FLUENT - Free Tutorial:CFD Concepts

In the last article we were discussing about GAMBIT, I would like to continue with same CFD field. This time I am going to speak about FLUENT,It is a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software package to simulate fluid flow problems. It uses the finite-volume method to solve the governing equations for a fluid. It provides the capability to use different physical models such as incompressible or compressible, inviscid or viscous, laminar or turbulent, etc. Geometry and grid generation is done using GAMBIT which is the preprocessor bundled with FLUENT. Lets take a quick look about how we are going to learn FLUENT by a free Tutorial.

Each tutorial begins with a problem specification. A solution can be obtained by following these nine steps:

1. Create Geometry in GAMBIT
2. Mesh Geometry in GAMBIT
3. Set Boundary Types in GAMBIT
4. Set Up Problem in FLUENT
5. Solve!
6. Analyze Results
7. Refine Mesh

These steps appear at the top of each page of the tutorial with the current step highlighted in red.

These tutorials have been developed by the Swanson Engineering Simulation Program in the Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Cornell University. The Swanson Engineering Simulation Program has been established with the goal of integrating computer-based simulations into the mechanical engineering curriculum. The development of these tutorials is being supported by a Faculty Innovation in Teaching award from Cornell University. You may not become a Master at this point, But its good start to learn this type of software for a beginner.

Some of the other useful CFD resources are:

- CFD online : CFD Books and Guides,CFD jobs,CFD Online Discussion Forum

- The Central : CFD References,Finite Element,CFD Projects,Simulations, CFD Links

- Predictive Engineering : LS Dyna,FEMAP,NX Nastran Free Download and Resources