[avi031]

Dear All,

I am a CFD engineer with 5 years of experience in different domains -turbomachinery, automobile and electronic cooling. But somehow I feel terribly saturated and have the fear that I can very well be replaced by a smarter software tool.
I have come across several incidents were CAD/Structural engineers have started addressing CFD problems. This basically implies that specialization (post-grad) is of basically no use and only tool knowledge is of primary importance.
At this point, I would like to know as to what can I do to "upgrade" myself in this field, as I am really passionate to continue in this field. Please advice.

Note: If this query is irrelevant to the forum, I sincerely apologize.


Best Regards

[Jonny6001]

Hello avi031,

In my opinion, the software that we use in industry should be regarded as just tools that help us in achieving our engineering goal. Far too often these days I interview candidates that have used various software when working on projects, and they think this is of significant interest.

This leads to software users that can generate a large amount of results very quickly and have really mastered very in-depth tools (i.e. large DOEs that generate hundreds of graphs). But the individual offers very little engineering value. And 95% of the DOE cases are irrelevant for all sorts of reasons. When it comes down to the final question of "which is the best design" or "what do we need to do to fix it?" they have no real view.

I would rather an engineer with excellent engineering foundations that's never used a simulation tool, to someone that has been using X software for 10 years but couldn't engineer all aspects of a system by themselves.

I appreciate that CFD usage in industry has considerable challenges. Striking the correct balance of time vs useful information gathered is in my opinion the sign of a good CFD engineer. Using the CFD tool in the optimal way for the specific problem.

I've gone on for long enough, but I hope that you see the message that offering engineering value is in my opinion the best long lasting ability.
Whilst it's good that you've worked on several domains, do you think that you offer good engineering value in all of those domains?
The best CFD engineers don't just carry out simulations, they are much more than that. They can offer engineering insight that no-one else can, since they have much more access to information about the physics of the problem.

[coupsdebambous]

Second Jonny. CFD is just pretty pictures until somebody with proper grasp of the underlying physics explains them in plain words. Mastering the tool is not adding value to a project directly, just getting a specific answer.



I might add that experimental studies complement CFD in a lot of industries, and knowing what you're looking for in a series of tests is a massive added value.