Computational Fluid Dynamics is a perfect tool for studying rotating components. A glance at such disparate machines as pumps, table fans, axial fans for electronics cooling, and hair dryers, shows that they all have one thing in common: rotating components.

Engineers who design equipment with rotating components need to analyze and understand the behavior of those components if they want to improve performance. For example, if the blades of a table fan are the wrong shape, or if they’re incorrectly orientated, the fan may generate little or no air.

CFD (computational fluid dynamics) helps engineers study many of the issues involved in rotating component behavior. It provides a way to save a great deal of time and money in obtaining the necessary information, and assists engineers in designing better quality rotating equipment.

The use of CFD makes it possible to eliminate expensive physical prototypes, and find serious flaws much earlier in the design process. Starting with some CFD basics, this article will give engineers an overview of how CFD can simulate rotational flow, and will then take a closer look at how users of COSMOSFloWorks can solve typical problems.