Design Guidance

The level of flow detail available from RANS can help engineers more rapidly improve their designs.  Surface streamline patterns, for example, can be used to identify separation regions, and help devise shape changes to eliminate them.  Vortex tracking can be used to connect downstream flow deficiencies (e.g. propeller inflow inhomogeneities) with the upstream design features that cause them.  Multi-component designs can be improved by knowing how the wake from an upstream element impacts the optimum shape and orientation of downstream elements.  While all these benefits could be obtained experimentally, RANS is often faster and more free of scale effects. 

RANS can therefore streamline the design process by reducing turn-around time and cost — yet simultaneously improve final quality.  Click on a menu item at left to see examples of how AFT has used design guidance to aid customers’ design projects.