Altair Virtual Wind Tunnel for ultraFluidX 2021.1 Release Notes
Highlights
Virtual Wind Tunnel
2021.1 delivers improved geometry modeling capabilities and
expanded feature support for ultraFluidX. Highlights of
this release include:
- New Sketch ribbon
- Expanded Geometry ribbon
- Monitor surface support
- Passive part support
New Features
- Sketch Ribbon
- The new Sketch ribbon contains a complete set of Sketching tools to develop complex model geometries from scratch within the Virtual Wind Tunnel interface. These Sketch tools can be used in conjunction with imported discrete geometry, creating a very powerful mixed modeling capability. The Sketch tools can be used to create custom refinement zones, complex overset mesh volumes, or model components.
- Geometry Ribbon
- In addition to the new sketching tools, the Geometry ribbon has additional tools that can be used to manipulate and cleanup imported geometries. Cleaning up surface features, logos, holes, and fillets can now be performed within the Virtual Wind Tunnel interface. Features such as shells, partitions, midsurfaces, and fillets can also be created.
- Monitoring Surfaces
- Monitoring surfaces are used to extract surface and integrated results from a uFX simulation. Unlike the existing surface output capability, the monitor surfaces do not need to be made up of geometry that participates in the simulation in any other way. The surfaces are used purely for output purposes and do not support boundary condition or mesh control assignment.
- Passive Parts
- A new property has been added to all model parts in Virtual Wind Tunnel that allow you to omit them from the global force calculations. This feature is useful, for example, when there is an upstream obstruction in the wind tunnel to generate turbulence. This feature is identified as a body part to enforce a no-slip condition on its walls, but it should not contribute to the calculation of lift and drag.
Enhancements
- Better Alignment of Default Settings with ultraFluidX Best Practices
- Several default parameters in Virtual Wind Tunnel have been changed to be more consistent with the ultraFluidX Best Practices Guide. The affected parameters include wind tunnel size, global mesh size, and default run time.
- New Installation Structure
- The Virtual Wind Tunnel installation structure has changed to be more consistent with the rest of the Altair Simulation tools. This facilitates easier sharing of common modules and reduces the disk space needed for a full Altair Simulation installation.
Known Issues
Sketch and Geometry tools may reference variables and construction features that aren’t fully exposed to the user in this release. These issues will be addressed in the 2021.2 release.