Altair UltraFluidX

What is Altair UltraFluidX?

ultraFluidX is a simulation tool for ultra-fast forecasting of the aerodynamic properties of heavy vehicles and passengers, as well as for the assessment of environmental and building aerodynamics.

Its state-of-the-art technology is optimized so that GPUs deliver unbeatable performance and enable nightly simulations of complex cases on a single server.

Benefits

With ultraFluidX, highly resolved transient aerodynamic simulations can be performed overnight on a single server. The benefits in detail are:

Quick and easy configuration of boxes

Thanks to the perfect integration into the Altair virtual wind tunnel, the configuration of an external aerodynamic simulation becomes trivial. Models can be derived quickly for different vehicle classes, making the workflow less error prone.

Minimal pre-processing effort

Enjoy the Drag and Drop nature of this Lattice Boltzmann implementation. Low surface mesh requirements, support for intersecting and penetrating parts, along with fully automated volume mesh generation in the solver, make it easier to replace parts than in the wind tunnel. Evaluating hundreds of settings to meet legal regulations becomes feasible.

Short response times, allowing nightly executions

The Lattice Boltzmann Method is a perfect fit for massively parallel architectures such as GPUs and sets the stage for unprecedented response times. Nightly executions on single servers become possible using state-of-the-art GPU optimized algorithms, while offering the fidelity of a transient aerodynamic sLUG simulation.

Run transient

The aerodynamics of the bluff body, and especially the aerodynamics of the vehicle, are highly instillable by nature. With ultraFluidX, well-resolved transient SLE simulations become accessible. There is no longer a need to press transient physics on a steady state corset.

Significant cost savings

Conventional simulation approaches need thousands of CPU cores to achieve ultraFluidX response times. The GPU-based solution increases productivity and reduces hardware and power costs.

Industrial Applications

ultraFluidX has been tailor-made for highly resolved investigations of external aerodynamics, including the following selected applications:

Ground transport vehicles in a wide range of operating conditions

Determine aerodynamic forces and moments (e.g., drag, lift, rotate, tilt, yaw) and investigate transient three-dimensional flow structures to understand your vehicle's fluid dynamics. Potential CFD analysis targets include minimizing aerodynamic drag to reduce fuel consumption, balance of front and rear lift and crosswind behavior investigation to improve steering stability.

AEC Structures (Architecture, Engineering and Construction)

Analyze entire buildings and cities in a large-scale numerical wind tunnel. In addition to calculating wind loads in the buildings themselves, possible applications include simulation of the spread of pollutants and pedestrian comfort due to local wind conditions around buildings.

Individual customer applications

Use ultraFluidX for your own individual use cases. Examine the transient flow field of different projects, for example, compare the aerodynamic performance of different wind turbine blades. Analyze the impact on manufacturing tolerances and changes in local design on aerodynamic performance, for example, assess the impact of changes in small-scale local geometry on the flight trajectories of a soccer ball.

System requirements:

CPU: 1.8 GHz dual core processor

RAM: 2 GB

HDD / SSD: 50 GB of free space on the main drive

Operating system: Microsoft Windows 8 32-bit, Microsoft Windows 7 32-bit and Microsoft Windows Vista 32-bit

Resolution: 1024×768