The interaction between a traveling shock wave and a cylindrical water column was predicted using the open-source CFD toolbox OpenFOAM. The two-dimensional flow in a shock tube device was simulated by using the volume-of-fluid method for tracking the transient interface between the two immiscible fluids. The analysis was based on the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes approach, where an eddy-viscosity model was supplied for the turbulence closure. The acceptably accurate results achieved for this complex fluids engineering problem confirmed the viability of this toolbox for industrial research and development.

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis is carried out to evaluate the compressible aerodynamics of a large horizontal axis wind turbine blade. The mean turbulent flow around the rotating blade is simulated by adopting the unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes modelling approach, where the governing equations are solved by means of a finite volume-based numerical method, supplied with a two-equation eddy-viscosity turbulence model. The present CFD model using an open-source code for computational wind engineering applications was verified to have significant practical potential by making a comparison with a reference steady solution.