Lubricating mechanical components such as gears, bearings and pumps is vital in mechanical engineering. It helps reduce friction and wear, ensuring efficiency and reliability. However, accurately predicting the behaviour of lubricants inside complex systems remains challenging — a challenge that is being overcome by modern Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) methods.

Researcher Lorenzo Maccioni and Professor Franco Concli from the Faculty of Engineering have recently been recognised for their contribution to this field. Their most recent paper, “Meshing Strategies for CFD Simulations of Lubricated Mechanical Components in Open-Source Software”, was awarded the Best Paper Award in Methodologies and Strategies based on Graphical Engineering by the organising committee of the 34th INGEGRAF International Conference in Graphical Engineering that took place from June 25^th to 27^th in Seville. The conference brought together experts and academics working in the engineering design field.

In their award-winning paper, Maccioni and Concli review advanced meshing techniques for CFD simulations, focusing on open-source solutions. These strategies are crucial to realistically model how lubricants interact with moving machine parts, from rotating gears to rolling element bearings. The study not only maps out the strengths and weaknesses of various approaches but also highlights best practices for selecting the right strategy depending on system complexity and computational requirements.