I’m Faranggis Bagheri and This Is How I Mesh

I was born in Tehran, the capital of Iran in 1983. I received my Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Yazd University in the beautiful city of Yazd, which has a history of over 5,000 years with unique Persian architecture. After that I decided to pursue my studies abroad. In 2008, I moved to Sweden and started studying in an international Master’s program in Engineering Mechanics at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm, and I was sure that I would continue on to earn my PhD, but it never ended up happening! After I received my Master’s degree I accepted a temporary position as a consultant at Scania (November 2010 – March 2011) and I have stayed in the industrial world since.

I joined FS Dynamics Sweden AB as a CFD Engineer in April of 2011 and worked there for 3 and half years performing CFD simulations for different customers. In October 2014, I accepted a position with Go Virtual Nordic AB, and it was there I got to know Pointwise for the first time. Currently, I am working at Go Virtual as the software support manager. Go Virtual distributes and supports Pointwise in Sweden, Norway and Denmark. The company also provides regional sales and support for the post-processing program, FieldView (by Intelligent Light) and METACOMP Technologies’ suite of CFD software products.

Location: Stockholm, Sweden

• Current position: Software Support Manager
• Current computer: HP Zbook 17 G2 Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4710MQ CPU @ 2.50GHz 2.50GHz
• One word that best describes how you work: Multitasker

What software or tools do you use every day?

I use Microsoft Outlook for managing my emails, and I have Firefox as my default browser. I use GoToMeeting a few times per week, and I can totally recommend it as an online meeting solution. I also use Word & PowerPoint for reporting and presentations.

I use programmer’s notepad as my programming text editor. And, of course, I use Pointwise, CFD++ (METACOMP’s CFD solver), and FieldView very often.

What does your workspace look like?

Go Virtual’s headquarters is located in Gothenburg in Sweden. I work at the Stockholm office which is a small office located to the north of Stockholm.

What do you see are the biggest challenges facing CFD in the next 5 years?

As CFD tools are becoming more capable and complex, while at the same time more user-friendly, focus is shifting from being less technical to more about learning to use the tools. However, the underlying physics and fluid dynamics knowledge will still be the most important requirement for setting up a CFD simulation and supporting the tools. It might be a challenge for companies to make sure that both support teams and end-users are sufficiently educated to perform proper CFD simulations.

I also think automating the generation of high quality meshes, especially structured meshes, are challenges that I believe CFD will deal with in the near future.

What are you currently working on?

I am preparing customized training courses for an existing customer that is transitioning from Gridgen to Pointwise and from Glyph to Glyph2. I am also preparing a customized presentation for a prospective customer in hydraulics, who is interested in hex-dominant meshes.

What would you say is your meshing specialty?

My primary experience is with multi-block structured meshing. I am improving my scripting skills as I have seen how powerful it can be to speed up the meshing process.

Any tips for our users?

It can often be painful to learn to use a new piece of software, but it becomes easier with time and practice. There are a lot of materials available for learning more about Pointwise. They are very practical and helpful aids for users to learn about many of the features within Pointwise without requiring too much of users’ time. Let’s Talk Meshing’s webinars, webcasts, Tutorial Tuesday videos, The Connector newsletter articles, and Another Fine Mesh blog posts greatly expedite learning about, and improving upon, users’ existing skill with Pointwise.

What project are you most proud of and why?

A few months ago we had a prospective customer who was interested in multi-block meshing in Pointwise. They asked for an evaluation license and a one-day training session at the beginning of the evaluation period, so that I could guide them through how to mesh a rather complicated geometry. I had to plan the training to be simple enough for a new Pointwise user, but at the same time give them all of the knowledge to create a fully structured multi-block mesh for their geometry. I tried to find the simplest step-by-step process to create a suitable mesh for their geometry. I went through the steps myself again and again before presenting them to the customer. Everything worked as I had planned, and they managed to create the mesh they needed in their first week of their evaluation period.

What CFD solver and postprocessor do you use most often?

At Go Virtual, besides Pointwise, we are also a distributor of CFD++ and FieldView. So I use these two software programs often.

Are you reading any interesting technical papers we should know about?

The most recent paper I read is about ventilation design in operation rooms which I found very interesting: “Three distinct surgical clothing systems in a turbulent mixing operating room equipped with mobile ultraclean laminar airflow screen: A numerical evaluation”

Do you plan on attending any conferences or workshops this year?

I am going to attend the Pointwise Distributors Meeting and Pointwise User Group Meeting in Fort Worth, Texas that will be held between September 20^th and the 23^rd, 2016. Nothing else is planned as of yet!

What do you do outside the world of CFD?

I enjoy running outside and practice yoga a couple of times per week. I am in love with the Swedish tradition of “fika”: You take a break and have a coffee/tea with a friend or a colleague. I often go for a “fika” with a friend after work in one of the cozy cafés in Stockholm.

What is some of the best CFD advice you’ve ever received?

The best advice I’ve received is to “double-check” everything. It doesn’t matter how certain you are that you have gone through each step correctly. You should patiently double-check everything. To set up a CFD simulation from start to finish, one needs to go through several steps, and a small mistake in-between can have unforeseen consequences.

The second best advice is to begin with a simplified version of your simulation and add complexity gradually.

If you had to pick a place to have dinner, where would you go?

I am vegetarian, and I am grateful that there are many vegetarian restaurants in Stockholm. My favorite one is the vegetarian buffet, called Herman, which has an amazing view over the city of Stockholm