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Do you want to check by CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) the propeller, wind turbine, fan or wing you designed in Heliciel? The HELICIEL PRO CFD/BEM upgrade adds to the designer a CFD test bench built on OpenFOAM 12: the current project's model is injected into it with one click, and the domain, rotating zone, mesh and solver are derived from the project. With these tutorials and videos , you will run your first complete calculation in about twenty minutes, then learn to choose a mesh preset, read a convergence, a pressure map, a wake, and compare the CFD result with the designer's BEM (Blade Element Momentum) calculation.

• Tutorial No.1: First CFD propeller simulation, from the BEM model to the pressure field on the blades, in about twenty minutes.
• The presentation film (6 min, player above): what the CFD test bench does, on a boat propeller, a wind turbine, a ducted fan and a tidal turbine.
• Don't have a model yet? The Heliciel design tutorials (in French) cover the BEM part first: CFD comes after them, to check and to see.

To follow Videos:

The videos play in the player at the top of the page (choose the video from the player's list). Files and subtitles are downloadable below.

Video list:

Video	Duration	Language	Files
The PRO CFD upgrade: presentation of the CFD test bench (boat propeller, mesh presets, results, wind turbine, ducted fan, tidal turbine)	6 min 18	English, voice-over + subtitles	MP4 (107 MB) · SRT
The PRO CFD upgrade, French version: presentation of the CFD test bench (boat propeller, mesh presets, results, wind turbine, ducted fan, tidal turbine)	5 min 05	French, voice-over + subtitles	MP4 (82 MB) · SRT

Film chapters (English / French):

• 0:00 The designer: a boat propeller and its BEM results (FR 0:00)
• 0:49 The PRO CFD menu injects the project into the test bench (FR 0:41)
• 1:34 The mesh preset scale, from level 1 to level 8 (FR 1:06)
• 2:25 Three commands: mesh, calculate, view (FR 1:57)
• 2:55 Mesh ready: the hybrid BEM-CFD method (FR 2:49)
• 3:41 Results: pressure on the blades, wake, slice, mesh quality alert (FR 3:05)
• 5:10 4 m wind turbine in free flow (FR 4:11)
• 5:29 Ducted fan (FR 4:24)
• 5:44 16 m tidal turbine: the scale changes, the procedure does not (FR 4:33)

The design videos (BEM part: first propeller, wind turbine, wings, contra-rotating, multirotors) remain on the Didacticiels HELICIEL page.

To read The 20 CFD tutorials:

The collection reads in order: the first twelve tutorials form the core path on a propeller, the next ones apply the same procedure to each machine family, and the last ones cover method and deliverables. Each page ends with a link to the next one.

Core path (1 to 12):	By machine family (13 to 16):	Method and deliverables (17 to 20):
1.First CFD propeller simulation The first complete run, from the BEM model to the pressure field on the blades. 2.Reading the OpenFOAM case folder What Heliciel writes to the case folder and the automated blockMesh, snappyHexMesh, foamRun chain. 3.Choosing the mesh preset The same wing meshed at levels 1, 2 and 3: what each refinement notch buys you. 4.The MRF zone and Phase 1 The rotating cylinder (MRF, Multiple Reference Frame) in the 3D viewer and the steady-state Phase 1. 5.Phase 2 with sliding mesh From frozen rotation to real rotation: the unsteady Phase 2 and the forces compared. 6.Comparing BEM and CFD The same propeller by both methods, and how to interpret the gap. 7.Reading the convergence of a run Telling a converged run from a finished run: residuals, forces, parallel computing, resume, divergence. 8.Turbulence models Why a wing and a propeller are not computed the same way: Spalart-Allmaras, k-omega SST, iso-surfaces. 9.Boundary layer and y+ Stacking the prismatic layers on a blade and reading its y+ for the chosen preset. 10.Reading a pressure map Surface pressure, vertical and cylindrical slices through the domain, interpretation. 11.Where the forces come from Pressure and friction integrated into lift, drag, thrust and torque, boundary by boundary. 12.Checking an airfoil polar A high-aspect-ratio wing swept through incidence, compared with the Cl/Cd polars from the profile database.	13.Marine propeller and cavitation A boat propeller end to end: immersion and absolute pressure, three presets, Phases 1 and 2, cavitation risk. 14.Wind turbine and tidal turbine An energy-capture rotor end to end: Betz limit, presets compared, Phases 1 and 2, wake. 15.Fan in a closed duct Cylindrical domain, duct presets, wall conditions, and the real cost of meshing a duct. 16.Aircraft propeller, cruise and static thrust Two different runs, and why static thrust requires Phase 2.   See also: Design tutorials (BEM) (in French): 10 complete projects Didacticiels HELICIEL: general list Get the PRO CFD/BEM upgrade	17.The optimisation loop From the flaw seen on the run to the corrected blade: the BEM ↔ CFD loop run end to end. 18.Calibrating on a reference A propeller from the Wageningen B-series, Kt and Kq compared with published tables. 19.From the hull to the propeller Naval architecture: Kelvin wake waves, hull resistance, propeller at its operating point, CFD verification. 20.The deliverable calculation file Archiving a case, producing a report, documenting mesh convergence: every figure traceable.