Parameterization : Turb Opty

Turb'Opty™ is an unique and innovative parameterization software adapted for computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis. Based on a cutting edge technology, which expands the capabilities of in-house and commercial CFD codes, the role of Turb’Opty™ is to reduce the thousands of CFD calculations for sensitivity and parametric studies by a single numerical database, analytically, without interpolation, without loss of precision.This software is used as an aid to design and conception, to comprehension and analysis, to the reduction of the cost of modeling and simulation:

To contribute to a reduction of development life-cycle duration and cost
To contribute to a reduction in rework
To contribute to a cost reduction of physical tests

How does it work?

The parametric technology upon which Turb’Opty™ is based breaks the bottleneck of CFD. From an initial solution field, Turb’Opty determines the relations between any single or different coupled parameters and the aerodynamic variables.

These parameters may be design variables (geometrical) or flow related conditions like velocity, mass flow, etc., and the aerodynamic concern the characteristics of the flow field like the density, the velocity, the thermodynamic variables, the turbulence variables, etc., or any combinations of these aerodynamic variables such as target functions (efficiency, power, lift, etc.).

The input for Turb’Opty is:

One CFD calculation using a RANS solver as SC/Tetra
The list of the design parameters

All the necessary information used to determine the relation between parameters and flow variables are then generated once during the Turb’Opty™ calculation and stored in a so call numerical database.

For what ?

FAST CFD: reduction of time

Indeed previous to the development of Turb’Opty™, CFD designers were compelled to multiply the geometries, boundary conditions, and thus the number of meshes and calculations. However with the Fluorem software, designers can now directly view all the solutions of a specific fluid mechanics problem by setting parameters of the flow field. Engineers plug Turb’Opty™ into their existing internal or commercial computing sequences to increase the capacity of the base solver. After the database is build up, it can be used directly by a non-specialist flow simulation designer to gain access to thousands of solutions within a single operation. CFD may today be totally integrated into the PLM process.

No re-work: reduction of cost

The use of the database reduces considerably the amount of rework in modeling and simulation activities. This may lead to an increased use of simulation, into the PLM process, and finally to reduce drastically the need for physical testing and the prototyping.

Aid to design and conception: increase competitiveness

Exploring the entire domain of conception, users gain a precise knowledge of the influence of each parameter of conception under study, considered independently or not, without any a priori restriction often imposed by the CPU time and bad convergences. The polynomial of high order generated account for the inherent non-linearities within the NS governing equations, going much further that any gradient method can do.

As the solution of the extrapolation is the entire flow field, the user can see directly in the GUI the response of the pressure, the temperature or the velocity field to the modification of the different parameters. He can thus, “on the fly”, design a first new geometry corresponding to his objectives within defined margins, based solely on his specific industrial constraints, without any CFD considerations, only playing with the different cursors controlling each design variable.

Parameterization for optimization

The flow database can easily be linked to any optimization algorithm and provide the Npop individuals during the Ngen generations leading to the Pareto-optimal solutions at the end of the optimization process. As the interrogation is immediate, no CPU or convergence constraint is limiting the way to the optimum.

The richness of the information allows determining the relations between different coupled parameters : a sensitivity analysis, even at the 2nd order, could lead to the conclusion that one specific parameter has no influence on the flow field. Combined to another one, the result might be totally different!