We recently spoke with John Chawner, Senior Group Leader at Cadence about the company’s entry into computational fluid dynamics (CFD) technologies after many years of being known for its expertise in electronic design automation (EDA).

Cadence has long been a leader in electronic systems design, building upon more than 30 years of computational software expertise. The company applies its underlying Intelligent System Design strategy for creating innovative software, hardware, and IP solutions.

In turn, Cadence customers are some of  the world’s most innovative companies, delivering extraordinary electronic products from chips to boards to complete systems for the most dynamic market applications including hyperscale computing, 5G communications, automotive, mobile, aerospace, consumer, industrial, and healthcare.

Generally, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is an aspect of multiphysics system analysis that simulates the behavior of fluids and their thermodynamic properties using numerical models. Cadence’s CFD suite includes application areas such as propulsion, aerodynamics, hydrodynamics, and combustion. What makes CFD platforms especially pivotal is their ability to adapt to specific instances of additional physical phenomena.

Cadence’s primary CFD products include:

Fidelity CFD Solution – Provides a streamlined CFD workflow for design, multidisciplinary analysis, and optimization in a single environment. The Cadence Fidelity CFD software is a scalable Cadence CFD solution that provides technology beyond the Omnis end-to-end CFD workflow and Pointwise legacy meshing. For over a decade, the CFD industry has recognized that progress in three vital areas has plateaued: numerical algorithms, modeling of turbulent and separated flow, and the exploitation of HPC assets. Fidelity CFD makes strides in all three; the two most unique aspects are its high-order solver and the first steps toward integrating the Omnis and Pointwise meshing technologies into a single, unique platform while also advancing them separately. The Fidelity high-order solver can provide 10 times the accuracy of classic flow solvers, and 3 times mesh speedup using the Pointwise solution within Fidelity CFD.

Fidelity Pointwise CFD Mesh Generation – Utilizes advanced mesh generation techniques as well as geometry model preparation capabilities for high fidelity characterization of fluids. It is well known that meshing is the most time-intensive part of the CFD workflow with one of the highest impacts, but is vital to ensuring high-accuracy and high-efficiency CFD simulations moving forward. Beyond meshing, however, Fidelity Pointwise can integrate into just about any CFD simulation workflow. Through its mesh export and import tools and pre-built relationships with other solvers and simulation tools, Fidelity Pointwise can enhance existing workflows. The entire team dedicated to Fidelity Pointwise is deeply connected to the greater meshing community and is involved in many aspects of the industry and influential guidelines like the CFD 2030 plan. 

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