Streamlining Fluid Dynamics

More-intuitive pre-processors and advanced solvers are making computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software easier to use, more accurate, and faster. CFD techniques involve the solution of the Navier-Stokes equations that describe fluid-flow processes. Using MSC/ PATRAN as a starting point, AEA Technology plc, Harwell, Oxfordshire, England, has developed a pre-processor for its software that is fully computer-aided design (CAD)-compatible and works with native CAD databases such as CADDS 5, CATIA, Euclid3, Pro /ENG INEER, and Unigraphics. The simplicity of modeling complex geometries in CFX allows more details to be included in models, such as gangways between coaches, bogies, and even some parts of the pantograph. CFX 5's coupled solver offers a radically different approach that solves all the hydrodynamic equations as a single system. CFX 5 has demonstrated its ability to deliver much faster pre-processing and shorter run times, thus increasing productivity for its users. CFX 5.2 should be a further step forward in commercial CFD, with its mixed element types combining the accuracy of prismatic meshes adjacent to surfaces with the speed and geometric flexibility of tetrahedral elements in the remainder of the grid.