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Computational Fluid Dynamics
(CFD) is an advanced computing technology developed from
traditional fluid mechanics. It is a means of using computing
power to predict the path and behaviour of fluids
Understanding the behaviour of fluids is key to much that
we take for granted; from the car engine, jet airliner,
to the technology that cools your laptop or the ability
to understand blood circulation in the body. Across all
scientific and engineering disciplines, fluid mechanics
plays an important part.
CFD is the process of predicting how fluids will behave
by using modern computing power to solve equations which
have been around since the 19th century. So involved are
the solutions to these deceptively brief equations that
until recently they were impenetrable to all but a few institutions
with huge supercomputers. Advances in computing and networking
technologies mean that it is now possible, for as little
as £10k-100k, to effectively build a supercomputer
from standard PC hardware.
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| Streamlines through a shuttlecock |
Early experiments with CFD date back
to the 60s - to the dawn of computing itself. Members of
our team have been working on the research since the 70s.
Yet, it is only in the last 20 that CFD has come of age
as a useful practical tool for engineering applications.
Modern CFD has two goals:
to simulate flows where experimental measurement is physically challenging or very expensive and, secondly, to create insight into the behaviour of complex flows by leveraging the detailed numerical data to generate more informative visualisations than testing alone could provide.
CFD deployment is currently growing rapidly owing to the
continuous development of commodity computing hardware.
CFD is commonplace in industry and its use is set to spread.
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