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Links - Software

Software related to CFD. This section is a mix of real links and meta links. Only particularly interesting things are linked directly. If you want a more comprehensive overview you should follow the meta links. To suggest a link to be included in this section please use the online link suggestion form. You are of course also welcome to contact us directly via email at webmaster@cfd-online.com.

Contents:


Fluid Dynamics

CFD-Wiki Codes Page [GOOD]
A list of free and commercial codes. Fairly complete, but not always correct and up to date. You can correct any misstakes you find yourself!
MGNet Code Repository
Multigrid related software packages.
Downloadable Software, Aerodynamics and Design
A collection of programs for analysis and design of wings etc. By Dr. W. Mason, Viriginia Tech. Nice!
Public Domain Aeronautical Software
Sells a CD with a collection of public domain aeronautical programs.

Selected Codes

Below follows a list of free CFD codes.
OpenFOAM [GOOD]
OpenFOAM is a general purpose open-source CFD code. OpenFOAM is written in C++ and uses an object oriented approach which makes it easy to extend. The package includes modules for a wide range of applications. FOAM was written by Henry Weller and others at Imperial College. For a few years FOAM was sold as a commercial code by their company Nabla. However, in 2004 they decided to release the code under GPL and rename it to OpenFOAM. OpenFOAM was distributed by their OpenCFD company for a number of years, but in 2011 SGI bought OpenCFD. SGI then sold OpenCFD and the OpenFOAM trademark to ESI Group in 2012. Henry and his OpenCFD team left ESI Group in 2015 and started their own company CFD Direct. The main link above is to the OpenCFD+ version distributed by ESI. In addition, there is an OpenFOAM Foundation version. There is also a separate Foam-extend version created by Hrvoje Jasak and a group of volunteers. Hrvoje was Technical Director for Nabla and maintains a separate fork. OpenFOAM is a very capable code which you definitely should check out if you are looking for a state-of-the-art CFD code with source-code access.
SU2 [GOOD]
The Stanford University Unstructured (SU2) suite is an open-source collection of software tools written in C++ for solving PDE's and performing optimization problems. This initiative was launched in January 2012. The software is developed very quickly and there is an active SU2 forum here on CFD Online, which is actively followed by the SU2 developers.
PyFR [GOOD]
A new open-source CFD code developed by the Vincent Lab at Imperial College. PyFR is a Python based framework using Flux Reconstruction and Explicit Runge-Kutta time integration. PyFR can use GPGPU hardware. If you try PyFR please let us know what you think about it.
Code_Saturn [GOOD]
A quickly developing code from EDF with full source code access. We haven't tried it, but it looks promising. Please give us your feedback if you try it.
FEniCS
An open-source package for computational mathematical modeling. Has some functionality to solve Navier-Stokes. Looks very nice. FEniCS is being developed very quickly and can become very interesting for CFD people. FEniCS and its sister projects are used extensively in education.
Gerris Flow Solver
An open-source CFD code for incompressible flow. Focused on marine and ocean flow applications. Looks nice and well documented.
Palabos
An open source software library for lattice Boltzmann CFD simulations. Developed and distributed by the FlowKit company.
Overture
A large object-oriented C++ framework from LLNL for solving PDE's. Uses overlapping structured grids. This is a large research code for people who know how to install and compile things themselves.
Phoenics V 1.4 as Shareware
CHAM distributes old versions of Phoenics as shareware.
Clawpack
A free software package for conservation laws by Randall J. LeVeque.
OpenFVM
A free CFD solver distributed under GPL. Uses Gmsh for pre and post processing.
FEATFLOW
FEAT is a general purpose software system for solving PDEs with the finite element method. The system includes a lot of tools and an incompressible fluid-flow package called FEATFLOW. The software is available freely with source (F77) and the site has a lot of further information available online. The FEAT group are from the University of Heidelberg.
ISAAC
A compressible Euler/Navier-Stokes code written in F77. Developed mainly to test turbulence models. Worth a look if you want a code with advanced turbulence modeling (it has several two equation models, explicit ARSM models and full differential RSM models implemented).
Channelflow
A spectral Navier-Stokes simulator in C++. Comes with full source and documentation.
NaSt3DGP
A free CFD code with source code included. Uses finite volume discretization on a cartesian non-uniform staggered mesh, VONOS/SMART higher order upwind schemes and Adams-Bashforth time discretization. The code is parallelized with MPI and can handle complex geometries by a simple cell decomposition/enumeration technique.
TYCHO - TYrolian Computational HydrOdynamics
An open-source compressible hydrodynamics code written in C and parallelized with OpenMP. Uses a Lagrangian remap version of the Piecewise Parabolic Method developed by Paul Woodward and Phil Colella (1984). The code is based on the freely available VH-1 Package. Focused on wind-tunnel experiments with special routines for obstacles in wind-stream and advection of marker fields for investigating obstacle-gas interactions.
VH-1 (Virginia Hydrodynamics - 1)
A multidimensional ideal compressible hydrodynamics code written in Fortran. Based on the Lagrangian remap version of the Piecewise Parabolic Method (PPM).
QUICK 'n SIMPLE
A free 2D, laminar, incompressible CFD code based on the SIMPLE algorithm with QUICK interpolation. Only available in compiled format for Macintosh platforms.
OpenFlower
An open-source CFD code written in C++. Mainly focused on turbulent, unsteady and incompressible flow. Beta version released in 2005 but after that not much has happened (2011).
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Mesh Generation

Mesh Generation Software [GOOD]
A large list of public domain and commercial mesh generators. Maintained by Robert Schneiders as a part of the excellent Mesh Generation & Grid Generation on the Web site.
CEWES MSRC Grid Generation Software Catalog
A nice directory of grid generation software. Includes several common CFD grid-generators. They used to have reviews of many packages available online, but they seem to have removed the reviews now.

Selected Codes

Below follows a list of free mesh generators.
Gmsh
An automatic 3D finite element grid generator with a built-in CAD engine and post-processor.
enGrid
An open-source mesh generation software for CFD. enGrid uses the Netgen library for tetrahedral grid generation and an in-house developed method for prismatic boundary layer grids.
Netgen
An open-source tetrahedral grid generator. Not directly aimed at CFD.
Discretizer
A GPL based free interactive tool to generate geometry and create hexahedral meshes.
snappyHexMesh
A mesh generation tool supplied with OpenFOAM. Generates 3D hexahedral meshes using STL geometries.
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Visualization

We have only included a few CFD related visualization links here. For a more complete coverage you can start surfing from Wikipedia's page on Scientific visualzation. You can find more links, often broken, on the old sites Software for Graphics and Data Analysis, Yahoo - Visualization or in the SAL archives on Software Packages and Software Libraries. If you have suggestions on good CFD related visualization links to include here, please let us know.
ParaView [GOOD]
A state-of-the-art post-processor designed to be able to handle very large datasets. Distributed as open-source software. Can read both Ensight and Plot3D formats. Highly recommended!
VisIt [GOOD]
An open-source visualization package developed by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Looks nice.
OpenDX
A full-featured open-source scientific visualization package based on IBM's Visualization Data Explorer. OpenDX is a very capable package and it runs on most UNIX platforms. Highly recommended!
MayaVi Data Visualizer
A very nice & free scientific data visualizer. MayaVi is based on VTK and runs on Linux, most Unix'es, and Windows. Source code available.
Visualization Codes at MIT
pV3 and Visual3, developed for CFD. Some versions are free. This software is becoming old now. Not many people are looking for software intended for Unix workstations from SGI or DEC any more, but we will continue to link it for a while more.
VIGIE
VIGIE is a visualization packaged developed at INRIA. It supports X11. You can download the entire package for free. It also includes source code.
Se.La.Vi.
SciEntific LAb for VIsualization - a scientific data visualization package with an animation engine. Works on MS-Windows platforms. Free for academic and non-profit use.

Companies

Advanced Visual Systems, Inc.
Develops and sells AVS - a very big scientific visualization system.
Computational Engineering International, Inc.
Develops and sells EnSight - a software package for the visualization of simulation results.
Intelligent Light
Develops and sells Fieldview - a CFD postprocessor.
inVisu
Develops and sells VU - a CFD postprocessor.
Kitware, Inc.
Develops the open-source visualization tool ParaView.
NAG, The Numercial Algorithms Group, Ltd.
Develops and sells IRIS Explorer, a visualization system.
Tecplot, Inc.
The makers of Tecplot, a technical plotting and data visualization package.
VSG, Visualization Sciences Group
Develops and sells Avizo Wind - a 3D visualization software for simulation data.
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Commercial CFD Packages

We will not link all CFD vendors here. A good place to go if you are looking for a commercial CFD code is to check the list of CFD Online's sponsors. If you have any questions about CFD codes you are welcome to post them on the CFD Online Discussion Forums. These forums are monitored by most CFD code vendors. The links below are a few collections of CFD codes that can be found on the net. These are not complete and often not that up-to-date though.
CFD-Wiki Codes, Commercial
A fairly complete list of commercial CFD codes. You can update this page yourself if you find something incorrect or something missing. DO NOT ADVERTISE HERE!
CFD Codes List, Commercial Products
Links to many commercial CFD products. The list has not been updated for many years and is getting very old now.
COSMIC - NASA's Software Technology Transfer Center
Software information exchange between NASA and the public. Has an online catalog with more than 850 program abstracts. The codes usually cost money to get.
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