CFD is a vital technology for simulation, visualization, and prediction of fluid flow, heat and mass transfer, and chemical reactions. It is a critical part of the computer-aided process engineering (CAPE) lifecycle for manufacturing companies around the world. Throughout the process industries, Fluent's CFD simulations are delivering major business benefits by enabling engineers to design for better equipment performance, more effective scale-up, improved safety, and higher productivity.

The development of the integrated software tools were funded in part by the Department of Energy's Office of Fossil Energy to be used to simulate and visualize advanced plant concepts in support of the DOE's Vision 21 program. The National Energy Technology Laboratory sought a solution to integrate power-plant process simulation with detailed plant component software to meet DOE's goal of modeling the performance of these complex systems.

“Many CFX users like Gridgen’s flexibility in creating structured, unstructured, and hybrid grids all in one program,” said Dr. Richard Matus, V.P., Sales and Marketing at Pointwise. “And when they factor in being able to use Gridgen’s powerful scripting language to automate many tasks, Gridgen is a natural supplement for CFX users.”

STAR/KINetics is a close coupling of STAR-CD, the leading tool for complex flow simulation, with proprietary solvers and components of CHEMKIN®, Reaction Design's powerful chemical kinetic simulation package. STAR/KINetics allows researchers to seamlessly solve reacting flows with comprehensive treatment of both detailed chemistry and intricate flow geometries, including heterogeneous interaction at gas-solid interfaces. The tool's great strength lies in an unrivalled ability to predict the interplay between fluid transport, heat transfer, and chemistry in applications ranging from materials processing, to combustion, and to chemical manufacture.

Over 100 participants attended 36 lectures in two parallel sessions. The lectures covered almost all fields of CFX applications including turbomachinery, chemical process, HVAC, and fire & safety. In addition, topics such as fluid-structure interaction, optimization and acoustics were addressed.

Thomas Frank gave a plenary lecture,"Numerical Simulations of Multiphase Flows using CFX 5", and Florian Menter delivered "Recent Advances in Turbulence and Transition Modeling in CFX 5". These presentations generated lots of lively discussion.