would anyone buy sola-vof at that price
 

Hello, just simple info on topic of old software. I requested sola-vof software at ESTSC, because I was told I can get it for a small fee. Well the price is 1700 US$. Is this a small fee? I wonder if they sold any of this software lately. I doubt it.

Regards Zane Joze

Re: would anyone buy sola-vof at that price
 

Is this the 2-d or the 3-d version?

Is it the "official" Los Alamos release?

What does ESTSC stand for?

I would agree that $1,700 US is a pretty stiff price for some text files and a photo copy of the original report.

On the other hand, if the code has been 'modernized' and the resulting package is available, it might be money well spent.

Before retiring from the Oak Ridge National Lab, I published (see James E. Park, "VOLVOF: An Update of the CFD Code, SOLA-VOF," Oak Ridge National Laboratory Report ORNL/TM-1999-292, December, 1999) some work in 'modernizing' a version of SOLA-VOF. You might check (www.ornl.gov) to see if that's available. You could also check with the Los Alamos National Lab (http://gnarly.lanl.gov/Home.html).

Re: would anyone buy sola-vof at that price
 

(1). Even though the code(s) is necessary in doing CFD, I don't think that the government should apend tax payer's money in creating code(s) or modifying code(s). (2). New methods development is encouraged, but not definitely not a modified old code(s). (3). At each new generation, there are different ways to write the software, different machine architectures to use. So, the methods and the results are more appropriate to do, instead of creating some kind of Egyptian Pyramids. (4). If one can not explain the methods or the algorithms clearly in a couple of pages, then it is a black box. (5). A black box is something which people like to sell. Once it becomes a merchandise, the original author's reputation is no longer there.

Re: would anyone buy sola-vof at that price
 

Well John,

In this case, NASA paid LANL (specifically Tony Hirt) to develop the code for their purposes.

And a colleague at ORNL paid me to modify the code to do a computation that he needed to interpret an experiment. Some of the modifications were to change boundary conditions that NASA had evidently ordered as hard-wired.

Both jobs were going to be done somewhere, by someone. I would argue that in both cases the client got his money's worth.

Re: would anyone buy sola-vof at that price
 

If you want something for nothing then I believe that you can download Sussman's old Levelset code for free...

I personally would not pay anything for Sola-Vof. The VOF algorithms are completely out of date...

But then again it depends on your application...

Re: would anyone buy sola-vof at that price
 

It's a 2D version. I guess it's original. Well it's been modified to work on CDC7600 Computer in 1986. ESTSC stands for Energy Science and Technology Software Center; United States Department of Energy (signed Walt Kelly). Another thing. You know you can get a print version of program in one of the LA reports for free. Perhaps is one version somewhere on the internet where you can get it for free and you can always say that you have retyped it from the report. Or is it even illegaly to retyped it?

Zane

Re: would anyone buy sola-vof at that price
 

Dear Sr.(Ms.)

Are the 1.44MB diskette out of date because you have DVDs, CDs, or ZIPs to port your data? That is sure you will allways can use a diskette reader/writer on your PC.

Do you have DVD (CD) recorder or a ZIP unit completely functional on you PC (under Linux of course)? If so, it means you have resources, some computational skills or a good system manager, if not you can allways port your sources in a diskette, even if you have to split them.

I hope you understand if you are clever enough to hide your name.

How many VOF algorithm have you used Sr.? Have you see that the "Journal of Fluid Mechanics" and "Physics of Fluids" still publish papers/results developed by using this technique.

Kike