Prototypes are nothing new in the automotive industry, but they're more difficult to develop in the chemical industry. However, techniques such as computational fluid dynamics (CFD) allow chemical companies to simulate new processes to address safety, performance and efficiency concerns.
Chemical companies have been slower to adopt CFD than discrete manufacturers, which have used the technique for decades. Nevertheless, a growing number of chemical processing companies are reaping the benefits of CFD to identify areas where existing products, processes or procedures can be improved, and to simulate the impact that changes in key variables will have on the overall production process.
"CFD promises to allow users to make things faster, increase safety and reduce costs," says Shane Wagner, international sales manager for Intelligent Light, Lyndhurst, N.J.
Instead of building 10 prototypes to determine which is the best, Wagner explains, users can apply CFD to simulate processes and run through "what if" scenarios. CFD also allows users to peek at microscopic-level details or demonstrate situations that would be too dangerous to run live.
Companies typically run solvers to perform complex CFD calculations and then use a visualization and post-processing tool such as Intelligent Light's FieldView to put a graphical face on those figures. One FieldView user is Bayer AG, the global manufacturer whose products range from pharmaceuticals to herbicides and fungicides to a variety of basic chemicals.
"It is important that you present the results of your sophisticated simulation visually and spare more mathematical, technical details," says Christian von Torne, Ph.D., manager of Bayer's CFD team, part of the Competence Center Computational Solutions of Bayer Technology Services in Leverkusen, Germany. "In some cases, this is the only way to communicate details hidden in the data."
Bayer's CFD team uses still images, as well as animation, in its presentations to internal and external customers of its simulation and consulting services. FieldView's visualization capabilities enable presenters to hone-in on important aspects of the simulation and depict actions or cause-and-effect relationships that would be difficult, if not impossible, to see in a real experiment.
In one instance, the team used key-frame animation to show a mixing tank (photo) stirring and to highlight features using evolving streamlines or isosurfaces of concentration or volume fraction.
"The (solver) software we use produces literally millions of data sets from which we have to extract information that our customers need. This is not an easy task, and its value should not be underestimated," stresses von Torne. "If our post-processing does not meet the superior quality of our simulation, the results offered by the post-processor will not be optimal. In fact, bad post-processing may ruin your whole simulation."
