The main goals of these seminars are to make you more successful using CFD by having a more thorough knowledge of the underlying physics and numerical techniques in our software, as well as to teach engineers, scientists, and managers about the latest technical developments and how they can be used to model and improve process unit operations.

For more information on these seminars, please visit: http://www.fluent.com/worldwide/usa/support/traini ng/ped_seminar/index.htm

"I saw the value of airflow modeling years ago, but couldn't manage the upfront costs of the better simulation packages. The Airpak/RSF lets me have the best of both worlds. Now, I can scale my airflow modeling usage and costs to fit my project workload, and get all the computing horsepower I need from any location, at any time. My clients appreciate being able to visualize how the design will perform, and I value the competitive advantage it gives me in the proposal process," says Paul Martin of Sigma Psi Consulting.

We will send off the best questions to Dr. Raw this Friday, so get your question in now.

The Open Source software development model has gained popularity on its merits of being more robust and agile. The Open Source movement has grown out of the "hacker" culture -- one which believes that information should be freely available to all. This contrasts strongly with academic culture in which information is shared with the initiated.

Mr. Zaleski notes that there are rather potent reasons for which academics and their institutions refrain from openly distributing of the code.

• The maintenance and documentation efforts.
• The issue of commercialisation.
• The risks and rewards for the authors' reputations

By developing a novel vehicle thermal comfort model, Delphi Harrison Thermal Systems has been able to evaluate the performance of many more heating / ventilation / air conditioning (HVAC) system designs than was ever possible in the past. By using this model a more thorough investigation of the design parameters space brings the final design closer to optimum. Traditionally, HVAC design alternatives have been evaluated by testing prototypes in wind tunnels, a very time-consuming and expensive process. Though automotive OEMs and suppliers have developed many cabin climate prediction models over the last several years, Delphi’s new virtual thermal comfort engineering model goes considerably farther than it’s predecessors by integrating a 16-zone human physiology model that predicts human comfort by calculating skin temperatures. The model uses computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to predict local thermal comfort as a function of air temperature, surrounding surface temperatures, air velocity, humidity, direct solar flux, as well as the level of activity and clothing type of each individual. This technology is currently being used to design and optimize HVAC systems and in the future its use is to be extended for the development of control algorithms and the calibration of electronic controls.

The event was sponsored by some of the leading hardware vendors in the business. Hewlett-Packard was the gold sponsor, Silicon Graphics the silver sponsor, and Sun, IBM, and Compaq (now Hewlett Packard) served as bronze sponsors.

The CFD Pavilion, a highlight of the meeting, featured 22 partner booths, information on Fluent products and services, and posters by Fluent staff illustrating the latest in CFD technology.