ESI Group Launches ESI Cloud

ESI Group, a provider of virtual prototyping solutions for manufacturing, has announced a new cloud-based engineering simulation system called ESI Cloud. ESI says that its SaaS (software-as-a-service) platform is designed to deliver advanced engineering simulations through the cloud, across multiple physics and engineering disciplines.

ESI Cloud supports ESI’s Virtual Performance Solution for crash, safety, comfort and NVH modeling, and features the OpenFOAM open source CFD solver. Image courtesy of ESI Group.

ESI Cloud, according to the company, delivers a secure and scalable high-performance computing (HPC) platform with an open application framework. It enables real-time collaboration and provides browser-based visualization and includes modules for modeling, collaboration as well as cloud services.

ESI Cloud’s modeling capabilities cover a range of CAE processes, including geometry import and repair, meshing, multi-domain simulation, workflow and simulation management as well as results visualization. Collaboration features include real-time collaboration as well as data, task and project sharing, with workflow management. ESI Cloud services also provide advanced usage analytics and security.

The ESI Cloud offers parallel workflows, templates and sample projects that, says the company, enables even novice users to become productive quickly. The first resources available through this cloud-based service are ESI’s multi-domain optimization solution Virtual Performance Solution (VPS) and an end-to-end CFD (computational fluid dynamics) solution using the open source OpenFOAM software.

The on-demand version of the VPS for crash, safety, comfort and NVH (noise, vibration and harshness) modeling, says the company, enables real-time visualization of CAE results. VPS on the cloud, reports ESI, provides the full interactivity needed during the simulation workflow and the ability to handle large data sets generated for 3D visualization in the browser.

ESI Cloud’s integrated geometry engine can import various CAD, neutral or tessellated formats. Image courtesy of ESI Group.

ESI Cloud’s OpenFOAM-based solution supports geometry import and cleaning, meshing, solver-based computation, results visualization, collaboration and workflow management. Capabilities include automatic tetrahedral and hex-dominant meshing with boundary layer resolution, real-time 2D CFD convergence plots for several variables with time and load step, workflow replay and re-use, parallel rendering of large result files, and the ability to stream animations in the browser without a plug-in.

ESI Cloud is offered in two basic forms: An end-to-end SaaS model and a hybrid model. In the former, modeling, multiphysics solving, results visualization and collaboration are conducted in the cloud through a Web browser. In the hybrid model, users perform their modeling on their desktop engineering workstation while solving, visualization and collaboration are done in the cloud.

ESI Cloud offers the patented technology from the physics-based Bubble Meshing algorithm from Carnegie Mellon University. Image courtesy of ESI Group.

“Cloud computing is a game-changing information and communications technology designed to deliver increased mobility, elasticity, and scalability,” said Christopher St. John, COO, ESI Group, in a press statement. “ESI Cloud aims to provide the CAE world with a unique solution that leverages cloud technology to enhance team collaboration — in real time, across sites and across multiple domains of physics — unleashing the true potential of end-to-end virtual prototyping.”

ESI Cloud uses technology developed by Ciespace, which was acquired by ESI Group in April 2015. For more information on ESI Cloud, visit ESI Group.

Learn more about the ESI Cloud Platform.

Learn more about the on-demand version of the ESI Virtual Performance Solution (VPS).

Learn more about computational fluid dynamics (CFD) on ESI Cloud.

See why DE‘s editors selected ESI Cloud as their Pick of the Week.

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