Flow Science, Inc.

The firm was founded by Dr. C. W. "Tony" Hirt, previously a scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). Hirt is known for having pioneered the volume of fluid method (VOF) for tracking and locating the free surface or fluid-fluid interface. T Hirt left LANL and founded Flow Science in 1980 to develop CFD software for industrial and scientific applications using the VOF method.

Flow Science is headquartered in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The company has grown to include wholly-owned subsidiaries in Germany, Japan, China, India, Latin America, Australia, and the Mediterranean region, as well as a network of independent distribution partners across Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. In 2024, Flow Science opened an East Coast office in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, offering in-person training and workshops.

In December 2021 the holding company Dr. Flender Holding GmbH, of Aachen, Germany, acquired 100% of Flow Science Inc. shares.

Products

The company's products include FLOW-3D, a general-purpose multiphysics CFD solver specializing in free surface flows including phase change, cavitation, and fluid-structure interaction; FLOW-3D CAST, a simulation platform for metal casting processes including mold filling, solidification, and defect prediction; FLOW-3D AM, a simulation tool for additive manufacturing processes including melt pool dynamics across laser powder bed fusion and directed energy deposition; FLOW-3D WELD, a simulation tool for laser welding processes including keyhole dynamics and melt pool behavior; FLOW-3D HYDRO, a CFD solution for water resources and hydraulic infrastructure engineers including spillway design, sediment transport, and dam safety; FLOW-3D POST, an advanced visualization and analysis tool for all FLOW-3D products, built on ParaView; and FLOW-3D (x), a CFD workflow automation and design optimization tool supporting parametric studies and design of experiments.FLOW-3D software uses a fractional areas/volumes approach called FAVOR™ for defining problem geometry, and a free-gridding technique for mesh generation. The software tracks free fluid surfaces using TruVOF®, a proprietary implementation of the volume of fluid method.

More than 2,500 peer-reviewed papers and technical presentations citing FLOW-3D software products have been published across disciplines including water resources engineering, metal casting, additive manufacturing, laser welding, coastal engineering, and aerospace.

Flow Science offers free academic licenses for FLOW-3D, FLOW-3D HYDRO, and FLOW-3D CAST to students, faculty, and post-doctoral researchers at academic institutions worldwide through its FLOW-3D Academic Program.

Additive Manufacturing

FLOW-3D AM has been used in peer-reviewed research published in Nature Communications on the use of non-contact ultrasound to improve laser additive manufacturing, dislocation evolution during rapid solidification, and phase and property heterogeneities in additively manufactured titanium alloys.