Flow Science, Inc.

  1. Software companies based in New Mexico
  2. Computational fluid dynamics
  3. Companies based in New Mexico


Flow Science, Inc.
Type Private
Industry Computational Fluid Dynamics Software
Founded 1980
Headquarters Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
Key people Thomas Jensen, President;
Products FLOW-3D, FLOW-3D/MP, FLOW-3D CAST, FLOW-3D ThermoSET
Website www.flow3d.com

Flow Science, Inc. is a developer of software for computational fluid dynamics, also known as CFD, a branch of fluid mechanics that uses numerical methods and algorithms to solve and analyze problems that involve fluid flows.

History

In 1963, while working at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Dr. C. W. "Tony" Hirt pioneered the volume of fluid (VOF) method for tracking and locating the free surface or fluid-fluid interface. The VOF method improved the solution of a class of fluid flow problems with a free surface, such as the top surface of the water in a reservoir or the advancing front of metal being pumped into a mold.[1]

Hirt left LANL and founded Flow Science in 1980 to develop CFD software for industrial and scientific applications using the VOF method.[2]

The first publication of VOF in a journal was by Hirt and B.D. Nichols in 1981.[3]

On May 24, 2010, the Santa Fe Professional Business Women of New Mexico awarded Flow Science its 2010-2011 Employer of the Year for family-friendly policies and practices.[4]

Flow Science opened an office in Japan in June 2011.[5]

Products

Flow Science products include FLOW-3D, a CFD software that gives engineers valuable insight into various physical flow processes; FLOW-3D/MP, a CFD high performance computing product; FLOW-3D Cast, a software product for casting users; and FLOW-3D ThermoSET, a thermosetting resin CFD modeling software that solves the problems surrounding the development and production of products using thermosetting resins.[6]

Flow Science’s FLOW-3D software uses a fractional areas/volumes approach also known as FAVOR for defining problem geometry, and a free-gridding technique for mesh generation.[7]

Desktop Engineering Magazine, in a review of FLOW-3D Version 10.0, said: “Key enhancements include fluid structure interaction (FSI) and thermal stress evolution (TSE) models that use a combination of conforming finite-element and structured finite-difference meshes. You use these to simulate and analyze the deformations of solid components as well as solidified fluid regions and resulting stresses in response to pressure forces and thermal gradients.”[8]

Applications

Blue Hill Hydraulics used FLOW-3D software to update the design of a fish ladder on Mt. Desert Island, Maine, that helps alewife migrate to the fresh water spawning habitat. The results of the simulation determined where changes to the fish ladders design should be made to improve the alewife’s migration.[9]

AECOM Technology Corporation studied emergency overflows from the Powell Butte Reservoir and demonstrated that the existing energy dissipation structure was not capable of handling 170 million US gallons (640,000 m3) per day, the maximum expected overflow rate. The FLOW-3D simulation demonstrated that problem could be solved by increasing the height of the wing walls by exactly one foot.[10]

Researchers from the CAST Cooperative Research Centre and M. Murray Associates developed flow and thermal control methods for the high pressure die casting of thin-walled aluminum components with thicknesses of less than 1 mm. FLOW-3D simulation predicted the complex structure of the metal flow in the die and subsequent casting solidification.[11]

Researchers at DuPont used FLOW-3D to optimize coating processes for a new solution-coated active-matrix organic light-emitting diode (AMOLED) display technology that is cost and performance competitive with existing commercial vapor deposition technology. Using custom modeling and analytical approaches, they developed short- and long-range film-thickness control and uniformity that is commercially viable at large glass sizes.[12]

Eastman Kodak Company researchers developed an all-new inkjet printer technology in three years compared to the eight to ten years that is normally required. One of the keys to Kodak’s success was the use of FLOW 3-D simulation technology that enables them to predict the performance of a conceptual printhead design to a high level of accuracy and reliability.[13]

A research team composed of members from Auburn University, Lamar University and RJR Engineering used Flow Science’s TruVOF method as a virtual laboratory to evaluate performance of highway pavement and drainage inlets with different geometries. Predicted intercepted flow and inlet efficiency agreed well with laboratory measurements.[14]

Researchers at Albany Chicago LLC and the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee used FLOW-3D in conjunction with a one-dimensional algorithm to analyze the slow-shot and fast-shot die casting processes in order to reduce the number of iterations required to achieve desired process parameters.[15]

References

  1. ↑ Nichols, B.D. and Hirt, C.W. “Methods for Calculating Multi-Dimensional Transient Free Surface Flows Past Bodies,” Proceedings First International Conference Numerical Ship Hydrodynamics, Gaithersburg, MD, October 20–23, 1975.
  2. ↑ Bloomberg Business Week, “C. W. Hirt Executive Profile.”
  3. ↑ Hirt, C.W.; Nichols, B.D. (1981), "Volume of fluid (VOF) method for the dynamics of free boundaries," Journal of Computational Physics 39 (1): 201–225, 1981.
  4. ↑ “Business Beat,” Santa Fe New Mexican, May 31, 2010.
  5. ↑ “Flow Science Opens Office in Japan, President Affirms Positive Market Outlook after Quake,” JETRO Spotlight United States, June 11, 2011.
  6. ↑ “Flow Science Profile”, Bloomberg Businessweek.
  7. ↑ Pamela J. Waterman, “Zeroing in on CFD Solutions,” Desktop Engineering, August 30, 2009.
  8. ↑ Anthony J. Lockwood, “Editors Pick: Flow Science Release FLOW-3D Version 10.0”, Desktop Engineering, August 9, 2011.
  9. ↑ John E. Richardson, “CFD Saves the Alewife,” Desktop Engineering, July 2, 2007.
  10. ↑ Liaqat A. Khan, “Computational Fluid Dynamics Modeling of Emergency Overflows through an Energy Dissipation Structure of a Water Treatment Plant,” Proceedings of the 2011 World Environmental and Water Resources Congress, American Society of Civil Engineers.
  11. ↑ Thang Nguyen, Vu Nguyen, Morris Murray, Gary Savage, John Carrig, “Modeling Die Filling in Ultra-Thin Aluminium Castings,” Materials Science Forum, Volume 690, 2011.
  12. ↑ Reid Chesterfield, Andrew Johnson, Charlie Lang, Matthew Stainer, and Jonathan Ziebarth, “Solution-Coating Technology for AMOLED Displays,” Information Display Magazine, January 2011.
  13. ↑ Christopher N. Delametter, “Virtual Prototyping Accelerates MEMS/Inkjet Product Development,” CFD Review, December 12, 2008.
  14. ↑ Xing Fang, Shoudong Jiang, Shoeb Alam, “Numerical Simulations of Efficiency of Curb-Opening Inlets,” Journal of Hydraulic Engineering, American Society of Civil Engineers, January 2010.
  15. ↑ A. Riekher, H. Gerber, K.M. Pillai, T.-C. Jen, “Application of a One-Dimensional Numerical Simulation to Optimize Process Parameters of a Thin-Wall Casting in High Pressure Die Casting,” Die Casting Engineer, May 2009.


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