PowerFLOW Overview

Fluids simulation for the real world...

PowerFLOW, our flagship product, is a revolutionary CFD (Computation Fluid Dynamics) solution for simulating some of the world's most complex fluid flow problems. It is built on a unique technology called the Lattice Boltzmann method, which has several distinct advantages over conventional CFD technology. Simulations are inherently transient, stable, convergent, and most importantly, accurate. In addition, with PowerFLOW's immersive grid technology, creation of the fluid grid is completely automatic, and the generated fluid grid captures all the details of your geometry, no matter how complex.

PowerFLOW offers a wide range of modeling and analysis capabilities including:

• Aerodynamic simulations
• Thermal simulations, including convection, conduction, radiation, and heat exchangers
• Aeroacoustic simulations

The complete PowerFLOW software suite includes the flow solver, the grid generation engine (called the discretizer), and a variety of complementary tools including PowerCASE for case setup, PowerVIZ for analysis and visualization of simulation results, PowerCOOL for simulating heat exchangers, and PowerTHERM for simulating conduction and radiation. In addition, PowerFLOW simulations are highly scalable, often running on systems with hundreds of processors.

Simulation of pickup truck with PowerFLOW. Surface colored by velocity magnitude, streamlines denote airflow movement along hood, mirror and A-pillar region. Image courtesy of DaimlerChrysler.

Features, Benefits & Highlights:

Fluids Solver

• Fast, time dependent solver for unsteady fluid mechanics
• Disruptive technology validated by industry
• Patented extended Lattice Boltzmann solver
• More fundamental and accurate approach than Navier-Stokes PDE solvers
• Other benefits:
  • No significant artificial dissipation
  • Excellent scalability up to hundreds of processors
  • Robust & physical realization of boundary conditions

Grid Generation

• Immersive grid technology
• Fully automatic fluid grid generation
  • Captures all details of complex geometry
• No limit on geometric complexity – no need to simplify
• Unlike most conventional CFD, cell quality is not a concern

Applications

PowerFLOW is used extensively in the automotive industry (passenger car and light truck), the motorsports industry (motorcycles, Formula-1 and NASCAR), and the heavy truck industry, as well as a number of other industries. PowerFLOW has become an integral part of a variety of industrial design processes specifically because of its quick turnaround times (geometry to flow solution) and accurate results. In the ground transportation industries, PowerFLOW is used extensively for full vehicle aerodynamics applications, for thermal management applications including HVAC, cooling airflow, top tank temperature and thermal protection, and for aeroacoustics applications including wind noise and sunroof or side-window buffeting. The same model can be used for all application areas.

Simulation of Motorsports vehicle using Exa PowerFLOW. Streamribbons demonstrate airflow movement around tires and along body.
Image courtesy of Tatuus.

Key  Features:

Setup

• Fully automatic grid generation
  No limit on geometric complexity.
• Single watertight mesh unnecessary
  Grid generation engine allows overlapping parts.
• Grid always captures all geometric detail
  Separate fluid and surface grids interact in simulation via flux based boundary conditions.
• No need to simplify geometry
  In fluids problems, small features may have large impact.

• Total vehicle analysis
  Use the same model for aerodynamics, aeroacoustics, and thermal analysis.
• Time accurate results
  Transient simulations capturing subtle unsteady behavior are key to accurate results, even for flow problems that appear steady state.
• Aeroacoustic capabilities
  Analyze pressure fluctuations to identify noise sources and understand noise generation mechanisms.
• Thermal Protection capabilities
  Couple to PowerCOOL to simulate radiators, charge air coolers, and condensers. Couple to PowerTHERM to simulate conduction and radiation.
• Parallel scalability
  Excellent scalability up to hundreds of processors.
• Numerical stability
  Regardless of geometric complexity, PowerFLOW is stable.