Reducing Bottlenecks in the CAD-to-Mesh-to-Solution Cycle Time to Allow CFD to Participate in Design

As CFD has matured to the point that it is capable of reliable and accurate flow simulation, attention is now firmly fixed on how best to deploy that CFD as part of a process to improve actual products. This “process” consists of capturing and controlling the geometry of a suitable portion of an aeroengine (e.g., a blade row, or an internal cooling system or a fan-plus-nacelle), building a mesh system, solving the flow and responding to an appropriately visualized flow field by changing or accepting the geometry. This paper looks at that process from the point of view of identifying any bottlenecks and argues that current research should be directed at the CAD-to-mesh-to-solution cycle time rather than, as has been traditional, just looking at the solver itself and in isolation. Work aimed at eliminating some of these bottlenecks is described, with a number of practical examples.