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Spinoff story
Software Opens Computational Fluid Dynamics to the Uninitiated
A real-world story of NASA technology finding a life beyond the mission.
About this technology
Overview
Following a 1999 SBIR contract with Ames Research Center, Sukra Helitek Inc. released its Rot3DC program to model air flows generated by aircraft rotors. A series of additional NASA and military SBIR contracts for the Ames, Iowa-based company, including seven more from Ames, has resulted in RotCFD_short for rotor computational fluid dynamics. The software simplifies the esoteric and time-consuming work of modeling how rotorcraft designs would move the air around them, opening the field of CFD to students and NASA engineers alike.