I apologise if this is off topic, but..

I wish to learn Fortran to develop my own CFD codes (initially something simple like 2D incompressible Navier Stokes). I'd be grateful for recommendations for good learning resources (books, online tutorials etc). I have spent some time searching the archives, and on the web, but there is a huge amount of info available to go through.

I was going to use the latest compiler from Intel, has anyone any experience with this, or recommendations of their own ?

Thank you, Simon.

Simon,

Don't bother with Fortran, it had its time in the CFD industry. Opt for c++ instead. Most commercial codes are heading in this direction in any way! Dont waste your time on the Fortran relic.

Lucas,

Thank you for your answer, much appreciated. I haven't any background in C, but some in F77. I'm shortly about to start an MSC in CFD and wish to develop my understanding by writing my own code. The Uni staff all use Fortran, and most if not all examples of code written for CFD that I have seen are in Fortran so I guess I'll have to use Fortran too. It's interesting what you say about commercial codes moving towards C++ though, I'll keep an eye on it.

Thanks,

Simon.

Yes, commercial codes use C++, but in general, then also write very generic codes. As far as I am aware, alot of very serious research is done using Fortran. Also, the language you use is, in my opinion, irrelevant from a learning point of view. You can pick up a language in a matter of weeks.

Thanks Ag, The feedback I've been getting so far suggests that a lot of people out there are using Fortran, so I guess I'll follow their lead !

Simon.

Fortran is fine for CFD. However I strongly suggest you learn Fortran 90 as it is a much more modern language than Fortran 77. A good beginning book is by Lahey and others(I forgot the other authors.) As fas a the Intel compiler goes I've used the free for non commercial use Linux Intel compiler and it produces very fast code. However it's debugging compiler options still leave a little bit to be desired. I usually debug my code using another compiler and then compile the "production" code using the Intel compiler.

Go head and learn Fortran. it is the best language for CFD. a lot of online material posed in F77 (like numerical recipies).