Mentor Graphics Corporation has announced the latest release of its leading general purpose, front-loading computational fluid dynamics (CFD) FloEFD solution offering greater accuracy and user productivity. Updated features in this new version include improved mesh handling, an enhanced transient solver, a robust EDA interface, and an interface to Abaqus Finite Element Analysis (FEA) software for stress analysis. Engineers and specialists in the automotive, aerospace and electronics markets will directly benefit from the improved accuracy and productivity.
The latest version of the FloEFD™ product offers new capabilities for minimizing user time and effort spent on meshing. The FloEFD tool can automatically fill gaps of specified size to quickly make the model watertight, thereby eliminating the time and necessity to adjust the original geometry. The new equidistant refinement capability lets users build multilevel uniform meshes around the body or surface of the model with just one click. And the mesh preview visualization tool helps users achieve the desired mesh with ease and speed.
“The new improvements in the definition of the mesh settings are an enormous help especially for our external aerodynamics simulation cases. The ability to define layers of refinements, to setting a specific cell size as well as defining local regions based on basic geometric objects helps us save the time we used to spend on defining the correct mesh settings,” stated Dr Geraldo Olivares, senior research scientist and director, Crash Dynamics and Computational Mechanics Laboratory, National Institute for Aviation Research, Wichita State University,Kansas. “Other enhancements such as mesh preview and the ability to analyse the mesh quality enable us to specify high quality mesh settings even faster and more accurately.”
The new FloEFD product release also features the following:
A highly improved transient solver allows for faster solution of transient applications as well as higher accuracy for pressure-dominated tasks such as calculating filling/evacuating of a tank or water hammer thereby increasing range of realistic situations that can be modeled.
A powerful electronic design automation (EDA) interface can help users avoid creating PCBs manually. Users can now import geometric EDA data including copper traces and vias. The interface supports the Mentor Graphics Xpedition® (CC or CCE), IDF and OCB++ PCB design data formats.
The refractive index depending on wavelength and temperature offers higher accuracy of light and radiation analysis in case materials with complex spectral characteristics are utilized e.g. in automotive lighting industry.
The ability to visualize rays used for precise radiation modelling allows the user to better understand the impact of the sources on the system, thus helping to find the reason of overheating and suggest the solution faster.
An engineering task usually requires views from different angles. To support multi-disciplinary analysis, the FloEFD tool can now export pressure and thermal loads to Abaqus for further stress analysis.
The Calculation Manager displays all projects currently running and those in the queue, thus allowing users to get a better idea as to where their projects stand and to easily control all calculations running at the moment.
The FloEFD product is available as a stand-alone and/or a CAD-embedded tool supporting popular MCAD platforms including Creo, CATIA V5, and Siemens NX.
“We strive to provide our customers with the most advanced technologies to address their fluid flow and heat transfer simulation challenges and the latest version of FloEFD provides key enhancements for greater accuracy and productivity,” stated Dr. Roland Feldhinkel, general manager, Mentor Graphics Mechanical Analysis Division. “Our market-leading FloEFD technology helps our customers become more competitive by enabling greater product quality, reliability and faster time-to-market.”
