sci.physics.computational.fluid-dynamics

> with a description like this we cannot help you. can you give a more
> elaborate description of your problem, e.g. flow in a channel, flow
> around a body, is the body moving, deforming; compressible/
> incompressible, viscous/inviscid, etc.


hey, really appreciate you taking time with this, i might be hard to
understand, im not that familiar with much of the terminology of CFD;

to answer some questions;

im avoiding specifics, because this relates to multiple ideas, and
would take too long to go into, and im really just looking for some
general advice and up-to date info, i don't expect someone to do it
for me!

anyway, this comes from me thinking that maybe vortex modeling has
become a lot more advanced, which comes from stuff i've heard about
the improved understanding of the flight of birds, etc.

what im doing is looking at the possibility of modeling a couple of
ideas relating to energy transfer, fluid (pressure/kinetic) to/from
mechanical, based on the guess that vortexes might have some untapped
potential in this area, because of their non-linear nature. ive got
some experience with fluid mechanics, but haven't had any/much success
with CFD, but the systems im looking at now, are too speculative to be
developed on a suck-it-and-see basis, also ive quite a bit of
experience with software/programming (currently using Python/Java/msil/
Boo, windows and linux.).

anyway, this means im looking for a CFD system that can;

accurately models vortexes, (this seems to me to be the hard bit.)

allows complex 'solid' surfaces.

allows fixed 'driving' pressures/flow rates, to be flexible setup
within the system.

doesn't need to have thermal transfer to/from the surfaces, ie the
surfaces can be assumed to be infinite thermal insulators.

might not need thermal transfer within the fluid (adiabatic), because
of reasonably high speeds, i think its the vortexes that count, but
its hard to tell, without modeling it!

no need for all 3 dimensions, since im interested in designs with
symmetry along one axis, ie no fluid flow along one axis, and also
there is generally linear or rotary spacial repetition, so a system
capable of defining a pair of lines (in 2D) where the properties of
the fluid are mirrored, would also save a lot of unnecessary repeat
calculation.

allows some surfaces to respond to the pressure applied with basic
rigid body dynamics, eg move,( constrained linearly and/or
rotationally), accelerate, and ideally damped, (obviously required for
any energy transfer.), BTW the systems im interested in are repeating,
ie are cyclic engines, so although not steady state, are limited in
time, and so have fluid properties that are mirrored at the ends of
the cycle, quite like the spacial repetition, but unlike it, only
needs to be for the complete system.