What CFD application would require 10 quadrillion mesh points? That and more is included in this week’s CFD news. In addition to the usual, cool applications of CFD and software releases, there seem to be quite a few job openings in the CFD world. And you’ll probably want to listen to a panel discussion on use of HPC to accelerate CFD. Shown here is a Fluent simulation of drag on an electric car. BTW, what do you think of ANSYS’ new logo?

Navier-Stokes

• Quartz magazine obsesses on the Navier-Stokes equations.
  • “The most important, unsolved problem in classical physics.”
  • 10 quadrillion grid points would be needed to accurately simulate turbulent flow around the wing of an aircraft. [I’ve never heard of anyone even jokingly refer to a quadrillion grid points let alone 10 of them.]
  • “Advanced guessing” is one technique used to understand fluid turbulence.

Software

• preCISE v2.0.0 was released. (“preCICE stands for Precise Code Interaction Coupling Environment. Its main component is a library that can be used by simulation programs to be coupled together in a partitioned way, enabling multi-physics simulations, such as fluid-structure interaction.”)
• The Computer Animation Group at RWTH Aachen has released SplishSplash [Sorry but I developed arthritis in my fingers just trying to type the mixed case they use.], an open-source SPH fluids simulator.
• GridPro v7.0 was released.
• ParaView 5.8.0 was released.
• Simerics has launched an early release program for their Rhino Flow RT.

Events

• The International Conference on Geometric Modeling and Processing will be held in Okinawa on 13-15 May 2020.
• Isogeometric Analysis 2020 will be held in Banff on 18-21 October. Abstracts are due by 30 April.
• The PyFR Symposium 2020 will be held in London on 19 June.
• You have until 30 April to submit an entry for the inaugural MSC Nastran Excellence Award.

I just love the idea of being able to use CFD to simulate driving your car into water. This image is from siemens.com for their on-demand webinar Designing Underbody Components Using Leading Wading Simulation Methods. [Ask me about the time I was in a rental car with water up to the windshield.]

Hodge-Podge

• Investigation of Particle Dynamics and Classification Mechanism in a Spiral Jet Mill Through CFD and DEM.
• Here’s Visualizing Data’s best of the visualization web for December 2019.
• Listen to a recording of a panel discussion from the Converge User Conference on the topic of Scaling CFD with High Performance Computing.
• Tech Clarity wants to know how companies are leveraging the cloud for product development. Go ahead and take their survey.

From the technology preview of SOLIDWORKS 2021 we see improvements in non-planar contact and more. Image from solidworks.com.

CFD for…

• Dirty water pumps.
• urban planning.
• the Mac Pro. [OK, not for the Mac Pro but on the Mac Pro.]
• the Actros truck cab.
• F-1.
• electric cars.

What are your thoughts on the new ANSYS logo?

Jobs

• Pointwise has an immediate opening for a Software Engineer.
• TU Delft seeks someone for a PhD position focused on automating CFD simulations of  urban flowfields.
• TLG Aerospace seeks a CFD Engineer.
• Students, you have until 10 March to respond to the RFP for AIAA’s design competitions.
• FieldView CFD has open positions for a Software Developer, a Business Development Manager, and a Software Technical Support Engineer.
• Argonne National Lab has an opening for a PostDoc in machine learning for multi-phase flow modeling.

Meshing

• Part 1 of our Mesh Types Survey Results has been posted.
• Setting up Resin Transfer Molding simulations, including meshing, in Moldex3D has been streamlined.

Researchers at the Bavarian Graduate School of Computational Engineering used machine learning (deep convolutional neural networks) to establish mesh densities for random objects. Image from bgce.de.

Engage in a Dialog

Our 3D world often begins in 2D. Such is the case for virtual objects like meshes for CFD that live on the flat screens of our computers. It’s also the case for Fred Sandback’s minimalist yarn sculptures that are designed to engage with pedestrians as they consider their relationship to line and space.

The drawings below illustrate how in 2D the sculptures are embedded in 3D space and how they activate regions of what otherwise would be monotony. Plus, I’ve always been a fan of black and white line art so that box got checked as well.

Read more about Sandback on the Walker Art Center’s website and at the Fred Sandback Archive.

From the book Ten Isometric Drawings for Ten Vertical Constructions by Fred Sandback, 1977. Image from walkerart.org. See link above.

Bonus: How many integer-sided triangles have an area equal to their perimeter?

Double Bonus: Thanks to alert reader Eric, I am spending way too much time playing the NY Times’ meshing game called Vertex.