Energy2D
Create your own computational experiments to test your scientific hypotheses and design your engineering solutions.
What is Energy2D
Energy2D is an interactive multiphysics simulation program that models heat transfer, phase change, chemical reaction, fluid dynamics, electromagnetism, optics, wave mechanics, particle dynamics, multibody dynamics, and their coupling, in two dimensions.
It runs quickly in your web browser and eliminates the need to switch among preprocessors, solvers, and postprocessors in typical simulation workflows. Use it to design authentic “computational experiments” to test a scientific hypothesis or solve an engineering problem without resorting to complex mathematics. You can also draft playful simulations or learning activities with its built-in generative AI — and publish and share your work with others.
Why multiphysics
Because nature is never dictated by a single law in physics. To solve a problem in the real world, we must take a holistic, multidisciplinary approach.
How people use it
As of December 2025, Energy2D has been used as a simulation tool by scientists and engineers in more than 100 peer-reviewed papers.
What people are saying
I am working as a consulting engineer and we often have to make quick estimations where a steady-state node model is too simplified and setting up a complex FEM model is overkill. Energy2D is a very handy tool for something like that — I like the click'n'play sandbox feeling in combination with the physical correctness. I never thought FEM could be that fun.
A big THANK YOU for this wonderful and free software. I actually try different wall simulations (conduction, energy loss) and I am very happy with your software. I also use Comsol Multiphysics but this software needs much more time for proper solutions than yours. I really appreciate your good work.
Energy2D is a wonderful FREE application that carries out complex two-dimensional calculations based on real physics. I have found it difficult to get exact numerical matches between simulations and real-world situations, but the physics the software simulates is deeply insightful. I strongly recommend wasting several hours playing with its example demonstrations.
Very impressed with your software. We are a company located in Costa Rica, in the field of condition monitoring training and reliability. In our main training courses is Infrared Thermography. Your software seems very useful for demonstrations of basic physics concepts of heat and temperature.
It is indeed an excellent tool for simplified 2D problems. Your tool can find vast marketing opportunity in industrial applications very quickly. In many cases, engineers are only interested in visualizing simple 2D cases like what you present in your tool and they are reluctant to spend thousands of dollars on expensive CFD simulations.
All the participants have made very positive comments on the simulation and explored it with great interest — even when their subject matter in school was not science but they teach, for example, anatomy or business economics! This is proof of the very good job you've done, especially for the use of colours and animation.
This is the best computer-based tool I have found so far! I'm using Matlab and Mathematica a lot, but for the students (and for me too!) this is a simple, intuitive, and fast way to check out ideas and learn from intuition and not only from equations. Thanks a lot for sharing this — it will help my students and myself a lot.
I want to thank you for making this fabulous simulation tool of physical phenomena available to the community. We will use it to introduce our students in the course of transport phenomena to understanding the transfer of momentum and energy as heat.
My teacher showed me this software. It's really powerful and incredibly simple to use. Sometimes this kind of simulation software is complicated to use. However, this is not an issue with Energy2D.
If someone needs a 2D calculation and doesn't want to deal with the details, and is willing to swallow some computational inaccuracy, I highly recommend Energy2D. It's incredibly easy to handle compared to the 3D programs so far.
How to cite Energy2D
Charles Xie, Interactive Heat Transfer Simulations for Everyone, The Physics Teacher, 50(4), 237–240, 2012.
I am working as a consulting engineer and we often have to make
quick estimations where a steady-state node model is too simplified
and setting up a complex FEM model is overkill. Energy2D is a very
handy tool for something like that — I like the click'n'play
sandbox feeling in combination with the physical correctness. I
never thought FEM could be that fun.
A big THANK YOU for this wonderful and free software. I actually
try different wall simulations (conduction, energy loss) and I am
very happy with your software. I also use Comsol Multiphysics but
this software needs much more time for proper solutions than yours.
I really appreciate your good work.
Energy2D is a wonderful FREE application that carries out complex
two-dimensional calculations based on real physics. I have found
it difficult to get exact numerical matches between simulations
and real-world situations, but the physics the software simulates
is deeply insightful. I strongly recommend wasting several hours
playing with its example demonstrations.
Very impressed with your software. We are a company located in
Costa Rica, in the field of condition monitoring training and
reliability. In our main training courses is Infrared Thermography.
Your software seems very useful for demonstrations of basic physics
concepts of heat and temperature.
It is indeed an excellent tool for simplified 2D problems. Your
tool can find vast marketing opportunity in industrial applications
very quickly. In many cases, engineers are only interested in
visualizing simple 2D cases like what you present in your tool
and they are reluctant to spend thousands of dollars on expensive
CFD simulations.
All the participants have made very positive comments on the
simulation and explored it with great interest — even when
their subject matter in school was not science but they teach,
for example, anatomy or business economics! This is proof of the
very good job you've done, especially for the use of colours and
animation.
This is the best computer-based tool I have found so far! I'm
using Matlab and Mathematica a lot, but for the students (and for
me too!) this is a simple, intuitive, and fast way to check out
ideas and learn from intuition and not only from equations.
Thanks a lot for sharing this — it will help my students
and myself a lot.
I want to thank you for making this fabulous simulation tool of
physical phenomena available to the community. We will use it to
introduce our students in the course of transport phenomena to
understanding the transfer of momentum and energy as heat.
My teacher showed me this software. It's really powerful and
incredibly simple to use. Sometimes this kind of simulation
software is complicated to use. However, this is not an issue
with Energy2D.
If someone needs a 2D calculation and doesn't want to deal with
the details, and is willing to swallow some computational
inaccuracy, I highly recommend Energy2D. It's incredibly easy to
handle compared to the 3D programs so far.