Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)
CFD for flow, heat transfer and multiphase problems, using ANSYS Fluent and OpenFOAM.
What this solution covers
Our CFD work covers fluid flow and heat transfer, steady or transient. It gives you numbers you can design with, such as pressure drop, flow split and temperatures, in place of rules of thumb.
Pain points we address
Experimental testing of airflow and thermal performance is prohibitively expensive and time-consuming
Existing designs suffer from unknown pressure drops, flow maldistribution, or thermal hotspots
Inability to visualize internal flow paths makes root-cause analysis of performance issues guesswork
Competitive pressure to optimize energy efficiency and meet tightening regulatory standards
What we solve
External and internal aerodynamic flow analysis with drag, lift, and pressure distribution quantification
Conjugate heat transfer coupling fluid convection with solid conduction in heat exchangers and electronics
Multiphase flow modeling for liquid-gas separators, spray systems, and free-surface applications
Fan and blower performance prediction including system resistance curve matching
How we approach it
- 1
CAD preparation: clean and defeature the geometry, extract the fluid volume and define the boundary zones
- 2
Meshing: hex-dominant mesh with inflation layers at the walls, in Fluent Meshing or snappyHexMesh
- 3
Physics setup: turbulence model chosen for the flow (k-ω SST for wall-bounded flow, realizable k-ε for free shear), heat transfer and material properties
- 4
Solving: steady or transient runs, with convergence watched on residuals, mass and energy balance and surface monitors
- 5
Validation and reporting: comparison with test data or correlations where available, flow pictures, pressure and temperature maps and an engineering summary
Deliverables
CFD methodology report documenting domain, mesh, physics setup, and convergence criteria
Flow visualization package: streamlines, velocity vectors, pressure contours, temperature maps
Quantitative results summary: pressure drops, heat transfer coefficients, drag/lift forces
Design optimization recommendations with comparative parametric study results
Solver case files (ANSYS Fluent .cas/.dat or OpenFOAM case directory) for client review
Expected outcomes
Pressure drop and flow split known, so pumps and fans can be sized correctly
Thermal hotspots found and removed through design changes
Better energy efficiency through shape and layout changes, measured against the baseline design
Smaller physical test programme, because weak design variants are screened out first
Why Shirsh
We work in two solvers. ANSYS Fluent is used where the job needs commercial-grade validation traceability and advanced meshing. OpenFOAM is used where HPC scaling, solver customisation or licence cost matters more. Each project gets the tool that suits its technical and commercial needs.
Where this lives
Industries served
Software used
Related case studies
Swing Check Valve CFD: Pressure Drop and Flow at Every Disc Opening
Swing check valve CFD in ANSYS Fluent. Pressure drop across the flow range and flow at each disc opening, with a documented method for the valve maker.
ReadCFD Airflow Study of a Bench-Top Laboratory Fume Hood
Steady RANS CFD of a bench-top fume hood at two sash positions, used to understand how it captures fumes and to check a revised liner design.
ReadPlanetary Mixer FEA: Blade, Shaft and Gear Strength from CFD Mixing Loads
Planetary mixer FEA in ANSYS with blade torques from CFD of a viscous mix, iterated with the maker until blades, shafts and gears met allowables.
ReadCFD and FEA Root-Cause Study of Purlin Defects in a Solar MMS
Root-cause study of purlin defects in a solar MMS, with ANSYS Fluent wind loads mapped into full-table FEA to find which bolted joints actually govern.
ReadCFD of Mixing and Heat Transfer in a Jacketed Agitated Reactor
MRF CFD of a jacketed reactor with dual hydrofoil impellers and a bottom tickler, checking circulation, dead zones and wall heat transfer before fabrication.
ReadCFD Analysis of Wind Loading on Rooftop Solar PV Arrays
Rooftop solar wind CFD comparing building layouts and array sizes, giving pressure data on both panel faces for structural design.
ReadCFD of Ventilation and Exhaust Gas Dispersion in a Basement Car Park
CFD of airflow and exhaust gas dispersion in an enclosed basement car park, used to check the ventilation layout and place CO sensors.
ReadFloating Solar Engineering: CFD Wind Loads and Hydrostatic Buoyancy FEA of Panels and Floats
Floating solar engineering: CFD wind loads on every panel and float in ANSYS Fluent, plus hydrostatic buoyancy, draft and float response by FEA.
ReadVortex Shedding Check of a Ground-Mounted Solar Structure with Wind CFD and Modal FEA
Solar structure vortex shedding check with transient CFD in ANSYS Fluent, CFD wind pressures mapped into FEA and a modal study of a fixed-tilt MMS.
ReadBESS Container CFD and Structural FEA: Cooling Airflow, Wind and Seismic Checks
CFD of cooling airflow around battery racks and FEA of the container for wind and seismic loads, so a BESS integrator could fix its layout early.
ReadSingle-Axis Solar Tracker CFD and FEA: Wind Pressure Mapping and Structural Qualification
Single-axis solar tracker CFD and FEA: wind pressures at three tilt positions mapped onto a nonlinear ANSYS model, plus an IS 800 pivot bolt check.
ReadTransient CFD of a Controlled Cooling Conveyor for Hot Steel Castings
Transient CFD of a casting cooling conveyor: blower jets and casting temperature tracked zone by zone to size the blowers before the line was built.
ReadRefinery Static Mixer CFD: Multiphase Mixing and Pressure Drop Before Supply
Multiphase CFD of a refinery static mixer in ANSYS Fluent. A reworked element layout gave a stable flow and the mixer was cleared for supply.
ReadData Centre Cooling CFD: Airflow and Aisle Temperatures in Contained Rack Rows
Data centre cooling CFD of contained rack rows with in-row coolers. Airflow and aisle temperatures compared across seven rack layouts.
ReadRelated insights
Electrolyser Halls: What Air Changes Can and Cannot Do for Hydrogen
A room-average check can show a small hydrogen leak diluted to a few percent of the LFL, while a larger hole in the range IEC 60079-10-1 works with fills the same room past the LFL in under four minutes. We set out what the 2020 edition asks for and run the check on a generic electrolyser room.
ReadWhy Fixed-Tilt Ground-Mount Solar Structures Fail
Fixed-tilt ground-mount is the structure everyone treats as solved. No moving parts, a straight load path from module to rail to post to ground, a static wind check, done. That reputation for simplicity is precisely why these structures fail, not from exotic physics, but from foundations pulled out of the soil, connections detailed for the wrong load direction, slender members that buckled under uplift, and corners that saw far more wind than a borrowed coefficient ever admitted. Walk the load path with a failed array in front of you and the causes are rarely mysterious. Here is how to read the damage, and the analysis chain that would have caught it on paper.
ReadWhy Single-Axis Solar Trackers Need FEA, CFD and Aeroelastic Analysis Beyond IS 875
A single-axis solar tracker can clear every line of IS 875, pass its static frame analysis, and still fail in a windstorm that never reached the code design speed. The reason is uncomfortable but simple: the code hands you a static pressure, and the structure that tore apart was responding to a dynamic, fluid-structure problem the code was never written to see. This is sharpest with single-axis trackers, which behave less like a stiff steel frame and more like a bridge deck on a torsional spring. Here is where IS 875 stops, where FEA and CFD pick up, and why "passes the code" and "survives the wind" are two different questions.
ReadBESS Container Gas Venting: What CFD Adds to NFPA 69 Ventilation
A dilution ratio says a ventilated BESS container stays at 10 percent of the lower flammable limit. A small OpenFOAM study of a 20 ft container shows hydrogen layering under the roof, a fifth of the air above the NFPA 69 limit in the usual fan layout, and how moving the same fan changes the picture.
ReadLiquid Cooling Flow Split Across Cold Plates: What CFD Shows
A CDU sees one flow and one pressure, so it cannot tell you whether every cold plate on a rack manifold gets its share. We ran five OpenFOAM cases on an eight-branch manifold to show how the return arrangement and plate pressure drop set the split, and why one fouled plate can hide behind a healthy CDU reading.
ReadRooftop Solar EPCs: Why Code-Compliant Arrays Still Fail in Wind
Rooftop arrays designed to IS 875 still lose modules in storms, and the EPC is the one called back to site. The code gives one coefficient for the whole array, but the wind does not load a roof that way. Six OpenFOAM cases show where the load really goes, and what an EPC should change before the clamps and anchors are bought.
ReadLeveraging OpenFOAM for Cost-Effective Industrial Fluid Analysis
How open-source CFD delivers commercial-grade accuracy for industrial flow and thermal simulation, without per-seat licensing constraints.
ReadFour Quiet Ways the IS 875 Wind Load Goes Wrong on a Solar Array
The wind-load calculation almost never fails an audit. It fails the structure. IS 875 (Part 3) is a sound loading code, and the arithmetic in most reports is right. What moves the answer is a handful of small choices in how the code gets applied, and on a light tilted array those small moves decide which members are under-built. Here is the chain done properly, and the four places it usually slips.
ReadHow to Check a Cold-Formed Solar Mounting Structure to IS 801: A Step-by-Step Guide
Most ground-mounted solar structures in India are made from cold-formed steel: thin steel sheet bent into channels and hat sections. Engineers find the wind load from IS 875 Part 3, then check the steel using IS 801. Two mistakes are very common. First, engineers use the full cross-section, but thin steel does not work that way: part of it buckles early, so the code makes you use only the "effective" part. Second, engineers check only the steady (static) load and skip the moving (dynamic) effects. This guide explains both problems in simple steps. It then checks the four main members of a solar structure: post, rafter, bracing, and a 1 mm hat purlin: with full numbers, so you can see exactly where the common shortcuts go wrong.
ReadHot-Aisle Containment: What CFD Shows That Rack Inlet Sensors Miss
A rack inlet sensor at mid-height can read 20 °C on every rack while 28.7 percent of the inlet area is above the 27 °C recommended limit. A small OpenFOAM study of one rack row, with and without hot-aisle containment, shows where the hot air gets in and why containment only helps once the airflow matches the racks.
ReadGrade A Under a LAF: Where Smoke Studies and CFD Each Fool You
An air speed check at the working position can look better with a hopper over the vials than with the table empty, while the vials get no first air at all. A small OpenFOAM study of a Grade A zone under a laminar airflow unit shows how a hopper or an operator's arm turns the flow over the critical zone, and what a smoke study and a CFD model can each tell you.
ReadWhy a Cleanroom Can Pass Certification and Still Contaminate Product
A particle count taken at a handful of certified sample points tells you the room is clean where you measured. It says nothing about the stagnant corner behind a filling line, the slow recirculating loop above a microscope, or the pocket of air near a return grille that holds onto contamination far longer than the air-change rate suggests. This is where CFD earns its place. By resolving the actual velocity field and tracking how particles move through it, simulation shows you the air a cleanroom forgets: the regions that pass paperwork but quietly drive your defect rate. With EU GMP Annex 1 now expecting monitoring locations to be justified by risk assessment and airflow visualisation, that picture has gone from useful to expected.
ReadNFPA 855 (2026): Why Deflagration Venting Alone No Longer Covers BESS
The 2026 edition of NFPA 855 no longer lets deflagration vent panels carry a BESS explosion control design on their own. We summarise what the published reviews say changed and run a quick check on a 20 ft container to show why the average gas concentration is not the whole story.
ReadHand Calc, Quick CFD or Full Study: Matching Effort to the Decision
A store room ventilation check and a Grade A sign-off can both be called a CFD job, yet they deserve very different effort. I think the decision a result will carry should set the level of analysis. Here is how I choose between a hand calculation, a quick run and a full study.
ReadWhy a Simulation Report Should Show Its Mesh Check on Page One
Most simulation reports bury the mesh check in an appendix, if they include it at all. I think it belongs on page one, beside the number the decision depends on. Here is why, and what that block should contain.
ReadAnnex 1 Clean-Up Period: Where a 20-Minute Pass Can Mislead
EU GMP Annex 1 sets a clean-up guidance of less than 20 minutes, but the result only holds where it is measured. A two-zone check on a generic Grade B room shows the main zone clearing in under 10 minutes while a poorly swept pocket takes 30.
ReadWant to learn this?
We also offer ANSYS & SolidWorks training courses.
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