Just in Time for Halloween, Bats and Pumpkins Invade CFD and 3D Printing

A #SimulationFriday participant on Twitter shares the outcome of a Halloween-inspired CFD session.

This week, members of the CFD community on Twitter known for their #SimulationFriday showdowns decided to launch another timely hashtag: #SimulationHalloween.

Patrick Hanley, an aerospace engineer and owner of Hanley Innovations, used Stallion 3D, an aerodynamic CFD program he developed, to simulate airflow around a bat. What insight did he gain from this study? He tweeted, "[The bats] tend to have lower wing loadings and higher aspect ratio."

#simulationhalloween of soaring bat using Stallion 3D. Interesting article about soring bats: http://t.co/QegBRDDcjp pic.twitter.com/okBlHDvLmX

— Patrick Hanley, PhD (@pat_hanley) October 31, 2013

Matteo Vettori from the engineering firm e-FEM joined in by simulating how an oversize pumpkin affects a crane in midas NFX. The fun exercise led to a meeting with the crane design team to discuss possible improvements, he tweeted. He also uses the same setup for a four-hour instruction on the basics of FEA.

Just in Time! RT @matteovettori: This #pumpkin looks heavy for that crane! #SimulationHalloween #SimulationFriday pic.twitter.com/M6y0hwS3Zf

— e-FEM srl (@eFEMsrl) November 1, 2013

The ghoulish spirit also spills into Instructables (now part of Autodesk by acquisition). Among the site's do-it-yourself projects is this lantern featuring spider webs, a sinister cat, and a haunted house, complete with downloadable files for 3D printing the panels.

At MakerBot's Thingiverse, someone uploaded STL files to print a pumpkin warrior wielding an axe.

Two years ago, Kormite SUGAS, a CAD-tutorial channel on YouTube, posted a video clip showing how you might use SolidWorks to simulate a pumpkin tossed from a medieval-style catapult. It's unclear if the simulation result was ever confirmed with a physical test.

So what is your Halloween-inspired CAD/CAM/CAE project? C'mom, give us a good scare if you can!