MESHFREE – accelerating complex fluid mechanics simulations

Problems in the automotive industry have been in the focus of MESHFREE’s development for years. With virtualization in the early stages of design, problems can be avoided and design aspects optimized long before the first expensive prototype is built.

MESHFREE successfully simulates a wide range of automotive applications, such as water crossing and water management, fuel filling and sloshing, interactions with soil and sand during a crash as well as transmission components.

In this field of application, we are currently engaged in impulse type turbines, so-called Pelton turbines. The need for simulations arises due to challenges concerning the modernization process of existing plants.

In order to evaluate design changes to optimize for long lasting efficiency, virtualization promises great potential for speeding up the development process. Simulation is a great tool for predicting the fluid flow, formation of water sheets and material stress – long before a prototype is built.

Process virtualization in manufacturing engineering provides valuable tools for engineers as they gain important insights into their processes long before the first tool is actually built.

It is a challenging task to model the processes appropriately. Classical mesh-based methods, such as Finite Element Methods (FEM), are very suitable to simulate structural mechanical properties of the workpiece; but they require high efforts for 3D meshing and coupling – if it is even possible – to model dynamical manufacturing processes. This is relevant, for example, when large deformations or cooling fluids are involved.

In chemical engineering, the efficient use of chemistry, physics, mathematics, and economics is the key to a successful design of complex and large-scale production chains. Detailed process knowledge can unlock hidden potentials in an existing production chain or plant design.

With MESHFREE, we offer a virtualization tool able to generate detailed knowledge of individual process steps governed by fluid dynamical and thermo-dynamical phenomena through simulation. Also, Non-Newtonian fluids can be considered.

Natural hazards and emergency management are very important topics in the face of climate change. Preventive measures as well as necessary plans for evacuation can be supported and optimized by virtualization and simulation of the respective processes. MESHFREE specializes on the simulation of continuum mechanical phenomena such as:

• Free surfaces: dam breaks and floodings
• Multiphase scenarios: avalanches and debris flow
• Fluid-Structure-Interaction (FSI): floating bridges

When designing processes for the food industry, the following performance parameters may be taken into account: Energy efficiency of the process, Minimization of product defects, Minimization of waste, Efficient cleaning processes.

For overall performance optimization, a detailed understanding of the individual processes is essential to unlock hidden potentials. Virtual modeling of these individual processes can be performed already at an early planning stage leading to design proposals or in an existing production chain to optimize process parameters.

The progress of medicine during the last decade is strongly influenced by virtualization of the occurring processes. By now, simulations of surgical procedures or digital treatment planning are well-established. MESHFREE is able to further support the virtualization of medical and biological processes in different aspects:

• Fluid-Structure-Interaction (FSI): flow in flexible structure
• Complex material behavior: from Newtonian to Non-Newtonian fluids
• Multiphase scenarios: coupling of fluid and discrete phases