Altair Welcomes CPFD Software to its Partner Alliance

Within the alliance, CPFD will offer its Barracuda Virtual Reactor software tool, a physics-based engineering software package.

Within the alliance, CPFD will offer its Barracuda Virtual Reactor software tool, a physics-based engineering software package.

The Barracuda Virtual Reactor software simulates the three-dimensional, transient, fluid-particle hydrodynamics, heat balance and chemical reactions in industrial fluidized bed reactors and other fluid-particle systems. Image courtesy of Altair.


Altair welcomes CPFD Software to the Altair Partner Alliance (APA). Within the APA, CPFD will offer its Barracuda Virtual Reactor software tool, a physics-based engineering software package that simulates the three-dimensional, transient, fluid-particle hydrodynamics, heat balance and chemical reactions in industrial fluidized bed reactors and other fluid-particle systems. 

This product targets Altair customers looking for an effective tool for designing, scaling, operating, optimizing and troubleshooting fluid-particle systems such as fluidized beds. Virtual Reactor enables researchers and engineers working with fluid/particle processes to explore various ideas, reduce physical testing costs and minimize development risks, Altair says. Virtual Reactor also allows engineers to determine the root cause of underperformance, reduce the risk of changes through virtual testing, and optimize solutions.

The key benefits and features of Virtual Reactor include: 

  • Discrete Particle Properties: Simulates the full particle size distribution and other discrete properties for each particle (temperature, composition, residence time, history, etc.).
  • Extensible Post-Processing: Includes Tecplot for Barracuda post-processing as well as raw data output for more detailed analysis or scripting automation.
  • Built for Industry: Models transient behavior in industrial scale units, with complex internals and quadrillions of particles, within industrial time constraints.
  • Scalable GPU and Multi-GPU Acceleration: Allows one-click parallelization selection at runtime. 
  • Coupled Thermal and Multiphase Reactions: Captures the coupled fluid-particle hydrodynamics, heat transfer, and multiphase chemical reactions in fluidized bed reactors and other fluid-particle systems.

CPFD was founded in 2006 and is headquartered in Houston, TX. The company partners with companies, national labs, research centers, and universities globally to address organizations’ complex engineering and technological challenges.

“We are delighted to introduce Virtual Reactor alongside the myriad of innovative products available within the APA,” says Rajat Barua, chief executive officer, CPFD. “We believe Virtual Reactor will be a valuable asset to all Altair customers, as it will give them particle flow simulation tools and capabilities they may not have had access to before.”

To learn more about CPFD and Virtual Reactor, click here.  

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.

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