Cloud-based simulation for vehicle engineering
Analysing how air flows around a vehicle is essential to making it more efficient. Physical testing is expensive. Computer simulation removes the need for these. However, simulating airflow with the required degree of accuracy requires computing power beyond the reach of most designers.
Start date: 01/11/2015
Duration in months: 18
Problem Description
The objective of the project is to provide an affordable HPC-based solution to perform aerodynamic simulations for SMEs.
Goals
Reduce time to solution
Challenges
The challenge was to provide an easy to use and cost-effective platform to the SMEs that allows them to perform CFD analysis without initial infrastructure investment.
Innovation results
ICON provides browser accessible ‘apps’ which provide the necessary features to set up and analyse simulations. The apps connect to HPC-systems which provide pay-per-use access. The result for the end-user is an interface connected to computing resources capable of rapidly returning simulation results.
Business impact
Obtaining in-house aerodynamic simulation costs 200k€-300k€ and an annual maintenance cost of 100k€. However, a streamlined online process could cost as low as 900€ per simulation, making high-end simulation affordable for SMEs, potentially reducing physical testing and design costs by 100k€.