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FLOW-3D Academic Program
FLOW-3D Academic Program

FLOW-3D Academic Program: Supporting the Next Generation of Engineers

Flow Science supports the academic engineering community by offering free academic programs for FLOW-3D, FLOW-3D HYDRO and FLOW-3D CAST to academic institutions across the world. 

Through our free license options and in-depth learning resources, the FLOW-3D Academic Program furthers the educational development, research initiatives and professional growth of engineering students, faculty members, and post-doctoral researchers.

How is FLOW-3D software used in academia?

  • Research Applications – To model unique fluid flow problems in research
  • Teaching Fundamentals – To illustrate fundamental concepts in fluid dynamics
  • Curriculum Development – To develop teaching material and student projects that pair CFD with classroom labs, such as flume experiments
  • Career Preparation – To equip students with valuable CFD skills that will prepare them for the engineering profession

We invite you to read about our available license options described below and apply for the program that best suits your needs.

Why participate in the FLOW-3D Academic Program?

  • Employ FLOW-3D software’s powerful suite of modeling capabilities designed to meet a range of engineering challenges
  • Gain insight into fluid behavior that may be overlooked or difficult to understand
  • Receive access to extensive online learning resources
  • Chart a quick path to proficiency through an intuitive user interface and thorough documentation

Free academic licenses are intended strictly for academic research and teaching, and are available in the U.S., Canada, and many other countries. Flow Science and its distributors reserve the right to limit distribution of free licenses. To determine if you are eligible for a free academic license, please contact your distributor, or email us at academic@flow3d.com.

Apply for an Academic License

If you are interested in customized academic license options for your research, we offer significant discounts for academic use. Contact our engineers or get in touch with your FLOW-3D distributor to discuss your project needs.

Flow Science offers free 4-month licenses for FLOW-3D, FLOW-3D CAST, and FLOW-3D HYDRO for the purpose of academic research. Applications require a research proposal. If accepted, a license for the software that best fits the applicant’s field of research will be issued. If you have any questions, please email academic@flow3d.com.

Licenses for FLOW-3D AM and FLOW-3D WELD are not available through this program. For information on modeling solutions, license options and pricing, please contact our sales team.

Details:

  • Students and faculty may apply.
  • Each research group is only eligible for one license under the Research Assistance program.
  • Licenses issued under the Research Assistance program are limited to four months. Extensions are available through a paid academic license.
  • Licenses granted under this program do not entitle the user to technical support service other than assistance with installation and licensing.

Flow Science offers free teaching licenses of FLOW-3D to faculty members who are interested in incorporating CFD software into their course syllabus. If the application is accepted, a network license for the appropriate FLOW-3D product will be issued to the faculty member. We recommend applying for a teaching license at least one month in advance of the semester. If you have any questions, please email academic@flow3d.com.

Licenses for FLOW-3D AM and FLOW-3D WELD are not available through this program. For information on modeling solutions, license options and pricing for these products, please contact our sales team.

Details:

  • Faculty may apply.
  • A license agreement signed by a duly authorized representative of your school or department is required.
  • Licenses granted under this program do not entitle the user to technical support service other than assistance with installation and licensing.

Engineering departments at universities in the United States, Canada and select countries outside of North America are eligible for long-term department-wide access to FLOW-3D, FLOW-3D CAST or FLOW-3D HYDRO for research and teaching. If you have any questions, please contact us at academic@flow3d.com.

Licenses for FLOW-3D AM and FLOW-3D WELD are not available through this program. For information on modeling solutions, license options and pricing for these products, please contact our sales team.

Details:

  • Faculty or administrators may apply.
  • A license agreement signed by a duly authorized representative of your school or department is required.
  • Core-limited user tokens for students and staff in the licensed department.
  • The software must be installed and made available to students in computer lab resources as part of standard department academic software packages and may also be installed on additional research lab computers as needed.
  • An annual affidavit affirming the usage in accordance with the license agreement is required after initial installation, and then yearly prior to renewal.
  • Licenses granted under this program do not entitle the user to technical support service other than assistance with installation and licensing.
  • The Academic Learning Portal offers product-specific training videos and downloadable resources to help new users gain familiarity with the user interface, simulation setup process, and best modeling practices. Access to the Learning Portal is restricted to Academic Program participants. If you currently have a free academic license and would like to explore the Learning Portal, contact us at academic@flow3d.com for login information.
  • The FLOW-3D Bibliography offers a wealth of information to researchers. Over a thousand cited works provide insight into how CFD is used to model a wide range of topics, from fundamental fluid dynamics to real-world scenarios. We encourage academic program participants to let us know of their published papers, conference presentations, and completed theses featuring FLOW-3D software results.
  • CFD-101 is one of the most comprehensive online resources for computational fluid dynamics basics. Edited by Flow Science’s founder and Volume-of-Fluid (VOF) pioneer, Dr. C.W. Hirt, CFD-101 is designed to give a general introduction and overview of a variety of issues concerning computational fluid dynamics, focusing primarily on topics that are not generally included in standard references.
  • Explore more learning resources, including case studies, webinars on demand, and FLOW-3D User Conference proceedings.
I thoroughly enjoyed using the software for my research. FLOW-3D CAST and FLOW-3D POST were extremely intuitive once I got grounded with the interface and was quite impressed with its capabilities. Very grateful to Flow Science for allowing me to use it for my research, without it, this work wouldn't have been possible.
Jeffrey MillerCentral Connecticut State University, Master's Student
The experience has been immensely valuable, enabling me to delve into the intricacies of dam breaching modeling and aligning experimental data with computational simulations. The capabilities of FLOW-3D HYDRO have significantly enhanced my research efforts, allowing me to make substantial progress in my work. I am deeply appreciative of the support and assistance provided by your team throughout this period.
Alireza MashreghiDoctoral Candidate, University of South Carolina
FLOW-3D HYDRO has come to occupy several critical roles in our lab, as we work to understand and manipulate the movement of coastal sediment. At the ideation phase, we can rapidly test and optimize, using FLOW-3D (x) to run sets of “snapshot” simulations. By running numeric simulations alongside flume experiments, FLOW-3D HYDRO allows us to observe properties of the simulated flow that would be too difficult or costly to measure in the tank. As we transition to full scale field installs, FLOW-3D HYDRO allows us to fully simulate structures and sediment transport in-situ, including the interactions between bathymetry, currents and waves as measured onsite. Most importantly, FLOW-3D has been an incredibly supportive partner in these efforts.
Walter ZeskDoctoral Candidate, MIT
FLOW-3D HYDRO stands out as a robust general CFD solver, known for its intuitive setup and user-friendly interface. At Idaho State University, we have incorporated FLOW-3D HYDRO into both teaching and research. It plays an integral role in our Introduction to CFD course, where students apply it to course projects. The software's extensive range of models allows students to effectively contrast and compare different setups and physics models, giving them a better understanding of fluid flows. Its ease of use allows them to quickly apply their abilities in consulting applications. In my own consulting work, I have found FLOW-3D HYDRO unparalleled in setting up and simulating a variety of free surface scenarios.
Dr. Bruce SavageProfessor and Chair, Idaho State University
Access to the FLOW-3D HYDRO CFD software through the Flow Science Research Assistance Program has been a great asset to my research team for which I am very grateful. My PhD & MSc students applied FLOW-3D HYDRO to a variety of fluid mechanics and hydraulics problems, some of which have been published in world-class academic journals. Flow Science has provided an amazing support network that have enthusiastically assisted my team during their research, and I highly recommend use of FLOW-3D HYDRO to other researchers working in the field of hydraulics and fluid mechanics.
Dr. Mohammad HeidarzadehAssociate Professor, Brunel University London
We have used FLOW-3D to simulate our vegetated flow laboratory data. We found the software is not only user-friendly, but is powerful to produce good aligning results with the experiments. We are happy with the software and will definitely continue this partnership with FLOW-3D for our future projects.
Dr. Jaan H. PuAssociate Professor, University of Bradford
Flow Science's Academic Program has been a great help to my research team in the study of sediment transport and scour. The software is powerful and easy to use. The FAVOR™ method offers a convenient way of modelling the morphological change of the soil-water interface. The General Moving Objects (GMO) model allows underwater structures to move in a prescribed fashion. We believe that FLOW-3D will be highly beneficial to many researchers and engineers.
Dr. Dongfang LiangAssociate Professor, University of Cambridge
Our experience using FLOW-3D software through their Research Assistance Program has been extremely positive. Our research thus far has consisted of modeling of scouring induced by a highly turbulent local flow. We highly recommend this program and software to any future research team and we are very pleased to continue our use of it during our ongoing research.
Dr. Ioan NistorProfessor of Hydraulic and Coastal Engineering, University of Ottowa
Flow Science is an excellent partner. The University of New Mexico is using this partnership to reinvigorate its computational science and engineering programs. In Mechanical Engineering, our faculty and students are excited about the opportunity to work with the state-of-the-art FLOW-3D software.
Dr. Chris HallMechanical Engineering Chair, University of New Mexico
Very powerful software in modeling the flow in open channel hydraulics. We used it for flow simulation under ice cover.
Dr. Soheil ZareUniversity of Ottawa
FLOW-3D CAST allowed me to achieve good results simulating the high-pressure die casting process. Having a free license definitely helped carrying out this research project.
Francesco MajaMcMaster University
I just wanted to thank you for your support through the FLOW-3D Academic Program that has enabled me to get a new dataset for my PhD research! We are currently working on a publication from the simulation results.
Dr. Rebecca EnglertPostdoctoral Research Associate, University of Calgary
My experience with FLOW-3D HYDRO has been phenomenal. The user-friendly nature of the software together with all the numerous webinars, guides and support has made it easy for me, who had zero knowledge on computational fluid dynamics prior to FLOW-3D HYDRO, to operate the software. The software is powerful and has been a great help to my research where I monitor rainfall activities and a Soakaway chamber. The software is easy to operate and many different types of data like pressure, velocity magnitude etc. can be collected. The simulations generated were very high quality and the whole experience has been fantastic. I would highly recommend students who are interested in learning CFD to join the Academic Program.
Kevin D. Abadi, MScNottingham Trent University
I’ve used FLOW-3D HYDRO to support several MSc projects associated with the simulation of urban drainage systems and real time control. The software is easy to set up and use and provides intuitive outputs. The customer support is excellent, the team is always keen to discuss ideas and get involved in projects.
Dr. James ShucksmithSenior Lecturer, University of Sheffield

Apply for an Academic License

Please check the FLOW-3D Supported Platforms page to confirm that you have the necessary setup to run FLOW-3D software.

FLOW-3D Supported Platforms
Academic Program Application
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Academic Status *
Please provide your university email address. Applications with personal email addresses (gmail, yahoo, etc.) will not be accepted.
FLOW-3D AM and FLOW-3D WELD are not available through the free academic license program. If you are researching additive manufacturing or laser welding processes, please contact our sales team.

Teaching and Department-wide licenses require a license agreement to be signed, and therefore need the input and participation of a faculty member and/or administrator. Students interested in bringing FLOW-3D software into their department should put their academic advisor in touch with the Academic Program Manager.

Department Faculty Contact

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Research Assistance

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Project Abstract *

Maximum file size: 516MB

Your abstract should include a description of how you intend to use CFD in your project.

Teaching Assistance

If multiple courses, please separate course IDs by commas.
Please list the name and/or a brief description of each course.

Licensing Information

To find your Host Name:
Windows – Open a Command Prompt, type hostname.
Linux – Open a terminal window, type hostname to see the host name returned.

To find your MAC Address:
Windows – Open a Command Prompt, type ipconfig /all and provide the Ethernet or WiFi adaptor physical address. (Do not use an address if it has 'Virtual' in the name.)
Linux – Open a terminal window, type ifconfig -a and provide the HWaddr.

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