AVL FIRE v2008 Released

The release AVL FIRE v2008 amazes customers with added funtionalities to perfect their simulation processes and competitiors with the transformation of the software into the leading CFD tool in powertrain engineering.

To meet consumer demands, automotive engineers require development tools which provide accurate representation of complex systems in the virtual world. The ever increasing number of design parameters of traditional and ‘alternative’ powertrain systems means that early concept analysis becomes increasingly important. Powertrain thermodynamic analysis using 3D computational fluid dynamics (CFD) tools is one such discipline.

What is new in AVL FIRE v2008?

ESE Aftertreatment
provides the easiest way to create computational grids for exhaust lines including exhaust gas aftertreatment systems - automatically and within seconds. The tool works on parameterized templates delivering high quality meshes fulfilling any standard defined by porosity and aftertreatment simulation models.

FAME Hexa
(formerly FAME 2006) now provides the best automatically created hexahedron-dominated grids due to new methods for trimming the cells in the vicinity of the domain boundaries and improved smoothing algorithms. It now also offers Transformations and Connecting edges at concave edges.

FAME Tetra
is our first release of a tetrahedral meshing tool for surface and volume grid generation with prismatic boundary layers. The software offers Local grid refinement, Local manipulation of grid boundary layers, Domain recognition, Multi-material meshing and meshing of Zero-thickness walls. It can be used to generate grids for Computational Aero Acoustic simulations and for fluid flow analysis.

FAME Engine Plus
can now be executed on top of FAME Advanced Hybrid grid generation processes and FAME Hexa processes. Additionally FAME Engine Plus v2008 can handle the Movement of the crankshaft / connecting rod / piston assembly.

IMPRESS Post-processing
offers a number of additional features such as discrete colors by default, hard edges, user defined object properties and a link to IMPRESS Chart, AVL’s standard 2D post-processor. Furthermore the FIRE post-processor is now also available as off-screen version.

AMG
The Algebraic Multi-Grid solver has been significantly improved in respect to both performance and applicability. AMG v2008 can handle grids with and without moving boundaries, can be applied in serial and parallel mode and is adjusted for calculations including rezones and other operations required to simulate flows in internal combustion engines.

Conjugate heat transfer
is now a native feature of the FIRE main program. Solving one common energy equation for fluid and solid domain(s) enables the user to predict the temperature field for a single fluid and multiple solids simultaneously and without requiring ACCI coupling.

Grid adaptivity
offers solution quality dependent automatic refinement of your computational grid during run time. When exceeding the threshold value of a user defined criteria, such as for momentum error, velocity, y+, … the solver initiates refinement of the identified domain thus helping to reduce numerical errors and to achieve better convergence.

Grid switch
allows transferring the solution obtained for a specific problem to another grid. This feature is useful to reduce the computational effort when evaluating a series of similar geometrical models. In such cases the converged solution obtained for one design serves well as good initialization of another one.

Multi-material loop
is the starting point of a number of developments that will enable the user of FIRE to handle an arbitrary number of fluids and solids within a single simulation task in the near future. It currently offers the possibility to compute conjugate heat transfer between a fluid and solids.

Non-reflecting boundary
has been developed and implemented enabling least influence of the outlet boundary condition type and location on the fluid flow result for the interior of the domain. It contributes to keeping the simulation model small in respect to the number of elements and the simulation time short.

PANS
Meshes too coarse for LES? Too large for your computer resources? PANS, Partial Averaged Navier Stokes, turbulence modeling can be applied to any grid. It utilizes LES whenever the grid quality is sufficiently good and relies on k-ε in regions where it is insufficient.

Glue layers in DPF’s
AVL’s unique exhaust gas aftertreatment simulation capabilities are now complemented by a new feature enabling the simulation of the effects of the glue layers in SiC DPF’s on heat conduction, soot storage capacity and filter regeneration.

ACCI Coupling Lagrangian Multiphase
makes spray aligned grids in IC engine models no longer wishful thinking. A simulation performed on two independent grids, one fine mesh used to calculate the spray in the vicinity of the injection nozzle and another one of ordinary resolution representing the complete computational domain helps improving simulation accuracy by reducing numerical diffusion.

AdBlue sprays
can now be handled more accurately through an extension of the FIRE v8.5 multi-component spray evaporation model. The added functionality enables the simulation of the two processes water evaporation and thermolysis precisely.

Spray evaporation models
of FIRE v8.5x have been enhanced by introducing universal or tabulated correction factors derived from sophisticated 3D models. The corrections account for effects of transient heating, parabolic temperature profiles in a single droplet, droplet deformation and droplet internal re-circulation on evaporation.

Spray wall interaction model
The Kuhnke wall interaction model has been implemented to further improve FIRE’s SCR simulation capabilities. The model accounts for the phenomena of droplet Deposition, Rebounding, Thermal break-up, Splashing, Droplet / wall heat transfer and build up of Multi-component wall film.

Multi-component wall film modeling
as a logical step after introducing multi-component models for spray droplet evaporation in FIRE 8.5, multi-component species transport and evaporation is available now for wall film modeling.

ECFM Parameter correlations
Effort has been spent on developing parameter correlations between Flame surface density and Stretching factor and engine load and speed conditions. The result of that work now allows automated determination of both model parameters in the case of premixed combustion for low and medium engine speeds.

Soot modeling
A new soot model, the Frolov Kinetic Model, has been developed and implemented. It is based on a reduced reaction scheme and does not require model parameter tuning, while its accuracy is comparable to the Lund model.

Two-stage auto-ignition
The ECFM-3Z model has been extended to enable the description of the two-stage auto-ignition behavior of hydro-carbon fuels. This enhancement is of particular value when simulating alternative combustion concepts applying high EGR rates.

PEM Fuel cell
A new Fuel cell module is released with FIRE v2008. It enables the simulation of the electro-chemistry in PEM Fuel cells applying a 1D model for evaluating the processes in the membrane and the reaction layer, while 3D CFD is used to analyze flow channels and diffusion layers accounting also for multi-phase mass and heat transfer, capillary forces and multi-component diffusion.

Film boiling
The Eulerian multiphase module now handles all stages of boiling including nucleate, transition and film boiling. Great success can be achieved in simulating quenching of casted items showing very good correlations between measured and calculated temperature profiles