Development as CFD Engineer - advice required
 

Hello everyone,

I'm new to the forum, I'd like to ask You guys a question.

I have just started professional career as a CFD engineer. I have got some experience with cars aerodynamics and STAR-CCM+ already, basically almost 3 years. My biggest goal is to become CFD specialist and if You could provide me with some kind of advice, then I would be more than happy.

I'd like to constantly grow and after work, in my free time I want to keep developing in CFD. What area would You suggest me to put my time into? Should I learn OpenFOAM? Maybe read some particular books/publications? Maybe buy some courses? How should I adjust myself to current trends in CFD growth.

All advices are very welcome, maybe we can start some kind of discussion here..

Best regards

If you want to develop CFD in the future then yes I highly recommend learning OpenFOAM or something like it. Note that this doesn't necessarily mean you need to learn C++. OpenFOAM is nice because it's open and available. It took me a really long time to learn how to use OpenFOAM but after I did, I liked the expressions in FOAM as a language. AVBP and SU2 also come to mind.


What's good about FOAM is it's much easier to see under the hood. In Star-CCM (or any commercial code) you can't see these details of what a solver or anything is doing. In FOAM it's much visible what needs to be done. Digging thru the c++ is still a pain but the key steps can be seen without going there.


I would not spend money on courses.


Reading is always a good idea of course. I don't have any specific recommendations. Books tend to not reflect current (practical) trends well. You can find a lot of cool implementations in papers if you have a specific application in mind.