Computational Fluid Dynamics - A Virtual Wind Tunnel

Computational fluid dynamics is the computer modeling of the fluid flow around or through a device. Examples would be air over the wing of an airplane and water through a pipe. Engineers in the aerospace industry use CFD to predict aerodynamic lift and drag and engine performance. In the automotive industry, it is used for drag prediction, estimating heating conditions in the engine compartment and for computing the flow in the engine's intake manifold, cylinders and exhaust manifolds. Because CFD reduces the need for expensive testing and gives engineers more insight into their design before it is built, it saves time and money and leads to better designs.

Why Grid Generation is Critical to CFD

The CFD analysis process, illustrated below, begins with a computer-aided design model of the part being analyzed. Next, the flow region around or through the part is divided into numerous discrete elements call a grid or mesh. Pointwise is the software used to generate the grid. Then, the governing equations for fluid flow are solved for each element, including any interactions between elements, to determine the flowfield. As a last step, useful engineering data like forces, moments, heat transfer and visualizations of vortices and other flow structures are extracted from the numerical flowfield using a post-processor. Grid generation is the most time consuming and difficult part of the CFD analysis process. Grid generation often consumes up to 80 percent of the labor hours for a CFD project and is the largest controllable influence on the accuracy of the analysis. Our products are the best solutions available to the grid generation problem. They allow engineers to work with flawed CAD models without any cleanup. Engineers are free to concentrate on producing high quality grids without having to worry about the grid's bookkeeping aspects.

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