Vasari Ecotect Wind Tunnel
Cool Product Report

While on a software theme for the Cool product (Maple math software featured last week), I ran across a demo for wind analysis software that architects and civil engineers use for predicting building structural loads, wind velocity at street level (recall stories of gale-force winds generated between tall buildings due to venturi effect), land erosion, and more. Both 2-D and 3-D simulations are possible. Vasari Ecotect Wind Tunnel color-coded graphs look a lot like many of the finite element analysis (FEA) and computational fluid dynamics (CFD), vector field plots that we are accustomed to seeing for electric and magnetic field analysis, thermal maps, and load stress analysis on mechanical structures. It is no coincidence since many of the equations and techniques are either exactly the same or are very closely related. Recall in physics and circuit analysis classes how often mechanical analogies were used for explaining electrical principles, and vice versa. This is actually part of Autodesk's Project Vasari which was created specifically to analyze conceptual building layouts.

AWR's Axiem software generates vector diagrams for electromagnetic fields surrounding conductors in a similar manner (left image).

The image to the right is Remcom's Wireless InSite. It looks a lot like the Wind Tunnel software in that it models fields surrounding and even through buildings in an urban environment. The difference is that Wireless InSite projects EM fields rather than wind fields. Anyone in the wireless network planning business might want to look into this software since it appears to include multipath effects on signal integrity.

Vasari Ecotect Wind Tunnel

CST (Computer Simulation Technology) is another familiar program for analyzing electromagnetic fields. It is often seen being used for SAR (Specific A Radiation) studies of human body parts (heads, hands, reproductive organs, etc.).

Posted May 16, 2012