Tech Brief: Integration of an AI-Enabled CFD Workflow

The ANSA–Fidelity–META solution offered by Cadence provides an integrated, end-to-end computational fluid dynamics (CFD) environment connecting model preparation, high-fidelity simulation, and advanced results analysis into one workflow. 

WIth the ANSA–Fidelity–META workflow, geometry is imported, cleaned, sealed, and meshed in ANSA, simulations are executed in Fidelity, and results are analyzed and reported in META.

Engineers can respond instantly to design changes, evaluate multiple variants, and maintain consistent mesh quality and solver setup across iterations, thanks to advanced morphing, automation, and AI-driven capabilities. AI-based prediction compresses evaluation cycles, enabling near-instant insight and real-time design exploration.

Key Features

• Connected Digital Thread: Integrated preprocessing, solving, and post-processing
• Faster Time-to-Insight: Rapid cleanup, hex-dominant meshing, automated reporting
• Flexible Meshing: Structured polyhedral, hexahedral, and high-order elements for any geometry
• GPU-Accelerated CFD: Incompressible to supersonic with reduced turnaround time
• Automotive-Focused Performance: Optimized for aero, thermal, and complex vehicle simulation
• Visualization and Comparison: Multi-run analysis with advanced 3D/2D post-processing
• Automated Reporting: Presentation-ready results generated in minutes
• Built-In Design Exploration: Morphing, parametrization, and scripting for fast optimization
• Customizable and Repeatable: End-to-end Python automation for consistent workflows

What is ANSA?

ANSA is a native 64-bit platform that handles large, complex models. Multicore CPU support, double-precision calculations, and a fully customizable CFD-oriented interface ensure numerical accuracy. CAD interoperability allows integration of data from virtually any source, while direct interfaces to all major CFD solvers ensure downstream processing.

Intelligent diagnostics offer insight into challenging areas, while the Direct Edit functionality enables fast, localized changes without re-importing or rebuilding the CAD. Topology recognition identifies repeating features and enables linked geometry. Skin extraction and point-cloud-based meshingextend ANSA’s capabilities.

A CFD simulation model of a truck. Image courtesy: Cadence

Automation is deeply embedded in ANSA. Python-based scripting enables full workflow control, from CAD import to meshing, morphing, optimization, and solver export, within a single environment. At the center of the automation is Fidelity AutoSeal, a geometry clean-up solution that delivers a step-change in meshing. By automatically repairing dirty CAD, closing gaps, and filling holes, Auto-Seal reduces geometry preparation from hours to minutes.

Defining Fidelity

Fidelity combines advanced physics, solver accuracy, and computational acceleration into a single platform. Fidelity allows realistic and predictive simulations across industries and applications. Complex physics, such as conjugate heat transfer, multiphase flow, aeroacoustics, and fluid–structure interaction, are handled within a single environment. 

Fidelity also is built to deliver high-fidelity results at speed. GPU-resident solver technology that delivers up to an order-of-magnitude faster turnaround times, enabling RANS simulations in minutes and LES simulations in hours. 

When deployed on accelerated computing platforms such as the Cadence Millennium M2000, Fidelity unlocks simulation performance gains.

AI-Driven Simulation

AI-enhanced CFD enables near-instant prediction of key aerodynamic metrics such as drag and lift with accuracy. Models are trained on high-fidelity simulation data and scale across vehicle types and operating conditions.

AI-enhanced CFD enables near-instant prediction of key aerodynamic metrics. Image courtesy: Cadence

WIth AI, intelligent agents automate repetitive tasks, while analytics systems extract value from historical simulation data, and generative AI helps capture and reuse engineering knowledge across teams. This intelligence layer enables recommendation-driven design improvement and faster learning cycles, transforming simulation data into a living asset.

More on META

META turns massive CFD datasets into actionable insight. Viewed as a post-processor for structural analysis, META extends its low-memory architecture to CFD so that engineers can handle and visualize extremely large models.

META excels in quantitative analysis, enabling force and moment calculations, surface integrals, probing at arbitrary locations, and automated identification of extrema with full spatial context. Engineers can load and correlate multiple simulations simultaneously, making comparisons across designs, meshes, solvers, or numerical setups. From importing results to generating the final report, META enables fully automated, presentation-ready reporting through session files and scripting.

One Workflow

Jointly, ANSA, Fidelity, and META build a unified, AI-enabled, high-performance CFD ecosystem designed to advance the entire simulation lifecycle. Faster preparation, flexible meshing, GPU-accelerated high-fidelity solving, AI-driven prediction, and automated analysis work together to yield reductions in turnaround time and design agility.

This integrated approach empowers engineering teams to explore more ideas, gain deeper insight faster, and make confident, data-driven decisions. It establishes a powerful foundation for next-generation, simulation-driven product development, where speed, accuracy, and innovation move forward together.