What do we do?

Applied Fluid Technologies, Inc. was founded in September of 2000 with the specific goal of transitioning state-of-the-art hydrodynamic and aerodynamic analysis tools into the realm of everyday engineering design. The most practical and accurate of these tools is known as Reynolds-Averaged Navier Stokes technology, or RANS. But prior to the late 1990’s, the complexity of RANS had restricted its development and application to universities, government laboratories, and large-scale defense contractors. Its use in more time-critical design applications was an afterthought, so this capable technology had yet to make it into the hands of commercial designers. Extensive expertise was required, and the time investment was not compatible with a typical designer’s demanding schedule.

By 2000 the technologies essential for supporting time-critical design were maturing, and all that remained was the desire. The founders of AFT provided this will, and the transition to practical design has now been bridged. But because AFT was started to support designers, we are somewhat unique amongst RANS providers. We do not sell codes, and customers pay no licensing fees. We do not try to be “all things to all people” but focus our efforts (mostly) on maritime and aeronautic vehicles and platforms. Our codes are stable software platforms whether than research tools. We are an all-in-one provider of design solutions, not a code developer or applier. The essential elements of flow-oriented design — software, hardware, and personnel expertise — are all maintained within one efficient organization and appear seamless to the customer.

To date our services have been utilized across a wide range of commercial business sectors (both domestically and abroad), and by the U.S. Department of Defense. Typical benefits to the designer include:

• Guiding a design process to rapidly converge on efficient solutions
• Predict and improve the performance of potential design candidates
• Apply concurrent design techniques to better match vehicles and their propulsors
• Assess the utility of advanced concepts and provide performance information to shorten development time
• Optimize vehicle attributes such as drag, lift-to-drag, or propulsive efficiency
• Identify and mitigate poor vehicle behavior prior to prototyping
• Quantify stability and control derivatives prior to prototyping