Itâs the last show of Season 04 (time flies when youâre podcasting) & Simon & I are back chatting about the most recent shows, the season just gone & our thoughts/plans for 2020: - Simon reveals his ultra-personalised, CFD-powered, custom surfboard & custom wave idea #futurist đ¤ - Cloud HPC experiences including: - AWS ParallelCluster - https://aws.amazon.com/hpc/parallelcluster/ - HPCBox from Drizti (a new one on me, but Simon says good things) - https://www.drizti.com/hpcbox.h...
Jan 21, 2020â˘54 min
Time for the last insight episode of the season - I hope you've enjoyed them as much as I enjoyed doing them? In today's episode I had the pleasure of talking to Riccardo Rossi about combining his experience in fluid dynamics research with his passion for surfing and the intricacies of applying CFD to the design of surfboards. We barely scratch the surface of this fascinating topic, but Riccardo introduces us to some of the challenges, including: - relating performance in the "predictable" world...
Jan 14, 2020â˘29 min
I've wanted to have a guest on the show to chat about artificial intelligence & machine learning in relation to CFD for a while now. It keeps coming up in other discussions but this is the first founder interview where I get to scratch the surface of this huge topic. Today Iâm talking to Lieven Vervecken one of the founders of Belgian CFD startup Diabatix - mixing AI/ML with generative design, optimisation & traditional CFD methods to design a new breed of heat sinks. Lieven fills us in ...
Jan 07, 2020â˘35 min
Itâs the last episode of 2019 & weâre introducing a new section of the show called âgrumpy old CFDistas get a bit bah humbug about stuffâ which may not become a regular feature. Some of the things on our radar this episode include⌠⢠Cybertruck simulations on LinkedIn ⢠In awe of Patrickâs CFD skills & PreonLabâs renderings ⢠the âimportanceâ of aerodynamics for battery electric vehicles (& the importance of not getting too ârant-yâ while podcasting) ⢠AWS clusters vs. SPH & the ...
Dec 10, 2019â˘48 min
In todayâs episode we welcome back previous guest, friend of the show and all-round CFD expert, Patrick Hanley. The last time Patrick was on the show we spoke about his experience as an independent CFD software vendor. This time weâre hearing about his adventures designing âflying carsâ as part of the mobility startup Terrafugia. We cover a lot of ground, including, but not limited to: ⢠How speed of execution is critical in the sprint to market & how different CFD tools can play into that (...
Dec 03, 2019â˘29 min
Today Iâm chatting with Jens Cornelis, one of the founders of FIFTY2 Technology â CFD software developers based in Freiburg, Germany & home to the particle-based CFD code PreonLab. Jens shares some of the story of FIFTY2 Technology & the development of what became PreonLab, including: ⢠why PreonLab is about more than just pretty pictures (but boy, do they make some pretty pictures) & whether using a CFD package can actually be âfunâ ⢠how it was a little âtoo physicalâ for Pixar ⢠h...
Nov 26, 2019â˘30 min
Simon & I celebrate 50 episodes of this podcast, share our thoughts on the last 2 shows & disappear down a few tangential rabbit holes. Itâs just your typical social episode really, including: ⢠getting it done - having ideas & then executing on them (even without a coffee boost) ⢠different ways to make CFD more accessible (AirShaper & Discovery Live) - a.k.a. âgetting your 80%â ⢠how âdemocratisationâ might have got lost in a cupboard with âdigital twinsâ & âthe internet of...
Nov 19, 2019â˘47 min
In our third insight episode, Kurt Smithgall, formally of S20 Design, takes us into the fast-flowing world of whitewater-park design or, to borrow a phrase from Kurt - ârecreational hydraulics.â Kurt gives us an insight into how CFD is helping in the design of whitewater parks & some of the challenges therein - including: ⢠mitigating the risk of building a water park that doesnât work ⢠dealing with uncertainty in geometry & flow conditions ⢠scale - both in terms of the mesh/physics, b...
Nov 12, 2019â˘30 min
You may have noticed that Iâm a big fan of doing CFD in the cloud & a big fan of interesting CFD companies, so todayâs interview is a particular favourite. Iâm talking with Wouter Remmerie, founder of AirShaper a cloud CFD platform aiming to make aerodynamic analysis more accessible & affordable. Wouter shares his experiences, thoughts & stories on: ⢠his sports car ambitions & death-defying aerodynamic testing ⢠âblack boxâ CFD for aerodynamics ⢠AirShaperâs unique selling point...
Nov 05, 2019â˘39 min
In this weekâs round of CFD pub chat Simon & I share our takeaways from the recent episodes, plus what weâve been up to since last time, including (but not limited to): ⢠fancy optimisation stuff ⢠going (or not going) to conferences ⢠sharing your work & secret customers 𤍠⢠plus, we solve the cloud vs. in-house debate âď¸ Links to things we mentioned ⢠NAFEMS conference on simulation-based optimisation - https://www.nafems.org/events/nafems/2019/simulation-based-optimisation/ ⢠Darrin ...
Oct 29, 2019â˘49 min
In the second of our "insights" series Brian Willis, of specialist engineering consultancy Astrimar, is taking us deep into the world of CFD for oil & gas. Not deep into the technicals, but deep under the ocean & into the mud. Hold onto to your headphones, weâre going downhole for a spot of plugging & abandonment. Brian gives us a flavour of what CFD looks like in this particular niche - whatâs tricky & whatâs commonplace, including: ⢠the extreme scales that dominate their model...
Oct 22, 2019â˘31 min
You wait around for a CFD consultant interview & then two come along at once. This is the second âfounderâ interview of the season & the second CFD consultant - duff scheduling, my bad. Today Iâm chatting with James Linfield, one half of the dynamic duo behind Navier Flow Consultants â a (relatively) new CFD consultancy based in Nottingham, UK. James gives us the benefit of his recent experience & shares his take on: ⢠the transition from employee to âbossâ ⢠choosing a niche to focu...
Oct 15, 2019â˘31 min
đ Weâre Back đ It's time for another a round of "social" episodes. In this season, Simon & I will be discussing our takeaways from the latest interviews, sharing cool CFD-things weâve seen on the internets & generally shooting the CFD-breeze. It's the kind of conversation you might have in the pub with your fellow CFD-nerds - if you're not too busy meshing, that is. This week we touch on: ⢠what weâve been up to (itâs been a while) ⢠dealing with âshiny objectâ syndrome ⢠whether AI + ...
Oct 08, 2019â˘56 min
This is the first of our new style of shows where I talk to CFD practitioners / experts / âthose that doâ to find out what CFD looks like in their world. We typically start these episodes with an overview of how CFD gets used in their industry, then zero in on some of the uniquely challenging aspects and dig a little deeper. In this show Iâm talking to Stefano Capra of engineering consulting giants Ramboll, about some of the ways CFD is used in the design of the built environment & the chall...
Oct 01, 2019â˘34 min
Itâs the first episode of Season 04 & weâre back with the usual problem - how to condense 25+ years experience running a simulation business into a single episode. We fail (as usual) but it still makes for an interesting show. In this episode Iâm talking with Eric Miller, one of founding team of PADT â an expert simulation consultancy which first opened its doors 25 years ago this year. Eric shares his thoughts on: - migrating from an internal research group at a large company to an autonomo...
Sep 24, 2019â˘42 min
A quick heads-up that Season 04 of Talking CFD is inbound, with new episodes starting 24th September 2019. Please make sure you're subscribed in your favourite podcast app & following us on the socials to make sure you don't miss a thing. www.talkingcfd.com
Sep 17, 2019â˘2 min
Someone once described these episodes as Simon and I "noodling it out" - you get to listen to us working through our thoughts and (hopefully) coming to some conclusions or at least giving you something to think about. And that description probably best fits this episode. We started out with a provocative-ish question, left over from the NAFEMS episode & expanded from there. We didn't put this one to bed, but instead we opened up the question of what "doing CFD" really means. Question of the ...
Aug 14, 2018â˘43 min
We don't get out much. So when one of us does manage to break away from our workstation and get to a conference, it's worth talking about. Simon gives us the lowdown from the NAFEMS UK conference including his key takeaways, what themes stood out & what was missing. Question of the day "which conferences are worth getting out of the office for and why?" Conference Link â https://www.nafems.org/2018/uk/
Aug 07, 2018â˘40 min
In this episode we break down some of the NASA CFD Vision 2030 document, to see if our vision of CFD in 2030 looks anything like NASA's (spoiler alert - not so much ;-). We pick out some of what we feel are the most important topics & put them in context of where we (Simon & I - not the industry as a whole) are now & where we think they're going. Plus I expand on why I think this document is actually just a shopping list for a cash-strapped NASA. NASA CFD Vision 2030 Study: A Path to...
Jul 31, 2018â˘1 hr 2 min
We've still got our head in the the clouds this week, covering some of the topics we didn't touch in the last episode. Including âbut not limited toâ addressing your cloud security concerns by having a cloud-in-a-box delivered to your front door (not exactly elastic computing). The data transfer conundrum & why I think that you need to think a little differently when it comes to putting a cloud CFD workflow together. We also go on to talk about the new crop of cloud-only/cloud-first CFD prov...
Jul 24, 2018â˘54 min
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 und...
Jul 17, 2018â˘49 min
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 ...
Jul 10, 2018â˘44 min
Not your usual Talking CFD episodes & definitely not an interview. Rather it's a series of conversations between two friends whoâve both been CFD-ing for a while & take an interest in whatâs been, whatâs what & whatâs to come in CFD. Topics vary from show to show, but over the course of a few episodes weâre 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 NASAâs ⢠Just how much we really li...
Jul 03, 2018â˘13 min
Itâs 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. Itâs difficult to distil 25 years into a 30-minute interview, so we donât even try. Instead, Professor Hirsch gives us the benefit of his experience on: ⢠how theyâve been âappifyingâ CFD since before it was trendy ⢠wor...
Jun 26, 2018â˘36 min
In this episode Iâm joined by Sebastian Desand & Johan Hoffman, two of the founding team behind Ingrid Cloud. If you havenât yet crossed paths with Ingrid Cloud, itâs an innovative new cloud CFD platform thatâs 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 ⢠whet...
Jun 19, 2018â˘31 min
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. ...
Jun 12, 2018â˘30 min
I enjoy all the interviews, but I particularly enjoyed this one â part-business, part-history lesson, in a good way. Iâm joined by Eugene de Villiers to talk about the company he co-founded â Engys. Alongside discussing Engys, itâs 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 âspliteredâ OpenFOAM ecosystem could actually be a good thing? ⢠Whether another open-source CFD code could hope to ...
Jun 05, 2018â˘35 min
This episode is both, the second GPU-related show of the season, and also a cloud simulation episode. The company on todayâs show is innovating on both those fronts with their GPU CFD code and their cloud simulation platform. Today Iâm talking with three of the key people behind the Bristol-based, CFD innovators âZenotechâ 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 archit...
May 29, 2018â˘36 min
No season of this podcast would be complete without one or two OpenFOAM-related episodes, so here we are. Iâm talking with LuboĹĄ 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 LuboĹĄ 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 &...
May 22, 2018â˘26 min
New Episode â 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. Iâm not super-familiar with what you can (and canât) 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 wher...
May 15, 2018â˘38 min
