Abstract
Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) models are being rapidly integrated into applications across all sciences and engineering. CFD harnesses the power of computers to solve the equations of fluid dynamics, which otherwise cannot be solved analytically except for very particular cases. Numerical solutions can be interpreted through traditional quantitative techniques as well as visually through qualitative snapshots of the flow data. As pictures are worth a thousand words, in many cases such visualizations are invaluable for understanding the fluid system. Unfortunately, vast mathematical knowledge is required to develop one’s own CFD software and commercial software options are expensive and thereby may be inaccessible to many potential practitioners. To that extent, CFD materials specifically designed for undergraduate education are limited. Here we provide an open-source repository, which contains numerous popular fluid solvers in 2 D (projection, spectral, and Lattice Boltzmann), with full implementations in both MATLAB and Python3. All output data is saved in the . v t k format, which can be visualized (and analyzed) with open-source visualization tools, such as VisIt or ParaView. Beyond the code, we also provide teaching resources, such as tutorials, flow snapshots, measurements, videos, and slides to streamline use of the software.
Highlights
Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) models are being applied to problems across all sciences and engineering
Rather than develop a collection of modules that teach how to implement particular CFD numerical schemes, we offer the scientific community a variety of popular fluid solvers that solve traditional problems in fluid dynamics, with two independent but equal implementations written in MATLAB and Python
In this work we provide software that was developed for the specific purpose to make CFD accessible to undergraduate students in order to provide them an opportunity to perform traditional and contemporary CFD simulations as a valuable learning experience
Summary
Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) models are being applied to problems across all sciences and engineering. From designing more aerodynamic sportswear and vehicles, to understanding animal locomotion, to personalized medicine, to disease transmission, and to predicting hurricanes and atmospheric phenomena, it is difficult to find situations where greater knowledge of the underlying fluid dynamics isn’t desired or valuable. Due to its immense importance, many scientists have dedicated their careers to the field, whether they study particular fluid phenomena or develop tools, either experimental or numerical, for other scientists and engineers to use. CFD allows us to solve these equations, the Navier-Stokes equations, which are the equations that detail the conversation of momentum and mass for a fluid. Viscous fluid, they can be written as follows, ρ
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