I am an undergraduate physics student (senior) looking for a free or inexpensive computer program for simulating fluid flow dynamics. My application involves using a fluid flow model to simulate interstellar media. I am relatively new to the field of fluid flow dynamics and to astronomy.

Any suggestions or help in this area would be tremendously appreciated.

Sincerely, Jon

Many commercial CFD companies give their codes to universities at very reduced prices. Go over to the Mech. Eng. department and see if they already have a licensed copy of any of the codes listed in these forums. If not, convince them that they should obtain one.

Steve,

Thank you for your suggestion. For my particular application, I just may wind up coding it by hand rather than relying on a particular package. Once again, I appreciated the response when no one else seemed to want to bother with a novice in this field.

Sincerely, Jon

Hi Jon,

Don't think that no one not want to help. I re-read your message and the "interstellar media" seems to put people off. What does it represent and could the Navier-Stokes equations be used to model it?

If you want to find some free CFD code with source, you can try on sourceforge.net.

Sorry not to be able to help more. Julien

You are welcome. I think you should reconsider writing it yourself though. You need a mesh generator, plotting, and the solver. Why reinvent all those things yourself when its not your primary focus? Its up to you of course.

Steve

I agree with the abocve; no need to re-invent the wheel. Rather you should think in terms of new contribution to your field and make use of available technology to develop your specialist contribution on top of it. I think it would be very difficult for one person to produce a top mesher and solver (to the the level of what is available) AND develop new complex physical models.