Hello @gasteropode ,
I would recommend your students to first use actual CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) results of turbocompressor simulation. Blender’s flow solver is very limited and intended to use for cosmetic purpose. There’s open source reliable solvers like OpenFOAM, and companies like SimScale also offer computing ressources for such simulations. That should first be the first step, get an actual flow solution.
Once you get an actual solution, I would recommend to first download Paraview and load the solution into it to extract flow structures named Streamlines. These can be imported in blender as curves, which you can use to guide particles and smoke.
That is a very condensed solution, and the first step (simulation of turbomachine) is quite challenging if you have no experience in CFD. Being a CFD engineer myself I can help you a bit more, but maybe your students already have their own solution.
Hope that helps,
/Thibaut.
