Hi,

For the introduction of my Graduation project I have to give soma basic information about CFD codes, list some major commercial codes (the best codes) and compare "Fluent" with other codes. Also I have to write some considerations about the capabilities of the CFD codes, make comments what CFD can do and cannot do.

Did anybody know an online resource for these spesific questions? Or can you give some answers? Which codes are better and why?

There are a lot of CFD-codes, oppened and closed. To do a comparison of a CFD code just like that ummm.... it is supposed to compare results based on different numerical schemes, approaches etc. That's science, no to comparing just a CFD code. Most of the commertial CFD codes have the possibility to add your own schemes, solutions, etc.

The best approach is for you to ask for information doc to CFX, StarCD etc. They usually list tables of properties. You can also scan the other forums, and make your opinion on who does what and how.

I had to do something similar some month ago. I found it usefull to go on the 'list of sponsor' of this site and have a look at all the product. Good information is available on the web-pages.

Steve

"Which codes are better and why?"

All of the commercial codes have their strengths and weaknesses, so "better" is rather arbitrary and depends highly on your specific application. Most companies will freely talk about their strengths, but they will gloss over, ignore, or flat out lie about their weaknesses. You will need to dig into their formulation as well as talk with actual users to figure out the weaknesses.

http://www.asme.org/divisions/fed/ne...r/cfdcodes.pdf

Praveen,

This comparison is quite outdated!!!!! These codes have changed (have been improved ¿?) notably since then...

Gorka

Thanks for pointing it out. I am sure 8 years is a pretty long time in the CFD world. Are there any recent comparison studies similar to that ?

Hi,

The book "Computation of Unsteady Internal Flows" by Paul G. Tucker (Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2001) includes a fairly good schematic comparison of these codes:

FLOTHERM

FLUENT 4 and 5

FLOTRAN

FIDAP

CFX 4, 5 and TASCflow

PHOENICS/HOTBOX

STAR-CD

Regarding to:

Discretization technique

Nature of grids

Varible position (staggered or not)

Convective terms treatment

Pressure treatment

Turbulence Models

Equations solvers

Time differencing schemes

Adaptive time stepping?

Moving grid Capability?

Free surface modelling capabilities

I think it shows 2000-2001 situation ...

Best Regards,

Gorka

There are also regular conferences like the meeting that was haeld end of 2002, beginning of 2003 in Poitiers, France, on turbulence...