ESI Group launches PAM-FLOW™/AS for aerodynamic shape optimisation

Potsdam and Wolfsburg, Germany, and Paris, France, 5 October 2005 – ESI Group (ESIN FR0004110310) has announced a breakthrough in Simulation Based Design (SBD) by introducing a new technology – PAM-FLOW™/AS (Adjoint Solver) – into its Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) solutions for aerodynamic shape optimisation. ESI Group plans to release the PAM-FLOW™/AS by spring 2006.
CFD-related optimisation is a very demanding task in terms of computational resources. The key advantage of the adjoint-solution-based method is that it requires fewer design iterations, regardless of the number of design parameters, and therefore drastically cuts the number of Design of Experiment (DOE) simulations in the optimisation process.

The PAM-FLOW™ adjoint solver cuts significantly the number of design iterations in CFD shape optimisation on an automotive air duct. It uses an automated optimisation method, including automatic remeshing and morphing capability of either analytic or discrete surfaces, for precise geometric representation.

A joint case study was made by Volkswagen and ESI Group on a HVAC (Heating Ventilation Air Conditioning) air duct, using both the adjoint solver and a conventional optimisation method. The adjoint solver demonstrated improvements in both HVAC performance and turnaround time. It took two design iterations to achieve 20% reduction of the head loss, with automatic shape update in six hours. A single alternative conventional optimisation solution required 600 design iterations (600 CFD solver runs) in order to achieve the same level of head loss reduction.

"The adjoint solver shows great potential to cut the number of prototypes in the entire design process. It is a major breakthrough for car designers who use CFD solutions. At Volkswagen, in collaboration with ESI Group’s engineers, we are looking very deeply into this method to extend the applications from the air duct to aerodynamics drag/lift or yaw moment, aero-acoustics and engine intake port design, etc.," says Dr C. Othmer, CAE Method Division, at Volkswagen, in Wolfsburg (Germany), who presented the EUROGEN 2005 paper for aerodynamic shape optimisation with ESI Group’s PAM-FLOW™ adjoint solver.

"ESI Group considers this adjoint solver as one of its strategic technologies for Simulation Based Design, to supply end-users a transparent process within their simulation environment," adds Dr Ming Zhu, CFD Product Manager, ESI Group. "Today we are working with Volkswagen and other industrial partners across the world through joint studies to adapt and enhance our technologies for all our CFD solutions."

About ESI Group CFD solutions

ESI Group’s CFD solutions include a wide range of fluid mechanics related applications focusing on several key industrial market sectors: CFD-ACE+™ – finite-volume software for CFD related multi-physic simulations including fluid-structure interaction, electromagnetics, electrochemistry, biochemistry, plasma, fuel cell and many more disciplines for high-end applications; CFD-FASTRAN™ – finite-volume software focused on high-speed flows with moving bodies and aero-thermo-chemistry; PAM-FLOW™ – finite-element software for automotive aero-acoustics, aerodynamics with adjoint solver based optimisation, and defence applications; CFD-CADalyzer™ – CAD-linked CFD software that is an easy-to-use product for the design engineer; CFD-TOPO™ – software dedicated to fine feature evolution in nano-processing technology; and CFD-VISCART™ – dedicated software for automatic CAD surface shrink-wrap and volume grid generation for CFD-ACE+™ and CFD-FASTRAN™.

About ESI Group

ESI Group is a pioneer and world-leading supplier of digital simulation software for prototyping and manufacturing processes that take into account the physics of materials. ESI Group has developed an entire suite of coherent, industry-oriented applications to simulate a product’s behaviour realistically during testing, to fine-tune the manufacturing processes in accordance with the desired product performance, and to evaluate the environment’s impact on product usage.

ESI Group’s products, which have a proven track record in manufacturing and have been combined in multi-trade value chains, represent a unique collaborative, virtual engineering solution, known as the Virtual Try-Out Space (VTOS), enabling virtual prototypes to be improved in a continuous manner. By drastically reducing costs and development lead times, VTOS solutions offer major competitive advantages and make it possible to eliminate gradually the need for physical prototypes. This integrated protocol allows all the company’s solutions to work with each other and with applications developed by independent software vendors. By significantly reducing costs and development lead times and enabling product/process synergies, VTOS solutions progressively eliminate the need for physical prototypes during product development, thus offering major competitive advantages.

ESI Group is listed on the Eurolist compartment C of Euronext Paris, and generated sales of €60m in 2004. The company employs almost 500 high-level specialists worldwide, and covers more than 30 countries.

Virtual Try-Out Space® and VTOS® are registered trademarks of ESI Group. All other products, names and companies mentioned in this press release are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

For further information, please go to: www.esi-group.com