Symscape

I trust you've had a good start to the new year - primed and ready for some Symscape news no doubt. We are hard at work on the next version of Caedium (v3.1) and as part of that effort you can read about the new release of our Windows GPL source code patch for the latest version of OpenFOAM® (v2.1.x). Also check out my latest blog posts.

Testing OpenFOAM 2.1.x with Caedium on Windows

We have updated our free Windows source code patch for the latest OpenFOAM® release (v2.1.x). As with the previous version this patch also supports 64-bit compilation using the MinGW-w64 cross-compiler and parallel computation using the native Windows MS MPI implementation provided by the free Microsoft MPI Redistributable and also available on Microsoft Windows HPC Server 2008 for clusters.

It's holiday season again, so before the festivities begin here's your last Symscape update for 2011. The goodies that await include a new article on using CFD for concept design analysis, news of an art exhibit featuring a Caedium CFD simulation, and my latest blog posts. Thanks for your support and we look forward to satisfying your CFD needs in 2012.

Caedium CFD Simulation of a Baseline Concept DesignShows velocity magnitude iso-surfaces for half vehicle

To realize the maximum benefit of Computer-Aided Engineering (CAE) simulation tools, such as Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), you have to use these analysis tools early in the concept design phase of a project. The concept design phase is the moment when the design is (pardon the pun) fluid - open to extensive geometry changes and free of the clutter of manufacturing details, such as fasteners. This is the time to design for simulation, i.e., keep your geometry simple and perform comparative analysis to explore how design parameters affect the design performance.

Caedium CFD Results for Baseline GeometryShows velocity magnitude colormap on surfaces, vectors, and streamlines

On November 24, 2011, Off Modern LATE at the Barbican featured a Caedium Professional CFD animation video of the air flow through a model of the Barbican. The event was part of the OMA/Progress exhibition and featured music by the London Symphony Orchestra.

Barbican Art Exhibit based on Caedium CFD Animation
For the full effect try the high definition video at full screen

With all the excitement of last month's Caedium v3.0 release over, now it's time to get back to earth. More accurately it should be back to sea, with a new RANS Flow example of the air flow over a sail yacht. Also back is the usual stream of blog posts.

A sail yacht is a great example of an aerodynamic vehicle that relies totally on the wind for propulsion. And you guessed it, where there's aerodynamics there's also an opportunity for Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) to make an impact. CFD has been a primary tool in the aerodynamic optimization of many recent sail yachts. This is especially true in competitive sail yacht design, such as the yachts that compete for the America's Cup. If your budget doesn't extend to the scale of Larry Ellison's then fear not, you can still benefit from CFD analysis of your yacht design in combination with Google SketchUp and Caedium Professional.

Streamlines Around a Sail Yacht

The wait is over. Caedium v3.0 is complete and eager to take your CFD simulations to the max. We have leaked a steady stream of Caedium v3.0 sneak peeks in recent newsletters, but now it's here I can summarize the release in three phrases – hybrid CFD modeling, cloud computing and a whole lot more. We've also added three new tips to help you with the new features. So read up on what to expect and then satisfy your inner CFD geek with Caedium v3.0.

Caedium CFD Simulation of Hybrid GeometryRooftop solar panels on a building from SketchUp

The latest release of Caedium (v3.0) can now create and perform Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations using hybrid models that mix faceted geometry (e.g., Google SketchUp models) with analytic geometry (e.g., CAD models). Also Caedium now has the option to use the Microsoft Windows Azure cloud service to perform CFD simulations.

CFD Simulation of Hybrid Geometry Model Performed by AzureUAV model from SketchUp