Mumbai, June 07: The department of aerospace engineering of the Indian Institute of Technology here today launched a technical software product ‘CFD Tutor’ that would fulfil the pedagogical requirements in the analysis of fundamental fluid flow in engineering. The tailor-made product, first to be marketed by IIT, can also serve as a virtual laboratory tool for institutions which can not bear the expenses of a full aerodynamic experimental installation, according to IIT sources.

CFD--computational fluid dynamics or simply the use of computers to solve standard engineering problems-- is related to liquid flow.

This application-oriented technique is not new, though still in the developmental stage as far as industrial application and academic research in India is concerned, the IITzeus group of the department of aerospace engineering, who have developed the product, said.

It is of pivotal importance in the field of Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) and can save remarkable amounts of experimental effort, man hours and capital in the high-end engineering sector, especially in the automotive, aerospace and chemical industry, the scientists said.
There are many firms, mostly based out of India, which sell the propriety CFD software catering only to the industries, whereas the IIT product is developed keeping in view the educational value of it, they said.

One of the direct ramification of this move by IIT will be the introduction of cfd as a course in many engineering colleges, they added.
Bureau Report