOAMUserGuide-A4.pdf
-	ANSYS Meshing	https://www.ozeninc.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/MESHING_WORKSHOP_2014.pdf
Next Foam	Open FOAM Boundary conditions	http://www.nextfoam.co.kr/lib/download.php?idx=135228&sid=235c1d3fc28364657dbb43ccfe025b25 http://www.nextfoam.co.kr/lib/download.php?idx=135033&sid=40f68c078862b4e72ae52667fee05f40

 Many more material would be available online. Based on the requirement, one can search and get. If nothing is found for your application, try to do it with help of your guide/friends. But, do not forget to share your expertise online. Gift your experience. And also do not forget to share your link in comments below.

Discussion forums:
If you have any queries regarding any of the CFD software you can post threads at http://www.cfd-online.com 

Please drop your comments below for improving this post.




Author info:

Saikrishna Nadella
B.Tech (Mechanical engineering)
Rajiv Gandhi University of Knowledge Technologies, AP IIIT, Nuzvid 521202.

Experience in CFD: 

1. CFD Simulation of transscleral drug diffusion in human eye. Phenomena/models: laminar flow, species transport, time varying boundary conditions, flow through porous medium
2. CFD simulation of foldable passive solar dryer. Phenomena/models: buoyancy driven flow, solar ray tracing, drying of food and moisture transport, flow through porous medium
3. CFD simulation of transient fluid flow in packed columns. Phenomena/models: VOF model, flow through porous media, 
4. Finite difference code for transient fluid flow simulation in packed columns 
5. FEM simulation of electromagnetic induction melting. Phenomena/models: coupled heat transfer and electromagnetics, melting and solidification
6. CFD simulation of rotating disk in fluid filled vessel: Phenomena/models: RSM turbulence model, moving wall boundary conditions
7. CFD simulation of pressure pulse propagation in pipe (going on). Phenomena/models: transient boundary conditions, pressure dependent density
8. CFD simulation of two phase adiabatic and boiling flows (going on). Phenomena/models: Euler two phase model, boiling models, interface transport models, turbulence models for multiphase flows.
9. Finite difference code SiPhN(TA) for transient simulation of natural circulation loops