CFD Analysis

Fluid flow is complex, often counter-intuitive and notoriously difficult to predict from experience alone. Unexpected pressure drops, recirculation zones, poor mixing or uneven flow distribution can compromise product performance, reduce process efficiency and lead to costly redesign cycles. With Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) we give you a detailed, quantitative picture of what happens inside your system — so you can fix problems before they reach the prototype stage and optimise your designs with confidence.

Problems we solve with CFD

Our clients come to us when they need answers that measurements alone cannot provide — or when physical testing is too expensive, too slow or simply impossible at the design stage. Typical projects include:

  • Pressure drop and energy loss analysis — quantify losses through valves, pipes, manifolds or filter geometries and identify where improvements have the greatest impact.
  • Flow distribution and uniformity — ensure even velocity or concentration profiles across heat exchangers, distribution headers, clean rooms or reaction chambers.
  • Mixing and blending optimisation — evaluate impeller types, baffle configurations and injection strategies to achieve the desired mixing quality in less time.
  • Turbomachinery performance — analyse and improve the efficiency of pumps, blowers, turbines and compressors by understanding the internal flow field in detail.
  • Multiphase and free-surface flows — simulate gas-liquid interactions, sloshing, hydraulic jumps, cavitation and particle-laden flows.
  • HVAC and ventilation design — verify air distribution, thermal comfort and contaminant extraction in buildings, clean rooms and industrial spaces.
  • Process troubleshooting — investigate underperformance, unexpected erosion or vibration in existing installations and recommend targeted design changes.
CFD simulation of fluid mixing in an industrial mixer with axial impeller and baffles
CFD analysis of the mixing process in an industrial mixer with an axial impeller and five baffles. The simulation reveals the flow pattern and mixing efficiency — information that is virtually impossible to obtain through measurement alone.

What CFD reveals that testing cannot

A physical experiment can tell you the pressure at a few measurement points or the average temperature at an outlet. A CFD simulation gives you the complete velocity, pressure and temperature field at every location and every time step — including inside regions that are physically inaccessible to sensors.

This level of detail makes CFD uniquely powerful for understanding why a system behaves the way it does. Where does recirculation form? What causes the pressure spike? Why is the flow unevenly distributed? Once you understand the root cause, targeted design improvements become straightforward.

CFD also allows you to evaluate dozens of design variants at a fraction of the cost and time of prototype testing, making it the ideal tool for systematic optimisation and rapid what-if studies.

CFD streamlines through a vortex blower showing flow patterns and gas mixing
Streamlines through a vortex blower. The simulation shows how a cold and hot gas stream mix more efficiently when a vortex generator is introduced — a design insight that guided the optimisation of this component.

Types of flow we simulate

Our CFD capabilities cover the full spectrum of fluid flow phenomena. Whether your application involves slow, viscous flow through a narrow channel or high-speed compressible gas dynamics, we select the right modelling approach and turbulence model to deliver accurate, reliable results.

  • Incompressible and compressible flow — from low-speed liquid systems to high-speed gas flows with shocks.
  • Laminar, transitional and turbulent flow — using RANS, DES or LES turbulence models as appropriate for the application.
  • Steady-state and transient simulations — capturing both time-averaged behaviour and time-dependent phenomena such as vortex shedding, pulsating flow or start-up transients.
  • Multiphase flow — gas-liquid interfaces, free surfaces, particle transport, cavitation and boiling.
  • Non-Newtonian fluids — for applications in the food, pharmaceutical and medical industry where fluid viscosity depends on shear rate.
  • Rotating machinery — pumps, impellers, turbines, blowers and compressors using frozen-rotor, mixing-plane or sliding-mesh techniques.
  • Reacting and species transport — combustion, chemical reactions, UV absorption and pollutant dispersion.

Industries and applications

We have delivered CFD projects across a wide range of sectors. Our experience ensures that we understand not just the simulation, but also the engineering context and the practical constraints of your industry:

  • Process & chemical industry — mixers, reactors, separation equipment, galvanisation processes, filtration and catalysis.
  • Water treatment — UV disinfection systems, hydraulic jumps, sedimentation tanks and aeration design.
  • Energy & turbomachinery — pumps, valves, turbines, compressors and fuel supply systems.
  • Building & HVAC — ventilation effectiveness, clean room airflow, thermal comfort assessment (PMV/PPD).
  • Automotive & transport — aerodynamics, underhood airflow, fuel system analysis and cabin climate.
  • Offshore & marine — wave loading, sloshing analysis, subsea flow assurance and caisson hydrodynamics.
  • Medical & pharmaceutical — non-Newtonian blood flow modelling, drug delivery systems and sterile environment design.

Combined CFD and structural analysis

Fluid forces do not exist in isolation — they act on structures. When fluid pressures, thermal loads or flow-induced vibrations are important for the structural integrity of your design, we couple our CFD results with Finite Element Analysis through Fluid-Structure Interaction (FSI). For thermal problems that involve both fluid flow and solid conduction, see our dedicated heat transfer analysis services.

Have a fluid flow challenge? Let's talk.

Whether you need to troubleshoot an underperforming process, validate a new design concept or optimise flow distribution — our CFD specialists are ready to help you get the answers you need.

Get in touch for a free initial consultation. We will discuss your application, recommend the right simulation approach and provide you with a clear project proposal.

 Contact us  or call us at +32 478 618 118

Want to learn about CFD yourself? Have a look at our Introduction to Computational Fluid Dynamics course.

Frequently asked questions

Common questions about CFD analysis and flow simulation services.

Our core CFD platforms are Ansys Fluent and Ansys CFX, which between them cover the full range of flow problems we encounter. For wave and marine hydrodynamics we use Ansys Aqwa. We also rely on Matlab and Python for pre/post-processing, data analysis and automation of parametric studies. The choice of solver depends on the physics of your problem — we select the tool that delivers the most accurate and efficient solution for your specific application.

CFD is most valuable when you need full-field information (velocity, pressure and temperature everywhere in the domain), when physical access for sensors is limited, when you want to compare many design variants quickly, or when building a test rig would be too expensive or time-consuming. Physical testing remains important for final validation, but CFD ensures you arrive at the testing stage with a well-optimised design.

The accuracy of a CFD result depends on three main factors: the quality of the mesh, the choice of turbulence model and the accuracy of the boundary conditions. For well-understood flow regimes with good input data, CFD predictions typically agree with measurements within a few percent. For more complex flows (multiphase, reacting, highly turbulent), we validate the modelling choices carefully and communicate the expected accuracy range. In all cases, CFD reliably identifies trends, ranks design alternatives and locates problem areas.

A steady-state simulation calculates the time-averaged flow field — useful when the operating conditions are constant and you are interested in average pressures, velocities and temperatures. A transient simulation resolves the flow as it evolves over time, capturing phenomena like vortex shedding, pulsating flow, start-up behaviour, sloshing or mixing dynamics. Transient simulations are more computationally expensive, so we use them only when the time-dependent behaviour is relevant to your engineering question.

Yes. We simulate incompressible liquids (water, oil, non-Newtonian fluids), compressible gases (air, natural gas, steam) and multiphase flows where gas and liquid phases coexist — such as free-surface flows, cavitation, boiling, condensation and particle-laden flows. The physics and modelling approach differ for each, and we select the right methods based on your specific application.

We need the geometry of the flow domain (CAD of the surrounding solid parts is usually sufficient — we extract the fluid volume), the fluid properties, the operating conditions (flow rates, pressures, temperatures at inlets and outlets) and a description of what you want to learn from the simulation. If you have experimental data from an existing setup, that is very useful for validating the model.

A single steady-state simulation with clean geometry can be completed in one to two weeks. Projects involving transient simulations, multiphase flow, rotating machinery or parametric studies typically take three to six weeks. The main factors are geometry complexity, the number of operating conditions to evaluate and whether the CAD needs significant preparation before meshing.