December 17, 2001, Lebanon, New Hampshire…Fluent Inc., the world's leading computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software provider, announces the release of FLUENT 6.0. A new set of features in this version specifically address the needs of engineers using CFD to model turbomachinery.

Turbomachinery Modeling for Complex Geometries

"Overall, we felt that this new version of the code will address many issues which are important to turbomachinery design," said beta tester Dr. Peter Flohr of ALSTOM Power Ltd., Switzerland. FLUENT 6.0 has many turbomachinery-specific advances which make it easier than ever for power industry engineers to integrate turbomachinery analysis with their CFD work in combustion, pollutant formation, and flow distribution.

Turbomachinery-specific panels let the user easily calculate key integral quantities like torque and efficiency, and examine meridional, pitchwise, and spanwise cuts. A specialized turbomachinery model set-up tool, G/Turbo™, is also now available from Fluent for performing fast, automated turbomachinery model set-up. New non-reflecting boundary conditions offer increased accuracy for blade row analysis. An enhanced mixing plane model provides further economy in solving real-world multistage problems. All turbomachinery analysis using FLUENT benefits from the fidelity and robustness of its unstructured meshing technology, which makes it an ideal choice for solving problems involving complex geometries and motions.

Parallel Processing for Additional Speed Gains

FLUENT's near-linear scaling during parallel processing has been head and shoulders above other general purpose CFD software, and this position is further advanced with the new version, where dynamic load balancing and other advanced features enable users to easily adapt FLUENT to a wide variety of multiprocessor configurations.

Usability Enhancements

FLUENT 6.0 offers a new set of options for postprocessing and visualization, such as automatic generation of animations. Results can be output in VRML format, which enables the user to send three-dimensional images of results across the Web for remote viewing, where the receiver can change views, zoom in/out, and rotate the image.

"The VRML output in FLUENT 6.0 is a welcome new feature that will be important in our work. Additionally, the more advanced integration of visualization services and overall improved functionality make this code a perfect fit for our needs," says Paul Kingston of Hoare Lea Virtual Engineering.

Pricing and Availability

FLUENT 6.0 is available on UNIX, NT, and Linux platforms. It is provided at no additional cost to all current FLUENT users who have chosen to purchase upgrades along with their FLUENT license. FLUENT license fees are determined by the number of processes that a user requires. Annual license fees include unlimited technical support.

About Fluent

Fluent is the world's largest provider of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software and consulting services. Fluent's software is used for simulation, visualization, and prediction of fluid flow, heat and mass transfer, and chemical reactions. It is a vital part of the computer-aided engineering (CAE) process for companies around the world and in almost every manufacturing industry. Using Fluent's software, product development, design and research engineers build virtual prototypes and simulate the performance of proposed and existing designs, which helps them to optimize, troubleshoot, scale-up, and retrofit. Use of CFD software reduces time-to-market by reducing the need for costly physical testing and prototyping.

Fluent's corporate headquarters are located in Lebanon, New Hampshire, USA. Fluent's European headquarters are located in Sheffield, England, with local offices in Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, and Sweden. Fluent's Asia Pacific headquarters are located in Tokyo, Japan. Its CFD software is also available around the world through joint ventures, partnerships, and distributors in Korea, Australia, Brazil, China, Taiwan, the Czech Republic, Middle East, and most European countries.

Fluent is a subsidiary of Aavid Thermal Technologies Inc. Additional information on Fluent's products can be obtained on the World Wide Web at www.fluent.com or by e-mailing info@fluent.com. More information on Aavid Thermal Technologies is available at www.aavid.com.

FLUENT® and GAMBIT® are registered trademarks of Fluent Inc.
G/Turbo™ is a trademark of Fluent Inc.

For more information, contact:

Jennifer Correa
Fluent Inc.
10 Cavendish Court
Lebanon, NH 03766
(603) 643-2600 Ext. 668
jrc@fluent.com