What CFD Program should I use?
 

Hello!
I am new to CFD and I need to model a slack moored heaving buoy with realistic waves in deep ocean. Basically all I need is a program that models something buoyant on the ocean that I can arbitrarily apply external forces to it. Could anyone be able to help me find a CFD program I could simulate this in? In my search I found that Star CCM+ could do it, but looking around on the web the costs seem forbiddingly expensive. This is for my masters and I dont have much to spend, and I really dont need all of the hundreds of other features that come with it. What other alternatives are there out there?

Thank you so much in advance.

Hi, I think Ansys Aqwa is meant for mooring calculations, wave modelling and offshore stuff in general. Maybe you can contact your local Ansys supplier for detailed information.

Cheers,
Michujo.

EDIT: Ansys licenses are expensive though...

Hello,
my name is Mihael and will be visiting this forum more often as I am writing my bacc. thessis. I have data sets in txt containing time series and mean values of wind velocitity in a wind tunnel. I would like to plot the results (contour plots for example). Can you suggest me the programs that would be good for such an application. Thank you.
Mihael

Hi,
Mihael,I think that you can do what you want with only gnuplot, but if you have the time check ParaView. It is a powerful program to look on cfd results or so.
For the late one you will maybe need to change the input file that you have, in a different format like, " .csv " maybe.

frownless, it is maybe a silly suggestion of mine but I think that you should contact CD-adapco, i.e. StarCCM+. Maybe they are able to give you a license for only a small amount of time, reducing this way the cost. You never know.

Thanks,
rick

You make look into using OpenFOAM for this. There is a bit of a steep learning curve at the beginning, but it is a very powerful program. Best of all, it is free to use.

Thanks guys, I will check out this OpenFOAM, sounds like a good idea!

Mihael, you should be able to do that with literally any plotting tool or code. If you have access to Mathematica I would recommend it because what it lacks in efficiency it makes up for in slick looking plots. Otherwise matlab or python can do a pretty good contour.