Mentor Graphics, who was acquired by Siemens earlier this year, has announced the latest release of its computerized fluid dynamics (CFD) program, FloEFD. Mentor hopes that the latest release will encourage engineers to integrate CFD into their design process in the early stages, allowing the full capability of fluid simulation to be experienced.
Included in the latest release is the new surface simulation functionality, which will enable users to simulate surface flows, enabling modelling of scenarios such as flow of liquids into a tank.
Also featured in the new update is so-called sector periodicity, which allows users to model only a fraction or section of large cylindrical shapes, which reduces the complexity of models and allows for faster meshing and simulation run times.
These enhancements all help to reduce simulation time by as much as 65 to 75 percent, according to Mentor.
“Our continued investment in FloEFD by offering a host of powerful enhancements is in direct response to our customers’ evolving needs,” said Roland Feldhinkel, general manager of the Mentor Mechanical Analysis Division.“Our new release addresses the challenges our customers face in order to meet increasingly competitive time-to-market schedules with fast and accurate simulation results.”
A new standalone viewer is now offered to FloEFD users to help engineers share analysis results with those who do not have the main software package.
Mentor graphics is also proud to share the fact that FloEFD's user interfaces can be operated in various languages including: Japanese, Chinese, Korean, French, German and Russian. This feature is a great way to expand the CFD audience to those that prefer to work in their native language.
Take a look at how Red Bull Air Race engineers from Team Velarde use FloEFD for aerodynamic simulations in the video below.
FloEFD is a full-featured 3D CFD analysis solution built into major MCAD systems such as Creo, CATIA V5, Siemens NX, Solid Edge and SOLIDWORKS, and it also tightly integrates with Inventor.