CFD Analysis – Solving Everyday Problems

Many mechanical engineers I know have a knee jerk reaction at the mention of CFD analysis. Most often is they quickly pigeon hole it as something those crazy aerospace engineers use for aerodynamics on the space shuttle.   Or they dismiss it as not applicable to anything I’m working on. The truth is that
the vast majority of CFD analyses are applied to products that we use every day. Products like computers, cell phones, car radios, stoves, ovens, the office building you’re sitting in. The value of CFD analysis is unlimited in product development. I’m writing this post because I want to help engineers remove the limiting perceptions of where CFD technology can be leveraged.

Here’s an example that got me charged up. An everyday griddle for the kitchen. Think pancakes and French toast… CFD for griddle design. Makes sense when you consider the goals for even heating distribution and lowered energy consumption. Wonderful thermal optimization… This was a project with Spectrum Brands http://www.spectrumbrands.com on their latest griddle design.

Our team worked directly with Jacob Smith, Sr Mechanical Engineer and below is a comment he sent our way. You’ll see why I mention it got me charged up. Hopefully, somewhere out there is an engineer this will help by spawning some new ideas…

“IDP’s collaborative consulting model fits very well with how we develop new products at Spectrum Brands and I cannot say enough about their expertise and value-add compared to previous CFD consultants we’ve used.  From the beginning they were very clear of the actual problem we were trying to solve and clearly communicated all results in that context, which greatly enhanced our product knowledge, eliminated exploratory testing and will allow us to present a solid business case to marketing and NPD on a recent griddle R&D project.  We’re already strategizing with IDP on our next few projects.”

Jacob Smith – Sr. Mechanical Engineer, Spectrum Brands

Comments

[Andy]

I've got a certain someone I'd like to share THIS article with - it's incredible how many things everyone takes for granted only work because of cfd analysis...probably starting with the chair they're in.