Accurate simulation and analysis is often needed to ensure the robustness of an early stage design. Historically, for those design challenges that involved fluid flow, heat transfer and other multiphysics, CFD analysis has been too difficult and too slow to be used within the design environment, and has therefore been used as a technology tool by analysts, usually in the R&D environment. What the design engineers have needed is a robust tool that has minimal learning curve, rapid turnaround and reliable solutions.

The ease of use and direct CAD associativity permits the design engineer to assess multiple design options in hours (or even minutes) within the design process, rather than wait several orders of magnitude longer for an analysis external to the process. The net reduction in product development time can be dramatic, with early examples showing the promise of savings in the order of 75%. In addition to the time-to-market advantage, the ability to assess numerous design options or variants often results in superior designs with reduced likelihood of expensive redesigns downstream in the development program.

CFDRC’s market studies have also indicated that while great value can be achieved by relatively simple flow and heat transfer simulations, as the utilization of CDA increases, the need to include higher order physics will also grow. As such, CFDRC took a preemptive approach by using advanced models developed and long proven by its flagship product, CFD-ACE+™, and simplified and integrated them directly into CFD-CADalyzer. “Discussions with our customers have convinced us that total cost of ownership is a key consideration.”, states Michael Nieburg, Vice President of Marketing. “By providing advanced capabilities upfront, we provide assurance that they will not outgrow the software and require additional investments in the future.”

Model setup and meshing.

Graphical results.