Why hire a CFD consultant?

What do CFD, sushi & flat-white coffees all have in common? Stay tuned.

Had I written this 5-10 years ago I would’ve only needed one overarching reason to hire a CFD consultant - “you can’t do it yourself”. Small businesses didn’t have the resources to do CFD. They didn’t have the compute power. They didn’t have the software. They didn’t have the time to make it happen. And they definitely didn’t have the energy for the software-vendor sales dance. But today most of these are no longer major barriers to entry (except perhaps for time — who has a surplus of that?).

You could do your own CFD — no arguments — you have a whole host of options.

The quickest? You could log onto a cloud CFD platform right now & be simulating something within the hour.

The cheapest? You could install an open-source CFD code for free & start that journey.

The best? No idea, it depends what you’re looking to simulate.

So, who needs a CFD consultant if you can do it yourself?. What value does a consultant bring to the party?

Let’s rewind to the days when you couldn’t do CFD yourself. The value of the CFD consultant was in their hardware, software, tools & experience. They had it all & you didn’t. But now, you can access the hardware, software & tools instantly. So, the consultant must add value through their insight. Today’s CFD consultant is part technician & part business coach — that’s why they ask so many questions. But why exactly do you need one as part of your team?

Just a note: If you are already doing your own CFD you can probably stop about here. You won’t find out about the flat white & sushi thing though.

You need someone to say “No”

Some ideas won’t work. For example, adding golf ball dimples won’t reduce the drag on everything. That’s not to say that you shouldn’t try as many wacky ideas as you can. But sometimes you might have got the wrong end of the fluid dynamic stick. Unfortunately, these misconceptions can end up as the basis of your next big idea. You need someone to spot them & tell you (gently) before you get too excited about them.

You need someone to say “what if…?”

At the other end of the spectrum, perhaps you’re just not thinking big enough? If you’ve been staring at a problem for a long time it can be difficult to see past it. Your prospective consultant doesn’t have that same mental baggage. They don’t have your historical perspective that can block out new ideas. A combination of your context, their “what if?” and a few experiments could make for a real breakthrough.

You need an exit

What if CFD isn’t a great fit for your company? Sometimes that can be obvious from the get go. But sometimes it only becomes clear after you’ve done your first project. But what if you’ve invested in hardware, software & training to get to that point? The sunk costs are going to make it painful to abandon. By doing a pilot study with a consultant you will pick up valuable insights into your product or problem. If that value doesn’t exceed the cost of the consulting then there’s no reason to carry on spending. The consultant’s job is to make sure that value is high.

You need to get on with it

Maybe you’ve just realised that you’ve been missing out? Perhaps more likely, your competitors have been developing faster than you using simulation tools. Either way, it’s time to get started. As the saying goes:

The on-ramp for getting yourself started with CFD can be pretty long. Software, hardware and consulting are all notorious for long sales cycles. But it doesn’t have to be this way. The quickest way to some results is to do it yourself. The quickest way to actionable results that can help move your product forward is most likely with the help of a consultant.

You need more resources

Do you have the resources to do this yourselves? This is no longer a discussion about CFD resources. It doesn’t matter if you have any hardware or software. This boils down to whether you & your team have the time. The time to make CFD a core competency. This includes the time to learn how to do it, what to do, what the results mean & what you can do with them. Does your team have the mental bandwidth to take it on?

You need some focus

CFD could be used almost everywhere. There aren’t too many applications that couldn’t benefit from improving how fluid flows either within or around them. If you’re doing it yourself, then what do you focus on when you could study anything? A decent consultant should be able to extract the highest payoff problems that you could address with CFD. They should also be able to bring the techniques, tools & tricks that will get you there as efficiently as possible.

A choice

It’s good that in today’s market you can do your own CFD. It’s even better that the resources available to you, also help me. It’s good to have a choice & to be able to take the route that suits you best.

But to bring it back around to my initial question. Maybe sushi, flat-white coffees & CFD aren’t that different after all? DIY is an option. But if you want the best outcome you’d be well advised to get a professional involved. Someone with great ingredients, the right tools, 10,000+ hours under their belt and a passion to deliver a great experience. Your choice.