Fluid Simulation Teaches Kids About Freshwater Lake and Watershed Science

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YouTube video of Augmented Reality SandboxI’ve been blogging about how CFD is being used for better rendering of fluid motions in videos games or movies. I just found an even better application: education! An NSF-funded project aims at educating kids on freshwater lakes and watershed science. To do so, they build an augmented reality freshwater/watershed sandbox! The sandbox is real, but the water motion is virtual. A fluid simulation code is coupled to a powerful 3-D visualization tool that projects the computed fluid motion on the sandbox. The beauty (and incredibly smart) part is that kids can shape the sand, creating valleys, lakes and mountains. The fluid simulation code captures the topology, computes the water motion, and projects it on the sand box! This is real life, real-time CFD in action. Besides being incredibly cool, UC Davis indicates that “the  system also teaches geographic, geologic and hydrologic concepts such as how to read a topography map, the meaning of contour lines, watersheds, catchment areas, levees, etc.” Cool and educational! Continue reading →

Unmanned Aerial Systems Industry Remains Strong

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I read with interest, Global Defense Technology’s interview with BAE, Lockheed and Elbit Systems as they outlined their strategy for unmanned aerial systems (UAS). Very timely as we recently saw BAE begin pilotless flight tests over the Irish Sea.

Common themes are starting to evolve – increased autonomy, new missions, combat capable, extended range and duration and all-weather flight among them. These requirements have critical implications for the engineering teams behind them in terms of size, weight and power (SWaP) of components, aerodynamics and structural integrity. Continue reading →

ANSYS Events, Webinars and Workshops This Week – May 14 – 18

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image of Learning text on a keyboardWe have another great line-up of events this week that you won’t want to miss. The Confidence by Design Workshops are hitting both coasts this week with one in Seattle and one in Boston. (details below). We also have several webinars scheduled, including our Ask-the-Expert series. Make sure you register today! Continue reading →

Finding Good Lectures About CFD

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I thought I’d take the opportunity to discuss a request I receive on an almost weekly basis – ”where can I find good lectures about CFD”?  Of course, you can find a wealth of knowledge in good text books or attend course at great universities. However, I’d like to direct you to some wonderful materials I found on YouTube! This series of lectures is given by Prof. Lorena A. Barba, assistant professor at the Boston University (Prof. Barba has a Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology).

This is really a nice series of high-quality lectures that will teach you everything need to know about CFD. A big thanks to Prof. Barba to make the lectures available for free on YouTube!

But the next obvious question is – ”How do I use this? How do I code it?”

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Brake Noise, Vibration and Harshness Generate Billions in Warranty Costs

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Back in April, one of our team members shared an article that talked about how “Almost every Rolls-Royce sold in Australia in the past 10 years is being recalled because of brake safety issues and concerns some models could catch fire.” The article discussed how the recall reached a total of $100 million. I don’t know about you, but for me, brakes on my car are what I consider one of the most critical things to keeping me safe. The financial implications of poor brake design doesn’t stop there. Did you know that it has been estimated that noise, vibration and harshness (NVH), including disc brake squeal, generates warranty costs of about $1 billion(US) a year to the automotive industry in North America alone and that at least $100 million of those expenses can be attributed to brake squeal? I didn’t — but my research revealed this.

Anyway, the timing couldn’t have been more perfect, as I was not only about to take my car in for a new set of brakes, but I was just getting ready to release our newest whitepaper about brake squeal onto our various sites. It’s called “Breakthrough in Brake Squeal Prediction Helps to Eliminate Noise Problems Early in Design Process” and can be found in the ANSYS Resource Library. (Note: you’ll have to register to download the paper.)

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ANSYS Events, Webinars and Workshops This Week – May 7 to May 11

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image of Learning text on a keyboardThis week we have Confidence by Design Workshops in cities across the U.S. including Baltimore, San Diego, Minneapolis and Santa Clara. These complimentary workshops  cover a variety of topics designed to help you leverage our tools to ensure that your designs will work the first time. Register now to attend by selecting a session below that is closest to you.

Industry Events We’ll Be Attending:
Also this week, if you’re attending the PLM World Conference in Las Vegas May 7-10, stop by Booth 54 where ANSYS representatives will be on hand to answer questions and show you the latest developments in simulation engineering.

For those of you attending the Spacecraft Technology Expo, you’ll find us at Booth 5006 May 8-10.

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Computational Fluid Dynamics Deserves an Oscar

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This weekend, I was discussing the blog post about “Computational Fluid Dynamics and Video Games” with a friend. After the initial surprise of learning that my friend was reading my blog, the conversation turned to special effects in games and movies. He was wondering why sometimes it is obvious that a scene with fire or water special effects look fake.

image of fake flood using fluid dynamics

The answer is actually simple: scale effects. When the special effects crew sinks a ship or designs a ball of fire, they often film a scaled-down model. The problem with this technique is that the actual physics of the fire or water will also scale down! As a consequence, a huge ball of fire over a city may remind you of the dead leaves fire you had last fall in your garden. Or a water rushing over a sinking boat may remind you of what you saw when you were sinking toy boats in the bathtub when you were a kid. Continue reading →

ANSYS Events, Webinars and Workshops This Week – April 30 to May 4

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image of Learning text on a keyboardToday kicks off the Offshore Technology Conference (OTC), the world’s foremost event for the development of offshore resources in the fields of drilling, exploration, production, and environmental protection. If you’re attending, please do stop by our Booth 5001 and say hello!

Our Ask-the-Expert series continues with two webinars on Wednesday. Register for one or both.

There are also three Confidence By Design Workshops this week, so make sure you sign-up to attend. You’ll find these in Denver, Orlando and Salt Lake City, more details below. Continue reading →

Webinar Series: Recent Advances in Automotive Simulation

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As the month of April winds down, you might like to get a jump on planning your calendar for May. In our Automotive Series, we have two great topics in the line-up. On May 8th & 10th, Dr. Evangelos Koutsavdis will be discussing why aerodynamic noise generation is becoming a very important aspect of product quality. You’ll be able to join in on the discussion where a panel of experts will be available to answer your questions.

image of a auto using simulation

Recent Advances in Aerodynamic Wind Noise Simulation

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May 8, 2012, 9:00 AM EDT, 1:00 PM GMT   
May 10, 2012, 4:00 PM EDT, 8:00 PM GMT    Continue reading →

Innovative New Method for Vehicle Aerodynamic Simulations

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Some of our regular readers might recall that back in October 2011 I alluded to something new coming down the pike. If you missed it, you might want to catch up by reading The Next Big Thing in Vehicle Aerodynamics Simulation?

image of velocity contours

I’m sure you’re aware that aerodynamics development is all about trade-offs, striking the right balance between styling needs and aerodynamic concerns. Nearly all major automotive and truck manufacturers use computational fluid dynamics (CFD) during the development process to evaluate aerodynamic drag of proposed vehicle designs. Typically, R&D teams analyze about 50 to 500 different vehicle shape variants in the time available for aerodynamic development. The analysis results shed considerable light on the impact of styling choices on aerodynamic performance, but they do not come close to achieving the potential of simulation to identify the best possible design that meets the various constraints and trade-offs involved in the project. Continue reading →