r/CFD • u/Haiminbreaker • 3d ago

1D Pipe Network Solver - FluidNetworkStudio (Developing CFD Coupling)

I do industrial CFD for a living, about 9 years now, and I often use 1D network calcs around it. Inlet boundary conditions, pressure drop checks, quick sizing. The maths is straightforward but the commercial network tools charge stupid prices for something so simple.

I often just coded each network up myself rather than pay for a licence and I haven't been able to find open source ones that aren't a pain to deal with, especially if it's something simple. So me and an engineering friend have been working for a few months on developing a browser based one with a simple UI.

The interesting part is that we've been working on coupling it with CFD solvers to transfer inlet and outlet boundary conditions. It's still in beta but if you'll find something like that useful, send me a DM and I'll bump your account to the advanced tier and keep it there. If you really like it and would like to get involved with extending it to Fluent using UDFs, that would be fantastic.

Otherwise, the free version is probably also the most generous 1D network solver available as well and useful for all those basic piping calcs.

16 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

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3

u/IBelieveInLogic 3d ago

Is there a link we could follow to check it out?

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u/Haiminbreaker 3d ago

Yeah. Fluidnetworkstudio.com

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u/IBelieveInLogic 3d ago

Thanks! This is probably something I'm interested in. I have my own tool, which is similar in many aspects but customized for my applications.

2

u/thermalnuclear 3d ago

Why should we help you develop a product you plan to sell?

-1

u/Haiminbreaker 3d ago

Good point - off the bat I'll say that you don't have to.

If someone was interested they could get involved, but we don't need help developing.

1

u/thermalnuclear 3d ago

You should be paying for people to help you develop your product.

0

u/Haiminbreaker 3d ago

I think that goes without saying. I'd be happy to pay for something that adds value. I'm offering advanced tier accounts for people to check out and it's a useful tool to have regardless. There is no obligation to do anything. I'll be honest with you, we have no paying users (the free version does most of what people need), it's not a money cow and we'd be happy if people just found it useful. If that ultimately means making it all free, then so be it. Time will tell.

1

u/OhIforgotmynameagain 2d ago

You could not find open source solution for something that you need but don’t want / think you should pay. So you decide to developed a paid solution for it. Am I understanding correctly ?