Rapid Prototyping Design Optimization Using Flow Sculpting

Computational fluid dynamics has become a mature art form and its use in turbomachinery design has become commonplace. Simple blade-blade simulations run at near interactive rates but anything involving complex geometry—such as turbine cooling—turns around too slowly to participate in realistic design cycles; this is mostly due to the difficulty of modifying and meshing the geometry. Simulations for complex geometries are run afterwards as a check—rather than at the critical conceptual design phase. There is a clear opportunity for some sort of rapid prototyping but fully 3D simulation to remedy this. This paper reports work exploring the relationship between solid modeling, mesh generating, and flow solving in the general context of design optimization but with the emphasis on rapid prototyping. In particular, the work is interested in the opportunities derived by tightly integrating these traditionally separate activities together within one piece of software. The near term aim is to ask the question: how might a truly virtual, rapid prototyping design system, with a tactile response such as sculpting in clay, be constructed? This paper reports the building blocks supporting that ambition.