Software
- CEI announced that CPFD Software will bundle their EnSight software with CPFD’s Barracuda for visualization of computational particle fluid dynamics solutions of fluidized reactors. In a related blog post, CEI shares examples of Barracuda solutions visualized in EnSight. Also see image below.
- DEVELOP3D writes about how SpaceClaim‘s broadening user community has resulted in many new capabilities that make it a “slick tool.”
- WindSim AS launched a cloud-based version of their CFD toolset for wind turbine analysis.
Screen capture from a EnSight video of a Barracuda CFD solution of a gasifier showing volume fraction of particles. Image from CEI.
Applications
- NASA’s work on reducing aircraft noise is described in this article from International Science Grid This Week. Simulations performed using Exa’s PowerFLOW have shown how a new device can decrease flap-generated noise. (Noise is the number one complaint reported to the FAA.)
- CFD solutions computed using STAR-CCM+ for the latest bicycle racing helmet from Louis Garneau compared to within 4% of wind tunnel test results. See image below.
Screen capture from a video comparing the acoustic field for an aircraft with (right) and without (left) noise reducing devices. Image from ISGTW.
Reading & Jobs
- A printed version of I do like CFD Vol. 1, 2nd edition is now available with a special price discount that expires on 14 February.
- A new edition of the International Journal of CFD is now available online.
- [If you have the stomach for it.] Read this article about rooftop water collection tanks in New York City. [There’s no CFD in here but it’s a very practical example of everyday fluids.]
- Convergent Science seeks to hire a Business Development Manager/Account Executive for their Texas office.
- Applied Research Associates has an opening for a FEA/CFD Engineer or Scientist in Reston, Virginia.
CFD solution from STAR-CCM+ for a Louis Garneau cycling helmet. Image from HPC Magazine.
Events
- Flow Science announced the 2014 FLOW-3D Americas User Conference to be held 9-10 September 2014 in Toronto.
- NAFEMS extended the abstract deadline for the NAFEMS Americas Conference 2014 to February 17th. The event will be held 28-30 May in Colorado Springs.
Alert reader Walker B. pointed me at this video of the dynamic patterns on the surface of heated soap bubbles. Click image (from New Scientist) for the video. Email FYFD for an explanation of the science.
Grid Generation the Hard Way
Back in the day, grid generation could mean a Fortran DATA statement. [Look it up, kids.] Sometimes it felt like you were drawing the grid by hand.
Which is exactly what artist Susie MacMurray does in her series of pen on paper gauze bandage drawings. You’ll have to take my word for it that the image below pales in comparison to the real thing which is quite intricate and detailed. I had the pleasure of seeing one of these drawings during a recent visit to the Arkansas Arts Center in Little Rock. [She would probably not take kindly to a suggestion to apply a little smoothing with an elliptic PDE based method.]
Susie MacMurray, Gauze Bandage 2009. Image from Ms. MacMurray’s website.
RSS - Posts
In regard to the soap bubble: What you’re seeing is the result of an effectively two dimensional system. Turbulence in two dimensions has a tendency for small structures to coalesce, resulting in long-lived, coherent vortical structures (like hurricanes/cyclones). This is sometimes called an inverse cascade since energy is transferred to larger structures, as opposed to three dimensional (everyday) turbulence where injected energy is carried down into smaller and smaller features until it is damped at the viscous (Kolmogorov) length scale. In this case, thin-film interference provides a colorful visualization of the flow patterns driven by convective forces in the bubble. Despite our perspective that the atmosphere is quite three dimensional, it is actually quite thin when compared with the diameter of the earth, and so the caption is correct in its assertion that the vortices in the soap film are small relatives of atmospheric events–the primary distinction being the role of Coriolis forces in driving the flow of hurricanes.