Tag Archives: computational fluid dynamics

ANSYS Receives Letters FROM Santa!

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image of Santa typing on keyboardImagine my surprise this holiday season, when I opened my email to find several letters FROM Santa. He has some pretty great questions so I thought I’d share just a few of them with you, our blog followers. Maybe you have some suggestions for him too. This could keep you on his “Who’s Been Nice” list and garner a surprise under your tree next week.

On behalf of all of ANSYS’s employees, Happy Holidays to you and yours,  and best wishes for a prosperous 2013.

Dear ANSYS,
My reindeer are not getting any younger you know, and while Christmas magic helps, my bag never seems to get any lighter. You know the score — more kids, more presents. While the elves have been tweaking the sled and they keep going on about boundary layers, turbulence, separation — I actually think they have hit the Christmas brandy a little early this year – I’m a simple man and if I want to make things easier on the reindeer I have Continue reading →

Simulation Aids in Chiari Malformation Treatment

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In a previous post, I discussed how CFD can help to save newborn lives. Today, I will focus on another advancement in medicine that is generally based on the same approach: patient-specific CFD studies to treat disease. The Chiari malformation is a malformation of the brain that can cause headaches, fatigue, muscle weakness in the head and face, difficulty swallowing, dizziness, nausea, impaired coordination, and, in severe cases, paralysis (source: “Chiari malformation: Symptoms.” Mayo Clinic. November 13, 2008).

What physicians discovered is that this malformation alters the dynamic movement of fluid in the brain. This alteration is the cause for all of the malformation’s side effects. It can be corrected by a surgery that has a 70 percent success rate. This is good, but not good enough. Continue reading →

Computational Fluid Dynamics in Tanker Hull Design

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Courtesy of Wärtsilä via Reuters press release

Last week I came across a press release from Wärtsilä Corporation in which it announced the launch of “a new, highly efficient Aframax tanker design that offers solutions for current and forthcoming emissions legislation.” So what is the big deal, since there are thousands of press releases every day? What caught my attention was how the company emphasized that designing this highly efficient tanker was made possible using computational fluid dynamics (CFD), applying optimization techniques to design a hull with less resistance. Continue reading →

Body Scanning Technology – Simulating Fashion

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Driving home the other night, I heard an interesting piece on All Tech Considered that discussed body scanning technology and whether people would be willing to get naked in a store dressing room or at home in front of their Microsoft Kinect, all in the search for clothing that looks best on them. Now, I’m a sucker for nudity on the radio, so I had to listen for more.

It seems this company, Bodymetrics, is using body-scanning technology to help people find the perfect jeans for them. (If they could only put that technology in those blasted full-body scanners in airports, we could kill two birds with one stone!)

Body-Scanning Technology and Accuracy

But creating a painfully accurate model of the body is only the first part of the puzzle. Different fabrics behave differently even if they have the same cut. How does a silk top look on a tall body type versus polyester on an obese person versus linen on a stout one? Try modeling those various permutations. Continue reading →

Governments Support Computational Fluid Dynamics for Energy Efficiency

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If you’ve been reading my posts, you’ve probably noticed how much attention I pay to companies and engineers that recognize the advantages of CFD. It helps them optimize their products, increase quality, reduce operating costs, etc. So what is new? Well, now some governments are realizing the benefits of computational fluid dynamics as well.

Canadian Government Provides Financial Grants for Computational Fluid Dynamics Studies

The Canadian Government is providing financial grants to companies willing to invest in the ISO5001 Standard, a guideline designed to validate processes aimed at reductions in energy use, greenhouse emissions, pollutant emissions, etc. Of course, this can be achieved via many activities. But of all those activities, the Canadian Government is focusing on using CFD for energy (savings) studies. In other words, it recognizes that CFD can play a key role in helping companies reduce their energy consumption (and pollutant) emissions. The Canadian Government is so fond of the idea of using CFD for this goal that it is offering  financial incentives for companies to do so! Continue reading →

Computational Fluid Dynamics Deserves an Oscar

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This weekend, I was discussing the blog post about “Computational Fluid Dynamics and Video Games” with a friend. After the initial surprise of learning that my friend was reading my blog, the conversation turned to special effects in games and movies. He was wondering why sometimes it is obvious that a scene with fire or water special effects look fake.

image of fake flood using fluid dynamics

The answer is actually simple: scale effects. When the special effects crew sinks a ship or designs a ball of fire, they often film a scaled-down model. The problem with this technique is that the actual physics of the fire or water will also scale down! As a consequence, a huge ball of fire over a city may remind you of the dead leaves fire you had last fall in your garden. Or a water rushing over a sinking boat may remind you of what you saw when you were sinking toy boats in the bathtub when you were a kid. Continue reading →

Innovative New Method for Vehicle Aerodynamic Simulation

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Some of our regular readers might recall that back in October 2011 I alluded to something new coming down the pike. If you missed it, you might want to catch up by reading The Next Big Thing in Vehicle Aerodynamic Simulation?

image of velocity contours

I’m sure you’re aware that aerodynamics development is all about trade-offs, striking the right balance between styling needs and aerodynamic concerns. Nearly all major automotive and truck manufacturers use computational fluid dynamics (CFD) during the development process to evaluate aerodynamic drag of proposed vehicle designs. Typically, R&D teams analyze about 50 to 500 different vehicle shape variants in the time available for aerodynamic development. The analysis results shed considerable light on the impact of styling choices on aerodynamic performance, but they do not come close to achieving the potential of simulation to identify the best possible design that meets the various constraints and trade-offs involved in the project. Continue reading →

UV Disinfection of Water Using CFD

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While doing some research, I found an article that interested me because it showed yet another area  I had never heard about for using computational fluid dynamics. Sandia National Laboratories is using CFD for an UV disinfection process for water. Don’t get me wrong, using CFD for water treatment is nothing new. But the fact that the article focused on the specific UV treatment is what caught my attention. I wondered what would be so particular in this application that CFD could help?

Was it to compute the flow in the device? The pressure drop? No it couldn’t be…or why would Sandia Labs be looking into something so trivial? After further reading, I found the explanation I was looking for. The goal was actually to predict the UV disinfection process. But how to include the effect of UV? There is no out-of-the-box UV CFD model! Continue reading →