February 2024 Program: PID + CFD = A-OK

PID + CFD = A-OK

Wayne Strasser, PhD, PE

Location: Virtual and In-Person – Microsoft Teams or B150 Auditorium (2nd floor)

Thursday, February 8, 2024

Speaker: 12 PM to 1 PM

Pizza will be provided for those attending in person and will be served from 11:30 AM to 12 PM

Abstract

Unsteady computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models, whose chaos is driven by fluid instabilities, often require excessive solution times. These solution durations are comprised of: first, overcoming startup transients caused by numerical challenges; second, developing the thermal-fluidic character to reach realistic flow physics; and third, gathering sufficient time-averaged data for answering the essential question: “Is the model done?” We demonstrate dramatic CFD solution time reduction for two globally unsteady systems via the incorporation of physically coupled, but programmatically independent, proportional, integral, and derivative (PID) controllers. One of the examples involves a novel transonic pulsating viscous fluid atomizer, while the other deals with an industrial-scale polymerization reactor. For the latter, we show additional solution time reduction by the inclusion of fuzzy logic into the PID controllers. The overall theme is to lay the groundwork for future inclusion of AI into our CFD automation.

Wayne Strasser, PhD, PE

Professor

Liberty University

Before entering academia, Wayne provided computational solutions to problems related to fluids, chemical reactions, and phase change for various global industry partners for 25 years, resulting in increased energy utilization and improved product yield valued at tens of millions (USD) annually. Much of that time was spent with Eastman Chemical Company in Kingsport, TN. He has 38 patents in the US, plus those abroad. He is an ASME Fellow, an Executive Director of Industrial Relations for ASTFE, and operates a private CFD consulting company. He previously chaired the ASME Fluid Applications and Systems Technical Committee, the ASME Honors and Awards Committee, and the ASME Fluid Mechanics Technical Committee. He is also an Associate Editor for multiple international journals and actively reviews articles for those and a dozen others. Along with developing/teaching undergraduate and graduate engineering courses, he and his graduate student team now provide research support for a myriad of industry and government partners.