Bigger Sims Win the Race

http://www.deskeng.com/de/bigger-sims-win-the-race/
By Alex Read

In auto racing, bigger is better. Nowhere is this more true than in the world of
motor-sport computational fluid dynamics (CFD) where teams regularly push
the envelope by running simulations involving hundreds of millions of cells.

CFD, a mainstay of Formula 1 (F1) racing, is increasingly being used by NASCAR

teams for aerodynamics, underhood thermal management, and engine
simulations.
STAR-CCM+, CD-adapcos new technology solution, is enabling teams in
Formula 1 and NASCAR to create, set up, run, and postprocess bigger, and of
course better, flow and thermal simulations.

Why so big?
Race teams use CFD as an aid and extension to physical testing. It is used to
optimize expensive wind-tunnel time by identifying the best designs to work
with, and to provide information that is difficult to obtain via testing. For
NASCAR underhood thermal management, this can take the form of detailed
visualizations of the flow and thermal field in the engine compartment. For
external aerodynamics, it may be the cars front and rear down-force balance
when a driver drafts another.
Race teams other requirements, common to all simulation engineers, are
accurate results and rapid and robust model turnaround. This presents a
particular challenge in areas like external aerodynamics where components
demonstrate a strong interdependence. For example, the performance of the
rear wing of an F1 car will vary depending on the setup for the components in
front of it and vice-versa.
F1 teams opt for running detailed models of the full car to ensure accurate
aerodynamic resolution for all parts of the car. Similarly, in NASCAR, the
interaction between cars aerodynamic and even physical contact is a key
part of racing. Because cars are bumper to bumper and door handle to door
handle much of the time, understanding the effect this has on front and rear
down-force and airflow to the engine compartment can make the difference
between success and failure.
Historically, this need for more and more data has presented problems: is my
computer big enough to store and solve for hundreds of millions of cells? If it is, is
my CFD tool sufficiently adept at using this enormous computing resource
with hundreds of processors operating in parallel to let me create, set up, run,
and postprocess my case within a reasonable timeframe?
Users as partners
CD-adapco has a proud history of solving these problems for race teams. It has
supplied CFD tools to, among others, the current double World Championshipwinning ING-Renault F1 team since its inception in 2001. Now, the companys
latest offering, STAR-CCM+, has been specifically designed for motor-sport
CFD, with regular evaluation and specification being carried out by top motorsport teams during its development.
Around five years ago we were starting to develop STAR-CCM+ from a blank
sheet of paper, explains Richard Johns, CD-adapcos director for the automotive
industry, which allowed us to use everything wed learnt in the previous 20
years of developing and using CFD, as well as the latest computing technology. In
addition, at CD-adapco, we see our users as partners and not just clients. As well
as using our own know-how, our motor sport partners were integral in defining
STAR-CCM+s specification and reviewing its progress.

The result is a code thats revolutionizing motor sport CFD, enabling teams to
run ever more detailed models, with ever more computational cells, while
shortening case turnaround times.

Technology in the sim process

Much of the focus on CFD codes has been on the time it takes for them to solve
the Navier-Stokes equations for a large number of computational cells. Of equal
importance is the time required to create, set up, and postprocess the case,
which can take days or even weeks.
A key technology in STAR-CCM+ is the process by which it does this for very
large cases. First, all the steps of the simulation process are integrated into one
tool: from CAD geometry to postprocessing. This saves a considerable amount of
time as there is no requirement to export and import large data sets and there is
no requirement to respecify parameters in different tools or when running
iterative design studies.
Second, it uses the latest software technology: a client-server architecture. The
server runs on a parallel cluster, distributing the work of processing hundreds of
millions of cells, while the light Java client only passes along the information it
needs. What this means is that cases can be set up, run, and postprocessed using
the light client while the server makes full use of parallel hardware, thereby
significantly cutting model turnaround time.
Pushing the limits
So far, its been possible to simulate 40 cars at once with a mesh count of one
billion polyhedral cells: the equivalent of several billion tetrahedral cells. The
purpose of the simulation was twofold: to simulate the complex interaction
between multiple cars in close proximity and to see how far we could push STARCCM+ on existing hardware.
The starting point for the calculation was creating a mesh around a single car,
providing the baseline drag, lift, and yaw force values. A second car was then

introduced and analyses were performed with the cars directly in line, and with
an offset as if one was beginning an overtaking maneuver.
The drivers goal when drafting is to reduce the drag on both cars, making them
collectively faster. If the second car is in the correct position, it has the effect of
increasing the pressure at the rear of the lead car, reducing its overall drag.
However, the effects are highly dependent on the car positions. At times, the
drag on the second car is reduced as the first car deflects the air over it. In other
configurations the drag force on the rear car is actually greater than that on the
lead car as it sits in the dirty, highly turbulent wake. Handling is also affected as
the front and rear lift on each varies with the car positions and strong yaw forces
occur on the rear car when in the offset position.
These simulations provided the aerodynamicists with detailed visualization of
the complex flow patterns around the cars.
The model was then extended to evaluate what happens in highly complex race
conditions, with many cars unevenly spaced and positioned. Engineers use a
building-block approach whereby one car and its close proximity to another are
meshed, then that mesh is copied and pasted with an offset to produce two cars
side-by-side or nose-to-tail. A spacer mesh section is created to vary the
distance between the vehicles. Using this technique, analysts create a model of
40 unevenly distributed cars with a total mesh count of one billion cells.
Although this is impressive by todays standards, according to Johns, multibillion
cell calculations will be commonplace in the not-too-distant future.
As the hardware vendors continue to produce even bigger and faster machines,
Johns says, so the model sizes ]that] race teams want to run increases. Its our
goal to make sure STAR-CCM+ can efficiently handle these enormous
calculations. So far weve made it to one billion, we dont see any reason why in
the future we cant go much larger than that.

More than just flow

Of course, aerodynamics is only one application area for motor-sport CFD.
NASCAR teams are increasingly using CFD for underhood thermal management
simulations to gain detailed insight into the flow and thermal fields. Here, the
CFD tool must be able to automatically mesh highly complex geometries and
deal with the additional physics required to efficiently model fans and heat
exchangers, and convective and radiative heat transfer.

When developing STAR-CCM+, says Johns ]the automotive powertrain] was

one of our target applications. Its combination of the latest generation of our
surface wrapper and dedicated underhood models mean its much more than
just a flow code.
At the heart of STAR-CCM+ is an automated process that links a powerful
surface wrapper to CD-adapcos unique meshing technology.
The surface wrapper significantly reduces the number of man-hours spent on
surface cleanup and, for problems that involve large assemblies of complex
geometry parts, reduces the entire meshing process to hours instead of days.
The surface wrapper works by shrink-wrapping a high-quality triangulated
surface mesh onto any geometrical model, closing holes in the geometry and
joining disconnected and overlapping surfaces, providing a single manifold
surface that can be used to automatically generate a computational mesh
without user intervention. STAR-CCM+ also has specialist models for efficient
representation of fans and heat exchangers.
Staying ahead of the pack
In motor-sport CFD from F1 to NASCAR bigger is better. As teams continue to
push the envelope of CFD so the tools they use need to adapt to their
requirements. STAR-CCM+ is one of those tools helping race teams run bigger
models faster and ultimately to stay at the front of the pack.
More Information
CD-adapco
Melville, NY
cd-adapco.com

Alex Read studied engineering and CFD at the University of Leeds, UK, and wrote his
thesis on simulation of vehicle aerodynamics. He is now the engineering manager of
CD-adapco responsible for supporting clients in the UK, Scandinavia, and Holland in
their efforts to simulate vehicle aerodynamics and aeroacoustics. To comment on this
article, send an e-mail to DE-Editors@deskeng.com.