Flow Science, Inc.

Flow Science, Inc. is a developer of software for computational fluid dynamics, also known as CFD, a branch of fluid mechanics that uses numerical methods and algorithms to solve and analyze problems that involve fluid flows.

Flow Science, Inc.
TypePrivate
IndustryComputational Fluid Dynamics Software
Founded1980
FounderDr. C.W. "Tony" Hirt
Headquarters
Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
,
United States
Number of locations
5
Area served
United States
Japan
Germany
Key people
Dr. Amir Isfahani, President & CEO
ProductsFLOW-3D, FLOW-3D CAST, FLOW-3D AM, FLOW-3D CLOUD, FlowSight
ServicesCFD consultation and services
SubsidiariesFlow Science Deutschland, Flow Science Japan, Flow Science China, Flow Science India, Flow Science Latin America, and Flow Science United Kingdom
Websitewww.flow3d.com

History

The firm was founded by Dr. C. W. "Tony" Hirt, previously a scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). Hirt is known for having pioneered the volume of fluid method (VOF) for tracking and locating the free surface or fluid-fluid interface. T Hirt[1][2] left LANL and founded Flow Science in 1980 to develop CFD software for industrial and scientific applications using the VOF method .[3]

The company is located in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The company opened an office in Japan in June 2011,[4] and an office in Germany in 2012.[5]

Products

The company's products include FLOW-3D, a CFD software analyzing various physical flow processes; FLOW-3D CAST, a software product for metal casting users; FLOW-3D AM, a software product for simulating additive manufacturing and laser welding processes; and FLOW-3D CLOUD, a cloud computing service installed on Penguin Computing On Demand (POD). There are high-performance computing (HPC) versions of both FLOW-3D and FLOW-3D CAST. FLOW-3D software uses a fractional areas/volumes approach called FAVOR for defining problem geometry, and a free-gridding technique for mesh generation.[6]

Desktop Engineering Magazine, in a review of FLOW-3D Version 10.0, said: “Key enhancements include fluid structure interaction (FSI) and thermal stress evolution (TSE) models that use a combination of conforming finite-element and structured finite-difference meshes. You use these to simulate and analyze the deformations of solid components as well as solidified fluid regions and resulting stresses in response to pressure forces and thermal gradients.”[7]

Key improvements of FLOW-3D Version 11.0 included increased meshing capabilities, solution sub-domains, an improved core gas model and improved surface tension model. FLOW-3D v11.0 also included a new visualization tool, FlowSight.[8] Key improvements of FLOW-3D Version 12.0 included a visual overhaul of the GUI, an immersed boundary method, sludge settling model, a 2-fluid 2-temperature model, and a steady-state accelerator. [9]

Applications

Blue Hill Hydraulics used FLOW-3D software to update the design of a fish ladder on Mt. Desert Island, Maine, that helps alewife migrate to the fresh water spawning habitat. T.[10]

AECOM Technology Corporation studied emergency overflows from the Powell Butte Reservoir and demonstrated that the existing energy dissipation structure was not capable of handling 170 million US gallons (640,000 m3) per day, the maximum expected overflow rate. The FLOW-3D simulation demonstrated that problem could be solved by increasing the height of the wing walls by exactly one foot.[11]

Researchers from the CAST Cooperative Research Centre and M. Murray Associates developed flow and thermal control methods for the high pressure die casting of thin-walled aluminum components with thicknesses of less than 1 mm. FLOW-3D simulation predicted the complex structure of the metal flow in the die and subsequent casting solidification.[12]

Researchers at DuPont used FLOW-3D to optimize coating processes for a solution-coated active-matrix organic light-emitting diode (AMOLED) display technology.[13]

Eastman Kodak Company researchers rapidly developed an inkjet printer technology using FLOW 3-D simulation technology for predicting the performance of printhead designs .[14]

A research team composed of members from Auburn University, Lamar University and RJR Engineering used Flow Science’s TruVOF method as a virtual laboratory to evaluate performance of highway pavement and drainage inlets with different geometries.[15]

Researchers at Albany Chicago LLC and the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee used FLOW-3D in conjunction with a one-dimensional algorithm to analyze the slow-shot and fast-shot die casting processes in order to reduce the number of iterations required to achieve desired process parameters.[16]

References
  1. Nichols, B.D. and Hirt, C.W. “Methods for Calculating Multi-Dimensional Transient Free Surface Flows Past Bodies,” Proceedings First International Conference Numerical Ship Hydrodynamics, Gaithersburg, MD, October 20–23, 1975.
  2. Hirt, C.W.; Nichols, B.D. (1981), "Volume of fluid (VOF) method for the dynamics of free boundaries," Journal of Computational Physics 39 (1): 201–225, 1981.
  3. Bloomberg Business Week, “C. W. Hirt Executive Profile.”
  4. “Flow Science Opens Office in Japan, President Affirms Positive Market Outlook after Quake Archived 2011-09-27 at the Wayback Machine,” JETRO Spotlight United States, June 11, 2011.
  5. "Flow Science Deutschland GmbH Formed to Represent FLOW-3D Software," CFD Online News and Announcements, June 4, 2012.
  6. Pamela J. Waterman, “Zeroing in on CFD Solutions,” Desktop Engineering, August 30, 2009.
  7. Anthony J. Lockwood, “Editors Pick: Flow Science Release FLOW-3D Version 10.0”, Desktop Engineering, August 9, 2011.
  8. "" Foundry Magazine, May 30, 2014.
  9. "FLOW-3D v12.0 Release Features Modern GUI". Retrieved 19 January 2020.
  10. John E. Richardson, “CFD Saves the Alewife Archived 2016-03-03 at the Wayback Machine,” Desktop Engineering, July 2, 2007.
  11. Liaqat A. Khan, “Computational Fluid Dynamics Modeling of Emergency Overflows through an Energy Dissipation Structure of a Water Treatment Plant,” Proceedings of the 2011 World Environmental and Water Resources Congress, American Society of Civil Engineers.
  12. Thang Nguyen, Vu Nguyen, Morris Murray, Gary Savage, John Carrig, “Modeling Die Filling in Ultra-Thin Aluminium Castings,” Materials Science Forum, Volume 690, 2011.
  13. Reid Chesterfield, Andrew Johnson, Charlie Lang, Matthew Stainer, and Jonathan Ziebarth, “Solution-Coating Technology for AMOLED Displays,” Information Display Magazine, January 2011.
  14. Christopher N. Delametter, “Virtual Prototyping Accelerates MEMS/Inkjet Product Development,” CFD Review, December 12, 2008.
  15. Xing Fang, Shoudong Jiang, Shoeb Alam, “Numerical Simulations of Efficiency of Curb-Opening Inlets Archived 2011-09-27 at the Wayback Machine,” Journal of Hydraulic Engineering, American Society of Civil Engineers, January 2010.
  16. A. Riekher, H. Gerber, K.M. Pillai, T.-C. Jen, “Application of a One-Dimensional Numerical Simulation to Optimize Process Parameters of a Thin-Wall Casting in High Pressure Die Casting,” Die Casting Engineer, May 2009.
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