multiphase CFD analysis melting icebergs
 

We are two undergraduate engineering students, and we want to simulate the melting of icebergs as a project.

We need to have our model shrink continuously according to the heat transfer from the iceberg, and we heard that OpenFOAM perhaps would be the way to go.

We are both running windows and are unfamiliar with linux, so just getting OpenFOAM installed has been quite a hassle, so we want to be sure it's the right way to go before we put in a lot of work just creating basic simulations.

Is OpenFOAM the only/best way to create simulations with phasechange, and would you recommend any solvers that we might use? or do we need to create our own solver in order to simulate the problem?

We are running OpenFOAM through bash on Ubuntu on Windows in a terminal, which is not very user friendly - is it possible to download some kind of user interface which let us operate in OpenFOAM on windows in a more user friendly environment?

Any other tips would be much appreciated!

Hello guys and welcome to the forum. My suggestion is to post your question under the openFOAM section where foamers can take care of you.

Generally speaking I have a question for you. Why do you want to bang your head against this probelm? I mean, just reading what you are writing, you are undergrad students, not very familiar with cfd and linux enviroment. Isn't that true? Thus, why do you not invest your time in doing something more affordable where you can learn the basis and increase your knowledege step by step?

Modern built-in solvers let you think that diffucult problems can be solved with no pain, but unfortunately is not like that. You need experience and a deep knowledge of what you are doing! Your problem seems to be very challenging with a coupled physics, requiring multiphase models, heat transfer and more... I think that you are going to face something bigger than you :)

If you like this type of problems, you can change a bit your target. For example there is a lot of research on icing or melting of a droplet. You will find a lot of data to compare and it is a problem not trivial at all. You will maintain a large part of the physics but at the same time you will have a problem much more affordable that you can really understand and get done. Think about this.

In any case you will find a gui for openFoam (it is called helix as far i remember) but few people is using that. Try to use openFoam as it comes, install a linux virtual machine in windows and you will have a chance to learn linux! :)

Please take this as a suggestion and not as a criticism! Good luck!

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