Patent ID: 7574339

Claim:
A method for simulating fluid flow in a cavity of arbitrary shape, comprising: a. receiving digital data describing walls of a 3D model cavity; b. partitioning a portion of the model cavity into a plurality of 3D macrocells, each macrocell having at least one contact area with at least one proximate cavity wall, and at least one macrocell being neither a flat element nor a cylindrical element; c. for each macrocell, (i) computing, at each of a plurality of values of depth δ, values of a shape function representing the volume of a portion of the macrocell consisting of those points such that the minimum distance from each point to a respective nearest wall exceeds δ, and (ii) assigning a plurality of discretized model equations, adapted to governing a simulated evolution of the fluid, including a model equation having at least one coefficient derived from the shape function; and d. running a simulation using the discretized model equations to produce a plurality of model flow variables at a plurality of times within the simulation and storing a data structure representing a model flow variable in a digital storage device, wherein the step of running the simulation is performed using a digital computer.