Dear
you have many other choices to work on turbulent flows. There are other softwares like Code_Saturne, which are open source with many turbulence modeling levels (DES, LES, RANS...). It seems that OpenFOAM or Code_Saturne are better choice: they are free and you can code your own model, add equations... Fluent is more a black box where you can just add fluids, inlet conditions without coding so much.
Actually, you can code in Fluent but to a certain extent. You can add your own source terms and/or boundary conditions but cannot code new solvers. In general, I agree with Sebastien that the open-source codes will give you more freedom in developng your own solvers and you can use commercial codes during the testing phase of your CFD code.
Just to correct Sébastien, there is no ready-to-use DES module in Code_Saturne. But it's easy to implement.
Its better to go for FLUENT. It has been validated extensively and is easy to use for beginners, if simulating turbulenty flows is your forte. But if you want to go for code development, go for OPENFOAM.
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