Realis Simulation 2023.2
The 2023.2 release is now available to download. Fuelled by the urgent environmental requirement for sustainability, global legislation and consumer demand, the focus to deliver net zero carbon emissions is sharper than ever, challenging the transportation industry to develop the right system for the right application. This requires the simultaneous development of new technologies including electric, hydrogen fuel cells, hydrogen combustion, e-fuel and non-carbon fuel combustion as well as making existing Internal Combustion (IC) engines as environmentally friendly as possible.
Simulation software is central to answering the ‘What ifs’ when multiple design options make it impossible for expensive physical prototyping of all available scenarios. This exciting new 2023.2 release further enhances the tools available to assist engineers in making complex design decisions across both new and existing propulsion technologies.
Fluid Dynamics
Modelling new clean fuel technology
Hydrogen fuel combustion is becoming an increasingly viable technology across a range of applications. This release includes a new lean hydrogen combustion modelling capability in WAVE and WAVE-RT which delivers an accurate predictive engine model designed to address the challenges of simulating hydrogen ignition within internal combustion engines.
Building on previous releases, WAVE and WAVE-RT now have extended capabilities for multi fuel modelling which predict the performance of complex synthetic fuels in areas such as fuel consumption by extending knock and flame speed modelling for different fuel compositions.
The 3D CFD tool VECTIS introduces advanced spray analysis for current and next generation IC engines by tracking liquid from each injector hole, giving a fine level of detail to not only model mixture preparation and wall wetting, but also to further refine injection strategies optimising combustion performance for a range of spray injected fuels.
Faster, more optimised design for cleaner internal combustion engines
The application of real-time digital twins in WAVE-RT is extended with new real-time thermal modelling allowing development and calibration of the cooling system with real-time results.
In parallel, WAVE is now able to model a wider range of exhaust acoustic mufflers, providing improved workflow for acoustics, particularly suited to motorcycle applications.
As the range of options for modern engines increases, 1D engine models become increasing complex. This release brings in three new creation and troubleshooting tools for more efficient model construction, as well as a robust distributed simulations process to maximise the computational resource available to deliver fast, accurate simulated result in WAVE. Similarly for 3D Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), the 2023.2 release of VECTIS includes both pre-processing modelling improvements and more efficient parameterisation studies enabling increased workflow efficiency.
Structural Mechanics
Modelling new clean fuel technology
In the previous release FEARCE-Vulcan was extended to include thermal analysis of hydrogen, ammonia and ethanol engines. This release now adds higher accuracy of thermal results with new thermodynamic calculations across these fuels and as well as gasoline and diesel. Alongside this FEARCE now adds new transient thermal analysis to include the effects of cooling, warmup, and sudden temperature change across different engine drive cycles.
Faster, more optimised design for cleaner internal combustion engines
Oil consumption is a large factor in engine emissions. This release sees faster calculation speeds with improved convergence of oil consumption in RINGPAK, along with more efficient parametric studies and a new more intuitive ring profile definition making it more effective during design analysis.
In parallel, PISDYN also has more efficient piston parametric studies for design optimisation of pistons, whilst VALDYN introduces improvements to engine loading setup for assessing NVH and ENGDYN has increased speed of Elastrohydrodynamic (EHD) predictions for dynamic solutions.
FEARCE now includes import of thermal boundary conditions from CONVERGE CFD saving time for those users also using this CFD package. Meanwhile FEARCE-Vulcan post-processing enhancements include the export of time history data for each thermal interface, as well as the automatic solver creation of heat flux plots, which increase productivity by saving time in understanding heat transfer to each component. Enhancements in SABR include a new thrust needle bearing model in line with ISO 16281 and workflow improvements in the areas of export of load cases to SABR-Gear and a new memory switch to better utilise the available hardware memory and tooth contact analysis workflow improvements in SABR-Gear.
Systems Engineering
Faster, more optimised design of exhaust aftertreatment systems
Reducing tailpipe emissions is a primary focus in today’s markets with manufacturers under pressure from global legislation and consumer market forces to get as close to zero as possible, as soon as possible.
In this release, IGNITE introduces Enhanced aftertreatment modelling to calculate the emissions conversion efficiency at various points within the exhaust’s catalytic convertor system. Utilizing a wide selection of after-treatment models from our ExhaustAfterTreatment library, tailpipe emissions are predicted for a range user defined drive cycles.