Hello, I am a 14 year old junior high student doing massive research on CFD and related fluid dynamics. I think i might be in over my head, but i am pretty adept at running software programs{wrote my own}. well then, i am looking for SOME software{nothing NASA or IMECFD or anything like that written} that will give me data based on a windtunnel. Like, gas at 15km/h around a model such as lets say a normal road cycle, it could give statistics{any right now at the stage im at} like co-efficient drag, watts etc. i dont know if any program does exist or if what im saying even makes sense to any of you. ANY feedback would be greatly appreciated!!!!! if you feel up to it, you can email me at putzy101@yahoo.com

Dear Steven Putz

It might hurt you but I would like to say that CFD is not a game. Here, I am assuming that you are very bright student but not a genius.

I do not believe that 14 year old student can do something by CFD. Many people say that CFD is only a tool, but CFD is not a game. Of course he can run CFD software if he is skillful with other softwares or maybe game like starcraft. However, he has to have deep(at least, basic) knowledge about fluid mechanics, thermodynamics, mathematics and so on in order to interpret the result of CFD. Most of all, he should understand the basic phenomena of fluid flow. If not so, the result is just a set of number and graphics like cartoon.

Maybe I should apologize to you someday if you are a real genius. I hope that this meaasge does not hurt you.

Best regards, Jinwook

steven, i see you are an ambitious man. however i think you are over your head. like Jin Wook i don't think you would be able to use a cfd software package in a meaningful way. most of the posters to this group have degrees in engineering and as you can see even they have problems obtaining useful results from Cfd programs.

from what i understand you're trying to get some idea of the aerodynamics of a bicycle (or motorcycle?). anyhow you can try the following page which has links to pages dealing with aerodynamics in general and some to do with bicycles in particular. the webpage is: http://www.princeton.edu/~gasdyn/Flu...nks/teach.html some of the links are especially for younger students like yourself and i suppose you can move up from there. it is better for you to concentrate on the physics (ie the fluid dynamics) rather than the computational fluid dynamics. right know you can think of CFD as something that produces flow pictures but don't worry about how it works.

so i think your project should about fluid mechanics and not so much CFD. I'm sure the links i've given you will have some experiments you can try for your project, or you may be able to think up some on your own. give me an email to tell me what you think.

Hello Steven,

I think you may find easy demonstrative softwares on this internet site in the software/free download part and play with them. I should be ok for a little presentation on "what produces a cfd-software?".

I don't think the people before me understood your question. Your presentation could be interesting to show "Are the mathematics I learn at 14 y.o. useful?" (homothetie, 3D geometry with vectors, polynoms,...). The answer is not obvious when you are 14 in front of the blackboard all day long...

Try to compare what you are doing in your school and what is used in engineer work: comparing to the french schools (13-16 years old) programs there are things to say. Inclusions, geometry for the meshes, aeras, projections...thoses basis are important for CFD and the use of the software (even ICEMCFD)....

Good Luck, jy