Learn/Reference
Every type of simulation analysis, and what each one is for
The full map across every physics: 87 analysis types, grouped, with the question each one answers.
10 minute read
How to use this page
Most people arrive at simulation with a question rather than a category — will this get too hot, will this break, why is this noisy. The hard part is often just learning what the analysis is called.
This is a map of the families, what each one answers, and where to read the detail. If you want the underlying ideas first, start with what engineering simulation is.
Fluids — CFD
Flow of gases and liquids, and everything carried by it: forces, heat, mixing, phase change and combustion. This is the module that ships today.
| Analysis | The question it answers |
|---|---|
| Incompressible flow | Pressure drop, velocity, drag at low Mach number |
| Compressible & transonic | Where density change and shocks matter |
| External aerodynamics | Drag and lift on a vehicle, wing or building |
| Internal flow | Manifolds, ducts and valves — is flow distributed evenly? |
| Rotating machinery (MRF) | Fans, pumps and turbines at operating speed |
| Free surface (VOF) | Sloshing, dam break, hull wake — where the interface is |
| Multiphase | Bubbles, droplets, particle-laden and cavitating flow |
| Conjugate heat transfer | Solid and fluid temperature solved together |
| Combustion & reacting flow | Burners, flames and species transport |
| Atmospheric & pedestrian wind | Wind comfort and dispersion around buildings |
Structures — FEA
Deformation, stress and vibration in solids. The product page lists the structural analysis types and solver backends.
| Analysis | The question it answers |
|---|---|
| Linear static | Stress and deflection under load — the workhorse |
| Nonlinear static | Large deflection, plasticity, hyperelastic materials |
| Contact | Parts that touch, slide and separate |
| Modal | Natural frequencies and mode shapes |
| Harmonic response | Response to steady vibration at frequency |
| Transient dynamics | Response to a load that changes with time |
| Buckling | The load at which a slender structure goes unstable |
| Thermal stress | Stress caused by a temperature field |
| Fatigue | Life under cyclic loading |
| Fracture & damage | Crack driving force and progressive failure |
Heat
Temperature and heat flow. Thermal does not get a solver of its own — it belongs to whichever solver already has the case, which is a design decision rather than a limitation.
| Analysis | The question it answers |
|---|---|
| Steady conduction | Equilibrium temperature through solids |
| Transient conduction | How long until it reaches temperature |
| Convection boundaries | Surface cooling without solving the fluid |
| Radiation | Exchange between surfaces, and view factors |
| Conjugate heat transfer | When the fluid genuinely matters |
| Joule & induction heating | Heat generated by current or an induced field |
Electromagnetics
Low-frequency electromagnetics — magnets, motors, transformers and induction — driven by Elmer. Radio frequency is a different discretisation and a different audience.
| Analysis | The question it answers |
|---|---|
| Magnetostatics | Field and force from permanent magnets and coils |
| Eddy currents | Induced currents, losses and shielding |
| Motor & transformer analysis | Torque, back-EMF and core loss |
| Electrostatics | Field strength, capacitance and breakdown risk |
| Current conduction | Current density and resistive heating in conductors |
Acoustics
Sound as a wave, and the structures and flows that generate it.
| Analysis | The question it answers |
|---|---|
| Modal acoustics | Cavity and duct resonances |
| Helmholtz / frequency response | Sound pressure at frequency |
| Vibro-acoustics | Noise radiated by a vibrating structure |
| Aeroacoustics | Noise generated by flow — already computable in CFD today |
| Transmission loss | How much noise a silencer or panel removes |
Coupled problems — multiphysics
Where two physics have to be solved together because each changes the other. One-way chains answer more than people expect; two-way coupling is for when the feedback genuinely matters.
| Analysis | The question it answers |
|---|---|
| Heat flux to thermal | CFD surface heat transfer driving a thermal model |
| Pressure to structural | Flow loads applied as structural loading |
| Fluid–structure interaction | A flexible body deflecting in a flow, and back again |
| Thermal–structural | Distortion and stress from a computed temperature field |
| Electromagnetic–thermal | Induction and Joule heating feeding a thermal solve |
Studies, optimisation and impact
Getting more than one answer out of a model, and the problems that need a fundamentally different time integration.
| Analysis | The question it answers |
|---|---|
| Parameter sweep | How does the answer change across a range? |
| Design of experiments | Which parameters matter, for the fewest runs |
| Optimisation | The best design within constraints |
| Sensitivity & uncertainty | How much does input scatter move the result? |
| Adjoint shape optimisation | Which direction to move every surface point |
| Explicit dynamics | Crash, impact and drop test over milliseconds |
Finding the exact one
Each family above has considerably more depth than a summary table can hold. The full catalogue runs to 87 analysis types across every module, each with its own page covering what it computes, what it needs from you, which solver runs it, the industries that use it and what comes out at the end.
Try it on your own geometry
SHD Sim is a desktop application: import geometry, mesh it, set the physics in panels, run it and get a report — without writing a solver dictionary by hand. The free tier runs real cases up to 250,000 cells of fluids, or 100,000 nodes of solid, with no account needed to download and no time limit.
Keep reading
- What is engineering simulation?The whole field in one page: what a solver actually does, and which family of analysis answers which kind of question.
- The open-source stack behind modern simulationEvery solver, mesher and library in the stack — what each is genuinely good at, and what licence it carries.
- How to choose simulation softwareThe questions that decide it: licensing, coverage, validation, meshing, hardware, and how hard it is to leave.
All guides · Written by the team building SHD Sim.