CFD Applications
Visualization of a CFD simulation of Ramgen’s shock wave-based compression technique. Image from phys.org.
- Ramgen is developing technology involving shock wave-based compression of CO2 gas as part of a Dept. of Energy program for carbon capture and sequestration. (See image above.) The CFD simulations, using Numeca’s CFD code and the DOE’s supercomputers at Oak Ridge National Lab, have cut potentially 2 years and $2 million from commercialization of the product.
- Watch this video demonstration of Khamsin, the CFD-plugin for Sketchup, as it is used to model a 250 cc go-cart.
- At the University of Colorado, Boulder they’re using Tecplot Chorus to data-mine CFD solutions to address the issue of uncertainty in hypersonic air vehicle design.
- Embry-Riddle is using STAR-CCM+ to simulate the aerodynamics of their EcoCar2 design.
CFD solution of the EcoCar traveling at 50 mph. Colors indicate pressure. Image from Desktop Engineering.
CFD News in Brief
- Visualization Sciences Group, makers of the Avizo software for visualizing scientific data including CFD, was acquired by FEI Company, a world leader in production and distribution of electron microscopes. Plans for support and future development of VSG’s products is said to be unchanged. VSG had also recently announced the acquisition of the amira 3D visualization software.
- Here are brief highlights about CFD in India.
- ANSYS launched ANSYS Academic Student, allowing students to use their software outside of the classroom for only $25.
- Creaform, purveyors of portable 3D measurement technology, have added CFD analysis to their consultancy offerings.
- CD-adapco announced the availability in Japan of es-ice, their internal combustion engine simulation tool.
CFD Resources & Jobs
- Prof. Lorena Barba from Boston University, notable for making her CFD course lectures available on YouTube, also posts various CFD-related documents on figshare.
- Users of OpenVSP, NASA’s open-source, parametric, aircraft geometry modeling tool, can now benefit from the VSP Hangar, a community-driven collection of geometry models.
- ETH Zurich seeks a research assistant to conduct CFD simulations of the lacuno-canalicular network of bone tissue.
- Dell’s high performance computing blog has posted the first of a promised series of articles in a CFD Primer.
CFD Events
- Registration is now open for the 9th International Conference on CFD in the Minerals and Process Industries to be held 10-12 December 2012 in Melbourne, Australia.
- ESI announced a CFD open house in Essen, Germany on 19 September 2012.
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The cost avoidance numbers for the Ramgen application are difficult to evaluate. It would be interesting to see if they would be able to achieve the comparable efficiencies if they had to pay the fully loaded rates (on Amazon EC2 for instance).
Thanks for your comment. I agree – it’s not clear how the $2 million in savings was computed and whether it assumed access to the Jaguar supercomputer was free versus paying for a service like Amazon EC2. What is cool, however, is the supersonic compression technology. I thought the flowfield image included in the article was quite nice and would like to see more.
Dear John,
Thank you for the shout out! I dare say, “notable” might be a bit of an exaggeration, but it is nice that you noticed! I am now teaching a freshman course called “Bio-aerial locomotion” and will be also sharing several TED-Ed lessons, like this one on the robotic bird by Festo: http://ed.ted.com/on/qezXXDXF
But that is a bit off-topic, I guess.
On-topic to CFD is that we’ll be uploading validation reports for our open research codes on Figshare, to be found on the link you posted above.
Regards, Lorena.
Prof. Barba: Thanks for commenting. Sharing your CFD work as you do only helps broaden its appeal, gets more people using it, and educates them on how it works. Regarding your bio-related work, my impression is that bio-related majors are really attracting a lot of students which then takes our other technologies (like CFD) from traditional applications (like aircraft) to non-traditional (like bird flight or arterial flow or whatever). That’s a good thing.
Thanks for the video, f-w. I remember seeing it last year when the award winners were announced.