Hi Monthly Focus On Industry Blog Recommendation & Highlights; CFD Blog!.

Hi Monthly Focus On Industry Blog Recommendation & Highlights.

CFD Blog; CFD Blog Vienna

The Aim Of The Blog;

This blog is a platform in which visitors can discuss about Computational Fluid Dynamics and get some feedback from others or CFD experts.

The main advantage of this blog is that it would be parallel to many courses in Fluid Mechanics and fundamental books of Numerics.

The structure of the blog is based on different levels of CFD knowledge (elementary, basic, intermediate and advance) which will be mentioned in the topic of each post. 

Many typical problems will be approached, proposing discussions on their main aspects and some codes for solving them.

All visitors are welcomed to participate in discussions and propose their own solutions. 

Furthermore, the questions or concerns, which are not fully solved during the discussion, are going to be answered frequently (e.g. every 10 days) by experts.

Hi Material Selection: The Times, They Are A-Changin!.

Hi Material Selection: The Times, They Are A-Changin!.

Continuing the investigation of common materials selection issues, let's discuss the importance of regularly reviewing material selections. 

Things change! The graph below shows changes in the relative cost of aluminum, copper and zinc over the past 10-15 years on a per pound basis. 

- "The costs are normalized to the cost of aluminum on August 1, 1998 which was about $1400 / tonne."

All three of these metals are often used in applications where corrosion resistance to water is important. 

There are a whole host of factors which need to be considered when selecting the "right" material. 

Strength, density, resistance to specific contaminants, etc., all can influence a material choice, but cost is obviously an important parameter. 

If in 1998 our analysis showed that copper was the right choice for a given application when it was on cost parity with aluminum and zinc, is it still the right choice in 2011 when the price of copper has risen four times as rapidly as the cost of the other two metals?

Cost, obviously, is not the only thing that changes with time. 

Technology changes, too. 

New materials are being commercialized daily. Originally, charred oak was the material of choice for plain bearing applications. 

Have you seen many wooden bearings lately? Of course not, but we still do see a lot of lead-tin, or antimony-tin Babbitt bearings. 

Are these the right materials when metal matrix composite bearings are stronger, lighter, and often more cost effective? They may or may not be the right choice today, but we can't know without doing the analysis.

New technology in manufacturing is allowing us to use "old" materials in new ways. 

For example, for many, many years gray cast iron was not used in some bearing and sealing applications because it was not possible to obtain the required surface finish.

As machining technology improved, it became possible to utilize this old, inexpensive material in new applications.

Clearly, the point is that the materials world changes. 

The material we chose for a given application years ago, may not only be sub-optimum today, it may be absolutely wrong and we may be letting our competition get an unnecessary advantage in the marketplace if they are more nimble than we are at changing materials as the times change. 

If we only consider new or alternative materials when we design new equipment, we're missing out on opportunities to reduce cost, improve profitability and solve technical problems on existing equipment.

Hi Project Manager Network!.

Hi Project Manager Network!.

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ProjectManagers.net Site Resources;

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Reports and Whitepapers
Software and Services Directory

Hi HowTo? Selecting Construction Software!.

Hi HowTo? Selecting Construction Software!.

As you have likely realized, selecting construction software is really hard. 

A lot of buyers, who are new to the construction software market and 

overwhelmed by the prospect of finding the right system. 

Therefore, you now can follow; A Ten Steps to 

Selecting the Construction Software Guide to help buyers conduct a successful 

software search. 

In this guide,  the readers are presented with the ten best practices found

during

research. 

The Guide will show how you can;

1. Be in control of your search process;

2. Avoid the most common buying mistakes;

3. Assess ease-of-use objectively;

4. Be attentive to vendor viability; and

5. Compare different pricing arrangements effectively.

I think this guide should be a helpful tool during your search. 

Your copy is available for download by clicking the following link here. 

Or view & save the guide below;

Hi Construction Software Buyer's Toolkit!.

Hi Construction Software Buyer's Toolkit!.

Hi Construction!.

Recently, a lot of contractors have been asking us for a side-by-side comparison of construction programs. 

To meet this request, we decided to build a spreadsheet that helps buyers compare over 100 features across a short list of systems. 

I thought you might find our new Hi Construction Software Buyer's Toolkit helpful. 

With this toolkit, you'll be able to see how different vendors stack up 

along the following lines:

A. Depth and breadth of estimating, accounting, and project management functionality;

B. Usability and navigation;

C. Customer support;

D. Deployment options; and

E. Price.

Built in a familiar Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, this is the critical 

tool you need to stay organized while evaluating systems. You can 

download your free copy by clicking here or view & save below;

Hi Construction Software Buyer's Toolkit;

Hi SoundPLAN Air Pollution.!.

Hi SoundPLAN Air Pollution.!.

SoundPLAN:

Many planning processes require calculations for noise emissions and air

pollution dispersion. 

It is welcome news to hear SoundPLAN has a uniform software interface 

for both types of calculations so users can work efficiently in both areas of 

expertise.

SoundPLAN builds a comfortable bridge between science and engineering:

Embedding scientific calculation kernels in the user friendly interface

of SoundPLAN and adding specific tools for data control, data conversion

and result presentation, SoundPLAN creates an environment for high

efficient air pollution dispersion calculation, benefitted from over 25 years

of noise programming experience.

Fig 1;

Fig 1; Various charts to characterize meteorological data.

Fig 2;

Fig 2; Wind roses for information in the site map..

Fig 3;

Fig 3; ...or for error check in an aerial photo.

Fig 4;

Fig 4; Analysis of the diurnal pollution concentration...

Fig 5;

Fig 5; ...and with spatial reference.

Fig 6;

Fig 6; Year histograms can be composed of cyclical day and week histograms...

Fig 7;

Fig 7; ...or follow a more simple distribution pattern.

Modular Architecture:

The modules offered by SoundPLAN are spread from a "simple"

Gauss model up to complex prognostic models. 

The model selection depends strongly on the requested task and the

available input data. 

Therefore the modules can't replace each other. 

It is not sensible to start with the simpler models Gauss and Austal2000,

which were mainly designed for industry licensing procedures, if your 

work is focused on roads or complex terrain. 

You should know details about the model borders, before you decide to buy.

Base Module Air Pollution:

The Base Module Air Pollution generates the environment where all modules are embedded. 

Besides the basic modules for data input, calculation and result presentation it contains special air pollution library tools which are designed to make your work easy, efficient and transparent.  

If you own already a SoundPLAN license, no matter if it is for acoustics or air pollution, the base module is discounted by 50%.

Fig 1A; 

Fig 1A; Wind roses for information in the site map..

^{Gauss TA Luft 86:}

^{Gauss TA Luft 86} is a model for quick estimations: 

The formulas of the former German standard "TA Luft '86" are suitable for approximate calculations, e.g. to estimate background concentrations or to make worst case studies, whenever free flow conditions can be assumed around emission sources.

Fig 1B;

Fig 1B; Gaussian plume model: concentration estimation using a distribution function.

GRAL system:

GRAL system contains of two programs. 

The highly recommended Austrian Lagrange particle dispersion model GRAL is suitable to include traffic sources in street canyons. 

It uses optionally a diagnostic wind field approach or a mixed approach, which can take explicitly buildings into account by calculating a prognostic wind field for a limited area around the buildings.

Also tunnel portals can be modeled. 

To show up its full strength GRAL should be used with pre processed prognostic mesoscale GRAMM wind fields. 

GRAMM was developed in the complex topography of the Austrian Alps and is capable to regard strongly undulated terrain, and differentiated land use.

Fig 1C; 

Fig 1C; GRAL dispersion in complex topography based on GRAMM wind fields.

MISKAM advanced: 

The MISKAM kernel is mainly designed for highly resolved street canyons in urban quarters. 

The fine grid resolution starts where GRAL ends. 

Therefore those two models complete each other in a most sensible way. 

The established, highly recommended and steadily validated prognostic wind field model is ideal for detailed studies, when air movements around buildings suppress thermal effects.

The former SoundPLAN interface for MISKAM, as SoundPLAN module also simply named MISKAM, didn't support the full functionality of the MISKAM kernel. 

This slim version is still maintained for customers with a continuous maintenance contract, but it is no longer sold. 

In winter 2013/14 it will be replaced by the new module  MISKAM advanced, which provides additionally underflow of buildings, flow-through of vegetation and a 64 bit version.

Fig 1D; 

Fig 1D; Principle diagram: 3D-grid to calculate a windfield.

Intermediate solution: 

If you mandatory pre order MISKAM advanced, you'll get the current interface for the old price and we invoice the rest, when you receive MISKAM advanced. 

As soon as you receive MISKAM advanced, the full update and maintenance period is restarted.

Current MISKAM users will get a special upgrade offer as soon as MISKAM advanced is released.

AUSTAL2000 interface:

AUSTAL2000 is the public domain reference model of the current German directive "TA Luft 02". 

The model input and output is strictly designed to fulfill the demands of German directives (supports directive 2008/50/EC) and needs a professional interface like SoundPLAN to work efficiently. 

A more flexible kernel version was announced for 2012 but it is not yet released.

Fig 1E;

Fig 1E; Lagrange particle model: counting of particles in a 3-dimensional wind field.

Download & View SoundPlan Issues;

Click SoundPlan Newsletter Download Section!.

Click Here For Download Issue 1;

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View SoundPlan Issue 2; March 2013 Below;