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Fortissimo launches service to broker HPC resources


The Fortissimo marketplace and its parent company emerged from a successful EU-funded initiative, writes Robert Roe


E


ngineers and scientists can now get access to HPC resources more easily because of the Fortissimo Marketplace, a new platform for


brokering high-performance computing (HPC) services. Te new cloud-based marketplace offers small manufacturing businesses fast and convenient access to supercomputing services. Professor Mark Parsons, project


coordinator for the Fortissimo project, stated: ‘We know companies that use high-performance computing and high- performance data analytics seek really clear


economic and business benefits from doing so. However, we also know that far too few companies actually use these technologies.’ Te Fortissimo marketplace and its parent


company emerged from a successful EU- funded initiative, the Fortissimo Project. Te project is a collaborative venture to enable European SMEs to be more competitive through the use of simulation services running on high-performance computing cloud infrastructure. Using simulation and modelling on high


performance computing systems is widely seen as an effective but very expensive design


CASE STUDY: CLOUD-BASED ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING


HSL is a hi-tech centre for the development of new products. With hundreds of products handled over the years, the company has developed experience with materials, traditional and innovative manufacturing technologies, prototyping, dies and moulding. HSL is an SME and a market leader in both additive manufacturing and the rapid production of prototypes. In recent years additive manufacturing has emerged as a viable mainstream production technology. Overcoming technical and


bureaucratic obstacles has allowed 3D printing to grow as a cost-effective option for small and medium scale production, together with the ability to produce complex shapes not achievable by standard manufacturing processes. This flexibility in design enables


the optimisation of components, a reduction in manufacturing time by almost a third and a halving of production costs by reducing the waste of materials and energy.


The challenge


Despite the clear advantages of additive manufacture, current design tools have been developed for traditional manufacturing procedures and are not flexible enough. This limits the potential of 3D printing. CAE tools are able to suggest new shapes and accurately predict the behaviour of components, making them a natural choice in the design chain. However, and especially when dealing with complex computational fluid dynamic (CFD) simulations, shape optimisation can be a prohibitively expensive task for


16 SCIENTIFIC COMPUTING WORLD


SMEs. The objective of this case study is the development of an optimisation service. The goal is to demonstrate the validity of such a service by optimising a prospective industrial artefact, a Lamborghini 12-cylinder airbox.


The solution


Numerical grid parameterisation using a mesh morpher avoids the time-consuming task of mesh generation (that can take up to 70 per cent of the total analysis cost).


THE ECONOMIC


BENEFIT IS ESTIMATED TO BE BETWEEN €40,000 AND €70,000 PER YEAR


Access to CFD simulation through the Fortissimo HPC Cloud allows a further speed-up in calculation times, reducing the time to market and to return on investment. Using a collaborative, interactive, cloud interface helps analysts and clients to work together and to be integrated in the value chain, increasing customer satisfaction and building better products more effectively.


The development cost of a new air-box, estimated as €250,000 using a standard approach, can be reduced to €75,000 using the HPC cloud service. Based on a forecast that, over the next two years, HSL will undertake three new air-box optimisations each year and that, compared with traditional CAD methods, there is a cost saving of €175,000 per optimisation,


@scwmagazine l www.scientific-computing.com


and development tool – only accessible to the largest and most financially powerful companies. Te Fortissimo project aims to change this, lowering the barrier to entry for new, commercial HPC users, so that they can derive the benefits of HPC without the huge investment in infrastructure or the necessary skills to run and maintain an HPC cluster. ‘When we ask companies why they are


not using these technologies and soſtware solutions, a common answer is that its very expensive, “we lack the skills to do it”, “we can’t do it in-house”, and “we wouldn’t know where to start”’ commented Parsons. In 2013, IDC analysts estimated that each dollar invested in HPC returned, on average, $356 in revenue and $38 in profits or cost savings. ‘Fortissimo is all about helping companies to take their first steps in using modelling


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