Best resources to get started in CFD
 

Hello, I've recently become interested in CFD as a field, but honestly I'm pretty lost.. I'm thinking of going to college for an engineering degree but would ultimately like to get into some kind of CFD graduate program. Any tips from the veterans out there for a youngin like myself?

Thanks, glad I found this community!

-Fenrir

Hi Fenrir.. I am also a beginner in CFD but I have been doing FSI for my final year project last time in uni, and I will be doing CFD thing also in my current job..

Although CFD is a computational thing, you will still need strong fluid, math and a bit of programming to start with..

So I suggest do learn the basic from the fluid courses, math (especially numerical analysis??) and also from programming course..

Then you can move on to read the book by J.D Anderson or J.H. Ferziger to start learning CFD..

Haha, thats my opinion, maybe the experts here can suggest more?

Here are some readings for gettings to grips with the basics and to continue on with some more advanced stuff.

===Fluid dynamics===

Fundamentals of aerodynamics - J.D. Anderson
Viscous Flows - F. White

===Semi-advanced fluid dynamics===

A modern course in aeroelasticity - Clark, Cox & Curtis
Turbulence modelling for CFD - D.C. Wilcox
Turbulent flows - S.B. Pope

===CFD===

Computational methods for fluid dynamics - J.H. Ferziger
Turbulence modelling for CFD - D.C. Wilcox

===Semi-advanced CFD===

Computational fluid mechanics and heat transfer - Pletcher, Tannehil & Anderson
Finite volume method for hyperbolic problems - R.J. Leveque
Large eddy simulation for incompressible flows - P. Sagaut

===Math===

Linear algebra and its applications - D.C. Lay
Calculus: Early transcedentals - J. Stewart
Elementary differential equations and boundary value problems - Boyce & DiPrima

===Semi-advanced math===

Applied partial differential equation - R. Haberman
Nonlinear differential equations and dynamical systems - F. Verhulst

I suggest Patankar's book
http://www.cfd-online.com/Books/show_book.php?book_id=8
as a good starting point for the novice. Short, clear and simple (and after reading it you'll notice the double meaning of simple here...). Although the label is about heat transfer, the approach is much more general.

Yes everything good has been said above ! I would just suggest
http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-C.../dp/0131274988
(I'm not working for amazon ;-) )
This book is great as it covers very general background needed in CFD plus a complete description of the finite volume method which is the state of the art in CFD and in a very accessible way

Indeed, this is great book and teaches fundamentals of CFD. I personally found it very useful.

I totally agree. Easy to understand and a lot of examples. Sometimes there could be some more description between the equations and it doesn't cover much "real" cases. But it's great for the basics.