A Review of Computational Fluid Dynamics Simulation in Optimizing Mechanical Engineering Systems

Fluid mechanics fundamentally looks at the behaviour of fluids at rest and in motion, which applies the principles of general mechanics to liquids and gases. There are two categories of fluid mechanics, fluid statics and fluid dynamics. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software is widely used in various areas of fluid mechanics, and fluid flow in Mechanical engineering fields. CFD is applied to machines and devices such as centrifugal pumps, jet engines, hydraulic engineering, intelligent building design with a focus on ventilation and fluid flow in pipes and the design of irrigation systems. Therefore, engineers will be able to understand how a system behaves and can modify parameters of existing systems in CFD which will result in predicting optimum operating conditions. This paper explores and summarizes CFD simulation application in Mechanical engineering and highlights the challenges and limitations that must be considered in the simulations because these can affect the accuracy of the results. Complex systems are analyzed using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), which includes fluid-gas, fluid-solid, and fluid-fluid interactions. ANSYS CFX mode is used to determine the streamlines and pressure coefficients in the solid-air interaction analysis. The fundamental equations used in the Computational Fluid Dynamics software are the Navier-Stokes equations and the Continuity equation to simulate fluid flow in high-speed aerodynamic systems, centrifugal pumps, turbines and jet engines. Importantly, for turbines and jet engine systems, the analysis in CFD requires additional models since the fluid flow is turbulent and compressible. It is important to accurately cater to the flow for high Reynolds number and high speed. A turbulence model such as k- or k- contribute to simulating the effects of turbulent structures on momentum transfer, heat and eddies which are essential for the jet engines cooling efficiency.