Altair Introduces HyperWorks Virtual Wind Tunnel

Altair has introduced HyperWorks Virtual Wind tunnel, a streamlined vertical application designed to improve wind tunnel simulation for the automotive industry.

According to the company, wind tunnel simulations employing computational fluid dynamics (CFD) allow engineers to study aerodynamic loads and can reduce the number of physical wind tunnel test experiments required during a vehicle's development process.

"HyperWorks Virtual Wind Tunnel benchmarking tests demonstrate that Altair's technology correlates exceptionally well with actual wind tunnel results," said Altair vice president of CFD technology Farzin Shakib. "We anticipate that the ease, flexibility, accuracy and speed of HyperWorks Virtual Wind Tunnel will make it very popular not only across the auto industry but also in other fields where external aerodynamic simulation is crucial, such as architectural design and construction and wind-turbine development."

The solution leverages AcuSolve, Altair's CFD solver. The solution's turbulence modeling technology enables the wind tunnel system to predict the flow field and flow separation using steady-state and transient simulation for faster and more accurate results.

The solution comes with a fully-automated unstructured mesher with boundary layers. Volume meshing for an external automotive aerodynamics analysis "including the underbody, underhood compartment and boundary layers "can be completed in less than two hours, according to the company.

For more information, visit Altair.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company's website.