Best OSS CFD Package For High School Physics? 105
RobHart writes "I am teaching a 'physics of flight' unit to grade 11 Physics students. Part of the unit will have the students running tests on several aerofoils in a wind tunnel. I also want to expose them to a Computational Fluid Dynamics package which will allow them to contrast experimental results with those produced by the CFD package. There are a number of open source CFDs available (Windows- or Linux-based are both fine), but I don't have much time to evaluate which are the simplest to use in terms of setting up the mesh, initial conditions, etc. — a very important issue as students do not have much time in this unit." Can anyone offer insight about ease of use for programs in this niche?
Too Complicated (Score:5, Insightful)
Good idea, but very hard to do well... (Score:4, Insightful)
I like the idea of exposing your students to CFD packages, particularly the variation between experimental results & results off of a theoretical model. My concern would be that mastering a CFD package (or even become a basic user of one) is pretty time consuming. As others have pointed out you usually don't touch CFD packages until late undergrad or grad school.
Consider building the models yourself and running them as a demonstration rather than asking your students: They get the benefits of seeing what the software can do & being able to reference the theoretical data generated, but won't have to deal with the frustration/learning curve of CFD software.
If there's an interest you can offer an extra credit project where students design (or modify) a mesh & report the results.
Re:Too Complicated (Score:1, Insightful)
I agree. Not only is CFD complicated, running experiments properly and analyzing experimental results are hard. What I fear is, you will end up asking them to contrast improperly measured results from a poorly run set of experiments against some computer output none of them has any understanding of. But the lesson learned is still going to be valuable, experimental and computational physics are hard.
Re:Too Complicated (Score:5, Insightful)
Similarly, no one has ever gotten good at baseball without first earning a PhD in ballistics.
Re:Learning vs Exposure (Score:3, Insightful)
Unless they're learning something about *how* the model generates the results -- which takes a lot of explaining even if you minimize the formula use -- all they'll get out of it is:
"Magic computer gives magic results that we compare to some experiment."
The most important thing to impart on the students is not any fact itself, but that nature is not magic, that we use models to understand and predict nature, and that you can learn how the models actually work if you try.
Since they won't have the time to learn how the CFD software works, even at the pseudocode level, I don't see this as being a very helpful demonstration.
Now, in a perfect system, students would have all the background to jump right in to CFD by age 16, but we don't have one, and I don't think that this school is an exception.
Re:Too Complicated (Score:5, Insightful)
Yep. Neither of them. No place that uses CFD as part of the job is going to accept anyone who isn't a certified engineer with extensive training in its use.
Entirely irrelevant and wasteful answer. (Score:5, Insightful)
I would imagine that the instructor has already decided that the topic would match the students. If it were a regular level course, then it's likely he'd show a video on the topic and it would be good enough. Instead he's chosen to broach the math involved by attempting to simulate a fluid dynamics scenario.
In short, instead of assisting the teacher in his attempt to try and broaden the minds of ambitious youngsters, it almost appears that you're simply recommending that he stops doing his job, packs up and maybe instead teaches ABCs and 123s.
Let's face it, if he's a teacher who is "qualified" to teach a topic like computational fluid dynamics, I'd imagine that he wasn't hired to teach just the average "who gives a shit" student. There are enough useless teachers who wouldn't bother out there already. This guy at least makes the effort of trying to figure out how he can best accomplish the task of teaching a complex subject.
Please don't EVER!!!! stop an ambitious teacher from attempting to educate ambitious students in the future. Especially not under the premise of suggesting that it shouldn't be done.