Calculate flow
 

I want to calculate the flow in a pipeline. I need numerical approach like Finite Element Method, Finite Volume Method, Finite Difference Method or Method of Characteristics.

Please, could you advise me what is the better method to use?

Thanks

Method of Characteristics is difficult to apply to a dissipative problem like viscous flows (it's very hard to find the characteristics).

For a regular cartesian grid, finite differencing is doable. For irregular grids also doable but there might be pain in some parts of your body.

For grids with funny cell shapes you need to be using either Finite Element / Finite Volume method. It's hard to discretize the problem for grids with funny shapes using the other methods.

There are fair reasons to choose FEM vs FVM, for example FVM results in a sparse system, which you can exploit with certain algorithms but it also has some drawbacks.

Fluent is based on Finite Volume Method.