By Peter Wild, Director of Quality and Services, Fluent Inc.

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As our customers, you have come to rely on our products to deliver results that can be trusted, but it is important for you to know more about what goes on behind the scenes. Answers to some of the questions often asked by our users on this topic are provided below.

How has Fluent software been validated? What can you give me to prove this?

Fluent products undergo extensive validation and testing prior to release. Some of our tests are regression tests, designed to ensure that the functionality of a previous release is still supported. We also run industrial strength tests that exercise the codes on real world engineering problems. Lower level tests are designed to check out individual features or to validate against experimental data and analytical solutions. A selection of our validation problems and performance benchmarks is made available on the User Services Center: www.fluentusers.com.

My quality department wants to know if Fluent has registration to the ISO9000 quality standard. They would like to see a copy of your registration certificate.

Fluent is registered to the latest version of the ISO quality management standard, ISO9000:2000. We also have registration to the TickIT standard for software development. More details, including the scope of registration and copies of registration certificates, can be found on our web site at: www.fluent.com/about/news/announce/iso.htm.

I am working on a safety-critical application using Fluent. Our audit team would like to see a copy of your software development and quality assurance procedures.

The top-level document providing this information is referred to as the Quality Manual. A copy of Fluent’s Quality Manual is available on request.

I need your help with validation of Fluent software. I am working on fluid mixing. I checked Fluent’s web site but there is nothing about the validation of mixing applications.

The validation problems posted on the User Services Center represent only a small fraction of the cases we run during product testing. In addition we have many validations (in the form of reports and published papers) that we do not run with every code release. Your support engineer will be able to help you identify appropriate material for your application area.

Discharge coefficient (ratio of computed to ideal mass flow rate) vs. inlet pressure for cavitating flow over a sharp-edged orifice; as part of the validation, FLUENT results are compared to experiment [1]

Normalized swirl as a function of time resulting from a simulation used to test FLUENT’s VOF model (for immiscible liquids) under highly swirling conditions; results are compared to experiment [2]

The prediction of lift for oscillating laminar flow over a cylinder is used to compare various solver options; predictions of lift coefficient are compared to experiment for validation [3]

References:

1. W.H. Nurick, Orifice Cavitation and its Effects on Spray Mixing, Journal of Fluids Engineering 98, 1976.
2. T. Sugimoto and M. Iguchi, Behavior of Immiscible Two-Liquid Layers Contained in Cylindrical Vessel Suddenly Set in Rotation, ISIJ Int. 42, p. 338-343, 2002.
3. M. Braza, P. Chassaing and H.H. Minh, Numerical Study and Physical Analysis of the Pressure and Velocity Fields in the Near Wake of a Circular Cylinder, Journal of Fluid Mechanics 165, p. 79-130, 1986.

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