Quote:
Originally Posted by cdrazic93
@ RBbugBITme, by trade your a fluid dynamics engineer correct? A little OT but what level (400 series, post grad?) did you get into your fluid dynamics?
I'm assuming @ Shankenstein, you've also gotten your hands wet with CFD or atleast FD.
(My physics puns aren't that good, sorry) |
Officially, I'm a Mechanical Engineer but my studies have wandered.
As others have said, FEA and CFD are both useful... but only as much as you can guarantee the results.
If you have governing equations that are valid throughout the space, and a mesh that is well-defined around the objects of interest... then you can set the boundary and initial conditions to realistic. Spin the top and see what happens!
Your basic courses in fluid dynamics will teach you laws of conservation that are the base of most CFD. As the situation becomes more extreme, you'll need more flexible/complicated governing equations and boundary conditions. Typically, the extreme conditions are what you care about... which means you have to get "down and dirty" to get a meaningful solution.
Air/fluid flow, temperature (heat transfer), internal stresses, composite layer interactions, magnetic/electric field interactions, plastic/metal mold flow, fatigue/vibration stresses, etc. Each one is a different set of governing equations, boundary conditions, and initial conditions. Much of the analysis techniques are similar, but it's a different medium/model/environment.