ESI Releases CFD-ACE+ v2007.2

By DE Editors

ESI Group (Chicago, IL) released version 2007.2 of CFD-ACE+, its multiphysics modeling software. TheV2007.2 release supplements the October 2006 release of V2007.0 with product enhancements and more than 50 maintenance requests. The shorter development cycle is implemented to enable ESI Group’s customers to take advantage of the new features and their benefits immediately.

Simulation of turbo machinery such as fans, compressors, and pumps has long been a challenge because their inherent design of moving and stationery components requires them to be solved under a computationally expensive transient condition. CFD-ACE+  V2007.2 uses Multiple Reference Frame (MRF) to solve turbo characteristics in a steady state manner without the need to physically rotate the parts. This advancement provides quick and accurate results to evaluate design alternatives before building the physical prototype.

Volume of Free Surfaces (VOF) for unstructured meshes eliminates the requirement of structured mesh for complex geometries. The automatic nature of the techniques used to create unstructured meshes saves users time and effort, speeding uptime to solution (since in many cases an unstructured mesh contains many fewer cells than the corresponding hexahedral grid). This feature will benefit users of free surface applications in large-scale applications where surface tension is not important, such as the marine and consumer packaging industries.

Fast Time Stepping Scheme, a major solver enhancement, allows faster solution for complex and expensive transient problems. This scheme precludes multiple global iterations (the iterations wrapped around the entire set of equations) within each time-step. Instead, a number of sub-iterations are performed on individual equations followed by a single global iteration to obtain a solution. Using one global iteration rather than tens or hundreds drastically reduces the amount of CPU time needed for each time-step.

Among other additional functionalities, V2007.2 offers electrochemistry improvements for electroplating and fuel cell applications; enhancement in electromagnetic user subroutines for semiconductor customers; the addition of Detached EddySimulation (DES) and v2f turbulence models; and a new transition turbulence model for more accuracy with transitional flows.

For further information on CFD-ACE+ V2007.2, visit www.esi-group.com.

Sources:  Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.