Understand the dynamics

Preetinder kaur

Scientists across several fields study fluid dynamics. It provides methods for studying the evolution of stars, ocean currents, weather patterns, plate tectonics and even blood circulation. Some important technological applications of fluid dynamics include rocket engines, wind turbines, oil pipelines and air conditioning systems.

There are several branches of engineering (e.g., civil, mechanical, electrical/electronics, chemical, aviation, space engineering, plasma and fusion technology, industrial applications etc.) as well as science (e.g., atmospheric, geo- & space science, high-energy physics, chemical and biological sciences, applied mathematics) where knowledge of basics and advanced fluid mechanics is important.

The study or fluid mechanics is just as important to engineers, whose main interest is in the applications of fluid mechanics to solve industrial problems. Aerospace engineers may be interested in designing airplanes that have low resistance and, at the same time, high ‘lift’ force to support the weight of the plane. Civil engineers may be interested in designing irrigation canals, dams, and water supply systems. Pollution control engineers may be interested in saving our planet from the constant dumping of industrial sewage into the atmosphere and the ocean. Mechanical engineers may be interested in designing turbines, heat exchangers, and fluid cooling. Chemical engineers may be interested in designing efficient devices to mix industrial chemicals. There is high requirement of experts having the basic training of analytical and computational fluid dynamics in the above mentioned fields

What is Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)

CFD is a simulation tool used to predict what will happen, quantitatively when fluids flow, often with the complication of simultaneous flow of heat, mass transfer, phase change (melting, freezing, boiling), chemical reaction (combustion, rusting), mechanical movement of (pistons, fans etc.), stresses in and displacement of immersed or surrounding solids. CFD uses a computer to solve the relevant science-based mathematical equation, using information about the circumstances in question.

CFD is already gaining importance in industry. Some of the companies reaping benefits of the technology are  3M; Air Products; Argonne National Lab; Bechtel; BP Amoco; Chemineer ; Chevron; Cray; Dow Chemical; Dow Corning; DuPont; Eastman Chemical; Eli Lilly; Huntsman; LIGHTNIN; Mitsubishi Chemical-US; NETL; Nalco Chemical; Fuel Tech; National Institute of Standards & Technology; Phillips Petroleum; Procter & Gamble; Rohm & Haas; Shell Oil-US; UOP; Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd.

These companies have integrated CFD technology into their design process, which leads to a shortened product-process development cycle, optimisation of existing processes, reduced energy requirement, product cost and efficient design of new products and processes. For instance, Fuji Xerox Co Ltd utilizes computational fluid dynamics for designing branched exhaust ducts, optimizing the volume of air suctioned in from each inlet of the exhaust duct, to cool down, and collect dust inside the machine. Reviewing the chemical reactor design by CFD technology, it is obvious that CFD can offer a great potential for the chemical engineering processes.

CFD is a combination of physics, flow technology, computer applications, mathematics and mechanics. It has already made a deep impact on chemical reaction engineering due to its feasibility. Further, it is expected that the role of CFD in the future design of chemical reactors will increase substantially and it will reduce the experimental effort required to develop industrial reactors.

Wide field of application

Application areas where computational fluid dynamics is in use include:

• Biomedical
• Electronics
• Defence
• Industry
• Environment

Biomedical CFD Applications: Flow modeling with computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software lets you visualise and predict physical phenomena related to the flow of any substance. It is widely used in medical, pharmaceutical, and biomedical applications to analyse manufacturing processes; device performance; physiological flows; fluid-structure interactions, the effectiveness of drug delivery systems. Defence CFD Applications: Computational Fluid Dynamics predict how the toxins spread through space and time, dam breaks, the collapse of storage tanks and blast waves associated with explosions or sudden gas leaks. It also plays a vital role in the design of prevention systems, such as sensors, detectors, portals, and screening devices, to design personal protection equipment, especially masks, suits, to assess the human exposure levels near the attack site, such as estimating the spread of particulates that resulted from the collapse of the Twin Towers, to plan fumigation procedures for buildings.

Industrial CFD Applications: Computational Fluid Dynamics software predicts fluid flow, heat transfer, and chemical reactions, to optimize, improve equipment, processes and plants, providing financial savings, for processing of industrial minerals, the recovery of precious stones, ore treatment, polymer extrusion, film casting, coating, fiber spinning, thermoforming and blow molding.

Environmental CFD Applications: It is used to design proposals, avoiding the added costs of over sizing and over specification, while reducing risk. Civil & Other CFD Applications: With computational fluid dynamics flow modeling solutions you can visualise the complex airflow and thermal performance of data centers.