Computational Fluid Dynamics

CFD with Accuracy, Generality, Speed and Reliability

CFD++® is Metacomp’s flagship software suite, embodying over 50 years of industry pioneering expertise. Used by discerning organizations worldwide, CFD++® is a comprehensive, general purpose fluid dynamics simulation suite that consistently outperforms other commercial solvers in blind benchmarks and workshops.

Contact us for more information ➙
OVERVIEW
APPLICATIONS
FEATURES
RECENTS
VALIDATION
PUBLICATIONS
OVERVIEW
APPLICATIONS
FEATURES
RECENTS
VALIDATION
PUBLICATIONS
OVERVIEW
APPLICATIONS
FEATURES
RECENTS
VALIDATION
PUBLICATIONS
OVERVIEW

What is CFD++®?

CFD++® is a very general CFD software suite that includes a 7th generation state-of-the-art flow solver developed by key staff members at Metacomp Technologies who are pioneers in CFD research, including overset meshes.

CFD++® seamlessly handles most flow regimes, mesh/grid topologies, and is capable of handling very complex multiphysics applications. With fast computation of steady and unsteady flows, external and internal single and multi-phase flows; using realizable physical, numerical, and mathematical models; and a general framework that is extensible and customizable, CFD++® is truly a general purpose flow solver package.

Since 1997, hundreds of discerning organizations worldwide have continuously chosen (or switched to) the CFD++® software suite to solve their toughest engineering problems.

Why CFD++®?

Generality

CFD++® provides an efficient flow solution for any flow regime without sacrificing accuracy and robustness.

Support

CFD++® comes with software support that is unparalleled in the industry. Customers have direct access to senior support/staff members.

Interface

With an easy-to-use and easy-to-learn intuitive Advanced User Interface (AUI) built upon the premise of “simplifying complexities”, simulations involving multiphysics and multiple phases can be set up in CFD++® in a matter of minutes.

CFD++® at a glance

Nature of the Fluid

  • Compressible and incompressible flows
  • Various equations of state – incompressible, barotropic, perfect and real gases
  • Chemically reacting flows (equilibrium, non-equilibrium, flamelets)
  • Thermal non-equilibrium
  • Multiple phases

Nature of the Flow

  • Unsteady and steady flows
  • Large range of speed regimes – low speeds through subsonic, transonic, supersonic and hypersonic speeds
  • Conjugate heat transfer
  • Radiation effects

Applicability

  • Wide range of initial and boundary conditions
  • Generality and extensibility via file-based co-simulation or user-defined subroutines
  • Adjoint methods for evaluating sensitivity
  • Fluid-thermal-structure interaction (FSI) via MetaFSI® and CSM++®
  • Solution-based adaptive mesh refinement via MIME®
  • Six-degree-of-freedom (6DOF) module and prescribed mesh motion

Usability

  • Problem setup wizards for quick setup
  • Effective matching of problem size, complexity, and computational resource
  • Easy problem setup with the Advanced User Interface
  • Effective scaling from one to thousands of cores 
  • Available on cloud computing platforms

Turbulence Modeling

  • Industry standard turbulence models
  • Advanced turbulence models (RANS, Hybrid RANS/LES)

Numerics

  • Algorithmic capabilities for accuracy, robustness
  • Fast computation of steady state and transient problems
Unifying Philosophies in CFD++®
Unified Physics
All problem classes, all together

CFD++® can efficiently handle all flow physics regimes from incompressible to compressible flows (at all Mach numbers), including single-species, multi-species, and multiphase treatments, chemical and thermal non-equilibrium effects, in both steady and unsteady settings. Various topography-parameter-free models are used to capture turbulent flow features. The nonlinear subset of these models accounts for Reynolds stress anisotropy, streamline curvature and swirl. All these models can be either integrated directly to the wall, or combined with a sophisticated wall-function treatment that models the effects of compressibility, pressure gradient and heat transfer. Advanced HRLES models, as well as WMLES and MILES, are also available. HRLES can reduce the cost of traditional large eddy simulation by modeling the near-wall layer and automatically exploiting the advantages of LES in embedded fine-grid regimes.

Unified Grid
All cell types, all combinations

CFD++® allows for very easy treatment of complex geometries thanks to its unification of structured, unstructured and multi-block grids. CFD++® can also handle complex overset and patched non-aligned grids. The code’s versatility allows the use of various elements within the same mesh.

All cell types

• Hexahedral

• Tetrahedral

• Prism

• Polyhedral

• Polygonal

• Quadrilateral

• Triangle

• Line

All grid types

• Structured

• Unstructured

• Patched

• Overset

• Hybrid

• Non-aligned

• Meshes with gaps

• Very large grids

Unified Computing
All major platforms, all consistent

CFD++® is available for use on all computer systems, from personal to massively parallel computers and network clusters, running various operating systems including Windows, Linux and various flavors of Unix. Multi-CPU jobs are as easy to run as single-CPU jobs. Files are compatible across all platforms.
Platforms supported:
• All Linux x86-64 compatible
• All Windows x86-64 compatible
• AWS Cloud Computing
Interconnects supported:
• Gigabit and 10 Gigabit Ethernet
• InfiniBand (IB)
• Proprietary interconnects including CRAY, MPT (from SGI), etc.
CFD++ scales well to very large number of cores. The scalability improvements are universally applicable to all modern HPC platforms.

APPLICATIONS

External Aerodynamics

High-lift configuration commercial aircraft
Formula 1 configuration
6DoF simulation on external fuel tank

Ballistics | Rockets | Reentry

Apollo command module reentry
Hypersonic transition
Stage separation

Internal flows | Turbomachinery

Artificial heart valve
Rotating machinery
Internal combustion engine

Multiphase Flows

Transonic store separation with sloshing
Fuel sloshing
Shock interaction with liquid column
FEATURES
Turbulence modeling
Topography-parameter-independent models
  • 1-equation models:
    • Rt model
    • SA (including QCR & RC variants)
  • 2-equation models:
    • Realizable k-ε model
    • Nonlinear (cubic) k-ε model
    • Menter’s Shear Stress Transport (SST)
    • Nonlinear (quartic) Hellsten model
  • 3-equation model:
    • Realizable k-ε-Rt model
  • 4-equation Langtry-Menter transition model
  • 7-equation nonlinear RSTM model
Advanced Wall Functions
  • Handle any y+ and provide consistent solutions at any y+
  • Seamless switching between low and high Re approaches depending on y+
LES and Hybrid RANS/LES
  • Models: LNS, DES97, DDES and IDDES
  • Improved accuracy with smart sub-grid scale modeling
  • Large-Eddy STimulation for automatic eddy seeding in LES
  • Wall-modeled LES (WMLES) and monotonically-integrated LES (MiLES)
NASA Common Research Model using DDES
Hypersonics and Non-equilibrium Flows
High-Temperature Gas Dynamics
  • Two temperature-based thermal and chemical non-equilibrium modeling
  • Tannehill curve fits for equilibrium air
  • Advanced models for high-temperature ionized air transport properties
  • Species properties for Earth/Mars entry and ablation
    over a five-temperature range up to 30,000 K
  • Catalytic wall conditions
  • Ablative wall conditions
Applications
  • Reentry and aero-heating
  • Hypersonic plumes
  • Scramjets 
Apollo command module reentry
Hypersonic transition
Multiphase flows
Eulerian Dispersed Phase (EDP) method
  • Designed for flows with dispersed particles, droplets, or bubbles
  • Interphasic and body forces: drag, lift, turbulence dispersion, pressure gradient, virtual mass, wall lubrication, buoyancy
  • Interphasic mass and energy transfer
  • Evaporation: constant rate, boiling, boiling + Hertz-Knudsen
  • Condensation: homogeneous nucleation, Gyarmathy or Hertz-Kndsen model for droplet growth
  • Melting and solidification
  • Secondary aero breakup model
  • Wall impingement model: Supercooled Large Droplet (SLD) model 
  • Radiation: direct to far-field, DO or P1 radiation models 
  • Oxygen Transfer Model (OTM) 
  • Pure and aerated jet injection in crossflow – generates droplet size and density distributions for injection flow condition
  • Langmuir D distribution for icing simulations
  • Applications: particle-laden flows, aircraft icing, rocket exhaust flows with solid particles, liquid jet injection, bubbly flows
NASA launchpad flame trench cooling
Condensation double shock (top left); Bubbly flow (top right); Liquid jet injection in cross flow (bottom)
Full Eulerian-Eulerian Method (FEEM)
  • Full volume conservation across all phases with no volume fraction restriction and handling of special physics
  • Interphasic and body forces
    • Drag (including exchange between secondary phases)
    • Lift, turbulence dispersion, virtual mass
    • Wall lubrication, buoyancy and bubble induced turbulence
  • Interphasic mass transfer
  • Interface sharpening
    • Large Scale Interface detection (LSI)
    • Artificial compression algorithm 
  • Number density equation
    • Coalescence and breakup models
    • Secondary aero breakup model
    • Bubble expansion/compression model
  • Special wall boundary conditions
Two-phase tank draining
Hydrocyclone
Lagrangian Dispersed Phase (LDP) method
  • More suitable for modeling small injection ports in a very large domain
  • More options for modeling primary and secondary breakup
    • Taylor analogy breakup model
    • Cascade atomization & drop breakup
  • Wave breakup model
  • Hybrid wave breakup model
  • Special physics: multiple parcel injection, co-axial and cross-stream injection, spray angle and variable parcel velocity, solid particle rebound on walls
Diesel jet injection
Mixture Model
  • Homogeneous Mixture Model
    • Effective for mixture flows where the dispersed phases are in dynamic and thermal equilibrium with the continuous phase
    • Handles special physics such as evaporation, condensation, and cavitation
  • Non-Homogeneous Model
    • Slip/drift velocity between phases
    • Turbulence dispersion included
  • Cavitation models
    • Zwart-Gerber-Belamri model, Schnerr-Sauer model & Singhal model
    • Secondary phase compressibility and material density overrides for cavitation
  • Applications: liquid injection, cavitation and supercavitation, solid grain burning
Cavitating marine propeller
Super-cavitating projectile
Volume of Fluid (VOF) method
  • Ideal for simulating immiscible interfacial flows
  • Distinct non-mixed phases with sharp interfaces
  • Artificial compression for sharp interfaces
  • Surface tension effects
  • Gravity wave inflow
  • Wall adhesion model
  • Sloshing, ditching, boat flows
  • Applications: free surface flows, sloshing, ditching, drainage flow
Free surface flow
Fuel sloshing
Shock interaction with liquid column
Reacting flows
  • Generalized Arrhenius chemistry model
  • Large database of gases and liquids
  • Pressure dependent reactions
  • CHEMKIN and Cantera conversion tool for species and reactions
  • Reactions handled accurately and efficiently using smart integrator
  • Volumetric source for simulating ignition
  • Handling of supercritical combustion via cubic/generalized equations of state
  • Equilibrium chemistry (mixed-is-burnt)
  • User-defined chemistry (UDP) functionality
  • Flamelet model
    • Tabulated method for simulations with the same fuel/oxidizer condition
    • Greatly reduces computational cost
  • Turbulence-chemistry interaction
    • Eddy dissipation concept model
    • Dynamically thickened flame model resolves flame fronts
    • Flamelet model with presumed PDF
  • Applications
    • Air-breathing engines
    • Ramjets and scramjets
    • Liquid/solid fueled rocket engines
    • Detonation engines
    • Rotating detonation engines
    • Internal combustion engines
Rotating detonation engine (RDE)
Swirl stabilized flame (CH4-Air)
Flamelets
LOX/H2 combustor
Ethylene-based scramjet combustion
Kerosene-based scramjet combustion
Longitudinal oscillation in a rocket engine (gaseous CH4)
Heat transfer & Radiation
Conjugate heat transfer (CHT)
  • Tightly and loosely coupled methodologies for different flow regimes
  • Isotropic and constant properties
  • Composites and temperature-dependent properties
Radiation
  • P1 radiation model
  • Discrete Ordinates (DO) model
Airflow and heat transfer inside a car cabin (DO model)
Moving meshes
  • Unique capabilities in simulating steady and unsteady flows over complex geometries, including bodies in relative motion
  • Sliding and overset meshes
  • Accurate treatment of conservation for such meshes
  • Automated cutting & blanking mode for faster, easier setup
  • Sequential cutting approach for cutting & blanking
  • Global and body frame motion modes
  • Integrated rigid body dynamics (RBD) with the Six-Degree-of-Freedom (6DOF) module
  • Co-simulation capabilities in 6DOF mode
Mesh morphing
  • Steady state and transient simulations
  • Radial Basis Functions (RBF) based mesh morphing
  • File-based and BC-based mesh morphing modes
  • Special analytical morphing modes for flexible discs and pistons
  • Automatic motion periodicity
Physics Source Terms
  • Axisymmetric swirl
  • Sinusoidal body force
  • Porous media
  • Mass injection
  • Stator blade model
  • Synthetic jet doublet
  • Vortex generator
  • Vortex-like source
  • Plasma actuator model
  • Volumetric source terms
  • User-linked subroutines
  • Rotors and Propellers:
    • Actuator Disk model
      • Useful as a first approximation for modeling rotors
      • Applies pressure jump and swirl velocity
      • Can apply incremental thrust and torque coefficients
    • Rotor model
      • Based on the blade-element method
      • Helicopter and propeller mode
      • Hub and tip loss corrections
      • Rotor trimming based on pitch or rpm
      • Blade sectional airfoil characteristics based on Reynolds and Mach numbers
      • Several 3D correction models to account for the effects of rotation, blade twist and centrifugal pumping
Vortex generator model
Helicopter rotor model
Adjoint Method
  • Wide range of objective definitions
  • Simultaneous adjoint problem definitions
  • Simple and complex sensitivities
  • Sensitivities for shape optimization : parameterized geometry and free form
Drag sensitivity over a 2D airfoil
Shape optimization using surface sensitivities
Advanced Numerics
  • Choice of both density-based and pressure-based solvers for appropriate regimes.
  • Multi-dimensional higher-order Total Variation Diminishing (TVD) interpolation is used to avoid spurious numerical oscillations.
  • Approximate Riemann solvers to provide correct signal propagation for the for the various waves in the system
  • Preconditioning to prevent eigenvalue spread, enhance convergence, and achieve near-optimal minimum levels of dissipation in low-speed flows.
  • Advanced convergence acceleration techniques, including unique preconditioning, relaxation and multigrid algorithms.

… and several other advanced features that make it a comprehensive fluid dynamics simulation suite. See the CFD++® Product Overview for additional details

See CFD++® in action!
RECENTS
1 2
VALIDATION
PUBLICATIONS
Click here to see a collection of CFD++ publications
Back to top