5 Best Free Flow Simulation Software For Windows

Here is a list of best free flow simulation software for Windows. These software help you simulate the flow of water and other types of fluids. In this list, you can find various different types of flow simulators. In some flow simulators, you can change the type of fluids (water, gasoline, honey, etc.) and create different scenarios by changing the simulation and fluid parameters. Plus, tools to measure fluid flow speed, fluid pressure, etc. are also present in these. In some of these, you need to manually create or import a fluid model to generate a basic 2D flow simulation.

Similar to differences between different flow simulators, there are also various differences in the way each of these operates. As some simulators are pretty straightforward that anyone can use with ease. However, other simulators are quite hard to understand and operate. Still, all of these flow simulation software achieve their main objective which is to run the fluid simulation. Go through the list to know more about these flow simulators.

My Favorite Flow Simulation Software For Windows:

Fluid Pressure and Flow is my favorite software because it provides two different flow simulation models. In addition to that, it also provides fluid flow measuring and pressure measuring tools. It is one of the simplest flow simulation software that any novice user can understand and use.

You can also check out lists of best free Electromagnetic Simulation, Gas Simulation, and Traffic Simulation software for Windows.

Fluid Pressure and Flow

Fluid Pressure and Flow is a free flow simulation software for Windows. In it, you get three simulation sections to produce simulations based on fluids. Simulation sections provided in this software are Pressure, Flow, and Water Tower.

The Flow Section is the main flow simulation section of this software that provides a realistic simulation of fluids of various different densities like gasoline, water, honey, etc. This section basically shows a continuous flow of fluid within a pipe with various options to change the standard flow according to different scenarios. To create scenarios, you can vary the fluid flow rate, fluid type (water, gasoline, etc.), add friction in the fluid, and vary the width of the pipe from different points. Along with creating different fluid flow scenarios, you can also measure the effects of different scenarios on the fluid by using measuring tools like fluid speed meter, fluid pressure meter, flux meter, etc. You can place available measuring tools at different parts of the flowing fluid to measure pressure, flow speed, etc. of the fluid.

The Water Tower section is another great fluid simulation section. In it, you get a water tower with a tap to fill it and a Drain gate or water hose to drain the water tank. It also lets you change the height of the water tank, in order to view the intensity of fluid flow at the different height. Plus, you can also select different types of fluids (water gasoline, honey, etc.) to see the change in flow, pressure, and speed of the flow. To measure fluid speed and pressure, it provides Speed and Pressure meters which you can put on the path of the fluid flow of the tank. The last simulation section which is Pressure section is mainly used to simulate and measure the pressure occurred due to different types of fluids at different depth of the filled tank. In it, you cannot simulate or measure any type of flow.

Overall, it is one of my favorite flow simulation software as it produces quite a realistic simulation when compared to other similar software.

VS2DI

VS2DI is a free flow simulation suite that contains two different simulation software namely VS2DTI and VS2DHI. Let’s discuss these two simulators in detail.

In VS2DTI, you can simulate water and solute transport. To simulate the water and solute transport, you can either create a basic model of a terrain or you can use inbuilt examples to quickly simulate the water and solute flow. If you want to create the model by yourself, then you can use inbuilt tools including Exterior Boundary, Interior Boundary, and Add a Vertex. After building the basic structure of the terrain, you can use its Active Data menu to add texture map, sitemap, boundary conditions, initial concentration of water and solute, etc. After building the model, go to show menu and click on the postprocessor option to open the simulation menu. From this simulation menu, you can right away start the simulation by pressing the Run button. In the simulation, you can view the flow of water (in blue color) dissolving the solvent (marked in orange color). Plus, the percentage of fluid and water at each progressing step is also provided by it just below the simulation. Apart from standard simulation, you can also run the simulation in terms of moisture content, moisture, vector, and pressure head by using its Display menu. To analyze the simulation closely, you also get a Zoom tool in it.

The VS2DHI software of this suite is almost similar to VS2DTI. The only difference between them is that VS2DHI is used to simulate water and energy transport instead of water and solute transport. In it, you can also create the base model by yourself or use the prebuild model examples. After building the model, you can open its postprocessor option from its Show menu. Every feature and options of VS2DHI preprocessor menu are exactly similar to the preprocessor menu of the VS2DTI. Hence, you can run the simulation in the exact way like you run in the VS2DTI. In the simulation, you can view the water in different shades of blue and energy in different shades of orange. Plus, at each step of the simulation, you can also view the fluid percentage, energy percentage, and rate of the current step. A show/hide vector option is also available in it to view or hide the direction of energy and water flow.

In both VS2DTI and VS2DHI software, you can save a frame of the simulation as PDF or BMP format.

TopoDrive & ParticleFlow

TopoDrive & ParticleFlow is another free flow simulation software for Windows. This software is divided into two parts namely ParticleFlow and Topodrive. The particle flow part of this software only shows the heatmap of underground particles and water and it does not produce the simulation as all. TopoDrive is the main part of this software that produces the underground water flow simulation. However, it does not come with any predefined model or simulation due to which you need to manually create a model to run the animation.

To create a model, first, launch this software and click on the start button and provide model domain length and vertical exaggeration values. According to input parameters, a basic outline of the whole model will appear on the interface. Now, click on the water table button and draw a random ground terrain through your mouse to complete the model. To run water flow animation, you still need to use the head, properties, and flow menus to define the water location, and properties of water and terrain. When all the parameters are specified, just press the Animation button and click over the model to view the water flow simulation. After creating the flow animation, you can print or save a frame of the animation as PDF.

SWMM

SWMM or Storm Water Management Model is a rainfall-runoff model software and mainly used to predict the quantity of water runoff during heavy rain in urban areas. It is used throughout the world to plan and design drainage system and new urban areas to eliminate or reduce the water runoff problem. This software can also be used as a basic water flow simulation software as it also shows the direction of runoff water. In it, you get various inbuilt area maps that you can use to simulate the runoff water and flow of water.

The process to run the water flow simulation is pretty simple, but before running the simulation, you can change a lot of parameters like hydraulics parameters, quantity parameter, climatology parameter, etc. All the defined area and climate parameters determine the amount of rain and how much runoff water is going to flow through the city model. After specifying the parameter, go to the Project menu and click on the Run Simulation option to view the water flow path and percentage of flow routing and surface runoff water.

It is a very comprehensive software and water flow simulation is just a very small part of this software. To know more about this software, you can take help from its Help menu.

InteractiveCFD

InteractiveCFD is the next free flow simulation software for Windows. This software simulates the real-time flow and ripple on the surface of the water when one or more solid objects are moved inside the water. To perform the real-time simulation, it runs shallow water equations on the GPU while allowing the interaction with the mouse. It is very essential to have CUDA core technology based Nvidia Graphics card, as this software does not work with integrated or external GPU’s of other companies.

In this software, you can also change various simulation parameters to affect the water ripple flow and its intensity. Some of the important parameters that you can change are Size (to vary the size of object that moves within the Fluid), Fluid Viscosity, Resolution, X/Y Velocity, Velocity Magnitude, etc. Overall, this software produces a very realistic fluid ripple flow simulation. Plus, its ability to simulate and render all very complex fluid motion in real time is also really impressive.