Students Guide for popular CFD Solver
( Free CFD Software)
1) CFD Solvers without Automatic Meshing
1.2 Commercial CFD Solvers
- There are CFD solvers which are widely used in both academia and industries
- Students can use up to maximum 500,000 cells for CFD simulations using ANSYS FLUENT
- They provide a free version for students
- Refer the user guide for CFD modeling
- Check your system hardware before installing CFD analysis software
- Students can Tecplot for post-processing of CFD results. Tecplot has good control over stream lines and vector.
Application and Modules:
- Geometry Tools: ANSYS Space claim, ANSYS Work Bench
- Meshing platform: ANSYS Mesher, ICEM CFD, FLUENT Mesher
- CFD Solver: FLUENT, CFX
- Post-processing: CFD-Post, ANSYS EnSight
1.2 Open source CFD Solvers
- OpenFOAM is a popular open source CFD software for both academia and industries
- This CFD solver has no licensing fee
- Download OpenFOAM CFD tools for Linux or Ubuntu
- For block meshing creates structures meshing. Refer this for more details: blockMesh for Different Geometries
- Code Saturn is also a free and open-source CFD software
Application and Modules:
- Geometry Tools: OpenFOAM, SALOME, FreeCAD
- Meshing platform: blockMesh, SnapyHexMesh, cfMesh
- CFD Solver: icoFOAM, simpleFOAM, interFOAM etc.
- Post-processing: ParaFoam, gnuPlot, foamtoTecplot
2) CFD Solvers with Automatic Meshing
- Star CCM+ and CONVERGE are also used as a popular CFD solver in many automotive industries
- They do not require a separate meshing platform. It directly generate dynamic grid adaptive mesh based on gradients of flow variables.
- Siemens provide free access for universities students and faculty to Simcentre STAR-CCM+
- Students can download Star CCM+ by clicking here: University: Star CCM+
- COMSOL has the Lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) in their solver
- Students or faculty can contact to get a trial version
- Students can download tutorials of CONVERGE