# CFD Simulation Setup Checklist

**Purpose:** A practical, step-by-step checklist to ensure all critical physics, numerical assumptions, and boundary conditions are planned and documented *before* starting the simulation solver.

**How to use this checklist:** 
1. Download or copy this file into your simulation project folder.
2. Fill out the details during your pre-simulation planning phase.
3. Attach the completed checklist to your final engineering report or design review.

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## 1. Project & Context Metadata
- [ ] **Project Name / ID:** 
- [ ] **Simulation Case ID:** 
- [ ] **Owner / Analyst:** 
- [ ] **Reviewer / Approver:** 
- [ ] **Date / Version:** 
- [ ] **Solver / Software & Version:** 

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## 2. Objective & Quantities of Interest
- [ ] **Objective:** What engineering question is this simulation answering?
- [ ] **Target Outputs:** Which variables are we extracting? (e.g., drag force, average exit temperature, max pressure)
- [ ] **Acceptance/Success Criteria:** How accurate do these outputs need to be?
- [ ] **Reference/Validation Data:** Is there experimental data, hand calculations, or literature to compare against?

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## 3. Geometry Assumptions
- [ ] **Included/Excluded Features:** Are small fillets, bolts, or gaps removed?
- [ ] **Simplifications:** Is the geometry 2D, axisymmetric, or 3D?
- [ ] **Symmetry/Periodicity:** Can we simulate only half or a sector of the geometry?
- [ ] **Moving/Rotating Parts:** Are there rotating domains, sliding meshes, or dynamic meshes?
- [ ] **Leakage/Roughness:** Are there assumed leakages or specific surface roughness values?

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## 4. Physics & Models
- [ ] **Time Dependency:** Steady-state or transient?
- [ ] **Compressibility:** Incompressible, ideal gas, or fully compressible?
- [ ] **Heat Transfer:** Is the energy equation enabled? Radiation? Conjugate heat transfer?
- [ ] **Multiphase/Species:** Are there multiple phases, chemical reactions, or species transport?
- [ ] **Turbulence Model:** Which model (e.g., k-omega SST, Spalart-Allmaras, LES) and why?
- [ ] **Wall Treatment:** Wall functions or resolving the viscous sublayer? Target y+?

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## 5. Fluid & Material Properties
- [ ] **Density:** Constant, Boussinesq, Ideal Gas, or custom polynomial?
- [ ] **Viscosity:** Constant, Sutherland's law, non-Newtonian?
- [ ] **Temperature Dependence:** Are specific heat (Cp) and thermal conductivity (k) temperature-dependent?
- [ ] **Source/Reference:** Where were these material properties sourced from?

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## 6. Boundary Conditions
- [ ] **Inlets:** Velocity, mass flow, or total pressure? Turbulence intensity/length scale specified?
- [ ] **Outlets:** Static pressure, outflow, or mass flow? Target profile?
- [ ] **Walls:** No-slip, slip, specified shear? Adiabatic, specified temperature, or heat flux?
- [ ] **Symmetry/Interfaces:** Are symmetry planes correctly assigned? Are mesh interfaces defined?
- [ ] **Consistency Check:** Do the boundary conditions represent the physical boundaries accurately?

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## 7. Mesh & Near-Wall Setup
- [ ] **Mesh Type:** Hexahedral, tetrahedral, polyhedral, mixed?
- [ ] **Refinement Regions:** Are wakes, shear layers, and critical regions adequately refined?
- [ ] **Inflation/Prism Layers:** Are there enough layers to capture the boundary layer gradients?
- [ ] **y+ Target:** Does the first cell height meet the target for the chosen wall treatment?
- [ ] **Mesh Quality Criteria:** Have skewness, orthogonality, and aspect ratio targets been met?
- [ ] **Grid Independence:** Is there a plan for a grid sensitivity study (coarse, medium, fine)?

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## 8. Solver Controls
- [ ] **Numerical Schemes:** First-order (for initial run), second-order upwind, or central differencing?
- [ ] **Time Step:** What is the physical or pseudo time step? 
- [ ] **CFL/Courant Target:** What is the target Courant number for stability?
- [ ] **Residual Targets:** What are the convergence criteria for residuals (e.g., 1e-4, 1e-5)?
- [ ] **Relaxation/Stabilization:** Are under-relaxation factors (URFs) or pseudo-time step limits set conservatively?

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## 9. Convergence & Monitoring
- [ ] **Residuals:** Are they decreasing and leveling off?
- [ ] **Engineering Monitors:** Are point probes or surface integrals (e.g., lift, drag, pressure drop) tracking correctly?
- [ ] **Mass/Energy Imbalance:** Is the domain mass/energy conserved? (Target: < 0.1% or < 1%)
- [ ] **Stability:** Are the monitored forces/quantities stable or exhibiting oscillatory behavior?
- [ ] **Transient Averaging:** If transient/oscillatory, over what window are results averaged?

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## 10. Validation & Sanity Checks
- [ ] **Hand Calculation:** Does the result match order-of-magnitude analytical estimates?
- [ ] **Reference Data:** Does it match experimental or benchmark data?
- [ ] **Conservation:** Did mass, momentum, and energy strictly balance across all boundaries?
- [ ] **Sanity Checks:** Are velocities, pressures, and temperatures within physically realistic bounds?

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## 11. Reporting Assumptions
- [ ] **Required Deliverables:** Contour plots, vector fields, XY charts, tables?
- [ ] **Uncertainty/Limitations:** What are the known limitations of this simulation model?
- [ ] **Sign-off:** Has the reviewer approved the setup and results?

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## 12. Final Go / No-Go
- [ ] **Pre-Run Approval:** Is the case fully set up, reviewed, and ready to be submitted to the solver/cluster?

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*Disclaimer: This is an educational workflow aid designed to assist engineers in structuring their simulation setup process. It does not replace solver documentation, rigorous validation, internal company procedures, or professional engineering judgment.*