The James Weir Fluids Laboratory at the University of Strathclyde exists to explore the fundamental flow physics that facilitates new fluids technologies underpinning energy, sustainability, nanotechnology, health, and transport. To do this, we have developed simulation tools to enable researchers and industry to test new concepts, products and designs; we have experimental platforms for microfluidics and complex fluids; and we are skilled in industrial computational fluid dynamics on local and national high-performance computers.
An open source Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) code for general application in rarefied gas flows. This new DSMC code, called dsmcFoam, has been written within the framework of the open source C++ CFD toolbox OpenFOAM. The main features of dsmcFoam code include the capability to perform both steady and transient solutions, to model arbitrary 2D/3D geometries, reacting flows and unlimited parallel processing.
external linkAn open source Molecular Dynamics (MD) code for general application to micro- or nano-scale gas and liquid flows of molecular fluids. This software has been developed within the framework of OpenFOAM to be applied in a similar way to computational fluid dynamics for engineering fluid systems. Various molecular models, control of fluid properties, and boundary conditions for arbitrary system geometries are implemented. The software runs efficiently on CPU computer platforms in parallel, and is accelerated on mixed CPU/GPU platforms.
A flow simulation code uses the standard lattice Boltzmann method and discrete velocity method. The Multiscale ImageDS code is specifically designed to capture complex flow physics in porous media. This multi-level parallelised code can enable massive computations to reveal how rarefaction and confinement affect flow behaviour in porous media, and provides key information such as effective permeability for upscaling.
We have extensive experience in using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) for research and industrial applications. We use a primarily use OpenFOAM, an open source CFD software package, but are also skilled in using commercial software such as ANSYS Fluent and work with a proprietary code for simulating the flows of viscoelastic fluids. We have developed CFD expertise in simulation of rotating machinery such as pumps, turbines in multiphase environments and micro/nano flows.
We have recently expanded our Microfluidics and Rheology Lab, where we are exploring the unique physics of complex fluids in miniaturized systems. The lab has now installed capabilities for fluid characterisation (shear and extensional rheology and contact angle measurement) and flow characterisation at the micro-scale (microscopy, CCD cameras and high speed camera).
Engineering Faculty High Performance Computer: 1,088 computing cores, with 100TB high performance disk storage area, and a peak performance of almost 13 TeraFlops.
ARCHIE-WeSt: a £1.6M EPSRC-funded supercomputer centre based in the University. The computer comprises 3500 CPU cores with 130TB of parallel storage, alongside eight 448-core Nvidia GPU servers. Peak performance is 38 Teraflops.
HECToR: a world-class supercomputer funded by the UK Research Councils, used by academics and industry in the UK and Europe.
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