The CD adapco Group has recognised the growing interest in fuel cell technology and the use of Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells (PEMFC) as a means of developing cleaner and more efficient electric power units for automotive applications. We have been involved in an intensive program of collaborative research and development, with expert partners such as the Fuel Cells Department of the University of South Carolina, with the aim of providing the industry with the best CFD analysis solutions in this area.

The von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics, Rhode-Saint-Genèse, Belgium, is a non-profit international educational and scientific organization, hosting three departments: aeronautics and aerospace, environmental and applied fluid dynamics, and turbomachinery. The institute provides post-graduate education in fluid dynamics and encourages "training in research through research." Created in 1956 following Theodore von Kármán's proposal, it is currently supported with subsidies from most of the member countries of NATO and with additional income derived from contract research. The Environmental and Applied Fluid Dynamics Department, created in 1974, is the youngest department at the Institute. Its activities are related to a wide range of domains such as biological flows, multiphase flows, wind effects on buildings and structures, gas dispersion in the atmosphere, heat transfer, rocket engine fuel supply, for example. Some of the industrial fields in which this department has already been active include: coating processes, continuous casting of steel, pneumatic transport, spray and jet cooling, galvanization of strips and wires, cyclone separators, synthetic fibers, micronization of solid materials, and gas/droplets separation.

Before we get to the answers, I would like to thank Dr. Raw for his prompt reply. Heading up product development at CFX is a very time-consuming job and I am thankful for his time.

Now, on to the questions and answers...

Aiolos Engineering saved time and costs in the development of a 100-meter long wind tunnel by using CFX computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software instead of physical testing. Building and testing a scale model was ruled out because it was expensive and required more time than was allotted for the design of the entire facility. By creating a CFD model of the wind tunnel, Aiolos was able to evaluate many design parameters in a fraction of the time required to design and build a model wind tunnel and to implement a test program. Engineers used CFD to evaluate different wall divergence angles and roughness conditions of the test section to meet a key design challenge: to achieve a reasonable trade-off between the axial static pressure and velocity gradients over the full range of train shapes and sizes. "Ideally, both the static pressure and velocity should be constant along the entire length of the test vehicle," says Trevor Bender, aerodynamicist at Aiolos Engineering. "With CFD, we could perform many trade-off studies to find the optimal balance between those two factors."

# Gridless Computing (2D only; 3D under development),

# Dynamic english-language programming for user-specified physics (without FORTRAN or C Programming),

# Multi-physics capability,

# Versatile library of functions for field variables, fluid properties, sources, and initial and boundary conditions,

# Hybrid elements such as hexahedra, prisms, pyramids, tetrahedra, triangles and quads. Any combination of elements are acceptable.

# Adaptive Gridding / Auto Refinement at runtime based on flexible user-specified runtime criteria.

# If-then-else type of conditional statements.

# Expanded and improved library of matrix solvers,

# Computational improvements and enhancements for efficiency and versatility of application.

--- CFDStudio is the new Integrated Development Environment (IDE) developed by ACRi, for use in CFD problem setup, runtime and postprocessing.

In technical terms, CFDStudio is a "wysiwyg" (what you see is what you get) type of development environment for CFD applications. That is, as you are setting up a CFD problem, there is never a blind spot, you can always visualize what type of boundary condition you are specifying, and to what region. Any specification that you have provided can be viewed at a later time.

The entire development environment is built on a "point-and-click" approach, minimizing the guess work. The problem setup (specification of geometry, initial and boundary conditions, sources, sinks, fluid properties, solution and output options etc.), initiation and graphical representation of CFD solution, as well as the postprocessing of the results (including contours, vectors, slices, etc) are all done in the CFDStudio environment, eliminating the need for 3rd party software, and flattening the learning curve even for the most novice CFD software user.

For detailed information, or to request a 30-day free evaluation copy (qualifying professionals only) please visit CFDStudio/ANSWER website at:

http://www.acricfd.com/software/answer/