The backlog of CFD news is shrinking but old news doesn’t imply dull news. For example, AI, machine learning, and quantum computing all make an appearance this week. And there’s more hardware news than normal, probably because of the recent SC18 event. [Why did they stop calling it Supercomputing?] And we start with this very cool image from CFD Consultants of heating, mesh, and geometry in an engine compartment.

Science Fiction*

• CFDers Zenotech and AI experts AlgoLib are bringing together their respective expertise and applying AI to mesh generation, building on a prediction that machine learning will be the next big leap in meshing.
• Airbus announced the Quantum Computing Challenge and its CFD component: “This challenge aims to show how established CFD simulations can be run using a quantum computing algorithm or in a hybrid quantum-traditional way for faster problem solving.” You must register to get the details.

Section 1

• AI, CFD, and ventilation systems. [In which we read that “It is a human right to breathe clean air.”]
• From the Journal of Open Source Education comes CFD Python: the 12 steps to Navier-Stokes equations.
• The Numeca User Meeting 2019 will be held in Brussels on 12-14 November 2019. They are currently accepting abstracts and also offering a discount to all who register before 31 December.
• Engineers Rule offers a white paper extolling the benefits of virtual prototyping and simulation: Tackling Complex Engineering Challenges.

Here’s a NASA CFD simulation using OVERFLOW of a side-by-side rotor air taxi showing the vortex interactions of the intermeshed rotors. Image from nasa.gov. 

Section 2

• CFD Consultants GmbH is offering a workshop on Development of CFD Simulation Models on 12 December. That’s there image above at the top of this article.
• Oracle’s cloud now has new AMD E-series “compute instances” based on their EPYC CPU that are said to be well suited for CFD applications. [I know I’m not a hardware guy but this is the first time I’ve seen the term “compute instance.]
• Speaking of AMD, their EPYC CPUs will be at the core of a system to go online in 2020 at the High Performance Computing Center at the University of Stuttgart and deliver 24 petaflops.
• Rescale was recognized by HPCwire as Best HPC in the Cloud Platform.

I think I’ve shown these products here before but because we’re in the midst of gift-giving season it’s only natural to point you to the Bao Bao Issey Miyake Prism Flat Pouch, available in several colors for only $250.  Image from bloomingdales.com. 

Section 3

• LincoSim is a virtual towing tank that uses CFD in the cloud for design of ship hulls.
• Check out this teaser video for ANSYS’ patent-pending Mosaic meshing. [I mean, like wow – that’s a high end production.]
• scSTREAM and scFLOW v14.1 were released by Software Cradle.
• ParaView 5.6.0 was released as was ParaView Glance 3.0.
• An NVIDIA DGX-2 required only 20 minutes to compute two days of weather.

CFD for simulation of wind in urban environments.

Meshing on Paper

Remember sketching meshes and topologies on paper as part of your planning process? I do. So I find Matthew Shlian’s folded paper tessellations absolutely amazing, especially the shadows cast by their three-dimensionality.

Originally seen on Colossal, you’ll also like some of the other works that look like CFD flow visualizations. On the artist’s website I loved this statement: “I have a unique way of misunderstanding the world that helps me see things often overlooked.” [I wish misunderstanding worked out as well for me given everything that I don’t grok.]

Matthew Shlian, ARA 333 Hollow. Image from Colossal. See links above.

*This heading is deliberately provocative and intended to spark discussion and debate. There are times when people complain about meshing and I think, “What the hell, let’s give robots a crack at it.”