Coreform Cubit accelerates CFD simulations for leading provider of sustainable energy solutions
Thermax uses Coreform Cubit to prepare models for accurate computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations.
Background
Thermax Group is a multimillion-dollar sustainable energy company headquartered in Pune, India. Thermax develops and constructs turnkey power plants, municipal wastewater treatment facilities, and products for reducing air pollution.
Problem
To perform accurate computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations, Thermax creates high-quality, hex-dominant mesh representations of their geometry, which they send to ANSYS Fluent for simulation. As their needs evolved over the years, Thermax grew dissatisfied with the meshing software they had been using. As parts got more complex, they were having trouble getting the quality of hex meshes that they needed for accurate results. They also noticed that they were spending time repeating nearly identical tasks in their meshing workflows, which was frustrating for their engineers. These repetitions were also very costly in terms of man hours spent and in time spent moving designs through to production.
Solution
In 2019, Thermax undertook a full-scale reevaluation of their meshing needs and the available commercial tools, and made the decision to upgrade to Coreform Cubit (see Table 1). Thermax’s intricate multiscale projects require high-quality hex mesh generating software (see Figure 1). Additionally, Thermax geometries often are similar in design and repetitive in meshing needs. Coreform Cubit was uniquely situated to solve both problems by providing advanced hex meshing for these challenging simulations.
Robust semi-automatic hex meshing with interactive smart tools to reduce manual labor: Thermax’s multiple symmetric and repetitive models require them to mesh and name boundaries repetitively, which had been tedious, time-consuming, and expensive with their previous software. Coreform Cubit’s ability to reliably copy and transform a mesh while retaining boundary names and mesh quality was a game-changer for Thermax (see Figure 2). Other tools they used previously, even those that were marketed with this ability, proved unreliable in practice.
Powerful scripting & process automation for maximum simulation throughput: Coreform Cubit has a powerful scripting language and Python API. Thermax used Cubit’s scripting to automate their most repetitive tasks, for a significant savings in time and frustration. For example, they built a fully automated process for assigning boundary conditions to repeated geometries, which has substantially decreased the overall meshing process time and saved, on average, between three and eight hours per project. Thermax can now propagate a change from a 3D model to a simulation-ready mesh in only minutes because of the automations they have built into their workflow. Coreform Cubit’s scripting capabilities have reduced the time to production across their product lines (see Figures 3 and 4).
Comprehensive toolset for streamlining CAD prep for hex mesh generation: Beyond those crucial capabilities, the Coreform Cubit GUI proved to be intuitive and easy to use for new engineers. Command panel commands and model building capabilities allow models to be built and meshed within minutes. Coreform Cubit’s power tools guide users through model prep and simplification, and allows for straightforward setting of boundary conditions (see Figure 5). These tools facilitated software learning and lowered employee training time.
Conclusion
Thermax has been using Coreform Cubit for meshing of electrostatic precipitators and bag filters since 2019. In that time, they estimate that they have saved more than a thousand hours of work and have reduced frustration and tedium for engineers. The use of Coreform Cubit’s advanced capabilities has reduced time to development for these parts compared to other meshing tools, and put inefficient man hours to better use. Thermax continues to use Coreform Cubit’s precise mesh control and automatic scripting capabilities to build extremely large-scale models with high-quality structured meshes for CFD simulations.
Coreform Cubit information
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Coreform Cubit Learn is a free limited license available for non-commercial student use.
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