Autodesk Simulation CFD 2012Autodesk just announced in this BusinessWire News Release and on Twitter via @lmihelcic and @SimulationCFD, that Simulation CFD 2012 is out. Most of you know that this product was formerly the CFdesign® software picked up in last year’s Blue Ridge Numerics acquisition.

What is Simulation CFD

Simulation CFD now takes the Simulation brand of products (including the former Algor® product) and expands the capabilities of computational fluid dynamics analysis to give Digital Prototyping a powerful and elegant stretch. Now professionals engaged in product design and engineering can evaluate electronics cooling, fluid flow, turbo-machinery, heat transfer, airflow analysis, cavitation, and more. Here’s the basic laundry list of capabilities.

Simulation CFDFluid flow simulation:

  • Laminar
  • Turbulent
  • Incompressible
  • Steady state

Heat transfer simulation:

  • Conduction
  • Convection
  • Forced convection
  • Natural convection
Simulation CFD AdvancedAdvanced Fluid Flow

  • Supersonic compressible
  • Transient (time varying)
  • Two-phase flows (humidity and steam mixtures)
  • Cavitation

Advanced Heat Transfer

  • Internal radiation heat transfer
  • Radiation through transparent media
  • Solar loading

Advanced Conditions

  • Relative humidity
  • Current
  • Voltage
Simulation CFD MotionTypes of motion:

  • Linear
  • Angular
  • Rotating/turbomachinery
  • Combined linear and angular
  • Combined orbital and angular
  • Nutation
  • Sliding vane
  • Unconstrained motion

Autodesk’s Simulation CFD application comparison chart

More Capabilities

Autodesk Simulation CFD 2012

(source: Autodesk, Inc. video)

Autodesk has added the standard Ribbon interface as expected, along with their trademark integration with Autodesk Fusion. One major addition is the adoption of Autodesk Licensing Manager (ADLM), and the flexible licensing opportunities that it provides.

Still in the package are cool tools like element auto-meshing and auto-refinement, along with the really cool Decision Center that helps engineers and analysts visually evaluate various design scenarios easily.

The tight integration with Autodesk Inventor is still part of the product. Material properties and key pre-established variables can be brought over directly from the Inventor model, and any feature changes can be posted right back to the Inventor design. The Revit architecture model integration continues to permit AEC professionals to evaluate applications such as exterior wind loads and interior comfort zones.

Some other notable features include :

CAD Entity Groups – Collections of parts or surfaces that can be saved in the CAD system for reuse in multiple studies, and used in conjunction with the Design Study Builder.

One-click simulation Simplified simulation is provided by way of the design study rules. One click and you’re in motion.

Design study automation Design study templates and the Design study builder help engineers effectively deal with repetitive tasks when creating a design study.

Autodesk Simulation CFD 2012 Remote Solver

Autodesk Simulation CFD 2012 Remote Scheduling (source: Autodesk, Inc. video)

Remote solving A remote solving manager helps allocate analysis workloads across multiple workstations or whatever you  have available in your network. Not only that, you can schedule them at any time or day. That’s cool.

Team environmentCollaborative team functionality permits more team members to be involved in the project, including tools such as web viewers for those that don’t have Simulation CFD.

Conclusion

I think this is one of the most amazing products. I spent months researching fluid flow and supersonic compressible behavior in order to analyze the simplest of applications, and this product would have reduced that work to a couple of days. That doesn’t account for the analysis I was unable to perform such as cavitation and heat transfer.

The remote solving manager is really a cool prospect. You know I’m gonna try to attach to my buddies workstation when he’s at coffee break just to see if I can run analysis in the background after he returns. That would be awesome. Just think of all the lazy people’s unused resources that could be tapped.

Now add to that the major buzz I have when anyone mentions turbo-machinery. Personally I can’t wait to get my paws on this… now all I need is another day added to each week.

Check out the Autodesk Simulation CFD official page for a lot more information, including new brochures and videos.