Ansys Hall of Fame

A modern helicopter needs a large number of interference-free, high-frequency systems for communications and other purposes. To save time and costs, engineers performed an interference analysis using Ansys HFSS SBR+ to choose the best possible positions of the different antennas, without the need for lengthy physical positioning and testing of the antennas.

Billet transfer cars are crucial in integrated steel production plants. Engineers modeled the car’s drive mechanism, gearbox and suspension systems in Ansys Spaceclaim Design Modeler to pinpoint all possible failure scenarios, followed by Ansys rigid body dynamics simulations. They found a suspension system malfunction that was impossible to discover by routine maintenance inspections, and extended the lifetime of their billet transfer cars.

To evaluate the temperature rise of enclosed switchgear exposed to the sun, engineers simulated the effects of solar radiation and the rated current load. They used Ansys Mechanical APDL to calculate losses caused by the rated current load and Ansys CFX to determine the temperature rise of the closed gas tank filled with insulating gas. The result was a convenient tool to predict the temperature of switchgear exposed to extremely hot conditions.

In aerospace systems, control gap seals isolate the bearing chamber from the secondary air system to avoid oil contamination. Using Ansys Fluent to simulate the spreading of an oil drop under a pressure differential that increases with time, engineers found that the droplet can resist aerodynamic forces until a certain pressure drop value. Once that pressure barrier is broken, the oil spreads and is pushed out of the domain.

Ansys Fluent and Ansys EnSight gave engineers a look into a new, patented system for spray drying using electrostatics. Simulating the low-temperature spray drying of whey slurry (50% whey /50% water) through four nitrogen-assisted electrostatic nozzles, they found that the slurry dried rapidly, with the majority of particles impacting tower walls as fully dried powder.

In the early stages of the design of the First Narrows pumping station in Vancouver, B.C., engineers simulated the hydrodynamic conditions of the proposed pumping system and wet well design under the station’s normal operating conditions using the k-epsilon turbulence model coupled with the volume of fluid (VOF) method in Ansys Fluent. This saved costs with less turnaround time compared to physical/scale model testing and produced reliable results.

To understand the thermal effects and forces on their C4M space launch vehicle, engineers used Ansys Fluent to model the flame trench and launch vehicle during ignition, lift-off and flight, when flame temperatures can reach 3,800 K. They accurately determined the locations and magnitudes of the maximum pressure and thermal loads on the structures to optimize the design and materials selection.