Plenty of new software releases this week including instantaneous CFD in Creo Simulation Live, part of the recently launched Creo 7. Then there’s an application of CFD to how tuna use their finlets to wander around. And you may have heard of Folding@home but what you haven’t heard is that there’s now an Another Fine Mesh team you can join in F@H. Shown here is a flame simulation computed using FDS from an article about designing hydrogenation reactors.
For Discussion
- What’s in a name? Should we refer to CFD as simulation or modeling? Last week’s “design without CAD” article instigated a brief exchange of comments on LinkedIn with Jeremy Theler (founder of Seamplex) about CAD vs CAE, FEM vs FVM, and simulation vs modeling. Trivia time: his article mentions Buffon’s needle problem which I hadn’t heard about until a summer intern in 2018 programmed Buffon’s idea into Pointwise as a means of computing the value of pi. [This is what happens when you hire mathematicians.]
- Springer announced the availability of the book 50 Years of CFD in Engineering, a commemorative volume in memory of Brian Spalding.
From Pointwise
- Pointwise Mesh Generation Foundations, a new, comprehensive, online course on mesh generation using the Pointwise software was launched at the end of March and is available for free through April.
- How to Model a Frozen Drone is a case study of ice accretion on lifting surfaces of UAVs.
- Pointwise earned recognition as a Best Place for Working Parents.
- Take 25 minutes to enjoy a recording of our recent Let’s Talk Meshing Live Q&A.
CFD modeling of UAV icing. See link above.
Software
- This video gives you an idea of what’s included in SIMULIA XFlow 2020.
- FEATool Multiphysics v1.12.1 has been released and includes an interface to the open-source FEA solver FEniCS.
- Synthetik announced the release of blastFoam v3.0 for “modeling high-explosive detonation.”
- Golden Software released an updated version of Surfer for faster gridding. [Not what you think.]
- PTC launched Creo 7.0, now with fluid flow simulation in Creo Simulation Live.
- Code_Saturne 6.1 was released.
Screen capture from a video introduction to the new “instantaneous” CFD capability in Creo 7. Video from ptc.com. See links above.
Applications & Events
- CFD Design of Hydrogenation Reactor for Producing GVL from LA-Levulinic Acid
- Tuna Locomotion: A Comptutational Hydrodynamic Analysis of Finlet Function
- ESI’s 8th OpenFOAM Conference 2020 is scheduled for 13-15 October in Berlin. The call for papers is open with a due date of 31 May 2020.
- AIAA Aviation will now be an online, virtual event.
Image of a mesh from a CFD study of tuna finlets. [No, not tuna fillets.] Image from royalsocietypublishing.org. See link above.
Folding at Home While Working From Home
- No, I’m not talking about doing the laundry when you should be working.
- Folding@home (aka F@H) is a “distributed computing project for simulating protein dynamics.”
- The noises you hear in the background are my laptop’s fans furiously trying to dissipate heat while F@H does its thing.
- Alert – and persistent – reader Dominic believes that while we’re all WFH we should put our underused computing resources (like those machines back at the office) and F@H to work on developing cures for viral infections.
- According to PC Gamer [where I go to get all my computational chemistry information], F@H is running at over an exaflop.
- Monica Schnitger is a f@n of F@H [See what I did there?]. And explains why I probably shouldn’t be running it on my laptop.
- Ars Technica wrote about it.
- Microsoft let’s F@H run in Windows 10’s sandbox.
- Dominic suggested we form a team to see how high up the leaderboard we can go. So now there’s an Another Fine Mesh team, #262546. You’re welcome to join.
- I’m old enough that I remember running SETI@Home.
- Unclear whether this is modeling or simulation. [jk]
Meshing on Stamps
Sculptor Ruth Asawa will be honored by the U.S. Postal Service with a series of ten postage stamps featuring her wire mesh sculptures. Originally seen on Colossal, of these objects she said that the forms are both visible and invisible (transparent) such that the true object is only revealed by its shadow.
You can learn more about Asawa on her website, especially her drawings, paintings, and prints.
U.S. Postal Service postage stamps to feature the work of Ruth Asawa. Image from colossal.com. See links above.
Bonus: Remember when a Gridgen grid was on a postage stamp?
RSS - Posts
Our group ran that x15 cfd! 2 of the guys actually went up to DC to measure some parts of the plane in the Air and Space Museum – they went up in a lift and did their measuring!
Tom, I remember when Bill Jones told us about the stamp and we were flabbergasted. We have a nice framed stamp and signed program from the unveiling hanging in our office. I was even invited to speak at a stamp collecting convention in Dallas to give the backstory.