Software replaces wind tunnel experiments

An Ansys product story

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Nov 2, 2007

Ansys' Fluent software has allowed the team to run increasingly complex simulations of race car aerodynamics, far quicker than was previously possible.

Ansys engineering simulation software has the BMW Sauber F1 Team to more than double last year's points total in the 2007 Constructors' Championship.

The BMW Sauber F1 Team signed an extended agreement with Fluent Deutschland, a subsidiary of Ansys, to use Fluent computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software to run powerful engineering simulations on its new supercomputer, rather than invest in a second wind tunnel.

This investment in CFD has allowed the team to run increasingly complex simulations of race car aerodynamics, far quicker than was previously possible.

This has enabled the BMW Sauber F1 Team to analyse and implement design changes more quickly, which, combined with other advances the team has made, has delivered the team's best performance in the Constructors' Championship to date.

"The launch of our latest supercomputer was a decisive re-inforcement of our CFD capacity".

"Unlike other teams, we didn't plan to build a second wind tunnel".

"Instead, we have used the key relationship commitment with Ansys to continue to develop and exploit the expanding potential for CFD that high-performance computing gives us", explained Mario Theissen, BMW Motorsport Director.

He added that wind tunnel testing will continue as an important design element of their F1 racing car design because of validation of results and other areas of car development.

"The big difference with CFD compared to wind tunnels is that you not only get results, but also get an understanding of what goes on".

"Wind tunnel testing remains important with experimental work and CFD complementing each other", Theissen said.

To optimise the performance of the Fluent CFD software, the BMW Sauber F1 Team invested in a custom-built supercomputer called Albert2, the successor to its original Albert supercomputer developed in 2004.

Powered by 512 Intel Xeon 5160 dual core processors, Albert(2) is 5.5 times more powerful and three times faster than the first Albert computer.

Albert2 was designed and built to run CFD simulations using the latest version of Fluent software.

It has the capacity to make 12,288,000,000,000 calculations per second.

Theoretically, the BMW Sauber F1 Team could run simulations approaching and even exceeding the landmark figure of 1 billion cells.

"Working together with the BMW Sauber F1 Team, we are exploring how maximum benefit can be yielded in aerodynamic design", said Ferit Boysan, Vice President and General Manager at Ansys.

"Relationships such as this are genuinely pioneering the engineering simulation possibilities of the future and they could well have implications far beyond F1 racing".

Computer-aided engineering and CFD simulations can be applied to many areas of the racing car, allowing team engineers to quickly and accurately test a number of design candidates before developing only the most promising for wind tunnel testing.

The new compute power offered by the Albert2 supercomputer allows full-car simulations in addition to the aerodynamic testing of components such as the front and rear wings, turning vanes, brake ducts and fuel tanks.