Step forward in university fluids education

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Mar 25, 2005

Fluent has released a new version of its student-friendly fluids laboratory educational software.

Fluent has released FlowLab 1.2, a new version of its student-friendly fluids laboratory educational software.

FlowLab is a unique piece of software that uses the power of flow visualisation through classical CFD exercises to teach basic fluid mechanics principles in the engineering classroom.

The software runs Fluent's general purpose CFD code, Fluent 6, and preprocessor, Gambit 2, in the background, with a user-friendly, student-specific graphical user interface (GUI) as its front end.

Students have been using FlowLab as a complement to traditional laboratory exercises for four years and this release is directed at extending the usability of the software as well as introducing a variety of new features.

In comparison to general purpose CFD software, FlowLab provides a structured interface designed for student learning.

This interface greatly reduces the learning curve requirement for a student to become productive with CFD software, which is critically important for professors wishing to augment an existing lecture-based fluids course, or a laboratory course where there is little time available to become familiar with a new software package.

Professor Rajesh Bhaskaran of the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering department at Cornell University, who was an early adopter of FlowLab, notes: "The streamlined interface of FlowLab 1.2 has enabled us to introduce CFD simulations into the tight timetable of a required laboratory course".

"Students simulate their heated pipe flow experiment using FlowLab and compare the results with the experiment".

"They gain an improved physical understanding of the experiment through the contour and vector plotting capabilities of FlowLab".

Ease-of-use improvements in FlowLab 1.2 target interface functionality, including file management and postprocessing features, based on student observations and field surveys conducted at a number of key academic institutions in 2004.

These included Cornell University, Iowa State University, Penn State University, and the University of Iowa in the USA.

After evaluating a prerelease of FlowLab 1.2, Dr John Cimbala, Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Penn State University, commented: "In comparison to FlowLab 1.1, the new version is more user friendly".

"Improvements made to the user interface have reduced the amount of effort required for postprocessing and the overall quality of graphics in this version is better".

"These improvements are significant and should enhance the learning experience for students using the software".

Shane Moeykens, Fluent's FlowLab Product Manager expanded on the feedback he has been getting: "FlowLab 1.2 is clearly a significant step forward in university fluids education, having been released with a library of 15 well known fluid dynamics exercises".

"These have been field tested extensively and are able to converge readily across a wide range of operating conditions while providing accurate predictions".

"Four new exercises of the 15 available have been developed under US National Science Foundation funding, in collaboration with academia, and are also available for use with FlowLab 1.2".