Buy CFD software or hire CFD analysis consultants?

Something to consider... Hundreds of engineers and managers are currently facing this question and countless others have contemplated it in just the last couple months alone. It’s a perplexing decision indeed. No matter the final pathway for CFD simulation you’ll not move forward without taking some risk. So here's an important consideration in the crossroadsdecision process…

How many design projects do you complete in a year?  You must emphasize the design projects per year factor and don’t confuse this question with how may CFD Flow and Thermal analyses will we do per year? Trying to quantify how many CFD simulations per year is impossible to answer at this stage.

By focusing on the number of design projects per year allows you to consider a single per project cost metric. Then adding a few purchase assumptions and adding the amount of time your engineers will spend performing CFD analysis on each project constructs a solid financial picture. Please read on for an easy cost analysis structure...

Simply by applying the upfront CFD software cost (commonly $20-$50K – some higher some lower. You can get quotes!) plus training - I advise $5K per CFD user and two year subscription renewal. Usually ~25% of the software cost. And the final input to consider is the engineering salary spent. A fair number here is 2 weeks per project.

A simple per project cost for purchasing CFD software:

· CFD software purchase = $30,000

· Training for 2 users = $10,000

· 2 Year CFD Subscription = $15,000

· 4 weeks salary (for 2 projects/year x 2 engineers) = $48,000

o Total 3 year CFD software cost = $103,000

Assuming 2 projects / year (Again, not CFD simulations) the per project cost is ~$17,000. The idea here is to stay focused on the per project cost. With this per project cost in hand you can now compare the software investment against a services proposal from a CFD consulting services company.