Greetings. I'm looking for some recommendations on which CFD package to purchase.

I have some analysis to do regarding circumferential seals. The problem(s) basically boil down to something like a journal bearing, but with a few "twists": The bearing surface is not circular, but will probably be a circle with some periodic features such as scallops, notches, what have you. Also, the flow will not be entirely circumferential: There will necessarily be some axial flow. For now, I think we can assume the solution(s) will probably fall in the laminar regime, and the flow is definitely steady-state.

Although I'm no stranger to numerical methods (I've done plenty of FEA work), I am somewhat new to CFD. I do have a fluid mechanics background (MS in ME from U of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign) but haven't really done any intensive fluid analysis in the last 5 years or so.

Based on the problem and my background, I was hoping I could get someone to point me towards a suitable CFD program. I do have budget money, probably enough to buy any of the readily available packages.

Thanks, in advance, for your advice and assistance,

Joe Savio

There is a new package on the horizon called EFD.Lab,

www.efdlab.com

It is very reasonably priced, and you pay ONE TIME only - unlike the other packages which have a $25K ANNUAL licensing fee. It comes with its built in solid modeler based on Solidworks, and overall it is fantastic to use. I just sat through a 90 minute live webex-demo the other week. Problem setup and solution is a cinch! Really!!

Send me an email, and I can put you in touch with their technical manager. He will be able to answer your questions and give you a webex-demo, if you are interested. In a 'webex demo', you talk live over the phone with the presenter and watch on your computer screen what he does on his screen with the software.

If you just have to do the job one time ask someone to do it for you. This way you save a lot of time and you can also collect some experiences about the topic.

I dont think that the code is very important in your case, but you have to know what you are doing with the code.

It is not always good to have a laminar flow since you cannot use the normal "tubulent" wall functions. So you have to use a very fine mesh next to the wall to resolve the boundary layer

If this EFD software is the same as Floworks, I would not touch it even if it were free. The best option for a one-time user like you, is to have somebody who has good cfd software run it for you...

Design is an iterative process: you make a few changes, see what happens, and then re-evaluate. You hardly find the 'perfect' solution in a single run, and even if you do, you may decide to improve your design down the road. A consulting job that runs through several analysis iterations can run into some money, even for small jobs.

I am just starting to learn EFD.Lab myself and for design purposes there is no better package in my opinion. The turnaround between design iterations is extremely quick. I would say orders of magnitude faster than some of the other packages that I have looked into. Not to mention the intuitive interface and easy learning curve.

EFD.Lab is Solidworks and the professional version of Floworks in one package by the way.

I tested FloWorks and EFD.Lab on many industrial problems and got very nice results (I compared with some feed-back from cutomers) Could you please give more details : why you would not touch EFD.Lab or FloWorks? May be your application cannot be handled or you need adavnced option like diphasic, free surface, chemical etc... Thank you for a reply