Speeding

mechanical
design

with
Engineering
Fluid Dynamics
Speeding
mechanical design
with Engineering
Fluid Dynamics
CFD software that embeds in CAD now lets small and medium
companies as well as large OEMs perform fluid flow and heat-
transfer simulation as a mainstream engineering tool.
A
recent independent study reports
best-in-class companies are twice as
likely to use fluid-flow simulation as
their counterparts. However, until re-
cently, high costs and difficult-to-use programs
kept computational fluid dynamics (CFD) mostly
in the hands of research, academia, and large
OEMs. Fortunately, a newer approach called en-
gineering fluid dynamics (EFD) from Flomerics,
Marlborough, MA, now places CFD on the desk-
top of the everyday engineer. Application ex-
amples might include building a better shield for
laser optics, curbing constriction in a flow valve,
and improving the thermodynamic efficiency
of huge heat exchangers. Flomerics coined the
term EFD to distinguish it from that of traditional
CFD methods.
First, it is noteworthy that EFD embeds in
mainstream mechanical design. In contrast,
other CFD technology requires the use of special-
ized analysts. Also, with other codes, translation
might work for 80% of the geometry, but the rest
must be simplified by hand. Some designers have
reported wasting days waiting for a model to be
transferred to the CFD program — if
the transfer succeeds at all. In contrast,
EFD provides simulations as and when
changes are made to designs.
There are varieties of EFD technol-
ogy, each intended to embed in a different
CAD package. Each program is imple-
mented using the native software toolkit.
Here, EFD lets designers perform CFD
directly from native CAD data, without
the need for translations or copies. And
results map directly on the 3D model.
In this case, EFD.Pro is fully embedded inside
Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire. The CFD tool thus has
the same “look and feel” of Pro/E and shares
the same tree and geometry model. All design
changes are carried out directly in CAD using
familiar solid-modeling functions. Ancillary
data required for flow simulations such as
material properties and boundary conditions
are associatively linked to the solid model and
carried along with all design changes. Flow
conditions are defined directly on the solid model
and organized similarly to other design data in
the feature tree.
 EFD.Lab provides
EFD for multi-CAD
environments and also
works well in situations
where a fully embedded
CFD option is not yet
available.

To cover all bases, Flomerics also provides

EFD for multi-CAD environments. A large automo-
tive manufacturer, for example, might require the
smooth import and export of 3D data in a wide
variety of formats, including neutral ones such as
IGES, STEP, and VDAFS. Here, performing “what-
if” scenarios requires that design parameters get
modified in the simulation software itself to avoid
time consuming and error-prone data exchange
with source systems. This flavor of EFD also works
well in situations where a fully embedded CFD
option is not yet available. The focus of this discus-
sion is on CAD-embedded EFD.
Many of you are probably already familiar with
running functional tests such as stress and durabil-
ity analyses on 3D models generated for manu-
facturing. The idea of EFD is to also let users test
phenomena such as heat transfer and fluid flow to
improve designs. EFD answers everyday questions
such as, “Will the design work in certain conditions,
or will it withstand certain temperatures and pres-
sures?” and the like. Because the technology works
inside CAD and with the same interface, menus contrast, the proprietary algorithms in EFD focus EFD software places
have a consistent look and feel. Better yet, with no directly on the computational domain of interest, CFD on the desktop of
the everyday engineer.
translation issues, performing analyses does not so engineers need not worry about manually de-
interrupt the workflow. featuring or simplifying CAD models.
EFD focuses CFD on real-world CAD models In fact, EFD can handle complex geometries
which are often slightly imperfect because they with tight crevices and sharp angles, in part be-
are made for manufacturing, not for analysis. For cause the software uses what is called a rect-
example, along with the computational domain or angular adaptive shape for meshes. “Rectangu-
spaces of interest, models contain areas useless lar” in this case means cells are hexahedral with
for CFD. A simple cavity function, for instance, rectangular corners. The solver is an implicit
can produce empty spaces not really part of the solver that adapts the mesh to specific load re-
solid unless the designer performs Boolean op- quirements. These are local, automated adapta-
erations to create a positive model from the empty tions in which the solver increases mesh density
space. Such empty areas merely use unnecessary where necessary. Other places, it works with
computer resources in performing analyses. In a coarser mesh to save computational effort.

Because mesh cells have six faces, it is relatively
stable and inexpensive computationally to apply
the solver to the mesh.
In contrast, traditional CFD requires a consid-
erable amount of manual intervention to main-
tain mesh quality by eliminating gaps and over-
laps while keeping the required skew, aspect
ratio, warpage, and volume of individual cells. To
make matters worse, this manual process must
be repeated for every design change.
Although the idea behind finite elements (FE)
and finite volumes (FV) is the same, under the
hood, so to speak, EFD uses finite volumes. For
FE, computational points or solution vectors are
usually located at the corners of each element
or, for higher approximations, at the center of
faces or edges. Fluid-flow analysis, though, is
not static — there is a time aspect to it — and
different sorts of calculations are needed. FV
places the computational point at the center of
each element. Also, because EFD works in CAD,
the geometry must be as accurate as possible.
To these ends, EFD works directly with the CAD
kernel to distinguish the important CAD faces
where the interesting flow phenomena happen.
Basically, the EFD solution algorithm uses the
actual volume of the space of interest and gets
this value directly from kernel functions.
Much of modern CAD is feature-based para-
metric modeling, and EFD takes advantage of
this method too. So, in addition to geometrical
parameters, flow conditions are defined directly
on the CAD model. These conditions are stored
similarly to other design data in the feature tree.
Say, for example, you design a valve and need
to simulate steam flowing through it. Steam can
show complex physical behaviors involving tem-
This image shows an example of a machine for cutting out
PCB and memory cards with a laser.
peratures and phase changes.
A simulation with EFD uses
data from the parametric
model to provide values of in-
terest, such as pressure drops.
EFD also exploits paramet-
rics in that it uses the CAD sys-
tem’s method of managing different part
sizes or diameters, so users can quickly perform
more than one simulation and run several “what-
if” scenarios. Once users have finished an initial
run, all that is needed is to create what are called
clones of the solid model. Cloned models retain
all analysis data such as loads and boundary con-
ditions. To analyze the valve model with a few
variations, for example, would take only about
one-half a day.
A better way to shield laser optics
In one interesting application, EFD.Pro, the ver-
sion of EFD that works in Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire,
helped a manufacturer of chip-packaging machines
for PDAs, modems, computers, and other elec-
tronic products improve the design of a component
on a machine that cuts out PCB and memory cards.
Fico, Duiven, the Netherlands, a unit of the com-
pany, focuses on the last step of semiconductor
manufacturing — trimming and forming.
This process requires a high degree of pre-
cision because the small devices involved can
easily get damaged during manufacturing. Newer
machines the company produces use lasers to
shape parts because cuts are much thinner than
those made by routers. In fact, users can fit up to
85% more components on the same panel when
using a laser.
The original design of the machine had the
laser optics protected by a glass window. A dust
chamber kept the laser light from escaping, while
shielding the operator from dust and smoke gen-
erated by the burning PCB material. However,
it took only 15 minutes for the laser to lose cut-
ting effectiveness, equivalent to shaping only
about 500 products. That’s because the cutting
dust quickly contaminated the glass and thus ab-
sorbed the laser light. Cleaning the glass required
too much machine downtime
and reduced productivity. Optics
“We needed to boost the
cleaning interval to meet the
customer’s requirement of Glass
four hours and, ultimately, at
least eight hours,” says Peter
Venema, Fico engineer. “So
we had to quickly find a better Dust chamber
way to prevent dust contami-
nation. Although our team
didn’t have any training on
the use of fluid-analysis soft-
ware, EFD.Pro made it easy
to gather useful information
from the model,” he says.
The team generated several Product
models, gradually improving The orange part represents the glass, and the red triangle the laser beam (left). The problem was too much dust
airflow in the dust chamber, on the glass, which reflected back the laser and prevented it from cutting the PCB material (right).

Flavored for CAD

Flomerics provides different EFD create a new model and build a proto-
programs for different CAD pack- type out of brass. Testing the model
ages: EFD.Pro embeds in Pro/ENGI- on the rig took an additional few
NEER Wildfire and EFD.V5 embeds weeks. So turnaround time for each
in CATIA V5. What many users do new idea was at least two weeks.”
not know is that EFD technology also An ever-expanding catalogue of prod-
fully embeds in SolidWorks under the ucts to build and test meant the com-
name CosmosFloWorks. EFD.Lab, on pany could no longer afford to spend
the other hand, integrates or works so much time.
with Autodesk Inventor and Siemens “The new scheme has let us dra-
PLM CAD software. And EFD.Flexx matically shorten our production
provides universal licenses that can schedule,” says Aarntzen. “For one
be used for EFD.Pro, EFD.V5, or thing, mechanical engineers find EFD.
EFD.Lab. This gives engineers flex- The image shows an example of an automatic control Lab easy to use. And the software
ibility in using whichever CAD they valve for the industrial use of water. The system’s design makes it easy to use existing solid
need for particular customers and was improved in EFD.Lab to minimize pressure loss, models. In fact, it has many tools that
provide high-pressure relief, and avoid cavitations.
suppliers. help users get good results. For ex-
An example of the use of inte- ample, the pressure loss at a certain
grated CFD comes from a manufac- engineering and put into place a digi- flow rate must be maintained on a
turer of backflow-prevention devices and tal prototype system. This comprises valve or the water might become con-
automatic control valves for domestic, a “Dry” R&D Dept. that uses Autodesk taminated. EFD.Lab is intelligent enough
commercial, and industrial use of wa- Inventor for solid modeling along with to look at the pressure drop and auto-
ter. Watts Industries, the Netherlands, EFD.Lab, and a “Wet” Dept. that verifies matically find the equilibrium point.”
makes the devices, which typically must prototype performance on a real-world The software also lets users gain new
satisfy up to 15 separate hydraulic func- rig for different government agencies. insight into designs. “Our team has more
tional requirements such as minimizing The company says that within the first than 40 years of empirical experience on
pressure loss, providing high-pressure 10 months of adopting digital prototyp- fluid-flow phenomena,” says Aarntzen.
relief, and avoiding cavitations. Because ing, it could build and test one or two “We knew that certain behaviors were
contaminated drinking water could virtual prototypes a day. And the method present in models, but didn’t really under-
prove disastrous, the European Ministry proved so reliable, the company has stand their impact until we saw EFD.Lab
of Health has issued strict standards for since used it 24 hours a day. results. What’s more, we get exactly the
water suppliers. In addition, France, Ger- “Our old research and development same results from EFD.Lab and the test
many, Italy, and the Netherlands have process consisted of creating physical rig. That’s important for the future, when
each adopted additional standards. prototypes for all design options,” says we will have built an extensive library of
To keep up with such requirements, René Aarntzen, R&D and engineering results that will make testing physical
Watts used principles of concurrent manager. “It took one to two weeks to prototypes almost unnecessary.”
 A simulation of the original dust chamber in EFD.Pro shows the
design provides good airflow. But the circular movement in the
middle of the chamber carries too much dust towards the glass
window at the laser inlet. Cleaning interval here is 15 minutes.

After a redesign of air inlets in

the dust chamber, the simulation
shows the resulting change in
flow profile, which decreased the
amount of dust deposited on the
glass. Cleaning interval of this
design iteration is 60 minutes.

and met the customer’s

requirement in about 30
days. “In the past, pro-
cesses such as this con-
sisted of physical trial-and-
error tests, which took a
lot longer,” says Venema.
A bit later, the team met
the goal of eight hours con-
tinuous runtime and tested
the new design in the production environment.
“The customer was satisfied, but we noticed a
way to cut the cleaning interval even more,” says
Venema. “We returned to EFD for the final de-
sign. The customer reports it now has a clean-
ing interval of 20,000 products, equivalent to 11
hours nonstop production.”
Curbing constriction
in a flow valve
Many automobile manufacturers are build-
ing car air-conditioning systems that use carbon
dioxide instead of the hydrofluorocarbons that
harm the ozone layer. Although CO2 is consid-
ered a global-warming gas, it has less than one-
one thousandth the effect of hydrofluorocarbons.
But for CO2 to work, system components such as
valves for evacuating and charging refrigerant
needed a redesign to operate at pressures 7 to 10
times higher.
Confronted with such a problem in the past,
Ventrex Automotive GmbH, Graz, Austria,
says it would have built at least 50 physical pro-
totypes of the valve before getting the design
right. Already a CATIA V5 CAD user, the com-
pany instead turned to EFD.V5 software, the
version that embeds in CATIA V5, to speed the
new design.
A team engineer first opened the concept
model of the valve in CATIA. Then, without leav-
ing CAD, the user selected EFD.V5 from a menu.
EFD queried the model of the valve to identify
voids where fluids could flow. An automated
mesher created a grid for analysis. The engineer
then attached the boundary conditions directly
to the CAD model. In this case, boundary condi-
tions amounted to an inlet pressure of 59 bar and
an outlet pressure of 1 bar, which rises to the
system pressure of 59 bar.
“It took us just a few hours to finish the simu-
lation of the initial concept design,” says Peter
Pfaffenwimmer, project manager at Ventrex. “We
viewed the simulation results in CATIA, mapped
onto the original model. Results included vector
plots that showed the direction, velocity, and flow
of the refrigerant at every point, and color-coded
 Automotive air-conditioner components such as
this valve for evacuating and charging refrigerant
needed a redesign to operate at pressures 7 to 10
times higher so the systems could use CO2.

contour maps that showed

velocities and pressures. The
simulation helped us identify
areas where flow was too
constricted,” he says.
The company then zeroed
in on those areas. “Again in
CAD, we started with the rel-
atively simple and inexpen-
sive step of putting chamfers
on corners associated with
pressure drops. We pushed a A simulation in EFD.V5 shows how changing the valve’s flow configuration produced the
button in CAD to regenerate required pressure drop.
the mesh and reran the simu-
lation. This showed the effect
of the change on overall pres-
sure drop and flow rate and
let us get a better understanding of the sensitivity swerk Heat Transfer BV, near Amsterdam, the
of the design to changes in a particular param- Netherlands, wanted to develop a new air-cooled
eter,” says Pfaffenwimmer. cooler and fan unit that was quieter and more effi-
It turned out that smoothing corners didn’t cient than others in the field, as well as account for
always affect the pressure drop as much as ex- the new product’s impact on the environment. The
pected. In those cases, the company changed units work as process coolers in oil, gas, and chemi-
the valve’s flow configuration. Here, EFD gave cal industries. Their fans, which range in size from
insight into performance in local areas directly 2 to 10 meters in diameter, cool a heat exchanger
affected, a key advantage. So the company ran often as big as a building.
more simulations and checked results after each Design difficulties arose from the necessity of
design change to see if it had the required effect.
“It would have been impractical to use con-
ventional CFD software in this job because by
the time simulation results came back, the design
Ask the vendor
would already be obsolete,” says Pfaffenwim- In selecting CFD software, here are some good questions to ask the
mer. “In contrast, using embedded EDF let us vendor:
evaluate new iterations almost as fast as they
were conceived. At the end, we reduced pres- 1. Can users employ existing geometries? How well does the transfer
sure drop so flow rates improved by about 15% process work? (Make sure to test the claim by checking the soft-
at any given pressure. What’s more, we slashed ware with one of your existing models.)
the number of physical prototypes required, cut- 2. Must users simplify models? How would users do this with your
ting costs considerably. But, most importantly, software?
we brought the product to market faster. The 3. What level of automated meshing is available to users?
customer reports that the valves perform almost 4. Please give a demonstration of how the software handles empty
exactly as predicted by simulation.” flow regions.
5. Is it necessary to designate the task as a laminar or turbulent flow?
Heat exchangers that don’t harm 6. Please demonstrate how to do “what-if” scenarios.
the environment 7. Prove that design engineers can use the software.
In another scenario, designer and manufacturer 8. What is the pricing mechanism — perpetual or annual lease?
of heat exchangers, compressors, and fans Bron-
 The design of an air-cooled cooler and fan unit
such as this made the apparatus quieter and
more efficient than others in the field, as well
as accounted for the assembly’s impact on the
environment.

To improve the assembly design,

engineers worked with a 3D model of the
apparatus in Pro/ENGINEER.

A simulation in EFD.Pro generates

complex information about the
cooler’s aerodynamics.

meeting stringent standards

set by Environmental Con-
trol Boards (ECB) around
the globe. ECBs are govern-
ment organizations respon-
sible for quality-of-life issues
concerning the health, safety,
and cleanliness of the envi-
ronment. The new fan design
also had to withstand a wide
range of conditions such as
wind gusts and air flow getting
blocked by buildings.
So the design team turned
to EFD.Pro. “Engineering fluid A closeup view of airflows is generated by a simulation in
dynamics is more practical and useful for mechani- EFD.Pro.
cal engineers than traditional computational fluid
 The seven key technologies
of Engineering Fluid Dynamics (EFD)
EFD shares the same math foundation as traditional CFD code. However EFD features seven key
technologies that address the everyday engineer’s need to solve everyday problems:

1. Direct CAD to CFD means EFD uses your 3D CAD geometry and solid model information
such as features and parameters to help you simulate your designs in real-world conditions. Tra-
ditional CFD programs require that you create additional solid parts to represent the fluid (empty)
regions. Needless to say, this process takes a lot of time because you must identify each region
manually and then create geometry to fill it. But EFD differentiates between solid and merely empty
regions, and automatically represents the fluid domain. Users need not create unnecessary geom-
etry just to prepare a solid model for analysis.

2. An Intelligent Rectangular Adaptive Mesh. This automates the meshing of real-world

geometries — not just academic or theoretical ones. Automated meshing works for fluid and solid
regions, including mesh refinement where necessary. You can use the automated mesher or fur-
ther manipulate the mesh manually.

3. Modified Wall Functions. EFD features grid-independent near-wall modeling using Partial
Cells technology. This lets you simulate boundary-layer phenomena for fluid flow and heat transfer
effects without needing a specifically designed mesh or a lot of time to solve the problem.

4. Laminar-Transitional-Turbulent Modeling. You need not worry about identifying when

and where flow characteristics change within your model because EFD supports laminar, transi-
tional, and turbulent flows.

5. Automatic Convergence Control. Cutting-edge numerical methods with multigrid schemes

and good convergence behavior ensure that your engineering questions are answered every time.
With EFD, the first run converges without any complications.

6. Design Variants Analysis. EFD makes it easy to conduct “what-if” analyses. Modify your
solid model without having to reapply loads, boundary conditions, and material properties. Then
simply compare the results.

7. Engineering User Interface. EFD uses the CAD interface, so instead of dealing with tech-
nical jargon such as y+ value and Dirichlet Boundary Conditions, you use familiar terms such as
walls, inlets, and outlets.

dynamics,” says Guus Bertels, senior engineer at
Bronswerk. “What’s more, EFD generates informa-
tion about the complexity of cooler aerodynamics
that is far beyond that of data gathered from physi-
cal measurement and experimentation.”
The new design required that the team fully
understand airflow patterns and compare them
to those of older fans. “Airflow through heat ex-
changers is in many ways even more complex than
airflow through gas turbines,” says Bertels. “EFD.
Pro let us easily make hundreds of variations in
the apparatus geometry to fine-tune the fan and
heat-exchanger performance and reduce costs, all
without sacrificing quality.”
In fact, the software capably handles even com-
plex geometries, says Bertels. “Because fans are
large, profiled cross-sections are thick. However,
each blade tapers down to only about to half a mil-
limeter. Such a large dimension range could make
for a numerical nightmare. But the software under-
stands the behavior of designs down to the smallest
significant detail,” he says.
Fine-tuning the design ultimately led to a highly
innovative cooler. While traditionally such appa-
ratuses have a thermodynamic efficiency of up to
60%, the new design gets up to 80%. It thus has the
potential to significantly reduce energy costs. Even
with over 30 years of experience in flow analysis,
Bertels says he would not have been able to solve
this problem without EFD.Pro.
For more information on using engineering fluid
dynamics technology for mechanical design applications,
contact your local Flomerics office. For a complete list of
office locations, visit www.flomerics.com.