Events

• The agenda for next month’s COFES (Congress on the Future of Engineering Software) has been announced and includes 2.5 hours dedicated to reviewing and moving forward with the issues identified during January’s Analysis, Simulation, and Systems Engineering Software Summit (ASSESS).
• Altair announced the keynote speakers for the 2015 Americas Altair Technology Conference.
• The International Conference on Fan Noise, Technology, and Numerical Methods will be held 15-17 April 2015 in Lyon, France.

Come for the cool images. Stay to learn about random dense packings. Image copyright (c) 2006 pack-any-shape.com. Click image for website.

Software

• simFlow announced RapidCFD: OpenFOAM running on the GPU.
• MSC Software announced the “Cheetah” release of MSC Apex, their next-generation CAE platform. This release includes, among other things, improvements to geometry modeling and meshing on which “55% of engineers spend more than 40% of their time.” [That has to be an FEA-centric view because I bet if you asked CFDers the percentage would be more like 75% of their time.]
• Autodesk has made Project Harmony, an automatic mesher for Moldflow, freely available through Autodesk Labs.
• Pixar’s RenderMan is now freely available for non-commercial use. [I know, not really CFD. Just really interesting.]
• Creative Fields offers cfSuite, a GUI environment for OpenFOAM.
• Does it make sense to run CAD on mobile devices? This free report from Lifecycle Insights delves into this issue. [This is of interest to me because we’ve put Pointwise on a Windows tablet.]
• CFD Support launched a suite of Paraview plugins for turbomachinery, Turbo Blade Post.
• MixIT is Tridiagonal’s new analysis software for stirred tanks.

Applications

SABIC’s CFD-designed and 3D-printed roof reduces drag. Image from pddnet.com. See link below.

• SABIC used CFD to help design and 3D printing to help manufacturer a prototype roof that reduces vehicle drag by 6%, and important step toward meeting emission standards to be set in mid-2016.
• Peterbilt used CFD to achieve 14% fuel efficiency improvements on one of their latest truck models.
• Comparison of CFD-Based Simulation of External Fuel Tank Separation to Flight Test, co-authored by Pointwise’s John Dreese. [available for purchase from AIAA]
• Improving air disperser performance with CFD.
• CFD was used to gain insight into vortex-induced motion of oil rigs and other offshore floating structures.
• Velocite, CFD, and design of the latest model of Syn aero road bike.
• CFD for design of air intake and exhaust systems for wind farm service vessels.
• By using CFD to understand the airflow in S-ducts, researchers at Virginia Tech have 3D printed the StreamVane, a distortion reducer tailored to the flowfield. [Propulsion CFD is where I started my career so I have a fondness for this type of stuff. I remember examining CFD results for compressor face distortion for the F-16’s inlet duct.]

Researchers at Virginia Tech are using CFD to study airflow distortion in serpentine ducts. Image from Aerospace America. See link above.

Anything But Blithe

Part photographer, part painter, artist Birgit Blyth has mastered the photographic technique called chromoskedasic painting. Drawing an analogy with painter Morris Louis, Blyth brings process and content together in a unique way. Like painter Callum Innes, Blyth evolves the grid motif into something quite organic and sensual. And unlike a grid generator for CFD, the analog process seems to be winning the battle over the digital design.

Birgit Blyth, Grid No. 1, 2014

Bonus: As submitted by an alert reader, geometric animal street art.