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This might be a question better suited for the Software Recommendations side of S.E., however I do believe that people who frequent this part of S.E. are more likely to be able to answer this question.

I am looking for a free (not only as in freedom) alternative to Comsol Multiphysics. Here is the tricky bit: I am not simply looking for a modelling and simulation package, of which there are loads, rather I am looking for a free solution that has as similar syntax to Comsol as possible. Maybe there is some package you can run together with Octave? If so, I haven't found it. Any help will be greatly appreciated!

Thank you!

[Edit] I would need the software for numerical modelling and simulation. Fluids flowing between various containers, heat conduction, ect. Simulating solutions to various PDE's in short. The main functionality I am looking for the other software to parrot is Comsols Model Wizard.

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Not sure if you find the COMSOL Model Wizard somewhere else, maybe other commercial Multi-physics software but not in the open-source community.

I had the same question a couple of years ago and I listed all Finite-element, Multi-physics framework. As you may know there are many of them. The one that I found really useful and close, at least in the way that they represent PDE equation was FeniCS. I even partially implemented the part of the model that I had in COMSOL to see if I can replace COMSOL with it. They have nice Python interface which makes things easier.

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Another option if you want to stay with Octave is FEATool Multiphysics which is a Finite Element FEM GUI simulation toolbox that supports both Octave and Matlab (FEATool is free for personal use with a limited grid size). In your case there are tutorials of coupling fluid flow with heat transfer, for example:

https://www.featool.com/doc/quickstart.html#ex_he1

Moreover, FEATool also includes easy to use GUI interfaces for external solvers, including for example FEniCS.

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    $\begingroup$ People that downvote should leave a small note as to why they did downvote such that the author can improve the answer. $\endgroup$
    – user21
    Apr 19, 2017 at 7:24
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You might also want to have a look at:

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