ANSYS Releases Updated Software, Merges With Reaction Design

ANSYS has released version 15.0 of its flagship software, and announced a merger with chemistry simulation software provider Reaction Design.

According to the company, ANSYS 15.0 delivers advancements across the entire portfolio, including structures, fluids and electromagnetics. In addition, the new version enables complete multiphysics workflows for leading simulation practices.

“ANSYS 15.0 builds upon our four decades of leadership in engineering simulation software,” said Walid Abu-Hadba, ANSYS chief product officer. “We’ve made dramatic upgrades in each of the key physics areas through performance improvements and the introduction of new solver capabilities. We continue to extend our leadership in simulation through such innovations as our adjoint solver, HPC scalability and efficient simulation modeling from the micron to the full system.”

The release extends ANSYS’ solution for evaluating product performance of composites materials, which are often used to improve fuel efficiency by reducing weight. To reduce overall computation time, ANSYS 15.0 facilitates submodeling techniques in the pre-processing workflow so users can create high-fidelity local results while employing a coarser model globally.

The solution also introduces a new multiphysics approach to composites simulation to optimize wireless design and thermal management. Users define spatially dependent material properties for electromagnetic simulation and then couple those results to the structural analysis.

Enhancements in fluid dynamics include the capability to directly export time-varying pressure loads determined in a transient flow simulation, in a form that can be immediately applied as a load in ANSYS Mechanical modal analysis for forced-response analysis. There is also an exit-corrected mass flow boundary condition in ANSYS CFX that produces robust simulation along the entire compressor speed line, from deep choke to stall, the company says.

The adjoint solver supports problems with up to 30 million cells. Because of the adjoint energy equation’s core functionality, observables can be defined as various integrals of heat flux and temperature ” including averages and variances. The multiphase volume of fluid (VOF) model is up to 36 percent faster. Multiphase transient simulation is also faster thanks to new compatibility with adaptive time stepping.

The new release also updates the motor and drive design solution offered through ANSYS Maxwell and ANSYS Simplorer by extending integration into other physics. This solution enables engineers to explore design alternatives, detect fault conditions, integrate electric machines with power electronic drives and validate control software.

New features include a force-coupling capability between low-frequency electromagnetics (Maxwell) and structural (Mechanical) tools for acoustics analysis, and a connection between circuit simulator Simplorer and automatic embedded code generator SCADE Suite, creating a collaborative design environment for optimizing interactions between control system software and hardware.

ANSYS delivers pre-processing capabilities in each new release that automate simulation model setup while still providing flexibility to address application-specific requirements through manual methods, the company says. The solution includes solutions for pre-processing automation and robustness, helping users perform simulation more efficiently, follow best practices, and arrive at results and engineering decisions faster.

The new release delivers new capabilities for HPC job management and remote access to simulation, the company says. While delivering scale-up performance at 15,000 cores for large (100 M+ cells) models, Fluent features improved solver and parallel efficiency at lower core counts. CFX scalability is improved on larger core counts. For example, an industrial six-stage axial compressor case showed a five-times speed-up.

Maxwell delivers an HPC performance increase of five times due to advanced multithreading enhancements, and new multi-level HPC technology introduced in ANSYS HFSS enables users to leverage more nodes of a compute cluster or cloud environment to accelerate their design efforts through combined distribution of design parameters, frequencies and multi-core solvers, an industry first.

The merger with Reaction Design is expected to close in January 2014. Management will provide further details regarding the transaction and its impact on the 2014 financial outlook subsequent to the closing.  Headquartered in San Diego, Reaction Design serves more than 400 customers around the world. Its flagship product, CHEMKIN-PRO, is used for modeling and simulating gas-phase and surface chemistry.

According to ANSYS, the two companies’ products will provide an improved combustion simulation tool.

“Companies across industries want to offer products ” from airplanes to automobiles to gas turbines ” with improved fuel efficiency,” said Jim Cashman, ANSYS CEO. “For more than 15 years, Reaction Design has helped companies around the world to better understand chemical processes. Combining its solvers with ANSYS’ solutions will give customers new insights into the combustion processes in their products, driving increased fuel efficiency. Reaction Design’s simulation software is validated and user friendly, making it a great fit with the ANSYS family of solutions. This continues ANSYS’ commitment to broadening our portfolio of solutions and our wealth of talent and expertise, both organically and through targeted acquisitions.”

“We’re very excited to become a part of the ANSYS family,” said Bernie Rosenthal, CEO of Reaction Design. “We’ve admired the work that ANSYS has done over the last 40 years in helping customers to realize their product promise. I have no doubt that we’ll be able to add great value to ANSYS and to its customers. Reaction Design’s legacy customers will also benefit from increased access to the ANSYS suite of simulation solutions.”

For more information, visit ANSYS and Reaction Design.

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