Morphing and Parametrization Technologies for CFD Applications 2007-01-0597
Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) Analysis has been playing a significant role in designing better products in a shorter time duration. However, if we use traditional CFD methodologies, the analysis engineer always lags behind the product design because the CAD geometry needs to be created prior to the CFD model creation.
This paper demonstrates how CFD model Morphing, Concept modeling and Parametrization Technologies can be used so that the CFD engineer can effectively lead the design process.
Morphing, Concept modeling and Parametrization technologies can be very effectively used during the following stages of product development. Typical automotive vehicle development has been used as an example to describe this:
Early product development phase: Even before the geometry of a new design is developed, based on preliminary requirements such as wheel base, roof height, camber and styling surface of the new vehicle, existing full vehicle CFD models can be rapidly morphed to ‘fit’ the new design requirements. The CFD engineer can start providing design directions on vital performance criteria such as Aero-drag, under-hood flow, HVAC performance etc. in a matter of 3 to 5 days using these morphed full vehicle CFD models. In contrast, the conventional ‘CAD-to-Meshing’ approach may take several weeks to complete the same set of tasks.
Concept model development phase: Existing finite element skin models (legacy data) from different sources can be ‘cut’, ‘morphed’ and ‘pasted’ together to rapidly create a new concept model or ‘analytical mule’ for new product development.
Optimization phase: During this detailed engineering phase, entire vehicle CFD models can be parametrized for various shape parameters such as windshield angle, deck lid height, duct sections, exhaust system routing etc. Using such parametric CFD models, full vehicle CFD Optimization, DOE, Design exploration and Robustness engineering studies can be carried out effectively.
Several real life examples will be shown to demonstrate the applicability of CFD morphing, Concept modeling and parameterization technologies during each phase of the product development described above. Conclusions will be drawn to show how these new technologies will help the CFD engineer to effectively lead the design process.
