Honeycomb meshing for complex 3D geometries and new fuel cell chemistry models allow faster, more realistic simulations

PARIS, Dec. 3 -- ESI Group, a leading global solution provider in physics-based simulation software, announced today the release of version 2008.0 of its CFD-ACE+ software platform. CFD-ACE+ is the industry's most advanced computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and multiphysics software, enabling coupled simulations of fluid, thermal, chemical, biological, electrical and mechanical phenomena for a variety of applications across a wide range of industries.

CFD-ACE+ has been designed to be very modular and expandable, which offers users the highest level of flexibility. Used by over 400 organizations worldwide, CFD-ACE+ includes state-of-the-art numerical and physical models, and an advanced simulation-based design environment. It also supports all modeling technologies including multi-block structured, general polyhedral unstructured, arbitrary interfaces, and moving and deforming meshes with data links for most of the commonly used CAD, CAE and EDA data formats.

With the addition of polyhedral-honeycomb technology in the CFD-GEOM application, the V2008.0 release marks a major milestone in CFD-ACE+ meshing capabilities. "This technology produces superior quality meshes, and the better the mesh, the better the performance from the solver, both in terms of speed and convergence," said Richard Thoms, CFD Product Manager. "Unlike other solvers on the market that were not originally designed for polyhedral meshing, CFD-ACE+ takes full advantage of an advanced solver platform and industry leading meshing capabilities to deliver better accuracy and faster solution times," he continued.

"We foresee a great opportunity to be the leaders in providing this new technology to anyone simulating complex 3D geometries, such as external flows for full aircraft or automotive configurations, as well as complex internal configurations like those found in process and control equipment," he added.

Key new enhancements to CFD-ACE+ include:

• New honeycomb meshing for complex 3D geometries now allowing any tetrahedral mesh system to be turned into a high quality polyhedral-honeycomb mesh with lower cell counts and more robust convergence, resulting in improved overall cell quality.
  
  
• The addition of multi-step electro-chemistry for fuel cell modeling utilizing the full form of the Butler-Volmer equation which is an industry first. Now fuel cell developers can use simulation based design to accurately model the effects of fuel/air starvation and optimize fuel cell designs to avoid carbon corrosion and decay of the fuel cell membrane electrolyte assembly (MEA).
  
  
• A new boundary layer meshing option allowing the creation of either highly stretched prismatic or hexahedral layers near desired surfaces prior to tetrahedral mesh generation. Using this method will minimize the number of cells and allow the proper resolution of near wall behavior for applications where high accuracy is needed such as aerodynamic drag calculation and wall heat transfer.
  

About ESI Group

ESI Group is a world-leading supplier, and a pioneer of digital simulation software for prototyping and manufacturing processes that take into account the physics of materials. ESI Group has developed an extensive suite of coherent, industry oriented applications to realistically simulate a product's behavior during testing, to fine-tune manufacturing processes in accordance with desired product performance, and evaluate the environment's impact on product performance. ESI Group's products, which have a proven track record in manufacturing and have been combined in multi-trade value chains, represent a unique collaborative and open virtual engineering solution known as the Virtual Try-Out Space (VTOS), enabling virtual prototypes to be improved in a continuous and collaborative manner. This integrated protocol allows all the company's solutions to work with each other and with applications developed by independent software vendors. By significantly reducing costs and development lead times and enabling product/process synergies, VTOS solutions offer major competitive advantage by progressively eliminating the need for physical prototypes during product development. The company generated sales of €66m in 2006, employs over 600 high-level specialists worldwide covering more than 30 countries. ESI Group is listed in Eurolist compartment C of Euronext Paris. For further information, visit www.esi-group.com.

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Source: ESI Group