As we approach the end of 2020 (good riddance), the CFD news is flooding in. This week, in what is largely an unstructured listing, there are plenty of software and event announcements and several seasonal CFD simulations. And you’re gonna wanna [pardon the patois] read the Siemens article on fun CFD simulations (with STAR-CCM+) such as the Delorean shown here.

Software

• CFD Consultants announced the launch of OpenPAME, a panel method.
• I have no idea how “home gamers” are involved, but you can now have a desktop wind tunnel.
• ENGYS announced Streamline Solutions’ ELEMENTS 3.3.0, dedicated virtual wind tunnel for vehicle external aerodynamics.
• Aerodynamics Solutions launched ADS release 8.0 with full support for GPU acceleration.
  • You can download their white paper co-authored with AFRL’s Turbomachinery Branch.
• SimScale updated their solver tech with several meshing and conjugate heat transfer improvements.

Events

• Website of the International Society of CFD (iscfd.org) – still under construction. [At least they don’t use the little yellow sign of a guy shoveling – so 1990s.]
• For those of you interesting in the International Meshing Roundtable, the website for 2021’s online event is still in-work and I’m told it should go online after the first of the year. The event is planned for 21-25 June. Full papers are due 19 February.
• Enjoy Siemens’ 10 Secrets to a Stunningly Fun CFD Simulation. #7 Make post-processing a visual firework.
  • [How might this be tweaked for a stunningly fun CFD mesh?]
• The 2nd IEEE Workshop on Parallel and Distributed Scientific and Engineering Computing will be held 21 May 2021 in Portland. Papers are due 22 January.

Unsorted Stuff

• Iowa State has a post-doc opening for work using Fluent and OpenFOAM.
• Need a mesh? Check out Applied CCM’s FetchMesh, the CFD mesh store.
• Structured grids for submarines.
• FINE/Open v10.1 was released.
• Sigmetrix was named by Silicon Review as one of the 50 leading companies of 2020.
• CFD for the Giant Trinity triathlon bicycle.
• CFD for a hyper car.
• Checkout the participants in the CFD Community Christmas Competition.
• To demonstrate how far behind I am on the news, here’s a transient thermal simulation of a turkey cooking.
• And along the same line, simulation answers the question “Why doesn’t the ice cream in a baked Alaska melt?”

Miscellaneous Stuff

• More on Formula 1’s proposed ban of wind tunnel testing by 2030 meaning full reliance on CFD. [In which we read, “What good is the sport if it doesn’t advance tech?” I always thought of it as entertainment.]
• On the other hand, Indycar is using ground test to validate CFD.
• Those of you interested in the future of computing might be interested in this report from the U.S. Executive Branch’s National Science & Technology Council, Pioneering the Future Advanced Computing Ecosystem: A Strategic Plan.
• Cerebras has an AI-based computer that simulated combustion in a coal-fired power plant with 500 million variables faster than any current CPU- or GPU-based system could.
  • Read more about this from insideHPC.
• Speaking of AI, MSC is offering the white paper The Emergence of AI & ML in CAE Simulation (registration required).

Startling Starlings

I could say that these photographs are like a mesh because the starlings are discrete points.

I could try to tie the photo to aerodynamics because the birds are flying.

I could attempt some commentary about realism and abstraction.

But I won’t.

Soren Skolaer’s photographs of flocks of starlings in his Black Sun series are just plain cool. Organic and geometric. Discrete and continuous. Motion and stillness.

Click through to see my favorite, the one with the tree. It reminds me of Mondrian’s Grey Tree.

Bonus: A few geometry problems for you to ponder. As for the donut…