CAD CAM News

FORT WORTH, TX - Pointwise today released the latest update to its Gridgen meshing software for computational fluid dynamics (CFD) with new tools for drastic size reductions in hybrid meshes.

"Customers love hybrid meshes because they can be generated very quickly using Gridgen's T-Rex technique, but the resulting meshes can be very large," said Dr. John Steinbrenner, Pointwise's vice president for research and development. "In the latest Gridgen release, improvements to the algorithm that combines tetrahedra into prisms produce up to a 57 percent reduction in total cell count relative to the previous version of the software."

Gridgen's T-Rex technique extrudes layers of high quality, high aspect ratio tetrahedra for boundary layer resolution, gradually transitioning to isotropic tets away from the body. An optional post-processing step combines adjacent tetrahedra into pyramid and prism elements in the extrusion layer. Prism recombination was frequently halted in previous versions by mesh quality issues and cell topology restrictions on symmetry planes. By removing many of these limitations in the new Gridgen Version 15.15, final cell counts can be reduced dramatically. Customers benefit because a smaller grid requires less memory, runs faster in the CFD solver and produces results sooner.

"A 27 million cell mesh for a modern, complex fighter aircraft was reduced to 12 million cells, and similar reductions were obtained for the AIAA shock boundary layer interaction benchmark case," said Steinbrenner. "Combined with the automation of this technique, these smaller meshes make hybrid meshing very effective for the CFD practitioner."

Pointwise, Inc. is solving the top problem facing engineering analysts today - mesh generation for computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The company's Gridgen and Pointwise software generates structured, unstructured and hybrid meshes; interfaces with CFD solvers, such as ANSYS FLUENT, STAR-CD, ANSYS CFX and OpenFOAM as well as many neutral formats, such as CGNS; runs on Windows (Intel and AMD), Linux (Intel and AMD), Mac and Unix, and has scripting languages that can automate CFD meshing. Large manufacturing firms and research organizations worldwide rely on Pointwise as their complete CFD preprocessing solution.

The Propulsive Wing is a new patented aerodynamic platform that integrates an embedded, distributed cross-flow fan propulsion system within a thick wing. Image courtesy of Dr. Joseph Kummer, president and principal scientist at Propulsive Wing LLC in Elbridge, NY.