Engineering Simulation for Built Environment and HVAC Design

"Engineers who scoffed at CFD analysis a year and a half ago now prefer that design changes be evaluated using CFD before being tried in the field."

"We are using FLUENT CFD software to analyze our production fans, and to guide new product development. FLUENT enables us to visualize complex flowfields, predict fan performance, and better match Lau fans to our customers' applications."

"FLUENT allows us to develop multiple designs simultaneously. This allows our engineers much more flexibility to come up with improved and more efficient designs before ever building a prototype. Our new 42SX unit was modeled using FLUENT in just this way."

"Room air conditioning systems use centrifugal blower wheels (forward-curved, backward-curved), prop fans and tangential blower wheels (cross-flow fans) depending on model. Within the development of advanced high efficiency models at Whirlpool's Global Product Development Center in LaVergne, TN, we simulate and optimize our designs using the CFD GAMBIT/FLUENT package. The simulation results have been verified by wind tunnel experiments to within +/-3% for most cases.
     The goal of integrating the CFD software into the design process at Whirlpool was to save development time and money. For example, with the established confidence level in the theoretical results, we conducted a CFD-based DoE (Design of Experiment) with sixteen different fan designs instead of a traditional experimental optimization. This task was accomplished within one fifth of the normal time frame and would otherwise not have met our project timeline."