Consistency in CFD Setup is Key - Create Reliable Results

Ever noticed how tweaking your mesh recipe or adjusting solver settings can send your CFD results in unexpected directions? As any CFD engineer knows, maintaining consistency in CFD is a challenge we’ve all faced, especially when juggling long-term projects or collaborating with multiple engineers. Moreover, getting everyone to use the same settings can feel like herding cats!

Fortunately, that’s why we built bramble, with consistency in CFD in-mind. It automatically maintains your CFD settings throughout your project and alerts you if something doesn’t match up. In fact, you can think of it as your trusty guardian, keeping your simulations consistent and your team aligned.

Template cases and locking

Users can create template cases in bramble. These contain all the CFD settings required to run a simulation, (such as mesh recipe and boundary conditions), within a single input deck.

When a simulation is created, engineers can simply select which template case they want to use. The idea being that an experienced CFD engineer can define a template case that is then provided to other users.

Once a template case has been used in a simulation it is locked. No further changes can be made to this template, nor can it be deleted. This guarantees that as long as this template is used, it will produce a consistent CFD setup, regardless of who is running the simulation.

locked template case, creating consistency

Spot changes easily

Of course, a user may select the wrong template case or create a new template case with an updated recipe. Thankfully, bramble will flag this change making it clear to users that, firstly, the template case is different to the baseline and secondly flagging what has changed in the mesh recipe.

The former is highlighted in the CFD Setup tab, while the latter will trigger a failure during the pre-check stage of the lifecycle. This prevents errors from propagating and ensures that everyone is always aware of deviations from the standard setup.

Changed CFD Setup, key to maintaining consistency in CFD

The Importance of Consistency

Maintaining consistency is more than just an operational convenience, it has a direct impact on the quality and reliability of your results. In motorsport, where small aerodynamic differences can influence lap times, even minor variations in solver settings or mesh resolution can skew comparisons between runs.

Consistency also simplifies collaboration. When multiple engineers are working on a single car model, locked templates and automated alerts reduce the risk of miscommunication or accidental misconfiguration. This not only saves time but also strengthens confidence that simulation results are comparable and reproducible across the team.

Engineers can be confident that changes in results are due to intentional modifications, such as geometry updates or boundary condition tweaks, and not inconsistencies in the setup.

So there you have it: consistency is key when running CFD simulations. bramble’s template case and locking features don’t just enforce standardisation, they empower teams to work faster, collaborate more effectively, and trust that their results are accurate and reproducible.