new to CFD
 

Hi there,

I am new to the world of CFD. I have always been interested in fluids and have no decided that I am going to attempt to learn some techniques of CFD. I have no qualifications on the subject, and am purely self taught in math and physics, so please bear with me! :)

I have done much searching on google, and to be honest I feel quite lost at where to start. There is a huge amount of information that is almost impossible for me to decipher. I would like to learn the math/physics behind the fluid equations (Boltzmann, Navier Stokes etc) and then be able to mesh the results to view in a 3D application.

The only problem is I have no idea of where to start. I have a strong understanding of linear algebra, intermediate calculus and physics. I am very keen to learn everything necessary that I already lack. All I need is a little help on the basic questions I have, which I was hoping could be found here.

The questions I have are (please try to put in laymans terms):

1) What methods are there related to CFD? I know LBM is one, what about the others? SPH? FEM? FVM?
2) How is visualization done? Marching cubes etc? Level sets?
3) Representation of data? Particles?

It's a little hard for me to dive straight into learning the math/physics without having a basic idea of how to put the whole thing together, hence the above questions! Once I have a better idea of how the process works, then I can start on the math/physics.

I have built a simple marching cubes application before, but have never used level sets before, and only have a very basic idea the LS method.

Basically I want to start building an application that achieves basically what this application does: http://www.realflow.com/ - I have read that Realflow uses the SPH method.

I will not be attempting to build something like realflow, but would rather just like to learn a little about how fluids are made (from simluation to meshing). That's my new hobby, and I hope to learn some cool stuff!

I look forward to any replies!

Thanks!

Hello there! Quiet forum hey?

If you are new to CFD you can try some of the "beginners" books:

J. D. Anderson - Computational Fluid Dynamics the basics with applications
H. Versteeg , W. Malalasekra - An Introduction to Computational Fluid Dynamics: The Finite Volume Method

Do

Thanks for the reply DoHandler!

Ok, for an absolute beginner, which do you suggest? They are pretty pricey books :(

Could you attempt to give me a brief explanation of the FVM? How does this compare to SPH, which to my understanding seems much simpler?

Thanks!

The first one is my suggestion, probably you can find the book in a library or you can buy a used one from Internet.

Do

Thanks DoHander!

So you can't really attempt to answer my question on SPH vs FVM?

Thanks!

I suppose you can find by yourself some links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finite_volume_method
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoothe..._hydrodynamics

If you search the Internet you will find a lot of good tutorials or course notes on CFD, this is the best I can do.

Do

Thanks DoHander, I did look on Wiki.

Will see if I can find that book!

Thanks!