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Elster Kromschroeder images

Company:	Elster Kromschroeder GmbH
Industry:	Gas
Application:	Valve model
MCAD System:	CoCreate OneSpace Modeling

Elster Kromschroeder makes it possible to use natural gas economically, safely and in an environmentally-friendly way. As global market leader for bellows gas meters, the company portfolio covers gas meters for domestic households and commercial premises, safety valves and controller components for heating systems as well as systems for measuring and controlling industrial heating processes.

The product development team at Elster Kromschroeder has used CFdesign upfront CFD for 10 years. “Due to our consistent success, today all gas-using devices at Elster Kromschroeder are developed by CFdesign," explains development engineer Klaus Midding.

Finding the Right Tool
"While searching for an adequate CFD software for Kromschroeder we tested six different packages on our reference model," said Midding. "In particular the transfer of native geometry data from the CoCreate OneSpace Modeller was an important requirement. A second important aspect was CFdesign´s automated solution strategy under complex conditions. Using most of the competitive tools we found the engineer had to steer the solution process by means of carefully approximating flow medium manually. Thirdly, our test bench comparison was in good agreement with CFdesign. Given these three factors combined with a much more attractive cost of ownership, CFdesign emerged as our optimal solution."

Engineering Without a Complete Picture
Prior to the implementation of CFdesign, flow optimization in gas using components stood in the background. Of course the design was tested on their characteristics in test benches. To improve the design they usually relied on the engineer's experience. But there was often no definitive knowlegde about what’s happening inside the valve, flaps and control systems since these areas were not visible at the test bench.

The Power of Upfront CFD
Midding and other product developers at Kromschroeder quickly discovered the importance of using CFdesign to conduct early evaluation studies of possible approaches under consideration. New ideas and candidate designs can be compared on efficiency within a short time. Applying this procedure the single accuracy of the results doesn’t come to the fore, since all models contain still comparable approximations at this time. Before implementing CFdesign the engineers would have to build several physical prototypes to achieve similar evaluations. In this phase of product development however physical prototypes are unprofitable, time-intensive, and therefore inconceivable. As our designs approach the production-ready stage we need precise simulation results

“Today we focus on effiency of the gas containing components upfront in the process," mentioned Midding. “CFdesign allows us to see the effects of geometry changes by adjsuting the model in CoCreate OneSpace Modeling or CoCreate OneSpace Drafting. Our integrated process taps the potential of a higher number of evaluated solutions and brings the most effective one to production in a much shorter time. Often only one physical prototype is sufficient for validating the construction.”

Collaboration is Key
Midding says the flow simulation results from CFdesign make sense to non-CFD specialists. This means the whole engineering team profits from the simulation results, even if they don't have education or experience with FEA or CFD.