Fluent releases new version of CFD software
Fluent (Lebanon, NH), a subsidiary of Aavid Thermal Technologies, recently released the newest version of its computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software FLUENT 5.5.
According to Nicole Diana, FLUENT product market manager, this new version offers advances in almost all of the software's original functions, including accuracy, speed, flexibility, and ease-of-use.
FLUENT, GT-Power team up
Along with these upgrades, Diana said, FLUENT 5.5 also contains an option—GT-Power—that should prove popular for those in the automotive industry in need of engine simulation capabilities.
Developed by Gamma Technologies (Westmont, IL), GT-Power is one-dimensional gas dynamics and engine simulation software. FLUENT 5.5 allows users to couple their FLUENT simulations with GT-Power simulations, making it easy for engineers to integrate their CFD flow modeling of components with the big picture, system-level simulation in GT-Power.
According to Diana, technological wizardry built into this coupling also makes the process fast and computationally economical. Currently, the coupling can take place in several areas of the simulation: velocity inlet, mass flow inlet, pressure inlet, and pressure outlet.
To take advantage of the GT-Power/FLUENT coupling, users need a specialized license and the GT-Power library, specifically built for this coupling, from Gamma Technologies (www.gtisoft.com). Initially, Diana said, this capability will be available on selected platforms only, with additional platforms planned for the near future.
However, she said, the technical framework used for the GT-Power coupling gives Fluent (www.fluent.com) an easy platform on which to build future couplings with other one-dimensional analysis packages.
Improved accuracy, speed, and flexibility
According to Diana, FLUENT 5.5 features across-the-board improvements.
"We now have a new optional algorithm for particle-path integration, which improves the accuracy of particle tracking," Diana said. "In addition, you can now model up to 50 species transport equations, which is critical for our users who are modeling finite-rate chemistry involving detailed reaction mechanisms."
"We've also added parallelization to the popular thin-plate conduction model, to speed up the process and help our users with large and complicated geometries," Diana said.
For monitoring and postprocessing FLUENT results, a key new feature is access to residuals for all solution variables, which is useful not only for diagnosing solution convergence, but also for troubleshooting non-convergence and divergence.
It's now possible, Diana said, to import meshes in CFD general notation system (CGNS) format into FLUENT and export data and results to CGNS format as well. Two additional new formats are available for exporting data: ANSYS and Abaqus. Also, several improvements have been made to NASTRAN and PATRAN data export.
FLUENT 5.5 is now available for UNIX, NT, and PC platforms. Annual license fees include software and unlimited technical support. For more information, contact the company at info@fluent.com, 603-643-2600, fax 603-643-3967.
Edited by April C. Murelio, Power Online managing editor