DOFWARE is involved in product design and optimization activities based on CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics). Until some decades ago, the experimental trial-and-error approach was the industrial standard for new products development, that is: given a specific problem identified by the Client, the supplier tested several solutions acting on the product directly and manually. The experience was the only driver of the work. Nowadays, numerical simulation tools offer a powerful option to the purely experimental approach, and sometimes even a complete substitute. Among the main features offered by CFD, we cite the followings:

Cheap Product Development and Time-to-Market Reduction:

building a virtual prototype and studying its performance in terms of energy efficiency and/or pressure/thermal loads are standard aims the numerical tools are devoted to. Time demands are reduced by several orders of magnitude, with the possibility of planning and coordinating the technical personnel better. The experimental activity is no more the only choice available, but the information are more reliable and consistent with the real physics since they come from a cross-check between experimental and numerical data;

Deep Insight into Physics:

information based on purely experimental investigations are affected by the instrumentation accuracy and the limited amount of tests that can be performed. Typically, discrete data are available, which need great investments in instrumentations in order to improve the accuracy and to extract more precise distribution profile. The physical-numerical computational approach is more advantageous since almost any desired quantity can be sampled and analyzed everywhere in the computational domain without any extra cost. The best compromise is coupling a deep experience in the experimental field with a good knowledge and practice in numerical simulations;

Well-Defined Methodologies:

a great exploitation of CFD capabilities needs a deep technical background. This means that numerical investigations are not left to chance or to the personnel initiative (what often happens when performing experimental analysis). Since the beginning, best practices are needed in order to make all the single simulations reproducible and comparable one with the others: old CFD results can be compared with new ones by simply making use of same numerical setups.