The latest release of Gridgen enhances functionality with new CFD solver interfaces (Splitflow and PHOENICS) and new graphics features (Zoom to Screen Extents and single increment rotations). Additionally, the elliptic PDE solver for structured grids is now up to 5 times faster and Glyph, Gridgen’s Tcl-based scripting language introduced in V14, continues to expand in scope to cover more and more of Gridgen’s functionality.

To learn more about the new features in Gridgen V14, visit the Pointwise website at www.pointwise.com.

Ever since the very beginning of aerodynamic flight, the accurate prediction of aerodynamic drag has been a major challenge in the aircraft design process. During the past 20 years, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) has come to play an increasingly important role in this respect, but significant advances in CFD modelling capabilities are still needed. Future improvements in performance of transport aircraft (notably fuel efficiency and hence direct operating costs), will largely depend on reducing aerodynamic drag. This will be achieved by design optimization and technologies such as laminar flow control, areas in which CFD will play a vital role.

The objective of this Lecture Series is therefore to present the state-of-the-art and current research directions in CFD-based drag prediction. The course is aimed at applied aerodynamicists and CFD researchers as well as aircraft designers.

At our company, for example, we use CFD to improve fixtures such as showerheads and valves, and faucets by predicting spray and flow patterns, reducing them in size, increasing their efficiency, and letting them do more. The software lets us pay close attention to fluid dynamics early in a product’s development.

CFD software lets engineers refine designs through several iterations in as little as a day. Features such as interactivity with MCAD, easier-to-use meshing algorithms, and user-friendly GUI’s have placed the analysis software into a daily-use toolbox for design engineers. Understanding how it differs from the structural analysis of finite elements and knowing what to look for in charts and images lets design teams get more out of the technology.

"With our latest release of EFD.Lab, NIKA continues its philosophy of obtaining higher fluid flow simulation efficiency and satisfying user requests," explained Roland Feldhinkel, CEO, NIKA GmbH. More than 80 % of the new features included in EFD.Lab 3.0 are based on customer and prospect suggestions. "The addition of Non-Newtonian analysis allows our customers to conduct simulations that more accurately represent real-life operating conditions."

Working closely with the High Performance Computing, Education, and Research Center (HPCERC) at the University of New Mexico and NASA Ames Research Center’s Fluid Mechanics Laboratory, project directors Jani Macari Pallis, Ph.D., who is CEO of Cislunar Aerospace, Inc. and Karen Elinich, Director of Education and Technology at The Franklin Institute hope to reach the next generation of engineers and aviation scientists with an ongoing website as virtual lab.

Via a web-based curriculum developed by Dr. Pallis and The Franklin Institute, students will follow the course of Wilbur and Orville’s travails from their early interests as children, to the early disappointments in 1901 until the successful flight of December 17, 1903. The virtual environment substitutes computer codes for wind tunnel and flight facilities. Students can reproduce the Wright Brothers’ wind tunnel test and see flow details the two brothers never imagined.