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German automotive companies are always looking for new ways to shorten their design cycles. Toward this end, virtual prototyping by way of computer- aided engineering is becoming the standard for a wide range of automotive processes today. Fast turnaround and accurate CFD predictions are critical, especially in light of the rapid globalization that has evolved throughout the automotive industry. An important goal in this environment is to be able to reduce testing and troubleshoot virtual prototypes early in the design cycle.

Members of the 2003 Automotive and Aerospace industrial team, from left to right: Dr. Rolf Reinelt, Dr. Ingo Futterer, Marco Lanfrit, Frank Kaufmann (Team Leader), Michael Ehlen, and Marco Oswald

To meet these needs, German automotive CFD users need robust software that offers the latest physical models. Unstructured meshing and parallelized solvers are also key features, since automotive simulations with several million cells are now common. Because CFD has gained almost complete acceptance within this industry, its extensive capabilities have been transferred to a widening range of applications. Many non-traditional automotive simulations are now being performed, such as gas sloshing in a tank or cavitation in a fuel injector, both of which make use of multiphase models. Use of liquid spray combustion models is also on the rise for in-cylinder simulations using the deforming mesh model in FLUENT.

Windscreen deicing
Courtesy of Visteon Deutschland GmbH

In addition, there has been an increased demand for interoperability with other virtual prototyping software. Two frequently used CAE tools, CATIA for computer-aided design and ANSA for surface meshing, are frequently used in Germany, and tools are available in GAMBIT to import geometries and meshes from these packages. Indeed, GAMBIT is well equipped to import data from most of the CAE software packages in use today. This compatibility is an essential ingredient in the competitive automotive manufacturing world.

Pathlines illustrate the flow through a manifold
Courtesy of Filterwerk Mann + Hummel GmbH

The Fluent Deutschland automotive team tackles the full gamut of automotive applications, including underhood flow and heat transfer, climate control, powertrain analysis, external aerodynamics, and aftertreatment simulations.

Fluent's Global Automotive Market Manager, Dipl.-Ing. Werner Seibert, is located in the Darmstadt office. His role is to coordinate Fluent's automotive teams worldwide, and to work with key clients such as Ford, GM, Daimler-Chrysler, Toyota, and PSA. He serves as a conduit for automotive clients to feed their requests into Fluent's development schedule. Mr. Seibert joined Fluent Deutschland in 1994, and previously worked as the Automotive Team Leader. He has been extensively involved with Fluent's benchmarking activities over the years, particularly for external aerodynamics flows.

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