Automated Model Build with Operations Templates and Precise Wrap Increases Productivity with High Fidelity PowerFLOW Simulations

AV 2023-02-21

SIMULIA’s newly released PowerDELTA® 6-2022 enables automation through Operations Templates and Precise wrap.

Shortening R&D cycles requires faster turnaround time for CFD simulations, and one of the ways this can be achieved is by automating non-Value added tasks such as model build. Automated model build can save time and effort by automating many of the tedious and time-consuming tasks involved in pre-processing highly complex CAD assemblies. SIMULIA’s newly released PowerDELTA® 6-2022 enables such automation through Operations Templates and Precise wrap.

Operations Template feature enables users to create a template of operations and is a key feature in automating complex model build workflows for aerodynamics, Aeroacoustics and Aero-thermal simulations using PowerFLOW & PowerTHERM. With Operations Templates, you can specify a sequence of operations for the specific application for an expected geometry organization.

Each template operation can take specified parameters or settings as well as geometry naming patterns, which include Booleans, e.g. “Roof* OR Spoiler*”. Additionally, mesh editing operations can include selected elements based on mesh diagnostics, e.g. skewness greater than 0.95. Operations Templates can be created for specific workflows and provided to the entire engineering organization.

Precise Wrap automatically fills gaps and holes that meet the specified threshold values, but leaves the input mesh outside the gap area as-is. The operation adds facets only to close the gaps, without modifying the quality of the input mesh, providing the user with high-quality surface mesh. Precise Wrap can fill highly complex gaps and holes, such as seal gaps and door handle holes, which would require painstaking manual intervention.

Figure 1: Vehicle body with gaps, holes & internal parts

Figure 2: Gaps & holes filled by precise wrap highlighted in cyan

Using Operations Templates and Precise Wrap in an automated model build process has been shown to reduce model build time from 100 manual hours to 15 hours, enabling more design evaluations with simulation in a development program. Automated model build avoids time-consuming and error-prone manual work, reduces dependency on expert user knowledge democratizing the use of high-fidelity simulation.