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We’re excited to introduce PreonLab 7.1. This release brings important new capabilities, but also further advances and builds upon capabilities from previous releases. PreonLab 7.1 introduces new capabilities for airflow generation to couple with soiling simulations, while extending our vehicle dynamics functionality even further. It also advances thermal simulation, making our solver both faster and more accurate. At the same time, it delivers a new set of workflow and usability improvements shaped directly by you, our customers. Together, these enhancements span physics modeling, software efficiency, and day-to-day workflows, making our end-to-end solution faster, more accurate, and more user-friendly. Virtual Wind Tunnel: Version 7.1 introduces an exciting new possibility for users to generate airflows within PreonLab and shorten feedback loops for soiling simulations early in the design phase. The Virtual Wind Tunnel is a new feature in PreonLab that uses an FVM-solver to simulate steady and transient airflow. While applicable to any geometry, it is optimized for vehicle applications. The generated airflow can be directly combined with hydrodynamics via one-way coupling in soiling simulations. With the new Virtual Wind Tunnel, we further enhance the usability of PreonLab and give Preoneers greater control over their simulation workflows by reducing external dependencies. Higher-order Thermal Solver Upgrades: The higher-order thermal solver introduced in the previous release has been further improved to deliver both better performance and higher accuracy. These improvements are visible across thermal benchmarks, showing that the solver is not only stronger in individual use cases but also more robust and consistent overall. These improvements make conjugate heat transfer (CHT) simulation increasingly more feasible within a single simulation tool. The new PreonLab version also benefits external coupling workflows by increasing stability and accuracy. Improved workflows and user experience: The latest release introduces a broad range of workflow and usability improvements shaped directly by customer feedback. More than many previous releases, 7.1 places a strong focus on making every day work in PreonLab smoother, faster, and more intuitive. Many of these additions come from requests by experienced users who know the software well and understand where small improvements can have a big impact. This release includes features such as simulation stopping criteria, calculated properties, sensor data export in EnSight Gold format, scene access and concurrency control indicators. Taken together, these improvements significantly enhance the day-to-day user and continuously translating that feedback into meaningful, practical improvements. Other Notable Additions: PreonLab 7.1 includes improvements to stability of simulations involving the Full Car Suspension Model (FCSM) and enhances how vehicles can move through curved trajectories based on Ackermann kinematics. Smart new updates make vehicle paths velocity-independent, vehicle steering more realistic, and simulation setup more predictable. Additionally, it is now possible to apply external forces and torques to dynamic rigids for more realistic simulation in PreonLab. Read on further for all the details! Make sure to follow us on LinkedIn so that you don’t miss new videos, case studies and updates!

To design efficient maritime and offshore structures, a good understanding of the dynamic response to hydrodynamic loads is key. To make better design choices, hydrodynamicists historically relied on model-scale experiments. A specialized laboratory facility called a wave flume, wave basin or wave tank is used to study the behavior of water waves and their interaction with structures or sediments. Due to the limited dimensions of wave tanks, experiments are often performed with scaled down models, leading to unwanted scaling effects. E.g., it is in practice very difficult to have parity in Froude and Reynolds numbers between model and full scale, which leads to over or underestimation of hydrodynamic forces. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), on the other hand, allows researchers to do full scale experiments using a numerical representation of a wave tank. In this article we will demonstrate how to simulate a numerical wave tank using PreonLab’s mesh-free approach, and convenient built-in features to model free-surface flows and rigid-body kinematics.

Centralize & Accelerate Your PreonLab Workflow – Meet PreonDock 1.0 As the volume and complexity of simulation data grow, it becomes a major challenge to keep everything organized, accessible, and actionable. That’s where PreonDock steps in! Your centralized, browser-based platform to manage, monitor, and compare simulation is officially available now. Access your PreonLab projects and simulations potentially from anywhere, in an intuitive web interface, using PreonDock.

We’re pleased to announce the release of PreonLab 7.0. This update marks a significant step forward, expanding capabilities across key areas like thermal analysis, vehicle dynamics, transmissions, multiphase flows, visualization, and overall usability. Several of these features have been in development for quite a long time, resulting in substantial improvements that enhance accuracy, efficiency, and integration into our long-term vision of developing the ultimate simulation tool. We look forward to seeing how they support your work. Read on for a breakdown of the highlights. Higher-order Thermal Solver: The higher-order solver unites the strengths of Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics and the Moving Least Squares method, delivering high-accuracy results near boundaries. While our previous solver provided a solid foundation, it sometimes lacked accuracy in boundary regions critical for thermal applications. The higher-order thermal solver introduces a method that delivers precise, boundary-accurate results, directly addressing long-standing feedback from users.  This enhances our thermal capabilities to meet industry-standard requirements, marking a pivotal milestone toward the market-leading particle-based solver for thermal applications. Extensions to the Full Car Suspension Model (FCSM): PreonLab 7.0 also brings powerful enhancements to the FCSM framework. These upgrades ensure better wheel-ground interactions and provide improved stability under extreme conditions. It will be possible to perform simulations that include wheel detachment from the road, unlocking simulations for amphibious vehicles and emergency sinking scenarios. Additionally, vehicle motion now accounts for road slope, fluid interaction, and traction loss, enabling realistic responses to external forces. New distance-based mapping allows velocity profiles to follow the vehicle’s traveled path instead of time. New response limits constrain acceleration to physically plausible bounds, while a PID-based driver model adds configurable gains and reaction time for realistic driver behavior. Enhancements for Transmission Applications: In the context of transmission applications, this latest release introduces smart new features that aim to enhance numerical stability and phase distribution for some of the more challenging simulation cases. These include: Particle Shifting, an advanced new algorithm that reduces numerical noise by moving particles to a better integration position along their physical trajectory. Wall Confinement Handling, for improved handling of particles that can get trapped between two solid surfaces like in the meshing area between the teeth of two gears. We have also observed so far, that these features can help to minimize particle leakage issues, which can sometimes occur in very challenging simulation cases. Finally, a new maximum velocity constraint, that allows the user to manage maximum velocity outliers in the simulation, to improve overall simulation stability as well as the phase distribution via better handling of the air velocity field. Other Notable Additions: The on-going expansion of the entire feature set to our Particle Engine platform sees further benefits for performance and memory-optimization for MPI and multi-GPU simulation. Additional highlights include the exciting possibility to simulate snow in combination with fluids and elastic materials in a single setup, upgrades to Calculation Objects, and enhanced usability features such as 3D mouse support, to give users more flexibility and control during simulation set up and analysis. To top it off, a new experimental pressure boundary condition unlocks additional simulation possibilities by allowing users to specify known pressures at inlets or outlets. Of course, that is not all. Be sure to check out the changelog for a comprehensive list of all the updates and new features that make 7.0 a major milestone in the development of PreonLab! Make sure to follow us on LinkedIn so that you don’t miss new videos, case studies and updates!

PreonLab 6.2 introduced the Full Car Suspension Model (FCSM), significantly enhancing the capabilities of the previous Car Suspension Model (CSM). FCSM accounts for more precise suspension behavior and enables more accurate and realistic simulations across a broader range of vehicle wading scenarios. In this article, we explore how FCSM works, the new simulation possibilities it has already unlocked, and offer an outlook on what future updates may bring.

Watertightness in mobile phones is all about keeping water out to protect sensitive internal components. Manufacturers design devices to meet specific standards that measure resistance to water ingress. The Ingress Protection (IP) rating system, set by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), is the gold standard in this regard. An IP rating consists of two digits: the first covers solid particles (like dust), and the second focuses on liquids (like water). For instance, an IP68 rating means that the phone is dust-tight and can withstand submersion in water deeper than 1 meter for up to 30 minutes. These ratings are verified under controlled conditions in specialized laboratories for precision and reliability. Learn more about IP ratings: Ingress Protection Ratings Guide.

It’s time for our PreonDay again! Two years after the success of the first PreonDay, FIFTY2 Technology GmbH and AVL Deutschland GmbH are thrilled to invite you to a day full of exciting insights into the PreonLab simulation software. This year the conference will take place in the impressive Oldtimerfabrik Classic in Neu-Ulm in Germany. Be part of the Preoneer community! Network with other PreonLab users, experts from various industries and the creative minds behind the software. Flow. Connect. Collaborate.

The recent release of PreonLab 6.2 introduced an exciting new feature: the linear elastic solver. This marks a significant step for us into the realm of multiphysics, aligned with our vision of creating the ultimate simulation tool. This study, which was performed during the validation tests of the linear elastic solver, focuses on reproducing the experimental and numerical work of Idelsohn et al. [1] with PreonLab. Their research investigates three examples of Fluid-Structure Interaction (FSI) problems involving free-surface flows in a sloshing tank, which are solved both experimentally and numerically. Consequently, this work is organized into three sections, each corresponding to one of these benchmarks.

We are excited to announce the release of PreonLab 6.2! It is packed with advanced features and performance improvements to push the boundaries of multi-physics simulations. With each new release we continuously refine PreonLab, adding powerful functionalities and enhancing existing capabilities to make it the ultimate simulation tool. Here’s what this version has in store for you. What’s New in PreonLab 6.2? Full Car Suspension Model: We are taking our existing car suspension model (CSM) to the next level! The new Full Car Suspension Model (FCSM) now computes deflection forces per wheel, considering not just fluid forces but also acceleration, deceleration, and weight shifts. This sophisticated upgrade enables more precise simulations for automotive applications, like fast water wading, enhancing the overall performance and accuracy. Improvements for thermodynamics, multiphase and snow model: PreonLab 6.2 builds on several important enhancements across key areas for multiphysics simulations. Thermodynamics, multiphase, and snow features have been refined to improve accuracy and stability. Notable improvements include a new thermal sensor, an updated convective boundary condition, lateral adhesion for snow, improved snow boundary handling, and more stable multiphase interfaces—each contributing to elevating these features to a new level. Linear Elastic Solver: For those looking to simulate fluid-structure interactions, we are introducing an experimental linear elastic deformable solver. This first step into the realm of solid deformations caused by fluid interactions, opens new possibilities for applications that require the consideration of deformations under the load of external forces. Other notable additions: The latest release includes the introduction of the Carreau-Yasuda model for simulating non-Newtonian fluids and GPU support for the rigid body solver. Enhanced post-processing capabilities are now available with the new Calculation Objects feature, improved options for the pathlines sensor, and the ability to visualize the Q-criterion for more detailed flow analysis. This is just a selection of new features and improvements. Check out the changelog to learn about all the changes.  Make sure to follow us on LinkedIn so that you don’t miss new videos, case studies and updates!

With every PreonLab update, we aim to continuously enhance your simulation experience by increasing efficiency and reducing the memory footprint. While simulation on CPU is still the bread and butter for CFD, it is undeniable that GPUs can provide a significant performance boost towards reducing computation time. Nevertheless, one advantage CPUs generally have over GPUs is a larger memory space. Due to the limited memory of single GPU cards, simulating very large scenes with a lot of particles can be quite challenging. In addition, importing large tensor fields like airflows can also occupy a lot of precious memory space on the graphic card. While PreonLab can cleverly resample such airflows to fit on single GPU hardware, there will always come a point when sacrificing accuracy will be inevitable. One logical solution is making use of state-of-the-art GPU hardware that can accommodate large simulation scenes. Professional GPU cards like Nvidia’s H100 GPUs can already offer memory space up to 80 GB. However, does this mean that GPU simulations are only possible through the acquisition of larger and larger professional GPU cards? And what about scenes which might require even more memory space than the latest hardware available?