CFD FAQ

ESI is proud to announce the Release of the V2010.0 ACE+ Suite of CFD and Multiphysics software. This release comes just eight months after our last release and includes many new features that our customers have requested. We welcome and encourage all of our customers to download and use the latest version of our software.

Included in the V2010.0 release are significant updates to:

• CFD-ACE+ - Advanced CFD and Multiphysics Solver
• CFD-FASTRAN - CFD Physics Solver
• CFD-GEOM - Geometry Modeler and Mesh Generator
• CFD-VisCART - Body-Fitted Cartesian Mesh Generator
• CFD-VIEW - Solution Analysis and Visualization Tool

Enhancements have been made to increase usability, robustness and accuracy, and we are sure that this new version will make for a worthwhile upgrade to your CFD/Multiphysics toolset. In addition, V2010.0 marks the beginning of ACE+ Suite support on Windows 7 platform.

The remainder of this note gives you some information about the V2010.0 software release. Please read on to learn more about the updates and let us know if you have any comments or questions.

IMPORTANT NOTE: If you are running V2009.x or earlier software versions, then you may require a new license to run V2010.x versions! ESI licensing policy requires licensing to the version of the software. This means that if you currently have a V2009.x (or earlier) license, you will need to replace it with a V2010.x license. These are available upon request from your ESI license or sales representative. If you are not sure who that is, you should contact support.cfd@esi-group.com. Please include your existing V2009.x license file for the quickest service. Note that if you already have a V2010.x license, no action is required.

V2010.0 Release Highlights

As with previous releases, there are many improvements to features, performance, and robustness. Below is a short bullet list of some of the top reasons why you should consider upgrading to V2010.0. For a more detailed description of the new and improved features, please consult the Release Notes document, which is included in the RELEASE package download files and can also be found in the Knowledge Base section of the ESI CFD Portal (login required).

CFD-ACE+ V2010.0

• Radiation DOM Methodology – SnDOM and CAFVM
• Plasma Coupled with External Circuit
• Improved Stochastic Heating Model
• More Efficient STS Radiation Restart Capability
• Additional Correlation Forms for the Fan Curve Model
• New Local Slip Wall BC Specification
• New Inviscid Wall Boundary Condition
• Improved Mass and Energy Flow Balance Summary Output
• Enhanced Output Controls
• Marangoni Effects of Surface Tension for VOF
• Improved Parallel VOF Capability
• New Parallel Domain Decomposition
• Parallel Processing improvements

CFD-FASTRAN V2010.0

• HP-MPI for Polyhedral Solver on All Supported Platforms
• Parallel Script Improvements for Structured Grid Solver

CFD-GEOM V2010.0

• Faster Boundary Layer meshing
  
• Faster and more robust Advancing Front Surface Meshing
• Improved CAD/IGES import
• New two points and radius circle tool

CFD-VisCART V2010.0

• Improved Baffle (Thin-Wall) Treatment
• Improved Multi-Domain Algorithm to Capture Features
• More efficient Solution Adaptation process
  
• Faster Boundary Layer generation
• New Sphere and Cylindrical Sources
• New Local Cell Size Specification for Patches

CFD-VIEW V2010.0

• New Cell-Center Data Visualization

Additionally, several enhancements have been made to the Database Manager.

V2010.0 Installation

In V2009.4 and earlier versions, the application directories were placed directly under $ESI_HOME, and had names of the form <application>_<version>; for example, GEOM_2009.4. Starting with this V2010.0 Release, there will be a new 2010.0 directory under $ESI_HOME that will contain all the V2010.0 application directories. These application directories will have names of the form <application>; for example, GEOM.

Thus, the location of the CFD-GEOM application directory
in V2009.4 was: $ESI_HOME/GEOM_2009.4
in V2010.0 is: $ESI_HOME/2010.0/GEOM

Moving forward, this new version-specific directory structure will be used. This new directory structure will not cause any problems if V2010.0 is installed with existing V2009.4 or earlier software directories. You will continue to be able to use old and new versions of the software, which will allow as much time as needed for transition. However, as only V2010.0 will be supported going forward, you should use V2010.0 to get access to future software issue resolutions and feature improvements. Step-by-step instructions for the download and installation of V2010.0 software can be found in the Getting Started Guide (located in the Knowledge Base - login required).

Regards,
ESI CFD Team