Simulation of UITM BWB by using NUMECA

Numerical Mechanics Applications (NUMECA) is a powerful software in Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). Fluid and gas flow through pumps, compressors, turbines and air flow around aircraft, cars and buildings are the examples of the applications of CFD. NUMECA software is produced by the NUMECA International which is a worldwide provider of computational fluid dynamics software and consulting services. NUMECA International’s corporate headquarters are located in Brussels with offices and resellers while the NUMECA service centers are located in Brazil, China, Germany, India, Japan, Korea, Russia, Spain, USA, Indonesia and as well as in Malaysia.¹

NUMECA software is used for the simulation, design, and optimization of fluid flow and heat transfer. Basically, it is used by product developers, design and research engineers to find the best product quality and performances at the lowest engineering cost.¹ As for me, NUMECA is actually a friendly software where it can be used easily by the student for the assignment and Final Year Project (FYP) regarding the simulation of aircraft, wind turbine and many others for better understanding. 

Similar with the others engineering software such as CATIA, ANSYS, Simufact.forming and SolidWorks, NUMECA software also has its advantages. The most advantage of NUMECA is where it can save time and cost reduction of the whole CFD process. A simple example is in NUMECA grid generation automated systems AutoMesh-4G (which combined with the large speed-up in CPU with its CPUBooster), guarantee a reduction of one to three orders the engineering magnitude and CPU processing time on the large test cases and complex geometries. 

Besides, the NUMECA software is equipped with the Decision Support System (DSS) where the results provided by NUMECA can actually improve the decision with the reliable simulation. Other than that, other benefits of NUMECA are to improve the performance for a more effective design process, can generate the effective design through optimization and absolutely can improve the overall engineering efficiency and productivity.
 

NUMECA provides a few different packages of the software which encompass the AutoMesh-4G, FINE/Turbo, FINE/Hexa, Autoblade & FINE/Design3D, FINE/Marine, Multifluid & Multiphase Flows and many others. The application of NUMECA is wide which covers the aerospace, automotive, hydro engineering, marine, power & propulsion and wind energy industries. One of the NUMECA applications is FINE/Turbo. It is a fast and accurate flow integrated environment for the simulation of internal, rotating and turbomachinery flows. FINE/Turbo covers a large range of application such as multi-stage axial, radial and mixed flow compressor, turbine, pumps and fans.¹

Figure 1: Rotational turbo engine simulated in FINE/Turbo.¹

On the other hand, in aerospace industry, FINE/Hexa is used as it is a software package designed to quickly analyze design products. It helps the engineer for preparing a rapid virtual prototyping in fluid flow and heat transfer engineering to make rapid design decisions. FINE/Hexa covers a large range of applications such as complete aircrafts with engines, pylon, wings and flaps, cooled turbine blade and disk, automotive aerodynamics and environmental flows.¹

 Figure 2: Jetfighter prototype analyzed in FINE/Hexa.¹

Other than that, HEXPRESS is a crucial software that has been used in the marine industry to generate the submarine geometry. HEXPRESS is a fully automatic grid generator for complex geometries. Hence, it can reduce time and cost saving in the grid generation of fluid dynamics and structural mechanics simulation of the related task.¹

  

Figure 3: Submarine grid generated in HEXPRESS.¹

AutoBlade is a powerful, advanced and easy-to-use parametric modeler to design of rotating and turbo-machinery blades. It also provides a multi-view layout including a fully customizable 3D view.¹

 Figure 4: Blades generated in AutoBlade.¹

  

Likewise, for my FYP, I did the simulation of UITM BWB-Baseline II-E5 model by using this NUMECA software. The objectives of the study are to obtain and discuss  the CFD visualization of pressure, Mach number contour and velocity vectors.

 Sample of Mach number contour visualization 

 Sample of flow visualization on BWB body

  

Therefore, the use of the NUMECA software is actually can cut the cost of the simulation because the simulation just only happens in the software base. In the real world, the cost of the aircraft simulation is very high in term of the prototype cost, the model itself and also can be dangerous to the people in the area involved. In fact, the simulation in the NUMECA also can save the time and as well as the simulation can be repeated so many time until the accurate results will be obtained without increasing the simulation cost. 


Source: 

1. www.numeca.com