SimScale Update Focuses on Fluid Flow

How a small simulation player can change the simulation industry.

Animation shows two fluids mixing in a diffuser.

Animation shows two fluids mixing in a diffuser.

SimScale has just released the latest version of their cloud-based simulation software. The affordable, browser-controlled engineering tool targets the start-up markets and individual consultant unable to afford expensive software and infrastructure.

One significant improvement to the simulation platform is the ability to model multiple mixing fluids. This is often important for the food processing and oil and gas industries. Engineers are able to assess how two fluids will mix as they use tools like diffusers to optimize its design and operation.

Fluid flow around a hull of a ship.

Fluid flow around a hull of a ship.

Due to user interests in the marine industry, SimScale also focused on improving two features with respect to free surface flow. First, SimScale supports large eddy simulation (LES) and Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) free surface turbulence models.

Additionally, the marine industry might be interested in SimScale’s local time-stepping function. This tool will compute the steady states of multiphase flows. This can be used to simulate the free surface flow around a ship’s hull as it approaches steady state.

The advancements to SimScale are not limited to CFD. FEA improvements include advanced analysis previously tested in a soft launch. These new tools include:

  • Alternate boundary conditions
    • Rotation
    • Remote force
    • Follower pressure
  • Dynamic contact models
    • Augmented Lagrange
    • Penalty method
  • Alternate material types
    • Hyperelastic
    • Elastic
    • Plastic

How This Affects the Simulation Industry

To many CAE users, the announcements made by SimScale might seem to be limited compared to its bigger simulation software cousins. Many of the features branded as new to SimScale have been commonplace in ANSYS, Dassault Systèmes and COMSOL products,

What makes this important to the industry is the availability of SimScale. As reported in a previous article, SimScale offers their technology on-cloud at the fraction of the price of other simulation software. Therefore, these CAE tools and advanced simulation capabilities are now attainable to start-up companies and individual engineers interested in consulting.

As SimScale and similar tools continue to play catch-up, individual engineers will be able to do more and more of the simulations typically restricted to internal R&D divisions and large consultancies that can afford more expensive CAE tools. The big players in simulation will be forced to come up with bigger and better functionalities to ensure their products are worth the additional cost to their customers.

Written by

Shawn Wasserman

For over 10 years, Shawn Wasserman has informed, inspired and engaged the engineering community through online content. As a senior writer at WTWH media, he produces branded content to help engineers streamline their operations via new tools, technologies and software. While a senior editor at Engineering.com, Shawn wrote stories about CAE, simulation, PLM, CAD, IoT, AI and more. During his time as the blog manager at Ansys, Shawn produced content featuring stories, tips, tricks and interesting use cases for CAE technologies. Shawn holds a master’s degree in Bioengineering from the University of Guelph and an undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Waterloo.