A CFD preprocessor unifying fluid/thermal simulation specifications

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) seeks to simulate the phenomena of fluid flow using computers. As this field has advanced in recent decades, many different algorithms and codes have resulted, making comparative evaluations difficult. As a step to remedy this situation, a preprocessor has been modified and extended that can efficiently instruct a variety of two-dimensional incompressible-thermal Navier-Stokes codes. Using more efficient data input streaming and handling, the size of the program has been reduced by 40% while significantly enhancing its capabilities. Utilities are included to enable computation of multiple solutions that speed iterative convergence for large Reynolds and Grashof number flows. The user easily constructs a computational grid using an algebraic macro domain procedure, for either cartesian or curved-sided quadrilaterals. Boundary conditions include walls, symmetry planes, inlets, and outlets, each definable using a minimum of physical data. Operation of the preprocessor program is explained herein with several illustrative examples.