Innovation corner

Organizing and searching through data takes a lot of time that could otherwise be used more productively. To address this challenge, we have developed PreonDock. Since we started using it at FIFTY2, it has changed the way we work. Not only has our productivity increased, but it has also made our daily work easier. Keep reading to discover how PreonDock has changed our daily work with PreonLab and how it can do the same for you.

As simulation engineers, we want to get our ideas and points across to stakeholders, managers, co-workers from other departments, and customers as efficiently as possible. Typically, we back up our arguments by generating plots for statistics, which we put together to analyze our simulation results. We know exactly what all those numbers and multiple graphs and diagrams on every PowerPoint slide mean, and what conclusions need to be drawn from them to improve the product’s design. However, this is not always the case for everyone else, who is looking at the presentation. It is possible that some viewers might even be viewing the results and concepts for the first time, without much in-depth technical knowledge. Furthermore, even the most experienced engineer or team member might interpret a simulation result inaccurately, if all they have time for is a quick glance at the data. So, when it comes to communicating these results effectively, the message needs to be conveyed clearly – ideally in an appealing and easy-to-understand manner. This can be quite challenging since there are many small details that matter, but we also do not want the viewer to lose focus from the big-picture point of the discussion. Showing graphs and numbers is important, but on its own this can be rather dry.

“No wind blows in favour of a ship without direction.” This wisdom resonates deeply with our journey at FIFTY2, as it emphasizes the importance of having a clear vision. From day one, our direction at FIFTY2 has been unmistakable – to develop the ULTIMATE simulation tool. This is the story of how it is done.

When we started looking into CUDA support for PreonLab I didn’t really have any experience programming for GPUs. Getting from the first experiments in 2021 to production code has been a long learning process. For CUDA, there is no shortage of useful articles, documentation and examples (in fact this was one of the reasons to pick CUDA as a platform). Nevertheless, I thought it might be interesting to go over the most important lessons from my perspective as a developer used to x86-based CPUs, so here we go!

“Why can’t I run PreonLab on my GPU?” We often heard this question and didn’t have a good answer. But behind the scenes, we have been experimenting with GPUs for quite some time. We are excited to announce that we are finally ready. PreonLab 6.0 is here, and it changes everything. This is how: GPU Support using Nvidia CUDA: PreonLab 6.0 delivers the greatest leap in efficiency of any update so far. For a wide range of applications, a single GPU can deliver up to 6x faster performance compared to a state-of-the-art multi-socket CPU system. If you have the chance, please try PreonLab on GPU – you will not want to go back. A New Engine for PreonLab: We believe that the future of PreonLab is multi-platform. CUDA is an amazing platform, but it is not the only one we wish to explore in the future. To this end, we have rewritten our simulation core with platform independence in mind. Expect more on this in upcoming releases. Lateral Adhesion: The new experimental “Lateral Adhesion” option models droplet sticking and runoff behavior more accurately. This is important for applications such as tailgate runoff simulation. Improved User Interface: Various changes to the graphical user interface such as the new welcome screen make using PreonLab more enjoyable than ever. This is just a selection of new features and improvements. Check out the changelog to learn about all the changes.

“Time is money”. In the world of simulation this means being able to perform reliable simulations, faster. Throughout its development, PreonLab has already introduced game-changing approaches, like its unique implicit IISPH formulation (learn more about it here) and advanced adaptive refinement and coarsening with Continuous Particle Size (read about it here) for efficient simulation on CPU hardware. Over the past decade, the development of more advanced GPUs has gathered up great speed and it is likely that this trend will continue in the future. Behind the scenes, we too have been experimenting with GPUs for some time now, to fully leverage their potential for PreonLab. Now, PreonLab’s code has been ported to run on GPUs making use of Nvidia’s proprietary CUDA API to push the speed-barrier for particle-based simulation even further.

Slamming is a term that is often used in a maritime context to describe the sudden impact of the ship hull on a water surface. It leads to pressure spikes on the hull along with rapid and intricate deformations of the fluid surface. Physical testing, especially for large-scale applications in the maritime world, is not only time-consuming and expensive but often even unfeasible. Computational fluid dynamics can complement real-world experiments and hence reduce costs as well as accelerate development. However, simulating the water entry of solid bodies is no easy task. Using traditional grid-based methods requires periodical remeshing due to the moving geometry and discretizing the entire simulation domain. Particle-based simulation methods on the other hand can generate insights without these inconveniences, saving valuable computation time. This article aims to show how PreonLab can be used to simulate the water entry of free-falling rigid bodies.

Every Preoneer knows that with PreonLab we always strive to provide the most reliable, usable and efficient CFD software. But what if you could get your results even faster? PreonLab 6.0 will continue to push the boundaries of what is possible in the world of particle-based CFD. With the introduction of PreonLab being able to simulate on GPU hardware, there will be a performance boost that will provide you with results faster than ever before, following the principle: Make it Real… fast! And there is even more. Don‘t miss the latest updates and join us for this event, as we are already very excited to show you all that is new with PreonLab 6.0!

Ein Traum wird Wirklichkeit. – Die FIFTY2 Technology GmbH und die AVL Deutschland GmbH laden zum ersten PreonDay in die Motorworld nach Böblingen ein. An diesem Tag wird sich alles um die Simulationssoftware PreonLab und die PreonLab Community drehen. Der PreonDay richtet sich gleichermaßen an die User von PreonLab, als auch an die, die es noch werden wollen.  MAKE IT REAL.

Water wading simulations can complement physical tests in an efficient and reliable way to detect the failure modes which can occur due to the car’s motion through a significant amount of water, early in the design stage. As part of a rapid virtual prototyping strategy, multiple virtual prototypes are analyzed to reach the optimal designs for physical prototype testing. It is imperative to have a simulation software which offers quick setup times and short simulation times to meet this demand. PreonLab offers lean workflows along with its mesh-free simulation approach to keep simulation setup times extremely low, compared to conventional mesh-based simulation approaches. It also offers advanced adaptive refinement features to give fast and reliable results as well as powerful post-processing tools to analyze these results. This article aims to show you just how low simulation setup times can be – from importing your geometries, describing vehicle motion, setting up the fluid domain all the way up to hitting the simulate button.