Top 3 CFD Projects for Mechanical Engineering (ME) Students

Summary

Hey there! Hope you all are healthy and doing good. So, if you are reading this article, then you surely are interested in the field of fluids and might want to pursue a carrier on it in the future. So, this article will help you to deal with all sorts of questions such as what is CFD, why it is important and some latest CFD projects for mechanical students.

As we all know that physics has been one of the major subjects, if not the most important subject which has influenced the world in a lot of ways. Right from the basics of technology to the devices which run on technology, everything needs physics! The vehicles you run are stable and safe, thanks to the design considerations which are taken up in it which satisfies many physical laws given by great scientists like Newton. So, gradually as man started understanding about the importance of the role of heat which led to a study of a completely new field of thermodynamics, he also understood that fluids play an equally important role in the development of the world and thus a whole new field of study of fluids came out with topics such as Fluid mechanics, Fluid Dynamics and computational fluid dynamics(CFD) came up.  This new field of fluids has been vastly used in many automobile industries, in industrial machinery, in oceanography and other such fields.

So, without a delay, let’s start our article right from the scratch, by knowing what exactly do we mean by CFD and then going into the other aspects of it like, how hard is it to learn, its applications and finally some good projects based on it!

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What is CFD?

As we have discussed above, computation fluid dynamics is a branch of fluid Dynamics which uses many mathematical methods, data analysis and data structures to solve problems that involve fluid flow problems. Highly sophisticated supercomputers which are of very high speed are used for achieving accurate results. There involves a lot of complication to achieve the result as it involves solving many complicated equations. There are still ongoing researches on developing software to carry out more complex simulations for flows like turbulent flows and transonic flow.

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Is CFD hard to learn?

Well then, having known about Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), one might wonder within himself, as in, how hard is CFD to learn? How hard is it to understand the topic, learn how to operate various software, especially mathematics-related software, to perform calculations and find out the solution. 

Well then, there is no such answer for that. It all depends on you. I won’t say that you’ll be mastering fluid dynamics within a day or 2 if you have the passion, and the willingness to learn new things with patience, it surely would be tough at the start for everyone, but the challenge comes ahead! The main challenge is, for how long do you have that passion and patience to continue learning things in this filed? So, as I said, it is all upon you, the challenge is not about the doubt of you having the spirit of working hard or learning, it’s about how long will you be able to possess that spirit and preserve it in you!. What I can say for sure is, all great people still have that quality of learning things and working harder, they are never satisfied with what they achieve.

So, here are some of the skills you need to have in your arsenal in order to be good in CFD:

• You need to have a good understanding of the basics of fluid mechanics.
• You need to have good knowledge of geometric modelling.
• Familiarity with basic computational skills is a must in order to learn all the software stuff.
• Knowledge of undergraduate level calculus and basic mathematical models is a must.
• Good knowledge of plotting graphs, MS EXCEL is required in order to import and export data.
• Finally, as we have discussed, you need to have a genuine curiosity and hardworking nature to learn stuff.

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Why CFD is important?

One might wonder as to how does CFD help us? How does performing some complicated calculations in the computer help us in our real-life applications? Why is it so important?

Well, the answer is, although we don’t know about the calculations and complications involved in it, they play a very important and influential role in our life without our knowledge. Here are some of the applications of CFD which tell us why they are important:

• It is used for both, fundamental research and R&D.
• It is an essential part of the design cycle in most industries
• In fact, many industries like aerospace, automobile, chemical and bio-medicine industries rely heavily on CFD for its design and analysis.
• It is even used for service and maintenance of Mechatronic Systems.
• It also finds its applications in electric, turbo Machinery, and power and energy fields for design, analysis and modelling of various things.
• It is also used in the field of sports to evaluate the performance of athletes and design swimsuits and helmets.
• Finally, it has long-ranging applications in the field of hydraulics and for construction purposes of various buildings, canals, dams etc wherein the analysis and design is made with the help CFD.

List of Latest CFD projects for mechanical students

So, here we come to the final phase of our article which is also probably the most exciting phase. As a mechanical engineering student, you understand things only when you do some good quality projects and relate them with your conceptual theory which you learnt. So, given below are a few good projects by Skyfi Labs which you surely need to keep an eye on and work upon.

1. CFD with Ansys & Space claim: In this CFD project, you will be learning how to solve a complex equation with the help of concepts like FEA, FEM, boundary conditions and meshing. It involves topics like heat transfer, surface chemistry as well among other topics. Pre-processing tools like space claim and meshes are used.

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2. Numerical & experimental analysis of fluid flow in heatwaves: This project is one of the most interesting yet a little bit complicated wherein you will have to analyse the fluid flow in a heat exchanger using Ansys with the help of CFD and in that process, you will also be learning much about the process of a heat exchanger and more exciting stuff!

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3. Soil parameters Analyser: In this project, you will be developing a dynamic study of soil’s parameters layer by layer, wherein you analyse each layer separately and for that, you will need a CFD kit! It is surely one of the very good projects to look forward to!

Check more about this CFD project

Some other useful projects in this field are:

1. Evaluation of CFD Sub-Models for the Intake Manifold Port Flow Analysis
2. Evaluation of CFD to predict smoke movement in complex enclosed spaces
3. CFD analysis of a simple convergent flow using ANSYS
4. CFD analysis of supersonic exhaust in a scramjet engine
5. Flow simulation (CFD) and Wind tunnel Experiment of Cricket ball
6. Numerical study of different types of fins
7. Numerical solution and visualization of two blast wave interaction
8. Design and analysis of fuel system for velocity XL
9. Flow analysis of aerofoil using ICM CFD
10. Design and simulation of a jet engine nozzle using ANSYS ICEM CFD
11. CFD Analysis of a car

Hope you got some good CFD projects from this article. Let us know your thoughts in the comment section.

Top 3 CFD Projects for Mechanical Engineering (ME) Students