Institution news
Q: Please briefly explain your role and how you use CFD?
Max Starr (MS): I am a CFD engineer within the team, which means developing then running simulations on aerodynamic and hydrodynamic models, and then reporting the results back to the designers interested in that component. However, as part of a small design team, people tend to do more than one role, meaning I have also done some of the designing as well.
Q: Are there any specific modelling challenges which arise in your sector or industry?
Max Starr (MS): Water! More specifically the air to water interface which can lead to much heavier requirements in terms of simulation cost, limiting the number of design candidates you can sweep through. On top of that, everything is physically being pushed to an extreme with these boats, pushing simulations further down a road of deeper complexity.
Q: What particular developments or new applications are you excited about for the next 5 years?
Max Starr (MS): Optimisation has been a buzz-word in computational simulation software for a while now, but I think that now that running CFD simulations on Cloud compute facilities has really matured, optimisation is going to become a real tool for designers to use. With the amount of research going into different optimisation tools, it is exciting to see what computers start finding as solutions to engineering problems in the future. As long as the human gets the objectives and constraints right!
Q: What are the key areas of focus for your presentation?
Max Starr (MS): I will be talking most about how we used CFD in the realm of designing an Americas Cup Sailing yacht. These boats sail almost straight into the wind and can do so at more than 4 times the wind speed, without any extra thrust being provided. But the rules defining these boats were quite wide and it was quite an engineering challenge. One key part of the rules was that no physical testing was allowed, placing greater importance on simulation; this is a point I aim to illustrate the use of in the presentation.
Q: Are there other speakers on the programme who you are particularly excited to hear from, and why?
Max Starr (MS): I am actually quite interested in most of the programme as I feel there is a lot that I will be able to learn from, but specifically I’m looking forward to the talk from James Tyacke. My experience in the last couple of Americas Cup cycles has taught me that working with a digital twin at only one scale is not entirely helpful, so it would be interesting to see his approach to this problem.
Q: What specifically are you hoping to get out of this seminar more generally?
Max Starr (MS): I’m looking forward to some of the talks where it would appear some of my recent personal questions on the use of CFD will be answered.
Next-Generation CFD seminar takes place online on 23 March 2021.
The growth of cloud computing technology is unlocking the potential to perform more processor intensive models and analysis including using machine learning. This one-day online seminar brings together the foremost practitioners from multiple industries and academia to showcase advanced CFD applications and the innovative technologies that are enabling greater complexity and speed.
For more information, full programme and to book your place to get involved, please visit the event website.