LVADs are implantable pumps that assist a damaged heart while a patient waits for a transplant. Although the device is buying many patients valuable time, it is still considered experimental. The promise of a better long-term solution has researchers around the world studying LVADs.

Rice's LVAD simulations have enabled researchers to identify and quantify high-shear stress areas that can lead to the device's failure. They have also confirmed experimental observations regarding the persistent stagnation areas that lead to clotting. These results are giving researchers useful clues for improving centrifugal pump design.

Cadalyst has posted a review of the new graphics chips. For the review, Cadalyst ran the ATI Mobility Fire GL 7800 and the NVIDIA Quadro4 500 Go GL graphics chips through the Cadalyst C2001 Benchmark in AutoCAD 2002, the MAXBench for 3D Studio MAX v.3.1, and the ViewPerf ProCDRS-03 test component that checks basic video performance.

The overall winner was the NVIDIA chip. It should be noted that the NVIDIA platform had a slightly faster processor (P4 2.0GHz vs. P4 1.7GHz), but that the NVIDIA chip still seems to be the faster chip for now.

Predicting fuel cell behavior with CFD
October 11th, 10:00 am -- 3:00 pm
Bellevue Hilton
Bellevue, Washington

The keynote speaker will be Professor John Van Zee, of the University of South Carolina. Prof. Van Zee will discuss application of CFD coupled to electrochemistry modeling to PEM fuel cell design and analysis. By coupling electrochemistry models with the advanced CFD capability in CD adapco Group's solver STAR-CD, it is possible to get significant insight into issues such as heat transfer, fluid flow, membrane saturation and electrical current density.

For more information please visit our website.

In the CFD category, Moldflow was nominated best for their mold filling package. Benefits that the author cited are ease of use, CAD interoperability, and company interaction and collaboration with users.

Fluent was given an honorable mention for their efforts in making CFD more attainable to the casual user.

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