FLUENT® 6.0 is Released, Fluent Inc.'s Flagship CFD Software Offers Accurate Simulation of Critical Nuclear Power Plant Design Issues
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. With this release, FLUENT puts forth advances that enable power generation engineers to use flow and heat transfer modeling to quickly visualize accident scenarios and system designs. The software's ease-of-use and short learning curve significantly reduce initial deployment time and overall cost-of-ownership for CFD.
Availability, Power Uprates, License Renewals, Emerging Technologies
CFD is playing an important role as nuclear plant operators hunt for every opportunity to improve the performance and availability of existing reactors. Plant power uprates and license renewal applications also depend increasingly on the use of CFD to demonstrate continued safe operations. Looking forward, CFD will be pivotal in developing new reactor technologies where limited historical data exist for scale-up and safety review.
Accident Simulation
One of CFD's most popular uses in the nuclear power industry is as a quick and efficient means of analyzing accident scenarios. FLUENT 6.0 brings more possibilities into the picture. A new Eulerian multiphase model and a unique phase-coupled solver allow users to capture the hydrodynamics of component behavior during an accident. Research is underway which will further advance this capability by enabling FLUENT software to interface directly with safety analysis software for integrated studies. Also, a capability of the software to perform variable time-stepping makes it possible for transient simulations, such as accident scenarios, to be set up for the greatest efficiency and accuracy, thus reducing the number of design iterations required. A new surface-to-surface radiative exchange model speeds the analysis of containment heat transfer and spent nuclear fuel storage. Face element clustering can be used to optimize the generation of the view factor table. This model is very useful for transient simulations since the view factor table does not need to be recalculated for each time-step. This time-saving feature results in less CPU time per time-step than the discrete ordinates model with comparable accuracy. Likewise, it is valuable for studying parametric variations since the view factor table can be saved and re-used for each subsequent simulation on the same mesh.
Faster and More Realistic Modeling
The new preprocessing module for FLUENT 6.0 is Fluent's GAMBIT® 2.0. New features in GAMBIT enable further time savings in the CFD model-building process. For example, size functions enable the user to deploy the finest computational grids in areas of the model where the most detail is needed, and specify coarser grids in less critical areas, resulting in a shorter turnaround time and more accuracy in the results. A three-dimensional boundary layer capability provides greater control over boundary resolution. New cut-and-paste functions make meshing faster and less tedious, so users can manage large, complex, real-world geometries with ease.
Parallel Processing
FLUENT's near-linear scaling during parallel processing has been head and shoulders above other general purpose CFD software codes, 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. The Microsoft Windows version of FLUENT has been integrated with MPI/Pro® from MPI Software Technology Inc. MPI/Pro is a commercial implementation of the MPI standard. FLUENT uses MPI to run in parallel on both compute clusters and multiprocessor machines.
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.
MPI/Pro® is a registered trademark of MPI Software Technology.
For more information, contact:
Jennifer Correa
Fluent Inc.
10 Cavendish Court
Lebanon, NH 03766
(603) 643-2600 Ext. 668
jrc@fluent.com