I wish I could say there was something specific that stands out in this week’s compilation of CFD news. But it’s a fairly uniform compendium of CFD applications, software releases, company and tech introductions, computing insights, business and event updates, and just some all around good articles for the CFD maven. Today begins the Independence Day 3-day (or 4-day if you’re lucky) celebration in the U.S. with fireworks, cookouts, red, white, and blue regalia, and good times with family and friends.

I know a lot of tech people, CFDers included, use Stack Overflow to learn and get questions answered. I didn’t know how much the company was worth until they got acquired by Prosus for $1.8 billion.

I haven’t even explored digital twins yet (digital replica of a thing) and here ESI is introducing virtual twins (ideal models of a thing based on simulation) and hybrid twins that combine digital and virtual twins. [Best quote I’ve heard so far about digital twins is that everyone has them but they’re usually fraternal.]

There are plenty of job openings within the Cadence CFD organization. In Fort Worth, Texas we have two software engineer openings and one IT systems engineer position. In Brussels, Belgium we have openings for two software engineers in aeroacoustics and one product engineer for automotive and aerospace. And in India, we’re looking for a writer/editor for marketing who’ll write about CFD and similar tech.

PyFR 1.12.1 is now available and includes a performance tuning guide.

Creating a compiler to more easily port complex codes between different supercomputer architectures.

SoftInWay was awarded a NASA SBIR Phase II contract to continue exploring the application of AI to produce axial compressor maps.

The Ohio Supercomputer Center is helping a motorsports consultancy design faster cars.

The Beyond PLM blog asks whether CAD files will become obsolete anytime soon. [TL;DR “no”]

Introducing FLUBIO, a new FVM, unstructured, parallel, N-S (and presumed open source) CFD solver (not the flu vaccine of the same name) for educational and research purposes. Because existing codes (e.g. OpenFOAM, SU2) are too difficult to understand and poorly documented – their words, not mine. It doesn’t look like the code itself is available yet online. [Sorry, but I can’t help being reminded of Flubber.]

Registration (no fee, online) is open for this month’s SU2 Conference 2021 and the agenda is now available. You won’t want to miss Cadence’s Travis Carrigan speaking about Automation, Adaptation, and Advanced CFD Meshing in Pointwise.

First, if you’re not reading DEVELOP3D you really ought to be. Second, the D3D 30 list of new tech includes CAE stuff like Altair Simsolid, HP Universal Build Manager (of interest to me because of its use of the Dyndrite kernel), ITI CADfix Viz, nTopology, and more.

Your abstract for the annual APS DFD meeting (IN PERSON in Phoenix this November) is due by 02 August.

CFD for steam locomotives, more specifically ensuring the steam doesn’t obscure the engineer’s view.

I don’t mind a 3D, in-browser view of simulation results (for a Ferrari). But sound effects? Really?

CFD for box fan air cleaners for poorly ventilated classrooms. (Surprisingly, from Ford.)

Onscale shares tips for getting your CAD (aka geometry models) ready for simulation. One of those tips is defeaturing. The other is…

Don’t recall whether I shared this before but checkout this 25-minute highlight reel of CFD at NASA in 1989.

CFD for hypersonic flows (from Siemens).

Imaginationeering [which always catches my eye because of its similarity to Disney’s Imagineering] offers CFD consulting services in the Houston area.

Speaking of CFD consultants, here’s UK-based Renuda.

CFD for data center cooling. [In which the acronym UPS is never defined.]

Students will be working on OpenCAx during Google Summer of Code including FreeCAD and OGV, an open geometry viewer.

How much will the push to develop hypersonic vehicles drive the growth of HPC?

Have you ever wondered how to Ansys? Here’s your answer.

CFD for sneezing on an airplane.

Autodesk is getting into EDA with their acquisition of Altium who makes software for printed circuit board design.

Meshing in FEA, CFD and Manufacturing by nTopology. “Simply put, FEA or CFD simulations are not possible without a mesh.”

Simulating an entire nuclear reactor.

The Gallery of Fluid Motion, an enduring feature of the annual meeting of the APS DFD (coming up in Nov. 2021) yields a wealth of amazing fluid visuals such as Rocket Yeast from last year’s meeting. [Rocket Yeast would be a great name for a rock band.]

CFD for steam cracker furnaces. [Not a good name for a rock band.]

Visualizing unsteady flow with Tecplot 360.

ENGYS released HELYX v3.3.2.

Earlier this week I visited The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth with a friend [thanks Jay] to see the exhibition Sean Scully: The Shape of Ideas which had opened earlier in the month. I have been a fan of Scully’s for many years and saw him speak at The Modern a while back. The opportunity to see a progression of his paintings over the years was enthralling.

For reasons that are probably obvious, his early works involving grids caught my eye. As noted in the exhibition catalog, paintings like Black Composite balance the grid’s refined precision with an intuitive use of color that combine into something that’s visually challenging. How far can the vocabulary of visual elements be reduced while still maximizing the expression?

Bonus: a clock’s accuracy may be tied to the entropy it creates.