Hi guys, I'm a MSc student and my research topic involves developing a Sensor Web application that predicts the spread of wildfire in South Africa. Part of that research involves creating a wind movement simulation using computational fluid dynamics.

I don't have any engineering background and have only begun exploring this part of my work. I was hoping that someone could recommend reading material to me? In particular, I'd like to read up on fluid dynamics specific to wind movement over a terrain.

Also, I've been looking online for API or other tools to assist me in programming the fluid dynamics; one such tool is OpenFOAM. Does anyone know of any others? I'd like a Java API but most likely there are C++ ones more readily available.

Thanks in advance

I haven't done much looking, Computational Fluid Dynamics is a pretty specialized topic; however, off the top of my head, I would suggest you check out CFD Online.

It looks like a pretty good starting point.

hehe that would seem like an obvious site! It actually didn't come up in my searches. Another site I found that seemed interesting is Engineering Applications of Computational Fluid Mechanics

It definitely takes a while for my mind to get around such concepts. I remember reading about a shearing force and it stumped me for the longest time! hehe

A book that I'm reading, Fluid Dynamics - Theory, Computation, and Numerical Simulation by C. Pozrikidis also seems like a good start.

Thanks for the link David!