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CFD stands for Computational Fluid
Dynamics or simply, the use of computers to solve standard engineering problems
related to fluid flow. This application-oriented technique is not new, though still in the
developmental stage as far as industrial application & academic research in India is
concerned. It is of pivotal importance in the field of computer aided engineering (or
CAE) & can save remarkable amounts of experimental effort, man-hours & capital in
the high-end engineering sector, especially: aerospace, automotive & chemical industry.
Besides, it also finds application in the field of structural design in civil engineering.
There are many firms (all foreign), which sell proprietary CFD software. Almost all of
them cater only to the industry and develop software meant for large firms, which is
sold at an extremely high cost. CFDTutor is the first software product of its kind which
has been developed keeping in view the educational value of CFD. A direct ramification
of this move will be the introduction of 'Computational Fluid Dynamics' as a course in
many engineering colleges. This will help to give a much better understanding of basic
fluid flow engineering to students of
mechanical/chemical/civil/environmental/aerospace engineering fields, thereby
enhancing R&D and vocational prospects for Indian engineers.
CFD is an
application-oriented field. Albeit, there are many high-end engineering firms
interested in using CFD for their engineering designs, the biggest shortcoming is the
lack of trained manpower to execute CFD programs and understand the results
produced by such complex software. The software CFDTutor is an ideal solution for
this purpose, as it enables direct & hugely simplified user-interaction to analyse flow
field problems.
It is note worthy that the Department of Aerospace Engineering of IIT
Bombay has also taken up the job of disseminating technology to teachers/professors of
other engineering colleges, in this niche area, through various programmes to improve
the quality of technical education in India. The objective is to impart technical training
& complement it with the educational tool, provided on a low-cost commercial basis,
for trying out and experimenting with at their respective colleges.
Visit us at
http://www.aero.iitb.ac.in/~iitzeus/product_simflo w.html.
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