Ahead of his presentation at the IMechE VTMS conference, Giovanni shares some of the CFD pain points facing engineers working on thermal systems.
For further details of this year’s conference, visit the event website.
Please briefly explain your role, involvement, and experience with vehicle thermal management
Giovanni Fiore (GF): I currently work as a Solution consultant on CFD applications for Dassault Systemes. During my day-to-day job, I lead and support Customer’s project that involve our CFD toolset. Throughout my career, I have been working on a number of external and internal aerodynamics projects, such as improving the brake disk cooling flow for motorsport applications.
What is the top challenge facing your industry at present?
GF: The CFD Industry faces a constant pressure for improving turn-around times and supporting ever-increasing simulation complexities. While GPU computing is enabling faster simulations, novel and relatively uncharted types of simulations are becoming mainstream every year. Porting all these novel capabilities to GPU computing, while maintaining good computational scalability, is currently a challenge within the CFD industry.
How would you say your industry has evolved over the past five years?
GF: While until recent years both external aerodynamics and internal flow management were deemed as standard simulations, the new trends are pushing towards Fluid-Structure-Interaction, free-surface/multiphase simulations, moving boundaries, and fully-coupled thermal capabilities. As mentioned before, we are now witnessing a distinct push towards GPU computing that will enable quicker, cheaper, and more energy efficient simulations. Moreover, there is a need for democratizing the power and usage of simulations, making their value more widely accepted earlier on during the design phase.
What developments are going on in your industry that may have an impact on the development of future thermal management systems and wider powertrain efficiencies
GF: In general, the support of multi-physics, multi-level types of simulations. For example, 1-D thermal management simulations coupled with full-3D CFD simulations to address EV battery power draw in different weather conditions. Moreover, free-surface thermal lubrication simulations to design more durable and optimal EV transmissions.
Why is it important for engineers and industry to come together at this event and share best practice?
GF: It is extremely beneficial to expose and share common best practices and potential pain points, especially when discussing the less familiar CFD problems within the industry – a few that come to mind are gearbox thermal lubrication, battery cooling, and cabin comfort and power draw simulations.
This year’s Vehicle Thermal Management Systems Conference and Exhibition will return to the British Motor Museum in Warwick on 5-6 June 2024.
VTMS16 will explore the necessity and complexity of battery analysis through differing simulation techniques and offer a system engineering approach to balancing duration, durability, and immersive coolant technologies.
For further details of this year’s conference, visit the event website.
Wanda Parisien is a computing expert who navigates the vast landscape of hardware and software. With a focus on computer technology, software development, and industry trends, Wanda delivers informative content, tutorials, and analyses to keep readers updated on the latest in the world of computing.
