What is CFD?
Theory
CFD stands for Computational Fluid Dynamics and refers to the set of numerical methods used to analyse the behaviour of fluid flows (liquids or gases) within a given environment.
All phenomena related to fluid motion are governed by a system of three differential equations known as the Navier–Stokes equations, for which no general mathematical solution has yet been found. Their resolution is one of the seven Millennium Prize Problems defined by the Clay Mathematical Institute.
While no general solution has yet been found to date, methods do exist to approximate the value of the solution at defined points within a given volume and under given conditions. The set of methods used to approximate the solution of a system of equations is a branch of mathematics known as numerical methods.
Our Software
ANSYS Fluent
The vast majority of our Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations are performed using ANSYS Fluent©, the market-leading software and by far one of the most comprehensive solutions available.
We also develop custom features through User Defined Functions (UDFs), written in C and integrated into ANSYS Fluent© to extend the software’s capabilities for highly specific applications.
OpenFOAM
An increasing proportion of our projects is now carried out using OpenFOAM©.
OpenFOAM© is a CFD software package whose libraries are open source, continuously developed and made available by a community of scientists and industrial users. It enables multi-physics simulations based on the resolution of fluid mechanics equations.
Its code can be modified when simulations fall outside the scope covered by the already highly comprehensive modules provided by the developers.
Fire Dynamics Simulator
FDS (Fire Dynamics Simulator©) is an open-source CFD software package developed and maintained by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) since the late 1990s, and freely available since 2000.
Primarily designed to simulate fire phenomena at both small and large scales, including heat transfer and smoke movement, it has become the reference CFD software for fire simulation.
FDS is based on the numerical solution of the Navier–Stokes equations and can also simulate other fluid dynamics phenomena such as thermal comfort, species transport and large-scale wind flows.
DualSPHysics
DualSPHysics© is based on the SPH — Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics — method, a mesh-free Lagrangian approach in which fluids are represented as moving particles interacting with one another.
The SPH method is particularly well suited to fields such as two-phase or free-surface flows, fluid–structure interaction simulations, and moving physical boundaries.
