About MeshPilot:
With MeshPilot, you can:

• Visualise any two-dimensional block-structured (multiblock) mesh.
• Generate two-dimensional structured meshes for airfoils. You can do this fully automatically, or with as much direct control over mesh parameters (dimensions, spacing, geometry) as you need.
• Rapidly modify your existing airfoil meshes.

Until the arrival of the 1,024-processor SGI Origin 3800 system, the computing power needed to make the virtual wind tunnel a reality was unavailable. Complete modeling of one aircraft configuration during landing required up to a year on a Cray C-90, imposing serious limits on the use of simulation. The Origin 3800 system can run the same configuration in a matter of hours, so, for the first time, scientists can routinely use simulation to validate their designs under varying conditions. “The Origin architecture has created a revolution in computational fluid dynamic at NASA and will fundamentally change the way aircraft are designed in the future,” said Jim Taft, co-director, Terascale applications group.

The ability to do advanced simulation has already proved its value in NASA’s mision to design a new reusable launch vehicle to replace the space shuttle. During simulation of the X-37 drone, designed to be dropped from the space shuttle to test reentry, a serious flaw was discovered that would have led to catastrophic failure. Millions of dollars and months of time were saved because of the advanced capabilities enabled by the Origin 3800 architecture.

The full article is available in PDF form.

CFdesign reliably simulates a broad range of fluid flow and heat transfer scenarios. Highly automated functionality and built-in intelligence guide the user, making CFdesign an ideal desktop tool for beginners and advanced users.

With offices in Northampton, Linlithgow and Leeds, Elite Consulting Limited is an independent consultancy providing problem solving, project management, engineering analysis, design and support services to industry. Elite Consulting is a PTC Certified Engineering Provider for Pro/MECHANICA, a reseller for PTC’s MCAD products and a Strategic Partner for CFdesign.

Sports Engineering is a new discipline that applies standard engineering principles and techniques to the research, design and development of external devices used by athletes and sports people to enhance their performance.

Professor Umberto Colombo, President of the Jury of the Pirelli Award, said of the Jury's response to the SGI nomination, "When we looked at the projects created by internationally recognized SGI customers and heard their testimonials, it became clear that SGI high-performance computing and 3D graphics visualization technologies are the best instruments to power scientific research and to educate the public about new research findings."

Engineers at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL) used computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis to determine the cause of a catastrophic failure in a recuperative flameless thermal oxidizer (RFTO), used for the destruction of hazardous compounds. When the unit's feed tubes melted, resulting in system failure, it was unclear whether the cause was a design flaw or operator error. Physical examination of the unit could not conclusively resolve the issue, so INEEL engineers were asked to recreate the failure scenario as a computer simulation. Working from data in the operation logs, they analyzed the last run of the oxidizer using CFD. The results clearly showed why the tubes melted. "The design of this particular model was such that there were recirculation eddies in the inlet plenum," explains Mike Rynearson, a Principal Engineer at INEEL. "These eddies caused below normal air flow into one of the feed tubes. That, combined with higher than normal propane levels at startup and the hot soak bed condition, caused the oxidation front to move into the low flow tube, causing it to overheat and fail. Once it melted, the others quickly followed.