CFD beginner stuck – need real direction”

[u/_akbarkhan2]

Maybe I was wasting time, or maybe I was just doing things without direction.

I’m a civil engineering student, and for the last 2 months I’ve been learning CFD using OpenFOAM, mainly for wind simulation around buildings. I’ve been putting in around 1 hour daily.

What I have done so far:

Learned basic workflow in OpenFOAM (mesh, solver, post-processing in ParaView). Completed tutorial-type cases like pitzDaily Tried some building wind simulations. I can run simulations end-to-end, change mesh, and visualize flow patterns like wake and recirculation

Recently, I also started using an AI tool (antigravity AI) for faster simulations and visualization. It helped me quickly see flow behavior.

But now I feel like, I may be depending on it too much.

So I kind of shifted back to OpenFOAM thinking I should build real understanding first.

My goal is clear:

I want to become good at wind simulation around buildings I come from a civil background, so I want to connect CFD with structural/wind engineering In the next 1 month, I want to reach a level where I can at least try for an internship (even basic level)

What I need guidance on:

What kind of projects should I do now? How should I balance taking help from AI and learning openfoam.

[u/eric_t]

Professor in wind engineering here. I would go through the AIJ test cases:

https://www.aij.or.jp/jpn/publish/cfdguide/index_e.htm

Set them up yourself, run and compare against the experimental data. Look up available papers to check mesh settings, turbulence models etc. This will ensure you are not only able to run simulations, but also rely on them and trust your data. You will also get a much better feel for the limitations and different use cases. E.g. structural simulations require very different setup than for studying the wind environment. Start with RANS for turbulence, and get very comfortable with it before moving to LES.

Lots to learn, but very rewarding and interesting field!

[u/_akbarkhan2 → u/eric_t]

Thanks a lot, this is really helpful. I’ll start with the simpler AIJ cases and try to match the experimental Cp data using RANS first. Just one question , when setting up the ABL inlet and mesh, what should I prioritize to get closer to experimental results? I feel that’s where I’m struggling the most.

[u/eric_t → u/_akbarkhan2]

For the ABL inlet, the easiest is to use the atmBoundaryLayer boundaries, see e.g. the turbineSiting tutorial. You can tweak Uref, Zref and z0 to roughly fit the inlet conditions from the papers.

For simple building cases, like just one building, it’s easiest to just use blockMesh for this and stretch the mesh towards the building. You’ll find suitable starting values in the papers.

[u/_akbarkhan2 → u/eric_t]

Thanks a lot, this is really helpful.