Flow Science Releases FLOW-3D V8.2 for CFD

SANTA FE, New Mexico, September 17, 2003. Flow Science, Inc. announces the availability of a new upgrade release of its FLOW-3D computational fluid dynamics software. Version 8.2 of FLOW-3D offers users several new and useful physical models and significant improvements to two key features of the solver: the VOF method for tracking fluid interfaces and the multi-block grid coupling. In addition, FLOW-3D will now offer its users interactive, on-screen geometry and mesh creation capability.

What follows is a brief description of the key new features in Version 8.2:

New VOF advection model -- TruVOF. A new semi-Lagrangian VOF advection method has been implemented. The new VOF advection model will enhance users’ ability to track fluid interfaces in complex 3D flows.

Multi-block Coupling Model

Stability, accuracy and efficiency of pressure-velocity coupling between mesh blocks has been greatly improved through the use of the Chimera multi-block method. The new method further widens the range of problems that can be tackled with FLOW-3D, from large scale flows in civil engineering to casting to micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS).

Graphical User Interface

FLOW-3D now offers users the ability to interactively create geometry and build meshes using FlowVu.

New Elastic-plastic stress model

A new elastic-plastic stress model has been developed for FLOW-3D for modeling materials having elastic properties. A yield stress may be defined to allow for plastic flow of these materials.

New Electro-osmosis model

A new electro-osmosis model, using a GMRES-based solver, has been implemented.

Sand core blowing model

A new model simulating the sand core blowing process has been implemented.

Two-Fluid model

A phase change has been added to the two-fluid model in the absence of free surface. Condensation/boiling can be initiated in situations when initially there is only vapor or fluid present.

Implicit Shallow Water model

An implicit treatment of pressure forces has been added to the shallow water model. The addition eliminates the time-step stability limit associated with the explicit setting of the free surface pressure as a function of fluid depth and gravity.

Individual Blade Effects

A new model for individual blade effects for fan-type rotating obstacles has been implemented.

Cavitation/Boiling model

Improvements have been made to the bubble nucleation/growth to avoid unrealistic temperature and pressure fluctuations in the cavitating bubbles and surrounding fluid cells.

Lost Foam model

The lost foam model in FLOW-3D has enhanced in two respects: (1) changes to the metal/foam heat transfer which will improve the accuracy and stability of the lost foam model; and (2) added the ability to model variable density foam patterns.

Solid-fraction-dependent metal/obstacle heat transfer coefficient

A new input variable is available to make the heat transfer coefficient a function of the solid fraction for every obstacle in every interfacial cell.

Two-fluid compressible-incompressible model

Thermal buoyancy has been added to the incompressible fluid when the two-fluid compressible model is used. This will be very useful for the two-fluid phase change model employed in cryogenic fuel tank simulations.

Post-processor improvements

An option has been added to the post-processor to allow the generation of iso-surfaces that are suitable for symmetry reflection. Marker particle data can now be extracted for rendering with iso-surfaces. FlowVu can read and display particle data at the same time as fluid and obstacle iso-surfaces. The post-processor has also been made more robust by allowing it to continue data extraction when a requested variable is not found in the results file. This is especially useful for restart calculations. And FlowVu has been made significantly more efficient in both speed and memory use.

Pre-processor improvements

A new STL reader has been developed which is more stable and accurate, especially when working with complex objects. Also, it can now process STL files in 3D cylindrical geometry. The topographical file reader has been improved to eliminate most problems with artifacts, defects and other inaccuracies.

Flow Science has commenced shipment of the new release to customers under maintenance contracts.

Flow Science, Inc. is a privately held software company specializing in high fidelity fluid dynamics modeling software for industrial and scientific applications worldwide. Flow Science has Associates for FLOW-3D sales and support in Japan, Germany, Korea, Finland, Norway, Russia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Spain, Italy, Canada and India.

For information, contact Flow Science, Inc. at:

Flow Science
683 Harkle Road, Suite A
Santa Fe, New Mexico 87505
USA

Telephone: (505) 982-0088
Fax: (505) 982-5551
E-mail: info@flow3d.com
Website: www.flow3d.com.