During August, Fluent started shipping the latest upgrades to FLUENT/UNS, RAMPANT, and the TGrid mesh generator. The new releases greatly expand the versatility of these established codes, especially in the important areas of model building and mesh generation. New features make it easier than ever to automatically generate high-quality unstructured meshes, yielding better efficiency and accuracy in the CFD solution process. They also enhance productivity by allowing designers to consider parametric changes using "parts-based" meshing.

Non-conformal mesh interfaces, for "parts-based" meshing, increase productivity during parametric analysis.

Hybrid Meshes for Automation and Efficiency

TGrid 3.0 gives users a powerful integrated tool for creation of hybrid volume meshes. Hybrid meshes, consisting of mixed element types, allow you to combine the ease of tetrahedral meshing on complex geometries with the advantages of traditional hexahedral cells in regions of less geometric complexity. This can substantially reduce the setup time and overall model size compared to approaches that allow only a single element type per analysis. FLUENT/UNS and RAMPANT 4.2 fully support solutions on hybrid meshes, including all available physical models, solution-based mesh adaption, and parallel processing.

TGrid 3.0 also improves the quality of automatically generated meshes, with "viscous hybrid" meshing tools. Viscous hybrid meshes use a layer of prism elements along walls, with tetrahedral elements in the bulk flow region. Compared to all-tetrahedral meshes, viscous hybrid meshes result in dramatic savings, with far fewer elements required to accurately resolve boundary layers and give good near-wall prediction of shear stress, heat transfer, and flow separation. Viscous hybrid meshes make it possible for designers to take advantage of automated mesh generation and get accurate predictions using fewer elements.

New releases of FLUENT/UNS and RAMPANT support parts-based meshing for interchangeable model components during CFD analysis. The inset shows the non-conformal mesh interface between two independently meshed regions in a film-cooling application.

Parts-Based Meshing for Parametric Design

The new releases also support non-conformal mesh interfaces (interfaces where mesh lines are discontinuous). Support for non-conformal meshes means that CFD models can be created in a modular fashion, with interchangeable meshed parts. This "parts-based" meshing dramatically improves productivity and increases the number of parametric design changes that can be quickly analyzed.

Expanded Modeling Capability

FLUENT/UNS and RAMPANT 4.2 also provide many new modeling features that expand the range of applications that can be analyzed. Included in this list are a Reynolds Stress turbulence model for greater accuracy in highly swirling flows (e.g., cyclones), anisotropic thermal conductivity for heat conduction through composite materials, and modeling extensions for representing fans and rotor-stator interaction.

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