There are a lot of tool options for three-dimensional viscous analysis. Since this email could easily become one long, mind-numbing list, I’ll touch on just a few of the options out there.
Full disclosure, out of this list I’ve only personally used ANSYS Fluent—all other info is what I’ve gleaned through researching these tools for my own use and from talking to colleagues. If you have a correction to something I say, or your own experience to share, I would genuinely appreciate hearing from you.
Industry Heavyweights: ANSYS Fluent and STAR-CCM+
These two software suites are more or less the industry standard for aerospace CFD, and for good reason. They have user-friendly utilities for your entire CFD workflow, including meshing and post-processing. The software itself is also very powerful and versatile, able to handle complex multi-body and/or transient simulations.
Fluent has plenty of learning material available for improving your skills, and experts to answer more specific questions and help troubleshoot problems. In my previous work, this turned out to be extremely helpful. I’d assume STAR-CCM+ would provide a similar level of support.
The main downside is that you have to shell out for all that capability and support: accurate pricing is hard to find, but expect to pay five figures for a single one-year license. Both companies also offer cloud computing services, which is helpful if you don’t want to go to the trouble of setting up your own cluster or need extra resources on occasion.
You really can’t go wrong with either choice—provided the cost is worth the benefits.
Open-Source Wrappers
The CFD tools in this category that I’ve come across are Airshaper and SimScale, but there are likely many more. These tools use open-source software called OpenFOAM as their solver—this is a free, rigorously-tested CFD code that is widely used for both commercial and academic purposes.
Why would you pay for a CFD tool built on a solver that’s available entirely free? It’s because for all its flexibility, I would argue OpenFOAM is not user friendly, especially not for CFD newcomers. By default it has no user interface the way Fluent and STAR-CCM+ do; you need to interact with it directly via the code.
You also need to find other utilities for making your geometry and meshing it. What you save in money, you pay for in time and effort. This may or may not be worth it to you.
These “wrapper” tools thus provide viable alternatives while still using OpenFOAM’s solver. Both Airshaper and SimScale cover the full CFD workflow in a friendly user interface. They also are web-based and use cloud computing resources, so you don’t need to worry about sourcing your own. The best part is they’re notably cheaper than the industry heavyweights while still providing the computing power you need.
My main concern with these sorts of tools is data privacy and security. Given they are cloud-based options, they may or may not be ITAR-compliant—this can be a dealbreaker for some companies and projects. If this is top-of-mind for you, I’d highly recommend speaking directly with the companies providing these tools to get the most accurate info.