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Physical Sciences & Engineering

CFD (fluids), FEA (structures), multibody dynamics, acoustics, astrophysics

42 articles

Article

Siemens STAR-CCM+ Overset Mesh: Simulating Moving Bodies in Complex Flow Environments

Siemens STAR-CCM+ Overset Mesh (Chimera) superimposes an independently meshed donor region onto a fixed background mesh, enabling large-displacement moving-body CFD without remeshing. This article covers the hole-cutting algorithm, overlap zone sizing rules, DFBI six-DOF coupling, and best practices for store separation and rotating machinery simulations.

By Jeff 93 views
News

SOLIDWORKS Simulation 2026: Fill Thin Slot, Angular Displacement Plots, and Pin Connector Force Extraction

SOLIDWORKS Simulation 2026 delivers targeted enhancements across structural, thermal, vibration, and plastics analysis workflows. Key additions include the Fill Thin Slot feature for accurate heat transfer modeling in compact assemblies, angular displacement plotting in degrees or radians, pin connector force extraction in random vibration studies, and a 30% speed boost for injection molding simulations.

By Jeff 43 views
Article

ANSYS MAPDL Parametric Scripting: Automating Structural Simulations with APDL

ANSYS Mechanical APDL (MAPDL) parametric scripting enables engineers to automate design sweeps, batch processing, and optimization workflows that GUI-based tools cannot match. This reference covers core APDL patterns — parameterized geometry, *DO loops, conditional logic, and result extraction — along with PyMAPDL integration for Python-driven simulation pipelines.

By Jeff 195 views
News

Realis Simulation 2025.2: 50% Faster Combustion CFD, Dual-Fuel H₂/NH₃ Support, and Tighter CFD-FEA Coupling

Realis Simulation 2025.2 delivers a 50% reduction in VECTIS R2DK combustion run times, new dual-fuel auto-ignition capabilities for hydrogen and ammonia blends, and a validated FEARCE-Vulcan thermal model for hydrogen direct-injection engines. The release also adds direct modeFRONTIER coupling for automated DOE workflows and builds on the 95%-faster CFD-FEA heat transfer mapping introduced in 2025.1.

By Jeff 256 views
News

Abaqus 2025: Multi-GPU Acceleration, Advanced Wear Modeling, and Expanded Multiphysics Capabilities

Dassault Systèmes SIMULIA has released Abaqus 2025, delivering significant advances in solver performance, contact wear simulation, and multiphysics workflows. Key highlights include multi-GPU acceleration for the iterative sparse solver, DMP scalable eigensolvers for frequency and buckling analysis, and new surface tension modeling capabilities that open the door to solder reflow and microfluidics applications.

By Jeff 813 views
News

OpenFOAM v2512: GAMG Reproducibility, AMI Caching Speedups, and a New Immersed Boundary Method

The December 2025 release of OpenFOAM v2512 delivers targeted improvements to the GAMG solver, introduces AMI stencil caching for 10–30% speedups in moving-mesh simulations, adds a two-layer k-ε wall treatment, and brings a new finite-area Immersed Boundary Method for thin-film modeling. The release also completes the project's migration to GitLab.

By Jeff 310 views
News

MathWorks R2026a: Simulink Copilot, Agentic Toolkits, and FMU Builder Transform Model-Based Design

MathWorks has released MATLAB and Simulink R2026a, introducing Simulink Copilot for AI-grounded model assistance, the MATLAB and Simulink Agentic Toolkits for autonomous agent-driven workflows via MCP, and the new Simulink FMU Builder for streamlined model exchange. The release marks a significant step toward AI-native simulation environments for embedded systems and control design.

By Jeff 668 views
News

SimScale Launches Engineering AI Agents and Open Workflows Platform for Autonomous Simulation Orchestration

SimScale has opened its Engineering AI agents to all enterprise teams and launched SimScale Workflows, an open platform architecture enabling any solver or custom method to be integrated natively. Together, these releases enable fully autonomous, end-to-end simulation pipelines where AI agents manage the entire engineering process — from CAD preparation to validated reporting — without human handoffs.

By Jeff 680 views
News

AVL Simulation Suite 2025 R2: GPU-Accelerated Battery Safety, Hydrogen Electrolyzer Modeling, and AI-Driven Design Exploration

AVL has released its Simulation Suite 2025 R2, introducing GPU-accelerated battery thermal runaway simulation in FIRE M, a new PEM electrolyzer generator in CRUISE M for hydrogen system modeling, and AI-driven design exploration tools. The update targets electrification and sustainable propulsion development with enhanced fidelity and workflow automation.

By Jeff 314 views
News

MathWorks Launches MATLAB Copilot and Redesigned Desktop in 2025a Release

MathWorks has released MATLAB and Simulink 2025a, introducing MATLAB Copilot—a generative AI assistant for code generation, debugging, and test automation—alongside a fully redesigned desktop environment. The release also delivers major Simulink enhancements including a Python Code Block, local solvers for model references, and a new Simulink Scope, making it one of the most feature-rich updates to the platform in recent years.

By Jeff 444 views
Article

MSC Nastran SOL 200: Gradient-Based Design Optimization for Structural Engineers

MSC Nastran SOL 200 is the integrated gradient-based design optimization solver, coupling finite element analysis with mathematical programming to automatically find the optimal structural configuration that satisfies engineering constraints. This article covers design variables, responses, constraints, and objective functions, along with practical workflow guidance for wing rib thickness optimization and multi-disciplinary structural optimization across static, modal, and buckling subcases.

By Jeff 200 views
Article

SimScale Lattice Boltzmann Method: High-Fidelity External Aerodynamics at Cloud Scale

SimScale cloud-native Lattice Boltzmann Method (LBM) solver delivers wind-tunnel-quality external aerodynamics simulation without the geometry preparation burden of traditional CFD. Using a Very Large Eddy Simulation (VLES) turbulence closure on a hierarchical Cartesian lattice, it achieves drag coefficient predictions within 1-3% of wind tunnel measurements while natively coupling aeroacoustic analysis. This article covers LBM theory, SimScale setup best practices, Variable Resolution Region configuration, and a head-to-head comparison with RANS-based solvers for automotive and building wind applications.

By Jeff 195 views
Article

ANSYS Mechanical: Mastering Contact Mechanics for Nonlinear Structural Simulations

Contact mechanics is one of the most numerically demanding aspects of FEA. This article covers ANSYS Mechanical's contact formulations—Pure Penalty, Augmented Lagrangian, Lagrange Multiplier, and MPC—along with friction modeling, normal stiffness tuning, convergence best practices, and post-processing of contact results for bolted joints and press-fit assemblies.

By Jeff 318 views
News

COMSOL Multiphysics 6.4 Delivers 5x GPU Speedup, New Granular Flow Module, and LLM-Assisted Simulation

COMSOL releases version 6.4 of its flagship multiphysics simulation platform, featuring NVIDIA cuDSS GPU acceleration delivering 5x speedups, a new DEM-based Granular Flow Module for pharmaceutical and chemical processing applications, a time-explicit dynamic analysis framework for impact and crash simulations, and optional LLM-assisted simulation via GPT-5, DeepSeek, and Google Gemini.

By Jeff 633 views
Article

LS-DYNA Implicit Solver: Best Practices for Nonlinear Structural Analysis

LS-DYNA's implicit solver is a powerful but often overlooked complement to its explicit dynamics engine. This article covers configuration strategies, Newton-Raphson convergence tuning, contact formulations, and adaptive time stepping for quasi-static, springback, and eigenvalue analyses.

By Jeff 367 views