Talking Cfd

We could talk about cloud CFD until the cows come home (& we did) so we've split this topic in two. In this first part, we start by trying to answer the question - what do we even mean by "cloud?" - before going on to elaborate on some of the differences between doing CFD in the cloud and in-house. Simon picks me up on why I think "bursting into the cloud" is nonsense. And we discuss whether larger companies are really ready to go all in on cloud CFD? This week's question is - "if people understand the benefits of using the cloud for CFD, then why aren't more people actually doing it?" Checkout.... • The Beginner's Guide To OpenFOAM on AWS @ http://learn.cfdengine.com • AWS Snowmobile - https://youtu.be/8vQmTZTq7nw?t=45s

This second instalment of the Social can only be described as a fanboy-episode. Simon & I coo over ParaView whilst discussing post-processing in general. We touch on what we need from a post-pro package, how we do our post-pro & why we're so fond of ParaView. I guess the question of the episode is - "when an open-source package is this good, why ever would you use anything else?" Find us on the socials or in the Facebook Group (www.talkingcfd.com/fb) and let us know your take. Check out – https://www.paraview.org/

Not your usual Talking CFD episodes & definitely not an interview. Rather it's a series of conversations between two friends who’ve both been CFD-ing for a while & take an interest in what’s been, what’s what & what’s to come in CFD. Topics vary from show to show, but over the course of a few episodes we’re likely to give our take on (amongst other things): • The current state of CFD in the cloud • Whether our vision of CFD in 2030 is anything like NASA’s • Just how much we really like ParaView Hopefully you’ll dig it - let us know on the socials Shownotes • Connect with Simon on Twitter and/or LinkedIn - https://twitter.com/SiHubbard - https://www.linkedin.com/in/simon-hubbard-48b96310/ • Connect with Robin on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/robinknowles/ • Join the Talking CFD family on Facebook – www.talkingcfd.com/fb

It’s always a pleasure to talk to a guest that has been at the top of our industry long enough to help shape how it looks today. Professor Charles Hirsch founded NUMECA 25 years ago, and has grown it into one of the pillars of commercial CFD, particularly in the maritime sector. It’s difficult to distil 25 years into a 30-minute interview, so we don’t even try. Instead, Professor Hirsch gives us the benefit of his experience on: • how they’ve been “appifying” CFD since before it was trendy • working hand-in-hand with academia for R&D • how they tackle the eternal CFD balancing act — accuracy vs. reliability vs. robustness • why Lattice Boltzmann is so hot right now Shownotes https://www.numeca.com/ – All about NUMECA https://youtu.be/7hVlwSpYe-E – NUMECA and the America’s Cup

In this episode I’m joined by Sebastian Desand & Johan Hoffman, two of the founding team behind Ingrid Cloud. If you haven’t yet crossed paths with Ingrid Cloud, it’s an innovative new cloud CFD platform that’s driving towards CFD without manual intervention. We talk briefly about the technology & the platform (it was very new when we recorded this), and also discuss: • how Ingrid Cloud fits within the wider landscape of Industry 4.0 • what CFD with no manual input might look like • whether our ideas of start-of-the-art CFD are stuck in a cul-de-sac & what the new state-of-the-art might be Sometimes things move quickly in our industry. As such, I’d recommend the interested listener to check out Ingrid Cloud as it’s undoubtedly changed a lot since this interview. Shownotes https://www.ingridcloud.com/ - for the latest on the offering & to try out the demo Connect with the guys on LinkedIn: • Sebastian Desand - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sebastiandesand/ • Johan Hoffman - https://www.link

It's always good for me to speak to other CFD consultants. It's an opportunity to compare notes & to make sure that I'm not missing out on a "magic bullet" that no one told me about. Today I'm talking to Stewart Bible of Resolved Analytics about how he built a CFD consultancy, sold it & then built another one. We chat about: • the acquisition process • bridging the credibility gap • the importance of investing in your own IP • an interesting take on the relative merits of commercial vs. open-source for CFD consultants As always, you can't help but learn when people have been there and done it - take a listen. Shownotes • Find out more about Resolved Analytics – https://www.resolvedanalytics.com/cfd-consulting/ • David Fields' Consulting book – http://amzn.eu/hmCZrW1 * Connect with Stewart on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/stewartbible/ & mention the podcast

I enjoy all the interviews, but I particularly enjoyed this one — part-business, part-history lesson, in a good way. I’m joined by Eugene de Villiers to talk about the company he co-founded – Engys. Alongside discussing Engys, it’s products and services, we also dig into the wider world of OpenFOAM, including: • Some of the early history, before FOAM was Open • Whether the current “splitered” OpenFOAM ecosystem could actually be a good thing? • Whether another open-source CFD code could hope to displace OpenFOAM? I naturally gravitate towards OpenFOAM-related companies, it’s a self-acknowledged bias on my part. But I think you’ll get something out of this interview whether you have an interest in OpenFOAM or not - enjoy. Shownotes - https://engys.com/ - open-source CFD for enterprise - https://engys.com/products/helyx - their flagship product - https://www.linkedin.com/in/eugene-de-villiers-81833722/ - Eugene on LinkedIn

This episode is both, the second GPU-related show of the season, and also a cloud simulation episode. The company on today’s show is innovating on both those fronts with their GPU CFD code and their cloud simulation platform. Today I’m talking with three of the key people behind the Bristol-based, CFD innovators —Zenotech— Jamil Appa (co-founder), David Standingford (co-founder) & Mike Turner (product lead). They take it in turns to fill us in on: • The scale of the massively parallel architectures at play in HPC today; • Whether the previous generation of CFD codes keep up or if we need to rearchitect our codes as well as our hardware? • Do we still need CPUs or can we move over to GPUs entirely? • How they help users navigate the ever-growing number of cloud computing providers • And how they can even make suggestions as to when & where you might like to run your CFD jobs As previously, please forgive any GPU 101 questions — we’re still learning here. Shownotes https://zenotech.com/ – Simulatio

No season of this podcast would be complete without one or two OpenFOAM-related episodes, so here we are. I’m talking with Luboš Pirkl, one of the co-founders of CFD Support, a multi-faceted CFD company based in Prague, Czech Republic. We dive into some of the usual stuff that comes up when we talk OpenFOAM, but Luboš also gives us some extra insight into: • the difficult early days & how close they came to giving up • how the CFD marketplace has moved away from dedicated CFD engineers & that OpenFOAM isn’t a great fit for these new users • the decisions behind creating a vertical CFD application and why they chose the turbomachinery market • why communicating the value of your product or service is often more difficult than any of the technical aspects Shownotes • https://www.cfdsupport.com/ • https://www.cfdsupport.com/turbomachinery-cfd.html

New Episode – New Tech. In this one we're looking at the move towards GPUs for compute & talking with Envenio - one of the companies looking to take maximum advantage of this emerging hardware trend for better CFD. I’m not super-familiar with what you can (and can’t) do with a GPU in a CFD context - so forgive me if I ask some 101-level questions. Ian McLeod (CEO) & Scott Walton (VP Business Development) kindly fill me in on: • where the trend towards GPU compute is comping from and where it might be going • does new architecture need new “clean-sheet” software? • what sort of speedup can we expect from this new hardware-software combination? • some of the marketing lessons they learned trying to build up a new brand & reach CFD users Shownotes www.envenio.com for more about what they do & to book a free demo blog.envenio.com/surveyresults2 to find out more about the CFD Users Survey that Scott mentions in the episode

In this episode I'm joined by Bartosz Górecki and Wojciech Regulski, two of the founders of QuickerSim, a Warsaw-based company behind the MATLAB CFD toolbox of the same name. We talk about their experiences as part of a startup accelerator — including a few tips for getting those all-important early sales. The "plate-juggling act" that is, starting a company whilst still finishing up your PhD. And perhaps most importantly of all in a CFD context – "why MATLAB?" ### Shownotes • QuickerSim – CFD Toolbox for MATLAB – https://quickersim.com/ • QuickerSim Free Trial/Lite Version – https://quickersim.com/cfdtoolbox/download/

This episode is another departure from our regular interview shows. Today I'm joined by a panel of 5 guests who kindly shed some light on a few of the issues facing women in CFD. Our expert panel includes Chris Wolfe, Althea de Souza, Aniko Rakai, Irena Juretić and Elisabeth McLean. Between them they cover a breadth and depth of experiences in CFD, whilst sharing an infectious desire to promote our industry as a great career choice for the next generation of female engineers. We cover some ground, including: - the scourge that is "mansplaining" - the importance of women-in-tech groups/meetups/initiatives as a safe place to discuss issues & develop ideas - whether women need to work harder & do a better job to get to the same place as a man? - the role of imposter syndrome & self-esteem when it comes to a woman's career progression - how will we know when we've "made it" in women in tech? We barely scratched the surface here, but if you'd like to continue the conversation then hop over to our

This is a talk I gave at last year's ESI OpenFOAM conference which focussed on the OpenFOAM-related guests that have been on the show & my key takeaways from talking to them. It also gives a bit of background to why & how the podcast came about in the first place. The interviewees in question include Franjo Juretić (Creative Fields), Karim Fahssis (ZephyCloud), David Heiny (SimScale), Darrin Stephens & Chris Sideroff (Applied CCM) and Fred Mendonça (ESI OpenCFD). If you're new here then it should be a nice overview of past interviews & a bit of a rewind for those of you who've been in the podcast family for a while For the really committed, you can watch it with slides, over on YouTube – https://youtu.be/-UeABCmUBo0 Enjoy

Season 03 is go - back with 9 new interviews, at least one roundtable, a couple of bonus episodes & our newly-rebooted informal show, Talking CFD Social. Loads of stuff to perk up your commute, yard work or anywhere else you might want some CFD in your earbuds. Don't forget to hit subscribe wherever you get your podcasts & join the conversation happening in our Facebook Group at www.talkingcfd.com/fb

It’s the last episode of this season & we’ve covered some ground in those 10 episodes. Both in terms of the types of CFD we’ve featured & the countries we’ve touched. So I’m pleased to round out the season with a combination of the two. I’m joined by Joana Bretz, founder of CINAR Brazil, a consultancy that uses specialist CFD to solve some pretty complex problems in the cement industry. Joana shares her insight into that world, including: • why CINAR created a niche-specific software that they don’t really sell & how they use it to give themselves a huge advantage those competitors using generic CFD software; • why it’s so important, as a consultant, to be solving expensive problems & how having domain expertise (& a clear niche) let’s you identify those problems; • how she became a go-to expert in her field & the benefits that brings when it comes to attracting (& keeping) clients; • the role of CFD expert user & why we don’t all need to be developers. Shownotes CINAR Braz

Today we’re talking about an integral part of most CFD processes that often get’s ignored. It comes before we start our CFD process, yet often has a huge impact on that process — CAD. I’m chatting with Mark Gammon, Technical Director of the Cambridge office of ITI & one of the team behind their software package CADfix (the clue is in the name). Mark has an in-depth knowledge of CAD that many of us CFD people don’t & he fills me in on: • what makes CAD so tricky to work with in the first place & why solid modelling isn’t really; • what on earth a medial object is & why it could be hugely important for CFD meshing; • what sort of pre-meshing / CAD-cleanup jobs we’ll soon be able to automate & whether we’re about to lose the human from the CFD meshing loop; • why going back-to-CAD is still such a tricky problem. Shownotes CADfix — http://www.iti-global.com/cadfix & https://twitter.com/CADfix

This is one of those end-of-season "different" episodes where we aren’t talking about the CFD business. We’re discussing NAFEMS, a not-for-profit organisation working to benefit simulation professionals worldwide. I chat with Althea de Souza, long-time NAFEMS member, chair of the CFD working group & commissioning editor for their quarterly magazine, about: • what NAFEMS do, who they do it for and most importantly - why we should care; • NAFEMS' role in advocating for CFD & trying to ensure standards as CFD becomes more mainstream; • their efforts at getting good simulation engineers acknowledged with their certification and competency tracking schemes. If, like me, you don’t know much about NAFEMS - then it’s definitely worth a listen. Shownotes - NAFEMS - https://www.nafems.org/ - Benchmark Magazine - https://www.nafems.org/publications/benchmark/

In this episode, I’m talking with Sandip Jadhav, one of the founders CCTech - the team behind a host of CFD-related projects. We couldn’t do them all justice, so we focused on two of their more well-known projects, Simulation Hub (a cloud CFD platform with a difference) & LearnCAx (a free, online learning resource for CFD). We chat about: • why they’re specifically targeting designers with Simulation Hub & why they chose to build “web services”, rather than a general purpose CFD platform; • how they developed a “secret sauce” & how it’s become the foundation of many of their products; • the role of artificial intelligence in helping to democratise CFD; • the startup ecosystem in India & the increasing competition for CAE development talent. Shownotes http://www.cctech.co.in/ – the parent company behind all of these projects https://www.learncax.com/ – Free online CFD training courses https://www.simulationhub.com/ – Cloud CFD platform for designers

I managed to find another Robin to talk CFD with today. Robin Bornoff has been with Mentor Graphics (& Flomerics before that) for 20+ years, focussed on delivering “good science to engineers. We're talking all about democratisation & appification in CFD. We cover: • why calling niche CFD tools “apps” might be doing them a disservice & whether CFD tools will become commodified; • what the CFD industry has in common with the automotive industry, both in terms of it’s past & future; • how embedding CFD in an MCAD environment helped drive democratisation & why embedded CAD is more than just a user interface problem; Note, this episode was recorded before the announcement of Mentor Graphics’ acquisition by Siemens - we weren’t just ignoring it. LINKS Mentor Graphics (Mechanical Analysis Division) –https://www.mentor.com/products/mechanical/ Robin Bornoff's Blog – https://blogs.mentor.com/robinbornoff/ Social Profiles – https://twitter.com/FloRobin4CFD & https://www.linkedin.com/in/robin

I'm joined in this episode by Mark Seymour, one of the founding team behind Future Facilities, a CFD company focused on the data centre & electronics cooling sectors. In addition to the origins, focus and growth of the company, we get to talk about Mark's role as the Chief Technical Officer (CTO) & what that entails in a modern CFD company. We discuss: • how to position your CFD product or service based on the business benefits it delivers to a customer — as opposed to just another feature-rich R&D tool; • why a CTO is more than just a senior engineer/developer & how the role changes as a company grows; • how Future Facilities’ offering has evolved to deliver value to non-engineering groups (for example, facilities management & operational teams) & how that impacts the way they talk about their products; • why he spends a large portion of his time working with sector-specific bodies/societies & what kinds of benefits they derive from that effort; Links Main Site – http://www.futu