February 2014: New Caedium Release

A new Caedium release is ready and waiting with a couple of new features and bug fixes. Are you confused by how your solid model relates to a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) flow volume, or were you wondering how the fluid dynamics of a sphere affects ball sports, then this is the newsletter for you.

External CFD Flow VolumeExternal CFD Flow VolumeSubstance (air) modeled outside the car

Improved Heat Transfer and Bullet Time for CFD Simulations

The highlights of the latest Caedium (v5.2) release are an improved heat transfer capability incorporating radiation and the option to create 'bullet time' animations for particles. Read more >>

CFD Flow Volumes and Solid Models

Solid modeling is the dominant form of virtual object representation underpinning nearly all 3D Computer-Aided Design (CAD) systems. The strength of a solid model is that it defines a water tight (manifold) unambiguous object which implicitly delineates between the inside and the outside of an object simply by the alignment of the boundaries (B-rep or BREP) that define it. This makes solid modeling an ideal basis for virtual analysis techniques, e.g., stress analysis and CFD. Also solid modeling provides a relatively straightforward path to manufacture through CNC machines and, more recently, 3D printing. Read more >>

Sports, Fluid Flow, and Spheres

Given how easy it is to define a sphere with a single value (radius) you'd think the fluid flow around a sphere would be simple too, right? However, as with many innocuous looking fluid problems, our intuition is wrong. The resulting flow characteristics, especially the drag variation with fluid velocity, are wild. Why does this matter? One word - sports. Read more >>