Mentor Graphics Corporation today announced several new capabilities including a new Functional Mock-up Interface (FMI) and enhancements to secondary air analysis for its Flowmaster® simulation software solution for thermo-fluid systems. The Flowmaster product, renowned for accuracy, is used at every stage of development, from concept through design optimization and validation, providing minimized design effort to accurately simulate complex systems. The latest release contains new functionality addressing the needs of the automotive, aerospace, process/energy and gas turbine industries.
The Flowmaster product now features a new FMI which enables usage of Flowmaster models in an open-source environment thereby allowing systems engineers to use models created by different simulation tools in a true collaborative environment.
“Mentor Graphics’ new Functional Mock-up Unit (FMU) model export capability is a hugely important development for system integrators who are looking for a standardized, zero-cost solution to tool coupling,” said Hassen Hadj-Amor, product manager at D2T, a 20-year powertrain development engineering company providing services including simulation as well as equipment and software such as xMOD, a heterogeneous model integration environment. “The new Flowmaster tool provides users with a simple solution for the creation and export of network meta-models, ready for use in FMI environments, such as the xMOD simulation platform developed by IFP Energies Nouvelles.”
New Functionality Features in the Flowmaster Product
The new Flowmaster product provides an enhanced secondary air solver and a natural circulation capability. The secondary air feature provides solver algorithms that improve the stability and accuracy of modeling flow through rotating parts—critical for predicting temperatures and centrifugal pressure rise in the secondary air systems of gas turbines. The natural circulation capability simulates fluid circulation in a closed loop system without a pump through the combination of gravity and heat energy changes. Natural circulation occurs in traditional power plant designs and is critical for analysis in the power generation market.
Several key new enhancements further improve existing Flowmaster product usability. The parametric studies capability now provides users with greater flexibility in setting up their design study inputs through highly productive and intuitive options. Smart modelling is enabled for effortless creation of new design spaces. The other new major enhancement relates to the Monte Carlo simulation functionality, where unique random value generation for each instance of a parameter as well as individual calculation of mean, sigma, minimum and maximum has been added. Monte Carlo simulation provides the examination of small thermal variation effects in input values – enabling the tool to be used for risk analysis and quality control environments, such as Six Sigma (DFSS).
“Our latest release of Flowmaster contains enhanced usability, collaboration, and user experience features requested by our customers from audits we conducted,” stated Roland Feldhinkel, general manager of the Mentor Graphics Mechanical Analysis Division. “We are committed to providing our customers with best-in-class technologies and our Flowmaster solution provides the functionality required for a broad range of markets.”
