Which CFD commercial package is suited to simulating supersonic flows?

Start with a requirement to have a coupled solver, which rules out STAR-CD immediately.

Now you have Fluent, STAR-CCM+, CFX and some others.

If you want a solver that can increase the mesh density in the vicinity of shock waves automatically instead of you stopping the calculation and fiddling around yourself, the list is going to get rather short rather quickly.

Alternatively, punch "commercial CFD codes" or something similar into google and filter the list down. Initially you will get between 50 and maybe up to 150 different codes on the internet list(s). You will find;

1. Some code vendors are now deceased, taken over and absorbed into another code. 2. Some are academic codes for sale out of some university, for which user support is likely to be lousy. I.e. via a Ph.D. student who would rather be doing something else. 3. Many are niche codes for specific applications and are not useful to you at all. 4. Can you get a pirate version? If not the company is to too small to be worth bothering with. License that product and you may be their only customer. I am not suggesting you actually proceed with buying a license from some thief elsewhere on the planet.

By now your list is usually down to under a dozen, from which the serious contenders stand out.

Now look for published papers on the net where these codes were applied. How well did the results stack up against test work? A good point here is to look at the mesh, was it appropriate for the work done?

Once your list is down to no more than four pick up the phone and call them.

Do not believe all that spin, marketing and bull out their. Get some customer references and call them, but remember these references are friends of the CFD vendors. Sometimes too friendly.

Finally, salesmen are all vultures, but they only peck at your money bag.

Regards and have fun in your quest for a useful product,

Peter