I'm currently underutilized and wonder if there are any cfd consulting firms currently in need of a subcontractor, or companies with industrial flow/heat transfer problems to solve.

Jonas:

I admit to being tempted to post a "question" similar to this myself. But this post seems inappropriate in this forum; it's a bit too much like an advertisement for a technical forum.

There is a real need for the low volume, low overhead consultant to publicize his/her availability. Could cfd-online support a low-cost (compared to the banner ads used by the major sponsors) spot for this sort of announcement? Perhaps a one-time charge for setup and/or periodic credit card charges?

Just a thought ...

Jim

I would second the view that Mark has posted an advert and that it is inappropriate for a discussion forum. It is, of course, Jonas's call whether to remove it or not. There was a similar discussion a while a go about conference/course annoucements which appear now and again but I cannot recall the outcome.

I would also support your suggestion for a low-cost advertising spot for independent CFD professionals if I could see how it might work. What would be the objective? Is this to be a service for people looking for small consultancy exercises? A service for all the CFD community or just part?

If it is no-cost it will be cluttered with all and sundry and probably not much practical use to anyone.

If it is a small cost then this will filter out most of the amateurs having a punt, admit the small professionals and all the big professionals (I am struggling here for the correct adjectives). It is pretty likely to adversely affect the current income from the banners.

If it is high cost, then it has nothing to offer over the current banners.

I am not sure the market alone will necessarily produce the desired effect. If the market is rigged by introducing peer-review, academic qualifications, etc... one needs to be pretty sure what is trying to be achieved and it will need resourcing.

There are various e-enterprises targetted at this sort of thing (what a surprise!) but I am not sure how many are still active. Most change for advertising but not all and then all (I think) then take a cut of the contract fee. I used to have link to a couple but cannot find them. I know several contributors to this forum have direct experience. Anyone?

I agree that it is not good to post this kind of ads here. It is bad for the forums in the long run. However, I personally don't think that it is a big issue for this forum now and I will certainly not delete the posts.

We could open a "consultant registry" here at CFD Online. However, I'm not sure if it would be used - people rarely post "help offered" messages to the forums. This is a good sign that this kind of service is not that much needed. But I might be wrong. Anyone else interested in this kind of service?

What would you consider "low-cost"?

(1). Technical forum is the place once can donate the answers to any cfd related question. (2). The resources section is the place where one can find the companies which provide services. (3). Various kind of jobs available can be found in the cfd jobs database. (4). To sponsor the cfd-online and forum, one can contact the webmaster and follow the established procedure. (5). Even if an individual is looking for a cfd job, the best one can do is to ask him to visit the job database section. (6). And if Mark has been donating technical answers here, I think, it should have some positive impact on his service. Based on the conservation principle, one has to give when thinking about getting something. Something one gives might last longer than his life or his company. (7). So, before you take, think about giving first.

In my experience, many people/companies would love to use CFD. Unfortunately they don't know it exists. Go to some social events, meet a few engineers working in your local industries, and tell them what CFD can do. However, be honest, and tell them the limitations of CFD. I bet you will be swamped with work (I could be if I wanted to be a consultant). Be creative, but avoid areas where you have no experience.

There are so many fields where CFD is underutilized or not used at all. Check your local small businesses. They could spend thousands of dollars on advertising that is of low quality. A rough CFD model of their product could be a great ad, using the post-processing abilities of the current commercial codes. Charge $500 to make a flashy brochure (and it probably will take you only one days work).

Do the same with local inventors and industries. Small charges for small projects add up. Probably you will also find a few large, complex problems where you could make many thousands.

I really think we need to get out the word that CFD can be useful for many inventors/businesses/industries.

(1). Very good answer.

I also like Scott's approach.

Why preach to the converted? Not much to be gained there.....

Greg

Thank you John.

I'd love to see more widespread CFD use. Benefits: 1) better products produced 2) more jobs for CFD users/programmers/support 3) the more users the less those commercial companies need to charge per license. I'm sure there are more reasons.

Has anyone noticed priceless historic buildings being torn up to add tons of air-conditioning/heating vents. What if we modeled that building and minimized the number of vents and destruction from construction. You might save the historic society thousands...

On those same lines, is your living room cold and your kitchen hot?

What about the local bakery who might be tossing away many upside-down cakes that flopped. Wouldn't a model of their oven help?

The local lawn care people might not know the difference between the expensive and inexpensive nozzles on sprinklers.

Has the kid down the block destroyed several overclocked processors when they overheated?

I'm not saying there is necessarily money in all of these. However, CFD could be of great use for them all. I'm definitely not too creative, I bet you could find much better uses.