Editor’s Pick: ESI Releases Update to CFD Simulation Suite

By Anthony J. Lockwood

Dear Desktop Engineering Reader:

ESI Group has been a leading developer of simulation software for prototyping and manufacturing processes for a number of years now. Its applications suites for such diverse areas of interest as casting,  composites and plastics, NVH, vibro-acoustics, welding, and crash, impact, and safety are widely recognized as the gold standards in their class. A few weeks ago, ESI announced the Version 2009.2 release of its ACE+ suite of CFD and multiphysics simulation software. I’ve been wanting to tell you about it since.

CFD-ACE+, as ESI refers to it, actually is a base package with a multiphysics solver at its core that provides you with flow, heat transfer, and turbulence analysis capabilities. You then add the industry-specific analysis capabilities that you require—say, aerospace,  biotechnology, or semiconductor. And that combination is what’s important here.

Everyone supports multiple physics operations these days. It’s part of the march toward simulation-driven design. However, not everyone launches their multiphysics capabilities from the same base. Some are really applying an application layer above individual applications and passing data between these discrete applications. Others have a core multiphysics capability, which, conceptually, is somewhat like a graphics kernel.

Both approaches have their advantages. What I like about the core multiphysics functionality is that it provides the fundamental physics algorithms that the add-on applications leverage. So, like a graphics kernel, a root-level operational foundation exists, which frees developers from re-inventing the basic physics. The new value then is solely the unique physics of the add-on extension and its specialized algorithms. This, in turn, makes for compact and efficient code.

So, for CFD-ACE+, what does that mean in terms of Version 2009.2? It means the suite of applications has many new, bar-raising features for people working on automotive, aerospace, fuel cell, and electronics applications. For example, there is a new advanced turbulence model for auto applications,  refined multiphase and porous media capabilities for fuel cell developers, and improved analysis of capacitive coupled plasma for you in the semiconductor manufacturing business.

ESI Group has also made many significant upgrades in other components throughout the CFD-ACE+ suite, including its adaptive mesh generator and visualization tools. You can learn more about those enhancements and CDF-ACE+ from today’s Pick of the Week write-up. I recommend that you go from the write-up over to the CDF-ACE+ web page, find your area of interest, and discover the power that the ESI Group has waiting for you.

ESI Group has made its name over the years by developing excellent software for the engineering community. It’s worth you time learning more about what CDF-ACE+ can do for you.

Thanks, pal.—Lockwood

Anthony J. Lockwood
Editor at Large, Desktop Engineering

Read today’s Pick of the Week write-up.