This week’s CFD news includes not one but two articles about smells and smelling. We should take it as a good sign that this summer’s USNCCM still plans to be a hybrid event with some folks in-person which would be a great step toward conference normalcy. There’s a white paper on geometry model preparation that we’d like you to have a look at, a couple job openings, and signs of robust business in the CAE market which is great. Shown here is a CFD simulation of shallow, free-surface flows from a summary article about the 22nd Australasian Fluid Mechanics Conference.

From Pointwise

• Wouldn’t it be nice if the right mesh could speed-up your CFD by a factor of 28? Read how ADS accomplished it using Pointwise’s meshing capabilities for a turbomachinery compressor casing study.
• Download and read our white paper on Preparation of Geometry Models for Mesh Generation and CFD and let us know what you think.
• Learn more about our recently introduced automatic surface meshing that we call Flashpoint.

Events

• The Symposium on Trends in Unstructured Mesh Generation (aka MeshTrends) will be held in conjunction with the USNCCM this summer in Chicago as a hybrid event (at least that’s the plan for now). The abstract deadline has passed but you can still register to attend.
• For those of you interested in meshing, this year’s International Meshing Roundtable will again feature a meshing contest. The model to be meshed is now available for download. Your “note of commitment” to participate in the contest is due by 16 April.
• Applied CCM shares a write-up of last year’s 22nd Australasian Fluid Mechanics Conference. The next edition of this event is planned for December 2022.
• This summer’s online 16th OpenFOAM Workshop urges you to submit your abstract by Valentine’s Day, 14 February.
• NAFEMS is offering an e-learning seminar on Elements of Turbulence Modeling.

CFD for…

• making sewers stink less (actually, ensuring we humans smell less sewer stink).
• marine ambulances.
• urban climate resilience.
• hydrogen fuel cells.
• Rimac’s new electric hypercar.
• Supercars. [Again, which ranks higher? A supercar or a hypercar? I’m so confused.]

Software

• I wasn’t aware that there was a cloud version of NX but this video proves it.
• ParaView 5.9.0 was released.
• Beta CAE released v20.1.5 of their software suite.
• DCS Computing released Aspherix and CFDEM 5.2.0 for DEM and coupled CFD-DEM.
• IronCAD Mechanical 2021 was released.
• Read the first in a series about running Tecplot on AWS.
• Win the F-1 constructor’s championship and get 20% less CFD time for next season.
• More CFD time would help them answer the question “What is Drag Coefficient?”

Business & Jobs

• Siemens Digital Industries Software has an opening for a STAR-CCM+ Product Manager, someone with both CFD and HPC interests and experience. See more at this LinkedIn post.
• For the last calendar quarter of 2020, PTC’s revenue increased 20% to $429 million. As reported by Monica Schnitger, this growth may be attributed to PTC’s inclusion of ANSYS CAE, Frustrum’s generative design, and Arena for PLM.
• Dassault Systemes also had a good Q4 with revenue up 18.4% to €1,219 million.
• The folks who invested in Google in 1999 have now invested in Physna, a 3D search engine said to be like a GitHub/Google mashup.
• TransMagic and ProtoTech are working together on CAD translators that bridge the AEC and MCAD industries.
• Pointwise seeks an Applications Engineer for our Engineering Services team. (Must love meshing!)
• Coreform was awarded an SBIR contract for simulation of complex 3D printed parts.

A Grid That Looks Back at You

From the Tate’s collection comes Victor Vasarely’s Supernovae. I’m not going to blather on about it and instead let you enjoy its ocular frisson. It’s hard to look away.

Bonus: The 100 best photos of 2020 from NASA’s HQ photo team.

Double Bonus: A view of a test flight demonstrating aircraft stall and recovery with the video stabilized to the horizon.