Engineers often have difficulty transferring data between CAD tools when performing computational flow dynamics (CFD) analysis on their designs. Mentor Graphics recently integrated FloEFD into its Solid Edge CAD software to address this issue.
FloEFD from Mentor Graphics.
Engineers can quickly perform high accuracy CFD with the FloEFD tool. Capabilities of the tool that improve performance and accuracy include:
- Intuitive user interface—Engineers can easily learn the intuitive graphical user interface (GUI) for the FloEFD system. Built-in analysis wizards guide work and walk users through the required steps. The wizards suggest parameters and settings using common engineering terminology rather than vendor-specific keywords to further simplify use. Users can focus on the analysis without being distracted by confusing terminology and the interface, reducing frustration and improving user efficiency. The tool provides real-time feedback about convergence and point values to enable users to iteratively refine analysis parameters. Users can store results in a range of formats, including Microsoft Word and Excel.
- Increased analysis performance—Users can perform analysis of complex designs faster thanks to the improved analysis engine. The tool is integrated into the Solid Edge CAD tool, so users don’t have to translate data and files to a different format and transport them to a different tool for further analysis. The model automatically synchronizes geometry and simulation data, and the incorporated parametric study and design comparison function simplifies what-if analysis.
- Automatic fast meshing—The SmartCell technology provides an efficient high performance framework for mesh analysis. Regarded as the optimal framework for simulation of fluid flows, the meshing process is automated for complex geometries with the SmartCell tool. The tool combines reliable Cartesian meshing with high performance analytical and empirical solvers to produce more accurate simulations with fewer mesh cells than more traditional methods. User time requirements are reduced by an order of magnitude to speed up CFD analysis.
- Design study support—Users can quickly and efficiently perform design studies to determine how changes affect design performance. Integrating the CFD tool within the CAD suite provides this performance increase.
- Parametric analysis—Engineers can compare configuration and perform parametric studies within the FloEFD framework. Users can expose and review the effect of changes in geometry and boundary conditions on the analysis and evaluate the results through images, graphs and numeric values.
Click the links to learn more about Mentor Graphics and its FloEFD solution.