[michaelbrooks]

Hi,
I and a small group of engineers/designers are working on a not-for-profit effort to design an incubator appropriate for developing areas. Requirements include things like high durability, efficiency, flexibility in power source, and low price.

We are investigating the possibility of using a passive, convection-driven air circulation system to make sure the heat is even and the air is exchanged. However, the only way we can think of to effectively test our various ideas on this is to run simulations. We've looked into many software packages that could do this, but as we have next to no budget right now, commercial packages are not a viable option.

I've spent many hours trying to learn how to use OpenFOAM to run our simulations, but it is too complicated and none on our team have any experience this area. I am wondering if one of you might be willing to help us create an OpenFOAM case that could test our designs.

We would need to run tests on a few basic shapes to determine how much convective flow they encourage (with a single heat source), so I don't think it would be too difficult for someone who knew what they were doing. If any of you are interested, I can provide more details.

Thanks,
Michael Brooks
Tackle Design Inc.

[hartinger]

Hey,

I suggest you publish the necessary information on a web-page. If it's really not-for-profit the complete design should be freely available and that should also help to catch attention.

regards
markus

[michaelbrooks]

We will release our work at some point, but not yet. The prospect of managing an open project at this stage of development is fairly staggering.

Also, since you draw into question whether this truly is a non-profit project, I should say that I am not 100% sure what the eventual business plan for this product is. We are working with experts and several organizations in the field of providing aid to developing countries. I believe the product would be sold on a sustainable business plan (rather than simply given away), but without profit as an goal. For now, the project is unfunded, and so any work on it must be given freely.

I may be wrong, but I think the sort of modelling we need right now would really be no more than a few minutes of work to an expert.

Michael