Computational fluid dynamics
Overview
Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is a very powerful tool for predicting internal and external fluid flows by computer-based simulation. Applying CFD to solve the systems of equations describing the fluid motion, heat transfer and chemical reaction provides insight into a wide range of important environmental, engineering and biological flows.
Research activity within the CFD Group at Bath includes adaptive mesh generation; fluid/structure interaction; blood flow in flexible vessels; wind interaction with flexible roof structures; marine hydrodynamics; non-linear free surface flow simulation; adaptive simulation of viscous flows including free surface effects; application of CFD to the building environment and external air flow around buildings.
A key area of CFD research is the development of novel mesh refinement algorithms to fluid mechanics problems where the flow boundary is moving, such as free surface waves, blood flow in flexible vessels and wind interaction with flexible roof structures. For each case, solution techniques may be developed based on adaptive hierarchical mesh generation. The meshes adapt to fit the deformed fluid domain as it moves in time and also adapt locally depending on the flow solution. This reduces the overall cost of computer storage by providing refinement in only those areas where it is required.
People
| Deborah Greaves |
Research Fellow |
| Chris Williams |
Senior Lecturer |
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| Lisa Matthews |
Research student |
Projects
- Breaking waves
- Numerical simulation of separated flows using adaptive hierarchical meshes
- Fast solution of free surface flow problems using Multigrid iterations on Hierarchical Cartesian grids
- Numerical simulation of steep waves interacting with bodies
- Wind interaction with flexible roof structure
- Blood flow in veins and arteries
- Double skin façades
