26th October 2016
Back to basics
FEA and CFD don't have to break the bank, especially with open source tools now entering the market
It is increasingly necessary for companies to collaborate and innovate to reduce capital and operating expenditures, especially in this current lower oil price environment.
Now is the time to invest in research and development to deliver improved performance and reduced costs.
As part of this drive, advanced engineering simulation approaches including computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and finite element analysis (FEA) are being used increasingly within our industry.
By using first principles approaches, they can provide valuable insight at the design stage, improve safety, enhance understanding of installation and operational issues, and demonstrate technology readiness for novel products and approaches.
There are several commercially available general purpose CFD and FEA codes, developed over the decades, which have evolved into extremely impressive software tools.
They are capable of simulating a wide range of complex physics and can be applied across many different industries, including the nuclear energy, aerospace, automotive, elite sports, built environment and offshore sectors.
These codes continue to be improved, requiring significant investment, ultimately funded by users through licenses.
For some, however, these fees, and the associated investment required for the training of the engineers who use the simulation codes, might be a potential barrier to the adoption of simulation technology within their business.
Read the full article here.