“In the America’s Cup, computer simulation has taken a leading role in the design process. The CFD solution from ANSYS has taken the yacht designers several steps beyond what we were able to achieve in the past by allowing us to visualize flow velocity and pressure magnitudes, making it possible to improve the design at a much faster rate,” said Nick Holroyd, designer and CFD engineer for Team New Zealand.

Having won and held the Cup from 1995 to 2003, Team New Zealand hopes to recapture victory in 2007 by using ANSYS CFX®-5 and ANSYS ICEM CFD™ to drive the design of their racing yacht. The team has already been successful in using ANSYS ICEM CFD software to generate high-quality hexahedral meshes, and ANSYS CFX software for multiphase modeling and drag around the hull in order to achieve maximum speed. Additionally, the team has used ANSYS CFX to model sail aerodynamics and study induced drag on appendages. Now, designers are gearing up to use the software’s transition turbulence model – the world’s first commercial model with the ability to predict the transition from laminar to turbulent flow, the location of which can affect yacht performance.

"It’s not everyday that we have the opportunity to support such a high-profile sporting team,” said Jim Cashman, president and CEO at ANSYS, Inc. “It’s rewarding to know that they depend upon our software to meet their engineering challenges. We are confident that our robust set of technologies will help Team New Zealand in its efforts to regain its title in 2007."