What is CFD?
Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is a method within digital development process for simulation fluid mechanics. The CFD simulation is being used in almost all areas of application such as automotive industry, aerospace industry or medical technology.
Nearly all types of fluid and heat flows can be simulated. Here, subsystems like pumps or valves can be investigetedand optimized from scratch. Certainly, CFD can also be used to simulate huge and difficult systems like complete aircrafts or compelte lubrication systems.
The focus of an simulation varies from general layout investigation, efficiency analysis up to system optimisation.
The foundation of a simulation is the computation grid.This grid mesh describes the geometry and its volume around. For each mesh element, the conservation equations for mass, momentum and energy are solved iteratively. After an successful simulation, information like pressure, speed or temperature is calculated for each cell. The sum of these information represent the flow field.
In order to investigate or understand the flow conditions, this flow field can be visualized at the postprocessing.
The CFD development process is iterative and is structured as follows:
- CFD grid mesh generation
- Model selection & definition according to the physics to be used
- Definition of the boundary conditions
- Performaing the CFD simulation
- Evaluation and interpretation of the results at postprocessing