Computational fluid dynamics get on the fast track: having honed its skills in equipment design, CFD is now proving useful for process design and optimization

Chemical Engineering, October, 2003 by Gerald Ondrey

It used to be you had to be a computer wiz and a physicist to perform and understand computational fluid dynamics (CFD) calculations. Now, thanks to tremendous increases in computer power and the subsequent ability to incorporate more physics into a calculation, CFD has become a powerful tool, not only for design engineers, but process engineers as well.

Software vendors have eased the chore of mesh generation, improved the algorithms and CFD codes, and incorporated more simulation models to their wares. As a result, calculations that were unthinkable five years ago, such as those related to reacting flows, heterogeneous catalysis and other complex chemical and physical processes, can now be accurately modeled.

New codes for new applications

CFD...