[CLOSED] Feedback Request: Investigation of Air Flow Around Objects

[knobbsa]

Hello Community!

I'm a User Research and Experience Design Manager on Fusion 360.

We’re looking for people who’d be interested in the investigation of air flow around objects.  If this is you, we’d love your feedback on one quick question!

How valuable would it be to your work if Fusion 360 provided a fast way to investigate air flow around objects that didn’t require any expertise? 

Please share with us your thoughts.  We look forward to hearing from you!

Best,
Amy

[knobbsa]

Hello community, I'm adding an image about the type of air flow investigation around objects that we're asking for feedback on.  Please keep in mind that this image is just a rough representation for conversation purposes.   

Is there any interest in having this type of capability within Fusion 360?

[GRSnyder]

I have designed several fan ducts for 3D printers over the last year and have used SimScale to simulate the airflow coming out of those ducts. The goal isn't to simulate cooling so much as air distribution. I'd love to be able to do this inside of Fusion 360.

As far as I'm aware, there isn't really a good solution for simple CFD airflow available. The tools tend to be quite general and complex. SimScale is relatively friendly, but it's not simple: you're responsible for doing your own meshing, selecting your own solution algorithms, etc. I don't have a background in CFD, so it has required quite a bit of trial and error just to get basic results out of it.

[Intuos5]

I could see architects and urban designers use a simple simulation tool to tweak conceptual design masses for buildings. Not that I have any experience with this matter, but certainly with tall buildings the need increases to investigate air flow at ground level.

[Anonymous]

Very interesting I would say. Designing encapsulations, any cooling related stuff or just a exterior part that meets any kind of wind would be great to be able to give a "first check".

[Anonymous]

I would find this really useful.  I have a car restoration (TR6) the intake manifold has 3 x double intakes, so 6 butterflies or throttle plates.  I would like to be able to model this and then look to make suitable adapters or restrictors to measure airflow or vacuum.

[pd700]

I think this type of simulation would be valuable.  Similar to the post above, in electronics  enclosures applications it would be beneficial to see the air flow distribution in the inlet and outlet ducts aside from doing a full electronics cooling simulation. 

[wesley_barron]

I could see this being quite useful for designing custom dust hoods for CNC routers!

[danielbruno]

Surely it would be nice to have such a feature built in Fusion added to the simulation features!

But as an former CFD user with 15 years experience, I fear that the "didn't require any expertise" feature is not compatible with the complexity of a fluid flow analysis. One has to know very well with what models he's dealing and the limitations of its outputs. Not to mention mesh sensitivity and so on...

Best regards,

Daniel

[craigFAE4Q]

This would be very helpful. I often need to get heat out electronics enclosure. Being able to simulate the convective paths would help be in component placement, etc. They are metal or plastic enclosures, and they can be sealed or vented.

[knobbsa · Accepted solution]

Thank you all for taking the time to provide us with feedback!  Your input is always valuable, and we've received the information we were needing.