Altair Engineering, Inc. announced the addition of Tech-X’s VSim to the Altair Partner Alliance (APA) software offerings, making VSim available for integrated use by Altair HyperWorks customers. VSim is a computational application for simulating electromagnetics in the presence of complex structures and dynamical charged particles. By supporting massively parallel computing that scales to tens of thousands of processor cores, VSim lets users model complex geometries and more physical phenomena while still obtaining results within a reasonable amount of elapsed computing time.
VSim user Jim Browning, professor at Boise State University, reports, “VSim FDTD-PIC [finite-difference time-domain particle-in-cell] simulation was useful in our magnetron research because of VSim’s powerful parallel capabilities and its ease of use for those researchers who are not experts in the setup and use of advanced simulations.”
VSim can be used to simulate a variety of problems on regular, structured, orthogonal meshes with embedded boundaries (cut cells) for complex geometries, which can be imported from CAD models or constructed in the VSimComposer front end. VSim functionality includes high-order methods, electron emission—both primary and secondary—from cut-cell surfaces, dispersion control, sputtering, collisions, field ionization and quasiparticle propagation. VSim has packages for specific application areas including electromagnetics (EM), microwave devices (MD), plasma acceleration (PA) and plasma discharges (PD). All packages come with rich sets of examples to assist in initial usage.
VSim for Electromagnetics can be used in the design cycle for electromagnetic, electrostatic, and magnetic devices. Users can simulate radar interactions, including ground-penetrating radar (GPR), with the total-field/scattered-field method. The software can also model propagation in photonic crystals and other optical devices as well as in waveguides, and can compute oscillations and Q-factors in resonators and cavities.
“We are pleased to have Tech-X join the APA, as VSim is going to permit Altair customers to address a new set of applications, while complementing the comprehensive set of electromagnetic simulation applications we have in HyperWorks including FEKO, WinProp and Flux,” said Dr. Jordi Soler, Director of Global Business Development, Electromagnetic Solutions at Altair. “VSim uses FDTD and particle-in-cell solvers to simulate particles and electromagnetics together, and optimally covers applications including high-power RF amplifiers and oscillators like klystrons, helix TWT [traveling wave tube] amplifiers and magnetrons. Multipactor effects can be analyzed with VSim for microwave structures such as waveguides and coaxial cables. These effects are important since they can degrade the performance and even damage the device. Other applications of interest are controlled plasma discharges (like magnetron sputtering), plasma environmental effects (including satellite surface charging), semiconductor photonics and particle acceleration by laser plasma and cavities.”
