CFD doesn’t mean Color For Directors
CFD doesn’t mean Color For Directors RSSTop 10 Things I Learned From Engineers
I admire mechanical engineers. I really mean it. If the world ever implodes, then I want to be hanging out with you guys. You know how to build and fix things. I on the other hand can probably contribute to the betterment of future society by picking berries (so long as I don’t have to deal with any creepy crawlies) or by spreading good cheer – I can’t help it I’ve got a sunny disposition (that is after 9 AM). Yup, that’s about as helpful as I’ll be in say a zombie apocalypse.
Anyway, I’ve learned a lot from you guys. So I thought it would be fun to talk about that today. The top 10 things I learned from y’all.
10. Anything and everything mechanical is fascinating. By now you know that I drive a convertible. On the few days of the year when the weather is nice enough to drive with the car top down in England, I usually get an audience when it’s time to put the top up or down. The guys marvel at the mechanics of the roof rising at the touch of a button and talk about all the systems moving the roof. I admit in the past I never paid much attention to such things. I just took them for granted until the day they didn’t work. Now, thanks to you I am more curious. I look at all things electronic and wonder if FloTHERM was used at some point to ensure effective cooling.
9. Choose your words carefully. You are very precise with your language. It took me a while to learn this but I finally realized that I needed to pick my words carefully in order to communicate effectively with you. Case in point. I usually ask for extra ice in my coke glass whenever I order a drink – it’s an American habit that is hard to break in the land of little or no ice cubes. I also always wrap my glass in a napkin. After the first month or so of tagging along with the guys to lunch, one of them asked me why I always wrap-up my glass. I said “the glass sweats and becomes slippery so this way I’m not likely to drop the glass”. After considering my answer for a moment, the engineer said I think the word you’re looking for is condensation. And the whole table started discussing this at length. At that moment I realized that I needed to pick my words more carefully. Months later, we were working on a presentation for a press tour. One slide just kept getting flagged by the review team as being wrong. After asking a series of questions I realized that the problem wasn’t with the whole slide but with just one word – I think the problematic word was “cause” so we changed it to “contribute” and all was fine. Someone complained that the team was being pedantic but I knew that they weren’t trying to be difficult. They were just being factually accurate. And there ain’t nothing wrong with that.
8. When taking an engineer out on a sales call, be prepared to have them tell the truth –warts and all. In sales the golden rule is to never say no. If someone asks you about some functionality which your software doesn’t have, you just keep asking questions to find out whether that feature is important to the sale or whether it is a “nice to have”. Engineers on the other hand don’t have any problems with saying no. I think that’s probably why engineers feel comfortable buying stuff from other engineers. It’s because they know they’re getting a straight answer.
7. Engineers test you. When engineers meet you, they always ask you a question to gauge your technical level. They’re not being difficult … they are just trying to see where you fit on the technical spectrum so they’d know how to answer you. I learned this the hard way because I now know enough about things to be dangerous. So now whenever I meet an engineer I always start the conversation with “I am not an engineer”. In response I usually get a smile and detailed explanations that even I can understand. We both walk away happy having communicated effectively.
6. There is always room for improvement. By nature engineers like to tinker with things because there is always room for improvement. Sometimes I feel like a 5 year-old kid who keeps repeating “are we there yet?” when working on a presentation or a brochure. So I have learned to be patient because invariably the end product is always better.
5. My definition of a cool picture is different than yours. Another thing that I admire about engineers is that you are practical and “smoke and mirrors” don’t really hold much value for you. When you look at simulation results, you are perfectly happy looking at the basic plot lines and charts. I on the other hand need to communicate with managers who like pretty pictures and colors. So my definition of a cool picture is probably way different than yours. That’s why some of the guys in our building run the other way when they see me trolling the hallways looking for a volunteer to do a couple of screen grabs. But the handful who still brave the elements do turn out some brilliant images (yeah, you know who you are and to you I am eternally grateful).
4. Engineers are nice people. Just so that we are clear, when I say “nice” I am using the American definition which is “pleasant, agreeable, and delightful”. By nature most engineers are introverts so as an extrovert it would be really easy to just roll on by. But I tell you, as a group, engineers are the nicest bunch of folks I have ever met. That’s why whenever I meet one I make sure to get to know them well. And in this world, you can never have enough nice people around you.
3. Physical testing is expensive. I’ve been in the simulation market for more years than I dare to admit out loud. However, I am still astounded at how much companies spend on physical testing. I heard that Bentley crash tests hundreds of cars every year. Gulp. That is a lot of money (not to mention lovely cars being destroyed) in the name of safety. But then again, if I ever could afford to buy one of those bad boys, I’d want to know that I’d be safe.
2. Not doing physical tests can be even more expensive. Funny… you didn’t expect me a simulation-junkie to say this but it’s true. Sometimes you do need to do physical tests. For example, a new customer decided to invest in our T3Ster product for thermal characterization testing because their largest customer told them that their product specs were not worth the paper they were printed on. Ouch! It’s a good thing their customer told them _before_ they decided to take their business elsewhere.
1. Simulation is meaningful. I remember the very first whitepaper I ever read on the topic of simulation. The subject was about meshing and it was during an interview. I read the opening paragraph a couple of times before admitting defeat. At that point, the CEO of the company (who also happened to be a respected engineering professor) gave me a quick lecture on what it all meant and before I knew it I was a part of this fascinating world. Since then I’ve learned a lot about engineering. I also know that some still believe that simulation is hocus pocus. But I am a believer especially when I hear from experienced engineers who say that simulation gives them new insight into the performance of their products. One of my favorite engineers, Mr. Guus Bertels with Bronswerk Heat Transfer, has an extensive background in the field of aerodynamics. Mr. Bertels was involved in the design of one of the most beautiful flying machines, the Concord, so you would be right to think that he has seen it all but even he has this to say about simulation: “The information generated by FloEFD especially for the taxing complexity of cooler aerodynamics is far beyond data obtainable through physical measurement and experimentation”.
So thank you engineers everywhere! You have made this a better world for the rest of us and thank you for letting me be a part of your world.
Until next time,
Nazita
Tags: CFD, design engineer, FloEFD, FloTHERM, simulation
Physician Heal Thyself
A virtual version of one of the MGC data center representing one of the configurations tested. Image courtesy of Mentor Graphics.
Over the weekend I realized I have become English. No, I haven’t picked up the accent. Nor do I eat Marmite. Actually eating Marmite can be relegated to one of those things I’d never do. Never, ever. So why have I become English? I tend to discuss the weather and temperature … a lot. I’m a friendly creature by nature so I am always talking with people. And because no one is ever fully happy with the weather here (no matter what it is doing), I find that it is one of the safest topics for discussion. Everyone has an opinion and no one is wrong except when you talk to the experts. Then I take their word as gospel. Case in point. I’ve moved to the other side of our office building where we have no air-conditioning. For 9 months of the year this is not a problem but when it gets hot here then I boil. I used to complain about the heat until one of our gurus showed me a little trick: put the aircon in the meeting room at the end of the hallway on high and open all doors. After an hour the cool air finally makes it to my end of the hallway but only if no one books the meeting room. If they do, it’s back to suffering in silence.
I always find that ironic. After all, we are the developers of FloVENT, one of the industry’s best HVAC simulation tools for the design and optimization of airflow in structures. We have the tools to help us fix this problem but like most experts, we tend to ignore the home (just ask anyone in construction about how many jobs they’ve got to do in their own home). So imagine my surprise when I came across this recently published whitepaper “Data Center Design Using Improved CFD Modeling and Cost Reduction Analysis”. The paper was written by Messrs. vanGilder, Mikjaniec, Manning and Small and was presented at Semitherm last month. The fact that a whitepaper was written was not the surprising bit. What caught my eyes was the topic – Mentor Graphics used CFD to optimize the design of two new data centers. Well, I’ll be… the experts listen to their own advice!
Mentor Graphics has data centers spread around the world. The company was interested in consolidating 20 local and small data centers in Europe and North America into just two. The objectives behind the consolidation were to increase capacity, efficiency and redundancy as well as reduce operational costs. The current distributed design has had server heat loads increasing by 33% per year. Simply by improving efficiency the group thought that they could reduce it to 24% but that wasn’t enough. The group was interested in much higher reduction – that of about 14% increase.
The team considered several designs – among them raised floor design, dropped ceiling design, chimney and hot aisle containment. Their findings are absolutely fascinating. For example one option would increase the cost of construction by as much as 28%. Without the help of simulation I doubt the team would have figured this out until well into the construction phase when the construction team would have turned around and asked for more funds – that’s a surprise no one likes to be at the receiving end.
If you find yourself needing to know more then this whitepaper is a must read. You can get a copy of the whitepaper from IEEE through this link. I won’t spoil the ending for you but here’s a glimpse into it: the chosen design will allow the North American data center to achieve 7000 hours of free cooling per year. The remaining 1760 hours would require partial cooling. In anyone’s book that would translate into a tidy sum of money…something that is routinely celebrated here on this blog. Considering our ever increasing reliance on data there are lots of companies needing to increase capacity in their data center and save costs. I just wonder how many other companies are going through this exercise too. However many there are, I hope that they too are using the tools that are out there to look into an optimal solution for them. As for us, I’m ecstatic that the “physician” has taken his own advice and by way of this blog I’d like to thank the experts. Well done Jim, Travis, Andy and Derrick!
Until next time,
Nazita
Beep, Beep
I suddenly find myself needing to buy a car in England. I won’t bore you with why I had to let go of my beloved Audi but instead let me tell you that renting cars in England especially when you don’t drive stick shift is really really expensive.
That is a very pleased blogger sitting in her fave car last year (and so happens her fave color too) 
Being a rather sensible person, at first I thought I should get a VW Golf. Firstly you can’t beat German engineering. Secondly, you get awesome MPG (I went thru 2 weeks in December on a single tank of gas with my rented Golf). Lastly, it’s small enough so I can still park it in London but it is roomy enough that if I want to throw my bike in the back, I can just lift the hatch, drop the passenger seats and throw the bike in there. When I mentioned my plans to my best friend I got a back-handed compliment – you are so good, you always pick the sensible option. Hurumph! It’s one thing to call yourself sensible but when others call you that what they really mean is “you are so boring” … it’s a good thing she’s an old friend and can get away with telling me the truth even when I don’t want to hear it.
And so began my odyssey for finding a new ride.
I really liked having a convertible so I wanted to stick with one. There are plenty of choices in England but being the _sensible_ person that I am I quickly discounted all cars but a handful because of resale value and purchase cost … I would love to buy an AC Cobra for example; alas, the bank manager doesn’t see it my way. And in case you’re wondering that is the only car on the face of the planet that’ll get me to learn how to drive a stick shift. But I digress.
I’ve always had a soft spot for Minis and really wanted one when I first moved to England. But the last time around the sensible choice was made and a Golf was bought instead. This time around I’m going for both fun and sensible: it is German in design, it’s small, it’s not very thirsty (depending on the engine picked), and it’ll be a heck of a fun ride when it’s not sitting in city traffic. Having decided on the Mini, I started doing my research to see which model/ year offered the best ROI when I ran across this article. If you can’t be bothered to read the article, what caused me concern was this: “Under high operating temperatures an electro-migration can occur at the circuit board installed in the additional water pump. This can lead to a failure of the additional water pump or smoldering and even a fire cannot be excluded.” Oh dear.
According to the Guardian, 235,000 cars worldwide were affected including about 30,000 cars in the UK (one car even allegedly caught fire in the UK). Mini has offered to replace the water pump at no charge and the process takes about an hour. I can’t imagine this exercise has been an inexpensive one for the company. Aside from being a PR nightmare, the recall will cost millions in material and labor (I tried to find a more exact number but unfortunately my handy dandy research department, Google, is not being very helpful). Anyway, I wonder what went wrong. Was it a manufacturing problem? Was it a design problem that could have been easily fixed thru simulation with FloTHERM or FloEFD? I guess we’ll never know but I wanted to write about this because the fact of the matter is in this day and age product recalls still happen. Even to the big guys. And they are costly. So it’s best to catch design problems before they become a PR nightmare. As for me and my Mini, I’m still going full steam ahead. I’ve got a couple of test drives scheduled for next week and hope to come home with a new (well new to me) car that’s already been retrofitted. I must admit that if I have to deal with London traffic then I’d much rather do it in a fun zippy car… even if I am going only 7 miles per hour.
Until next time,
Nazita
Tags: FloEFD, FloTHERM, simulation
How hot is too hot?
I admit it. I am a bit of an Apple junkie. It was an affair that started in the early 90s when I got my first Mac but I had to give up the habit because I married a Linux man. He declared the house an Apple-Free zone and since he was my sole source of tech support, I capitulated. But in my heart I always remained a fan. When the guys in the office brought in their iPads I looked at them jealously and whenever I brought up the subject at home I was given a million reasons why an Android tablet was just as good, if not better. We’d always get into a debate and I’d walk away not wanting anything.
Not wanting to break any logo/trademark rules, I've chosen to use a fresh apple instead (image couretsy of Microsoft clipart).
I recently started looking at tablets in earnest again because quite frankly I’m tired of lugging around this brick of a laptop. My home laptop is heavy and the fan is permanently stuck on high revs (and that drives me to distraction). Since I no longer live in an Apple-free zone, I no longer need to shy away from Apple products. I’m also not overly demanding of my gadgets. I want something light that I can use whether I’m on a plane or lazing on a sofa. And I need apps. Lots of apps.
I’ve boiled down my choices to two – iPad and Galaxytab (I was briefly side-tracked by the BB Playbook due to the recent price drop but I decided that I’d rather have a bigger screen and more apps). Not wanting to be accused of being an emotional buyer, I’ve been doing my homework. I’ve scoured the internet and read hundreds of reviews about the two products. I have read enough specs until they’ve come out of my ears. They each have some advantages and some disadvantages but for little ol’ me if you put all that left-brain stuff aside and let my emotions take over, I think the iPad is a more aesthetically pleasing product. It’s just more tactile (and no, this is not the equivalent of asking a woman which car are you going to buy and she says a red one! I’ve actually looked at the engine, the safety ratings and in light of all that I’m now looking at the aesthetic qualities).
Having made my decision, I was on my way out the door to pick up my new gadget when I saw this tidbit of news on cnet.com. Apparently users have been complaining that their new iPads may be overheating under normal use conditions. So I did a bit more digging and found another article also on cnet.com about the subject. According to the article, even though the tablets may be running hot, they are well within company imposed thermal limits. Given what I do for a living, I understand thermal limits and why you need to impose them for design purposes but quite clearly if a device says “the iPad needs to cool down”, then Houston, we may have a problem.
Thankfully cnet.com has started a test under a controlled laboratory setting to see if they can replicate the problem. So the jury is still out on whether this is really an issue. But there’s a nagging nelly in me that thinks that in this day and age when there are plenty of good simulation software tools available such as FloTHERM, then I really don’t see any reason why the consumer should have to face these kinds of problems. As for me, I guess I’ll wait until I hear a bit more about the cnet stress test. It’s a shame though. I was quite looking forward to using my shiny new gadget on my upcoming flight back to England.
Until next time,
Nazita
PS. I couldn’t resist it. One of my friends sent this iPad related link http://www.wimp.com/dadipad/ to me yesterday and I thought it was very funny. The clip is in German but you don’t need to speak German to understand what’s going on.
Tags: FloTHERM, simulation
Earthquake Weather and Other Myths
I grew up in Southern California where the threat of the big one is always there – by the big one I mean the big San Andreas fault earthquake which according to experts the world over is overdue by many decades. Over the weekend San Francisco got a couple of tremblers … nothing too scary but enough to remind all Californians that the big one is lurking out there. Alas so far science has not been able to predict when or where the next earthquake will hit – that is unless you watch the Syfy channel and every other week some brilliant scientist saves the day by chucking a few nuclear warheads in the middle of LA to hold the big one at bay. Fortunately for LA, science hasn’t been able to crack this egg yet and since human beings abhor the unknown a few myths have popped up over the years to deal with the issue at hand.
Image courtesy of Microsoft Office cliparts. All rights reserved and remain the property of Microsoft.
The most persistent one is called “earthquake weather”. Earthquake weather can best be described as unseasonably hot weather which arrives quickly and then disappears soon after an earthquake. For example, if you are in the middle of February in let’s say San Francisco (don’t want to pick on my old hometown all the time) you expect an average high temperature of 60° F / 16° C. Then all of a sudden the temperature rises to 85° F/29° C – the air becomes very still and can be a bit stifling. That’s when antennas start going up because what you’ve got is considered by the man at large as “earthquake weather”. You sleep uneasily at night and keep your running shoes by the bed (if you think I’m kidding the earthquake preparation pamphlets suggest you wear running shoes in case you need to walk for hours over rubble until you get to safety). 9 out of 10 times nothing happens and within a day or two the temperature drops back to normal again but sometimes and I mean sometimes an earthquake pops up somewhere and that’s enough to keep this myth alive.
There are a lot of myths around us. Even in the world of CFD – some firmly rooted in the history of CFD and some conjured from the air by a clever marketing person (yes I know I’m in marketing but this leopard isn’t pretending to change its spots, I am merely making an observation which I might add many engineers have verbalized over the years). For example, the myth that CFD software is hard to use is one based on history. Yes, the first, 2nd and even the third generation CFD software tools were difficult to use by anyone except for a fully trained specialist. But the solutions based on the concept of Concurrent CFD are not (we discussed this topic last year so I’m not going to bore you by talking about it again).
Some myths are based on outdated beliefs. For example, “shirt-sleeve management” (if the room is too cold for you, then it’s cold enough for the equipment) is no longer an appropriate method of cooling data centers. Thankfully we are now more energy conscious and with the help of CFD, we now know that some equipment can withstand almost balmy temperatures, some shouldn’t be placed next to others, and that moving equipment around the room can impact the overall cooling needs of the room.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that just because something was considered “true” at some point, it doesn’t make it still true – at one point we believed the earth was flat and that the sun revolved around the earth. So when you look at your engineering processes/systems don’t just automatically assume that everything still holds true. Design rules get tweaked. Fans become more efficient. New solutions to old problems appear. And simulation is no longer the realm of the few. So go ahead: Explore and debunk design and analysis myths. It is when we debunk myths and put new more efficient rules in place that we truly improve performance and get the most out of every engineering dollar.
Since I’m in a myth busting frenzy, I for one am rather relieved that earthquake weather is a myth through and through. Out of the blue the temperature in LA rose uncharacteristically a couple of days ago … perfect earthquake weather. Maybe I imagined it but I thought everyone was a bit on the edge. Thankfully the temperature broke in the middle of the night with nary an earthquake in sight. All became normal again – well, as normal as things get in LA.
Until next time,
Nazita
Tags: Concurrent CFD, myths of CFD, simulation
Light of the American Dream
Back in December I heard something on the radio that made me both sad and happy at the same time. It turns out that the last neon sign in Piccadilly Square in London was to be turned off by the end of the year. For those of you who haven’t had the pleasure of seeing London at night, Piccadilly Sq is a sight to behold (for a picture click here ) The neon sign in question had been in use since 1987 and is the one belonging to Sanyo (shown prominently in the picture). The 340 square ft neon sign has been replaced with one made up of LEDs. Come to think of it, walking around London this past Christmas, the whole town was draped in LED lights.
I always thought of neon lights as something that was quintessentially American but they were actually invented by a Frenchman in 1910. They first appeared on the American shores in Los Angeles in 1923 in a car dealership and they quickly caught the imagination of a nation. By the 50s neon lights were everywhere and because of their close association with advertising they became known as the light of the American dream. According to the announcement, Sanyo wasn’t too worried about efficiency/inefficiency of neon lights – they just wanted something a bit more modern to showcase their logo for the Olympics.
I’m not sure everyone else would have that priority – most folks worry about efficiency first. So I went looking for something to help me understand the difference between the two. I found a document from 2006 which stated that neon lights were actually more energy efficient. With that said, this is a 6 year old document and as far as I know LEDs have changed by leaps and bounds during this period so I suspect LEDs have not only caught up but surpassed the performance of neon lights (if you know more I’d love to hear from you). And they are becoming more and more popular – you can quickly gauge the importance of LEDs by reviewing the US Department of Energy’s website or just walk around any major metropolitan area around the holidays. However, the LED market is still in its infancy and is having teething pains. According to a presentation made at the Strategies in Light conference last week, Jim Brodrick, the US DOE’s Solid-State Lighting Program Manager, cost is one of the most frequently mentioned impediments to adoption of solid state lighting. He also mentioned that reducing cost while maintaining high quality manufacturing is a key challenge for LED manufacturers.
I agree with Mr. Brodrick. Reducing cost and maintaining high quality is a key challenge met by not only LED manufacturers but all manufacturers of discrete goods. That’s why market leading organizations are adopting software simulation tools such as FloTHERM or FloEFD or thermal characterization testing solutions such as T3Ster (and some combine the two for an even more comprehensive solution) to shorten their design process, create higher quality products and reduce their costs. If you’re interested in learning how software simulation or hardware testing can help you create better and higher quality products with less cost then have a look at our website for free whitepapers and on-demand presentations. I’m sure you’ll find lots of good/helpful advice.
There is a reason why 19 of the top 20 LED companies use our solutions. So why don’t you come and see our experts at Semitherm in San Jose California (March 18-22) – we’d love to meet you and help you solve those tough problems too.
Until next time,
Nazita
Tags: CFD, FloEFD, FloTHERM, simulation, T3Ster, thermal characterization
Not a Good Day
Have you ever had one of those days where it would have been better to have stayed in bed with the duvet pulled up firmly above your head? I’m sure most of us have had those kinds of days. Last week I was suffering from this malaise. I curbed the front wheel of our new car on the way to work, I dropped my breakfast bagel after taking the first bite (and yes a dropped bagel exhibits the same behavior as dropped toast… butter side down except my bagel had cream cheese and it was a mess to clean up but I digress) and when I got in to work I got an email informing me that the big project was still missing a major component and that a disaster was looming in the shadows. By 10 o’clock I was convinced that the day was going from bad to worse and that I would have been more productive had I just stayed in bed.
CFD analysis on a drone. Image courtesy of Mentor Graphics.
Sometimes a bad day can rapidly deteriorate into a very bad day. I read this story a couple of weeks ago (Daily Mail, November 1, 2011). About four years ago, several police departments in England decided to invest in some drones to help them keep an eye on criminal activity from the air. The remote-controlled drones can monitor activity from around 150ft and cost about £13,000 each. One police department (in Merseyside, England) used the drone to make a grand total of 1 arrest. A few days after making that arrest, they lost the drone due to power loss over water. I would think that was a bad day for those guys. An epic one at that. The powers that be issued a statement that they have decided not to invest in drones anymore because “the cost of training officers to operate the drone and the inability to use it in all weathers, outweigh its value and they will rely on the police helicopter for aerial cover.” They also mentioned that they had given the officers controlling the drone “words of advice” which apparently in cop speak means a reprimand of sorts. Wow…
This is very typical of what most managers do. They buy into an idea and make the initial investment but they see training as an unnecessary expense. So they leave the operators to their own devices and when they fail then it is the employee’s fault… not that insufficient training was provided to them on how to use the equipment, software, whatever. I actually see this quite often in the simulation world.
Let’s face it, simulation software is not cheap but when used properly it can pay for itself many times over. But life is not that simple is it? By the time you get the approvals for purchasing the software, very little money is left for training. Since you are a bright lot, you take on the task of training yourself. It takes you a few weeks (if you are lucky) or a few months (if you’ve bought traditional CFD software) to figure your way around the software. In the meantime, you’ve got to work on your projects. Talk about trial by fire. Unfortunately in the ensuing rush to get productive you may not learn all the little shortcuts or tricks that would make your life easier. Sometimes you manage to get your work done but sometimes you get so frustrated that you throw your hands up in the air and throw the software and the computer that houses it out the window while screaming “forget about CFD. Forget about simulation. I’ll stick with physical testing.”
Even though we pride ourselves on the ease of use of our solutions, be it FloEFD, FloTHERM or FloVENT, we always support our customers by providing short yet comprehensive training courses on the use of our solutions. These courses are held on a regular basis at various sites (click here then pick your geographical region on the upper left hand side and pick the product to see the classes in your region) or if you have special requirements our consulting team can provide onsite training customized for your needs at your location (check here for more information). Even power users can benefit from attending a “top up” session from time to time. At our last user meeting, we held several advanced training sessions. Afterwards many of them said that even though they’d been using FloTHERM for 10+ years, they still learned a few new tricks! So it’s never too late to get some training.
I don’t want to drone (ha-ha, I’m getting really cheesy in my old age) on about training. We all know that training can pay back for itself several times over in increased productivity. And that’s what we’re all about here.
Until next time,
Nazita
PS. I’d like to wish my fellow Americans a very Happy Thanksgiving. Unfortunately I won’t be able to celebrate with my family this year (waited too long to book tickets). Instead I’m hoping to drag a couple of my lovely English friends to a pub serving Thanksgiving dinner. There will be lots of Americans around so that should be an interesting experience for us all!
Tags: CFD, FloEFD, FloTHERM, FloVENT, simulation
Getting to Know You
For the past few months I’ve been talking about our user meetings – the Mechanical Analysis Division User2User meetings which are taking place all over the world.
The venue was built at the site of an old castle.
I just came back from the meeting in Germany and I can quite honestly say that it was one of the most energizing meetings I’ve attended in a long time. This was a meeting of “firsts”: the first time we as Mentor Graphics held a user meeting in Germany, the first time we met with a group of our customers in a non-sales environment and the first time we got a chance to seek “no holds barred” feedback from customers. So I wasn’t really sure what to expect — all I knew was the anticipation was killing me.
Upon arrival Germany greeted us with sunny skies and lovely warm temperatures. We took that as a sign that the meeting was also going to be a warm one and we weren’t mistaken. The venue was a charming place built on the site of an old castle in Friedewald Germany – we even got a chance to explore the grounds during the off hours. Over the course of the three days our agenda consisted of a mix of technical content provided by our staff on various topics relating to FloTHERM, FloEFD and T3Ster and application stories provided by our customers such as Dr. Lautenschlager, Mr. Riebel, Mr. Benze and Mr. Windischmann. I know our products are very flexible tools but I am still astounded whenever I hear how they are used to solve complex problems in products that we as consumers use on a daily basis and quite often take for granted.
We learned a lot in the classroom...
But the meeting wasn’t all hard work. We also got a chance to go on a very educational tour of a salt mine. At the lowest point, we were 800 meters below sea level driving at what felt like mach speed thru tunnels barely wide enough for our trucks. The climax of the tour was a grotto deep in the belly of the earth where salt crystals took on the look of jewels put on display. Who knew that good ol’ common table salt could be so beautiful. Absolutely breathtaking.
We also learned a lot in the salt mine. Image courtesy of Mr. Struller.
It has now been a few days since we have all returned back to work and if there’s one thing that has stayed with me is this. By the end of the three days we were no longer a group of polite strangers who were attending a technical conference. We were friends and colleagues sharing laughs and experiences. Mind you there was no exchange of proprietary information — we were simply enjoying learning from one another. And I’m willing to bet that the next meeting will be even more fantastic because we now all know what to expect.
If you like the sound of this type of meeting, then I strongly urge you to register for your regional Mechanical U2U event next year. It really is a great opportunity to learn lots of new things and make a few new friends.
As for me, what did I learn? I learned that we have some fantastically smart engineers as end-users and I for one can’t wait to catch-up with each and every one of them at the next meeting. Team Germany, thank you for making this meeting such a huge success. See you next time!
Until next time,
Nazita
Tags: FloEFD, FloTHERM, Mechanical U2U, T3Ster
The ROI of Concurrent Design with CFD
For the past few months I’ve been working behind the scenes on a very exciting project. I’ve been working with the good folks at the Aberdeen Group, a leading Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) industry consulting and research organization, to better understand the ROI of using simulation — specifically CFD. Of course as a leading developer of CFD software we inherently understand the value of simulation but sometimes it is good to get a sanity check – after all, we wouldn’t want that check to bounce!
Anyway, Michelle Boucher, a senior research analyst in the Product Innovation and Engineering practice at Aberdeen Group, conducted an extensive survey of companies that use CFD early, often and during the design phase. And what she found was eye-opening. We have invited Michelle to present her findings during a live web presentation on September 27 at 2 PM US East Coast time. To learn more about the presentation and or to register for the free event please follow this link. If you are in a time zone that makes it impossible to watch the event live please register anyway… we will send a link to the recorded version after broadcast to you so you can watch it at your convenience. I should also point out that Michelle is a fantastic presenter so you’re bound to find the session very engaging. Michelle will be joined by Chris Watson who is one of our resident CFD gurus and they will both be available for Q&A during the session. Last but most certainly not least, all attendees will receive a copy of the report (valued at $399) at the end of the presentation for their reference. I think you’ll find the report very helpful no matter whether you are an engineer or an engineering manager.
Please join me for what will be a most fantastic event.
Until next time,
Nazita
Tags: CFD, Concurrent CFD, ROI, simulation
Back to School
Today is the first day of school in England. How do I know that? My first clue was the morning drive to work went back to 60 minutes. The second clue was the diversion/roadworks signs that popped up overnight as the city started tearing up roads in earnest again. The third and final clue was seeing lots of bleary-eyed kids in new school uniforms waiting to catch buses to school.
Image courtesy of Microsoft clip art.
I don’t know about you but for weeks before going back to school we were in preparation mode at our house. We’d dust off the old “recommended” summer holiday reading lists and cramming a couple of months of preparation work into a couple of weeks. The best bit was the massive shopping day where we’d buy new shoes, new uniforms and almost a year’s worth of school supplies – I still marvel at the fact that I used to find buying new folios, pens and pencils so exciting. And lastly, I’d start getting excited about making new friends and learning lots of cool stuff during the year. Of course the ritual changed the older I got – by the time I got to the third year of university the prospect of buying school supplies wasn’t nearly as exciting as knowing that the foundation coursework had been completed and that I would actually start taking courses specific to my chosen major and my future career.
Fast forward to today. From time to time I find that I need a top up to keep abreast of the latest and the greatest. So I read a lot (whether on the web or a book), watch on-demand presentations (some free and some paid), and attend industry events. Since we know you may also need a top up from time to time, we are publishing a new series of whitepapers called “What they didn’t teach you in engineering school about …”. The first in the series is titled “What they didn’t teach you in engineering school about 3D pressure drop analysis.” The ebook is free and can be downloaded from our website and can serve as a good source for “top up”. The second in the series is called “What they didn’t teach you in engineering school about heat transfer” and it should be available for download from our site in the next couple of weeks. And while you’re there, please feel free to peruse our site for lots of other free whitepapers as well as on-demand presentations – the site is a great source of information for keeping abreast of the latest/greatest on the subject of simulation and computational fluid dynamics. Also while we’re on the subject of learning, don’t forget about our series of Mechancial U2U (user 2 user) meetings which will take place in Germany, France, UK, US and China. For more information please follow this link. I am planning on attending all of these sessions and look forward to meeting you.
In short, school’s in… so why don’t you join us, make some new friends and learn something new!
Until next time,
Nazita
Tags: CFD, pressure drop, simulation
About CFD doesn’t mean Color For Directors
Technology for technology sake doesn’t make sense in this economy. So to help you gather ROI information for your management team, my blog will focus on the business side of simulation. I’ll share how design engineers using CFD have improved product functionality across a wide range of industries and applications while shortening their time to market cost-effectively. And to add a bit of spice, I’ll feature “state of the union” interviews with industry pundits on a regular basis.
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