Free simulation package Gmsh – Geometry – Mesh – Result

I have posted previously a list with many comercial simulation packages. These packages have numerous features, are very robust and have active development, however they are expensive and their source code is closed. A free alternative is growing day by day, although the user interface isn’t as user friendly and are feature reach as comercial packages they allow for some level of calculations or the same but with an added patience requirement to understand how they work. Many packages developed so far tend to solve individually each simulation requirement from geometry creation to mesh generation, a solver to calculate results and finally a display environment to view the calculated results. Gmsh tries to combine all in one in order to work in a similar fashion as Ansys APDL or LSPrePost. It still has a long way to go but the ideia is there and with time the user interface will grow to be even better. Just wish it was easier to work with.

Gmsh pin mesh

The image above is a slightly refined mesh. I did’t play much with the meshing parameters.

The good thing was that I could run it with Windows and Mac with no installing issues.