CFD

[SKRAT]

Oh well, I guess competition is good for everyone. As I understand it, Star-CD, CFX, and FLUENT all use similar methods and pretty much have the same capabilities in the CFD end of things. I agree that where the competition is hot these days in CAD and mechanic simulation (hence CFX + Ansys). I don't use CFD full-time but it's still mesh, solve, and analyze for every CFD package I can think of. I like where the trends are going with the integration of the different simulation tools wherever it is heading. I would expect more buyouts and mergers (hopefully for the better).

I'm guessing it's the quality of the support these days that counts the most towards winning/losing contracts. I'm not in the know nor do I really keep track of CFD code progress, but from reading the case studies on the websites of FLUENT, CFX, Star-CD, and Blue Ridge Numerics, I find they pretty much do the same thing with some specific advantages for each in certain areas (i.e. FLUENT is good at combustion modeling and transonic flows).

Cheers,
Paul C
Sodus, NY USA

[CFDruss]

You pretty much right, they all use similar codes, although their solution layouts differ as do other things. Star-CD has been the main impact on Fluent, They have took alot of their contracts such as in F1 (convosation info!!!!!) as for CFX, they have pretty much stayed balance until the Ansys take over and now they seem to be push their sales quite hard. One thing I will say about CFX and Star-CD is they do have brilliant support services, where I know a number of un-happy people with fluent.

I like the way you say that the CFD programs are just mesh, solution, results programs. There is some seriously deep mathematics behind them, and the people behind designing and programming these code are people I will always look highly on. The stuff boggles me!!!! The navier Stokes Equations are just part of it.

Good to see you use a bit of CFD, its a highly powerfully and useful tool, nice one mate

[Guest]

Does anyone know which teams are using which CFD codes?

This is as much as know so far:
Ferrari: Fluent
Williams:
Mclaren:
Renault: Fluent & star CD
BAR: Fluent
Sauber: VSAERO
Jaguar: Probably Fluent since Ford has world wide license
Toyota:
Jordan:
Minardi:

[CFDruss]

Mclaren I believe use Star-CD as they took the sale from Fluent, and Im unsure about williams, I think they are on Star-CD too. As far as I know, Minardi hardly use CFD as they dont have the finances, but they have had a dabble at Star-CD

[///Matthew]

This time last year i was working with CFX (Designing and Aero package for th UofT Formula SAE car) and the President of their Canadian operations was telling me that BMW.WilliamsF1 was evalutating the use of the CFX solver. They have the abiltiy to import Fluent Meshes which was why Williams was intersted.......

[SKRAT]

I'll add that Sauber also uses Fluent and presented at their European conference this past June.

I'd guess that Star CD, based in England, should have an additional advantage in wooing constructors with 6 of the teams also based in England!

With all the articles I've seen about McLaren and their Sun Micro compute farm, I couldn't find a reference to their CFD vendor. I did see the name Star CD in the article, so that's my guess there too. The constructors probably don't want to promote their particular CFD vendor over another unless there is some marketing agreement involved, hehe. I'd imagine what makes it easier these days to switch back and forth is the CAD inoperability of most of the 'popular' CFD packages and non-conformal meshing, so it's easy to import/(clean)/'auto' mesh/solve no matter what package you're using.

[Steven]

small update here...
things we know so far for sure:

Ferrari: Fluent
Williams:
Mclaren:
Renault: Fluent & star CD
BAR: Fluent
Sauber: VSAERO
Jaguar: Probably Fluent since Ford has world wide license
Toyota:
Jordan:
Minardi: [none]

[pabs]

I'm kinda curious as to what turbulence model the F1 teams are using? Does anyone know?

[Asphodel]

The turbulence model can have a huge effect on the drag calculations and separation points. For quasi steady state simulations, RSM is suppose to be the best turbulence model. However, it is very expensive for computational resources and can be very hard to converge. kw-SST has probably the best efficency.

Since accuracy is the the objective of CFD, I would guess they would be running unsteady simulations to capture the wake structures properly. Since they have access to large computer clusters, they would probably use LES or DES.

[eschezal]

Hello
I am making the final project in my crrer. I want make the analysis of some part of F1 bodywork in abaqus under 2014 rules, Also i want make cfd analysis but i need some draws!!! Could you help me pelase? I need a lot of help!!