applications


so the MDX process has several important characteristics. In order to capture the influence of


various physical phenomena that might vary substantially over length or time-scales, it is oſten necessary to adopt a ‘multi- fidelity’ approach, resolving some physics in more detail than others. MDX also allows engineers to automate every step of the simulation workflow to minimise user intervention and speed up the simulation process. CD-adapco offers a clever licensing model,


which allows users to harness as many processors as they have available for a single fixed cost to accommodate any spikes in usage. Tis licensing scheme gives a level of affordability and flexibility not oſten seen in the simulation space.


The software CD-adapco is also one of the few remaining privately owned engineering simulation soſtware providers, giving it the ability to satisfy the needs of its customers instead of its shareholders. Vaughn said: ‘Most of our profits are invested into the company and the development of our soſtware. Compared with other companies, we have a much bigger soſtware development team. Tis is reflected


in the pace of our soſtware development (three releases a year) and the quality of our soſtware products.’ CD-adapco’s suite of products has been


optimised for MDX. Its STAR-CCM+ simulation soſtware allows users to affect CAD clients remotely to explore the design space as the CAD design changes while running on a remote cluster. To reflect the distributed nature of the


modern project team, STAR-CCM+ is also written using a client-server architecture. Te server performs the numerical calculation while the client (a workstation) is used to control and visualise it. Tis client-server architecture allows for visualising results as they are generated remotely on an HPC cluster or a remote cloud-based computing facility.


Communication matters With such a multidisciplinary approach, it’s not just the soſtware that needs optimising – so do the humans at the other end. Vaughn adds: ‘Historically engineers have tended to align themselves strictly along disciplinary lines: the fluids engineers do CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics), the stress engineers do FEA (Finite Element Analysis), the chemical engineers do all sorts of other


stuff that no one else understands. Getting individual engineers to talk to each other was oſten as much of a challenge as interfacing the individual soſtware tools.’ Tis cultural shiſt for many engineers may


be difficult to manage, but it is a necessary move as Vaughn predicts that in the near future MDX will be omnipotent in the


ENGINEERS WILL WORK WITH SOFTWARE TOOLS THAT SEAMLESSLY ALLOW THEM TO SOLVE PROBLEMS


engineering simulation space. He added: ‘Engineers will work with soſtware tools that seamlessly allow them to solve problems using whatever physics is necessary to properly predict the behaviour of a product or design under real-world operating conditions. Tey will also routinely use design exploration to characterise the entire design space, and find the optimal design parameters for each operating condition.’ Tis ability to model and simulate such


complex systems from the design phase should, as Vaughn succinctly puts it, enable engineers to ‘discover better designs, faster.’ l


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