MENUAbout aixprocess
aixprocess is known as The Modeling Company for process technology. They have over 20 years of experience in simulation technology for multiple applications in IoT & Industries 4.0. The aixprocess CFD team performs advanced three-dimensional fluid simulations of systems and equipment within several process applications such as cement, chemical, petrochemical, and pharmaceutical. They also provide engineering consulting to optimize efficiency, to speed up product design, and to de-risk scale-up, commissioning and operations.
CFD Analysis at aixprocess
aixprocess specifically utilizes Tecplot 360 within CPFD Software’s Barracuda Virtual Reactor for post-processing of cement calciner CFD simulations. These simulations typically involve numerous meal and fuel particle types. The CFD team at aixprocess prepares animations of each meal and fuel particle species in several view directions, including zoom views focusing on regions of interest. Each meal particle species is colored by local Degree of Calcination (DOC) and each fuel particle species is colored by local Degree of Burnout (DOB). The animations they produce help them understand the pneumatic transport, chemical reaction, combustion, mixing, and heat exchange behavior of each particle species separately.
Gas phase variables such as pressure, temperature, velocity, main combustion species (O2, CO, CO2, N2, H2O) and volatile fuel components are visualized in animations consisting of several horizontal and vertical cross section planes across the computational domain for each variable. These animations and images provide clarity on the gas flow, mixing, stratification, interaction with particle flows, combustion, and emission characteristics.
Tecplot 360 visualizations help aixprocess interpret the performance of calciner and formulate engineering proposals.
Overcoming Challenges with PyTecplot
Before using Tecplot 360 for post-processing, aixprocess was spending 25% of total man hours of each calciner project on postprocessing and regularly facing issues with Ansys Ensight’s lack of support for Barracuda output files and software crashes. These problems ultimately affected their delivery schedule and depth of analysis. When searching for a better solution, the CPFD Software team recommended Tecplot 360, which is built into the Barracuda Virtual Reactor simulation software.
Tecplot’s Python API, PyTecplot, has been a gamechanger for aixprocess. With support from the CPFD Software and Tecplot teams, aixprocess was able to completely automate their post-processing. By automating the repetitive, tedious, and non-value adding tasks, they reduced their total man hours for each calciner project by 20%. The complete automation of their post-processing also led to fewer errors, faster project delivery, increased project quality, and lower project costs.
Conclusion
Overall, the CFD team at aixprocess finds Tecplot 360 and PyTecplot extremely useful in their work from automating their post-processing scripts to performing numerical evaluation on CFD datasets. Since they no longer experience unexpected crashes and delays, they can add more numerical evaluation to their projects which allows them to quantify the impact of engineering and added value to their clients.