Mentor Graphics Acquired Flowmaster
Mentor Graphics announced its acquisition of the Flowmaster Group, “a global leader in 1D computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation software.” Flowmaster’s products will be added to Mentor Graphics’ portfolio which includes FloEFD and FloTHERM.
[I don’t mean to sound elitist, but the phrase “1D CFD” seems to be straining credulity a bit. That’s not to say the products aren’t good, just that they might be euphemistically categorized.]
- Mentor Graphics’ announcement
NURBS and CAD: 30 Years Together
Russian PLM website isicad’s article NURBS and CAD: 30 Years Together is a very nice history of the technology behind the geometry in your CAD system. A Non-Uniform Rational B-Spline (NURBS) is the mathematical foundation of surface geometry in virtually all CAD systems. The article also touches briefly on subdivision surfaces. Because CAD geometry can be the bane of the mesh generator’s (and therefore the CFDer’s) existence, it’s worth knowing something about what goes on under the hood.
[Until reading this article I was woefully unaware of my alma mater’s contributions to this field. Steven Coons taught at Syracuse University and two of his students were Ken Versprille (NURBS) and Rich Riesenfeld (B-Splines).]
- NURBS and CAD
- www.cadhistory.net (an unrelated but equally interesting read)
Applications & Other News
- CD-adapco’s STAR-CCM+ helps keep Princess Cruises‘ ships properly trimmed.
- Altair has rebranded themselves.
- Cadillac used CFD to develop a new combustion system for the Cadillac ATS.
- ACMA expanded their “virtual tow tank” CFD capabilities for marine CFD including STAR-CCM+.
- Symscape weighs in on the “missing middle” in HPC. [I am interested in your thoughts on integrated versus unbundled CFD tools.]
Oil and Water Don’t Mix – Unless You Use a Blender
PopSci proves that you can mix oil and water if you use a two horsepower blender and film the result at 1,500 frames per second as shown in this video.
Slow motion video of oil and water mixing. Click for video.
Happy Friday the 13th
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So many people (Bob Haimes in particular) want to know why you didn’t show at the AIAA ASM?
First of all, thank you. It’s nice to be missed. Second, we did send Travis, one of our freshest and brightest engineers. I figured youth and optimism would be a nice change from my escalating decrepitude. Third, I’ll have no excuse next January when Aerospace Sciences is here in the DFW area – more specifically, the city of Grapevine which is really close to my house.
P.S. Tell Bob that I missed him too.