Mesh Strategies for the FDA Benchmark Centrifugal Blood Pump 

 

Learn how a hybrid-viscous mesh can improve solution efficiency

In this webinar, the focus of this work is to explore hybrid and multi-block structured meshing strategies and their impact on solution accuracy for a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) benchmark case involving a centrifugal blood pump. If no appreciable change in solution accuracy is observed per each meshing strategy, hybrid meshing techniques may facilitate a more efficient solution process. Designed to operate across a large range of flow conditions, the blood pump consists of four blades attached to a rotor base and shaft.

Pointwise has numerous integrated functionalities, which make hybrid-viscous mesh generation fairly automated - reducing the time required to construct a high-quality mesh. These tools enable the engineer to focus a majority of their time interpreting simulation results. Consequently, this allows the engineer to make decisions rapidly and early in the project life cycle.

Caelus v8.04, a derivative of OpenFOAM, was used to perform the CFD simulations on each of the grids for solution accuracy comparisons.

Discover how to:

  • Utilize anisotropic tetrahedral extrusion (T-Rex) to automatically generate a hybrid-viscous volume mesh suitable for internal flow applications
  • Enable surface mesh adaptation for proximity refinement during volume meshing
  • Construct a suitable multi-block structured mesh topology
  • Thoroughly examine surface and volumetric cell quality
  • Set up an MRF simulation using Caelus and interpret simulation results to identify key parameters driving solution accuracy
 
Joshua Dawson

Joshua Dawson

200x33_Pointwise_Logo_BlueGlobe_WL_SCREEN

Joshua Dawson joined our Technical Sales Team in January of 2019. Prior to Pointwise, Mr. Dawson worked for two years as a Department of Defense Contractor with Applied Research Associates in simulating extreme thermal environments following high explosive detonations. Mr. Dawson earned a B.S. in Psychology from Texas A&M University in 2004. In 2015, Mr. Dawson earned an M.S. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Texas at Arlington.

 
Daniel LaCroix

Daniel LaCroix

200x33_Pointwise_Logo_BlueGlobe_WL_SCREEN

Daniel LaCroix joined Pointwise in 2013. He completed his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering at Texas A&M in 2012; his dissertation centered on expanding a mathematical model for blood coagulation. While at A&M, he also served as a lecturer for three semesters. As a Senior Engineer in Technical Support, Daniel leads quality assurance efforts, assists customers reach their meshing goals, teaches classes, helps creates Tutorial Tuesday videos, and attends conferences to represent Pointwise.

 
Travis Carrigan

Travis Carrigan

200x33_Pointwise_Logo_BlueGlobe_WL_SCREEN

Travis Carrigan joined Pointwise as a senior engineer after completing his M.S. in aerospace engineering at the University of Texas at Arlington in May 2011 where his graduate research involved aerodynamic design optimization. Currently, as Manager of Technical Sales, Mr. Carrigan works with prospective customers and demonstrates how Pointwise software can be used to improve their CFD process. Travis also produces technical marketing content and works with customers and software partners to demonstrate best practices in grid generation, solver setup, and solution postprocessing for a variety of industries.

 
Chris Sideroff

Chris Sideroff

Applied CCM

Chris Sideroff is currently the managing director at Applied CCM Inc, a company conducting research and development, providing technical support, and offering training for both open-source and commercial CFD software such as Caelus, OpenFOAM, and Pointwise. His current research interests are towards automation methods for mesh generation, more robust discretization and solver methodologies for complex, industrial-scale meshes, overset grid technologies, uncertainty quantification and error estimation, and workflow automation with Python. He is an active contributor and one of the maintainers of the open-source libraries, Caelus and CPL.

 
Brent Craven

Brent Craven

Collaborator on the webinar

Dr. Brent Craven is a research scientist in the Division of Applied Mechanics, Office of Science and Engineering Laboratories, Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH) at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). His areas of expertise include computational fluid dynamics (CFD), fluid-structure interaction (FSI), multiphysics modeling (e.g., conjugate heat and mass transfer), patient-specific modeling, verification and validation (V&V), and high-performance computing applied to medical devices such as mechanical circulatory support devices, artificial heart valves, intravascular blood clot filters, and inhalers. His research at the FDA primarily focuses on (i) advancing the use of V&V to establish the evidentiary bar for physics-based computational modeling in regulatory applications, and (ii) developing improved computational models for reliably predicting flow-induced blood damage in cardiovascular devices. In addition to research, Dr. Craven regularly serves as a technical consulting reviewer on regulatory submissions to CDRH. Prior to joining the FDA in 2014, he was a research faculty member and Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Pennsylvania State University.