Accuracy for multiphysics system simulation

Fidelity CFD introduces a next-generation flow solver featuring high-order numerics, scale-resolving simulations and massive hardware acceleration, which together boost performance and accelerate turnaround time without sacrificing accuracy. 

Building upon the expertise and technology gained from the NUMECA and Pointwise acquisitions and organic computational software expertise, Fidelity CFD unites all of the compelling technologies a CFD engineer needs to simulate the performance of multiphysics systems in a streamlined workflow.

Included in Fidelity CFD are several specialised flow solvers for marine and turbomachinery applications, as well as general-purpose flow solvers for a broad range of flow types. With Fidelity CFD, engineers can address wind noise around road vehicles, expand the flight envelope of next-generation aircraft designs, optimize the power generated by wind and gas turbines, and cut fuel consumption of marine vessels, all while maintaining high accuracy and dramatically reducing turnaround time. In particular, Fidelity CFD software’s unified mesh generation technologies from NUMECA and Pointwise delivered critical capabilities to a major aerospace customer.

“Fidelity CFD significantly improves fluid dynamics performance and accuracy across all industry verticals,” said Tom Beckley, senior vice president and general manager of the Custom IC and PCB Group at Cadence. “For advanced applications that need to accurately model turbulence—including automotive, turbomachinery and aerospace applications—the Fidelity CFD software’s next-generation flow solver opens new opportunities for customers to rapidly garner unprecedented engineering insight into the performance of their systems.”

Fidelity CFD includes major technological innovations that are breaking through the limitations of traditional CFD solver technologies. Fidelity CFD software’s next-generation, high-order flow solver with its advanced simulations of fluid turbulence has demonstrated the ability to predict aerodynamic drag on an automobile up to 10X more accurately than a traditional CFD solver. In addition, the turnaround time for these highly accurate simulations can be reduced from weeks to a day or less.

Unique to Fidelity CFD is the combined meshing expertise from the former NUMECA and Pointwise teams. While geometry and meshing can consume up to 75% of a CFD engineer’s time, Fidelity CFD builds upon a long tradition of innovation and turnaround time reduction in these areas. While integration of the meshing technologies continues, the software products continue to advance individually. In particular, the release of Fidelity Pointwise Meshing accelerates the technique used for meshing the flow field around commercial and military aircraft and space launch vehicles by up to 3X.

Fidelity CFD software’s meshing capabilities also enhance automotive applications. “We chose NUMECA Autoseal and Hexpress to be our standard workflow for CFD preprocessing,” said Antoine Delacroix, Manager Vehicle Performance Engineering R&D at Toyota Motor Europe. “They allowed us to reduce our total lead time and work hours respectively by 91% and 97% while consistently providing high-quality meshes with excellent layer coverage. Due to the high level of automation and standardization, creating a mesh from CAD does not require long pre-processing training. Since becoming part of Cadence, the team has continued to deliver valuable new solutions. We like the integration of all these tools in Fidelity CFD and look forward to continued innovations.”

The breadth of capability within Fidelity CFD goes beyond airflow to the flow of water for marine applications, and no marine application is higher profile than the America’s Cup yachting race.  “Although AC75 yachts spend most of their time flying above the water, we saw in AC36 that the race can all be decided in the acceleration and takeoff phases,” said Dan Bernasconi, Technical Director​ at America’s Cup champion Emirates Team New Zealand. “Having a hull design optimized for hydrodynamic efficiency in takeoff and touchdowns is crucial to winning the America’s Cup, and at Emirates Team New Zealand, we rely on Cadence’s Fidelity Marine Solver to predict this performance. Fidelity Marine is the leading simulation tool for hull hydrodynamic modeling and forms an important part of our tool suite.”​

With the launch of Fidelity CFD and building upon decades of Intelligent System Design technology, Cadence is well positioned to develop and implement a broad range of fluid simulation solutions to meet customers’ evolving computational needs.