gs 4
First Annual Automotive Users Conference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Sun Supports Network Parallel Computing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Analyzing Electric Motor Cooling with FIDAP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Applying CFD in the Glass Industry. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Best-Practice Methodology for Automotive Aerodynamics. . . . . . . 12
Understanding Multiphase Flows in Bubble Columns . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Fluent Joins Gas-Solid Multiphase Consortium . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Coupling FLUENT and Abaqus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Fluent Europe Customer Survey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Applying FLUENT to Blade Cascade Heat Transfer . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
POLYFLOW Validated for Tire Tread Extrusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Gas Turbine Combustor Optimization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Bridgman Crystal Growth Simulations Using FIDAP . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Around Fluent. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
BUSINESS
Dr. Boysan Named Fluent
President
Worldwide
Sales Offices
u
Fluent Inc.
Lebanon, NH 03766
Tel: 603 643 2600
Evanston, IL 60201
Tel: 847 491 0200
Media, PA 19063
Tel: 610 892 7300
Ann Arbor, MI 48104
Tel: 734 213 6821
Santa Clara, CA 95051
Tel: 408 522 8734
Morgantown, WV 26505
Tel: 304 598 3770
u
Fluent Europe Ltd
Sheffield, England
Tel: 44 114 281 8888
u
Fluent Deutschland
GmbH, Darmstadt,
Germany
Tel: 49 6151 36440
u
Fluent France SA
Montigny le Bretonneux,
France
Tel: 33 1 3060 9897
u
Fluent Italia
Milano, Italy
Tel: 39 02 7391 351
u
Polyflow, S.A.
Louvain-la-Neuve,
Belgium
Tel: 32 1045 2861
u
Fluent Asia-Pacific Co.
Ltd.Tokyo, Japan
Tel: 81 3 3468 3611
Osaka, Japan
Tel: 81 6 445 5690
u
Fluent India
Pune, India
Tel: 91 212 631384
Distributors
u
ATES
Seoul, Korea
Tel: 82 2 3661 6411-3
u
CFD-Research Pty. Ltd.
Eveleigh, Australia
Tel: 61 2 9209 4580
u
Scientific Formosa, Inc,
Taipei, Taiwan
Tel: 886 2 2505 0525
u
Beijing Hi-key
Technology Corporation
Ltd.
Beijing, China
Tel: 86 10 62032002
u
SMARTtech Services
and Systems, Ltd.
Sao Paulo, Brazil
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Table of Contents
FLUENT NEWS is published by
10 Cavendish Court
Lebanon, NH 03766 USA
1-800-445-4454
© 1998 Fluent Inc. All rights reserved.
FLUENT, FLUENT/UNS, FIDAP,
GAMBIT, POLYFLOW, RAMPANT,
MixSim, GeoMesh, and TGrid are
trademarks of Fluent Incorporated.
NEKTON is a trademark of Nektonics
Incorporated. All other products or
name brands are trademarks of their
respective holders.
4
10
16
Dr. Ferit Boysan, Fluents
president and COO
E
ffective December 1, 1998, Dr. Ferit Boysan, Chief Operating
Officer (COO) of Fluent, has been named President and COO. In
his expanded role, Dr. Boysan will be responsible for all aspects of
the Fluent business, and will report to Fluents CEO, Dr. Bharatan Patel.
Dr. Boysan has been with Fluent since its inception in 1983, overseeing
both the technical and commercial success of the company. Early on, he
was a major contributor to development of the original FLUENT software,
authoring its core combustion and turbulence models. Under his leader-
ship, Fluent Europe was established in 1990 and has prospered and
expanded into Fluent Germany, Fluent France, and Fluent Italy, making
Fluent the market leader in Europe. In recognition of his accomplishments
and operations management skills, Dr. Boysan was promoted to COO last
year.
As outgoing president, Dr. Patel retains an active connection with Fluent as
its CEO and member of Fluents Executive team, while fulfilling his role as
President and COO of our parent company, Aavid Thermal Technologies, Inc. F
luents 1998 worldwide Users Group Meetings
included nine regional events held in the USA, Italy,
France, Germany, England, Sweden, Japan, Korea
and the Czech Republic. Worldwide attendance grew sub-
stantially, with 200 attendees in the US, 350 attendees in
Europe, and 200 attendees at the meetings in Japan and
Korea. The season concludes with a meeting in Australia in
November.
By minimizing travel
and using the local
language for presen-
tation, this impressive
worldwide circuit is
designed to give our
users the best possi-
ble access to a forum
uniquely focused on
their professional
interests. Thanks go
out to all who attend-
ed and contributed to
these valuable
events.
Products and
Presentations
Demonstrations and presentations highlighted the 1998 new
product releases of FLUENT, FIDAP, and GAMBIT at each
of the regional meetings. Poster presentations, from Fluent
staff and from users, showcased a variety of high-end CFD
applications. Rated most useful by many attendees, the
application presentations by users continue to define the
state-of-the-art in applied CFD. Selected presentations are
summarized beginning on page 4. Complete proceedings
and individual papers can be obtained by contacting Fluent
Inc.
Gathering Feedback
Open forum sessions, held at each meeting, offered users a
1998 Worldwide Users Group Meetings
chance to contribute valuable input on Fluents organiza-
tion and product directions. Ideas collected ranged from
specific user interface suggestions to complex physical
modeling requirements and CAD data integration needs.
Feedback on the meetings was also collected and will go
into refining the content and organization of the 1999
meetings.
Hardware Partner Contributions
Fluents close collab-
oration with the major
providers of hard-
ware and synergistic
software was also
visible at the meet-
ings. At the US meet-
ing, third parties
participated in an
exhibit of the latest
hardware and soft-
ware of interest to
CFD users. SGI
sponsored the lake-
side dinner-picnic at
the US conference
and HP provided 20
workstations for hands-on training on our new preproces-
sor. SGI, SUN, and HP sponsored the UK meeting, with a
champagne reception and prize drawing by HP. SGI and
HP were also co-sponsors of the German meeting, provid-
ing computers for demonstrations. These and other contri-
butions underline the value our partners place on users of
Fluent products as
the community driving and defining high-performance
computing.
1999 Meeting Dates
Plans are already underway for 1999. Meeting dates
in the US are set for the week of May 24, 1999, in
Danvers, Massachussetts. Watch for announce-
ments in the mail, in the Spring edition of FluentNews,
and on the web at www.fluent.com. Automotive
Powertrain
Analysis
Jaguar Cars
Ltd
Jaguar Cars Ltd
presented three
case studies, highlighting the CFD processes
adopted by Jaguar to support their powertrain
operations. The first study is the FLUENT/UNS
simulation of the Jaguar AJV8 precision cooling
system. Initial CFD simulations provided
boundary conditions for an FEA model to pre-
dict metal temperatures, thermal stresses, and
distortion within the engine. From this work, a
good understanding of the system was
achieved and local coolant velocity targets
were derived. Subsequent design iterations are
now done using FLUENT/UNS and assessed
based on coolant flow alone.
The second study (shown below) concentrated
on the AJV8 waterpump. Multiple reference
frames were used to investigate potential
improvements to the pump housing and
impeller. The third and final study looked at the
inlet port and chamber design of the AJV8.
CFD was used to provide detailed flow field
information, complementing global data
Turbomachinery Design
BMW Rolls-Royce
The integration of CFD into the turbomachinery
design process was the topic of a paper by
BMW Rolls-Royce at the German UGM. Rather
than developing an in-house code, BMW Rolls-
Royce decided to use Fluent software as the
building blocks in their turbomachinery design
process. This allowed them to concentrate on
improvements to the data interfaces and data
management. BMW Rolls-Royce used
PATRAN and TGrid as the tools to generate
unstructured surface grids, while FLUENT/UNS
and RAMPANT were chosen as the central
CFD solvers. Both tools offered an open data
interface, such that integration into an existing
environment could be carried out seamlessly.
Additionally, PATRAN provided a direct link to
the geometry kernels of various CAD systems.
This analysis of turbine disk cooling is one example of
BMW Rolls-Royces successful integration of Fluent
codes with P ATRAN for CAD compatibility.
Jaguar Cars Ltd (UK) presented three case studies highlighting
the CFD processes adopted by Jaguar to support their powertrain
operations. Shown here is the FLUENT/UNS simulation of the
Jaguar AJV8 water pump.
DESIGN
Application Highlights from the Worldwide
Users Group Meetings
Jaguars CFD-
based design
activity has
expanded rapidly,
along with the
number of
powertrain staff
using FLUENT. The analysis of the
Embraer ERJ-135
commuter jet
confirmed the
viability of the
design under a
wide range of
conditions.
obtained using a test rig, and giving further
insight into the evolution of the flow and the
source of flow losses.
The use of CFD in Jaguars design activity has
expanded rapidly, along with the number of
powertrain staff using FLUENT.
Aircraft Aerodynamics
Embraer
Empresa Brasileira de Aeronáutica (Embraer)
presented their successful applications of CFD
at the US UGM. Embraer used RAMPANT and
FLUENT/UNS in the redesign of the ERJ-145
aircraft to yield the somewhat smaller ERJ-135
commuter aircraft. Embraer engineers
evaluated wh