ICON’s solutions streamline the simulation process by speaking the language of the aerodynamicist—not the CFD specialist. Our intuitive pre-processing tools focus on essential automotive inputs like vehicle type, positioning, and road conditions, freeing you from technical modeling concerns such as turbulence models and numerical schemes. By embedding continuously improving best practices, ICON maximizes the power of your simulations, allowing you to stay focused on refining your designs while we handle the complexities.

ICON’s advanced ride-height tool ensures your simulations match real-world driving conditions—without requiring you to modify your CAD. The tool automatically manages morphing, positioning, and tire deformation, as well as suspension compression, to accurately simulate ride-height variations. This allows you to predict aerodynamic performance with precision under any speed or load scenario.

Meshing is no longer an obstacle! ICON’s fully automated high-fidelity mesh tools deliver exceptional quality directly from tessellated CAD, using advanced embedded wrapping technology that preserves surface integrity while seamlessly filling gaps. Unlike simple octree methods that lack anisotropic boundary layer capture and fall short in boundary layer flow accuracy, ICON’s solution guarantees 100% layer mesh coverage down to y+ 1. Pioneers in body-fitted automated parallel hex-dominant meshing, ICON has been leading the way in continuously setting new standards for precision in vehicle aerodynamics.

ICON’s solutions deliver proven accuracy and reliability you can trust. Our tools are validated against over 500 real-life models using wind-tunnel data across various conditions, ensuring real-world performance. Highlighted in the seminal article SAE 2017-01-1524, which demonstrates the depth of ICON’s validation processes, our technology has been integrated into WLTP-certified workflows and is applicable to all vehicle types. ICON’s aerodynamic simulations are continuously evolving to maintain the highest standards of accuracy and reliability at every stage of your project.

Why settle for tools without proven pedigree when you can use a solution trusted by some of the world’s leading automotive manufacturers?

Get deeper insights faster with ICON’s pre-defined, automated post-processing designed specifically for aerodynamics. From drag and lift development plots to flow visualization, you’ll have all the data you need at your fingertips to make informed decisions, without the manual workload. Compare dozens of designs seamlessly generating delta plots on-the-fly.

Take your designs to the next level with ICON’s cutting-edge optimization tools, including adjoint solvers and Design of Experiments (DoE). Whether you’re refining existing models or exploring innovative morphing techniques, ICON helps you push boundaries and optimize your vehicle’s aerodynamic performance.

With over three decades of experience in automotive aerodynamics, ICON’s team of expert aerodynamicists is here to support you at every step. From initial design to final validation, we’ve been partnering with automotive leaders to create cars that stand out on the road—let us help you do the same.

ICON’s solutions streamline the simulation process by speaking the language of the aerospace engineer — not the CFD specialist. Our intuitive pre-processing tools focus on essential engineering inputs like flight conditions, launcher attitude, engine(s) parameters, freeing you from technical modeling concerns such as compressibility effects on turbulence models and numerical schemes. By embedding continuously improving best practices, ICON maximizes the power of your simulations, allowing you to stay focused on refining your designs while we handle the complexities.

Precision made effortless ! ICON’s fully automated high-fidelity mesh tools deliver exceptional quality directly from tessellated CAD. During simulation setup, you won’t be asked to define “refinement levels” for each part—our intelligent processes automatically select the optimal meshing parameters for every component of your geometry. With guaranteed 100% layer mesh coverage down to y+ 1, our solution ensures accuracy and efficiency. As pioneers in body-fitted automated parallel hex-dominant meshing, ICON continues to set new standards in precision for vehicle aerodynamics.

Our advanced simulation capabilities allow us to accurately model multi-species exhaust plumes for launch vehicles, capturing the complex interactions between rocket exhaust gasses and the surrounding environment. Our tools account for multiple species with varying properties, providing highly detailed insights into plume behavior under various conditions. Whether you’re analyzing plume expansion or ground-level effects, our simulations ensure precision and reliability, helping you optimize engine performance and ensure safe, efficient launches.

To achieve the highest standards of accuracy and reliability, ICON has partnered with industry leaders. Our unique access to invaluable experimental data from in-service launchers has allowed us to rigorously verify our tools and develop validated best practices that you can apply to your projects. Why settle for tools without proven pedigree when you can rely on a solution trusted by some of the world’s top space agencies? Leverage our expertise and experience to elevate your launcher designs with confidence and precision.

Get deeper insights faster with ICON’s pre-defined, automated post-processing designed specifically for launchers. From forces and moments development plots to flow visualization, you’ll have all the data you need at your fingertips to make informed decisions, without the manual workload. Compare dozens of designs seamlessly generating delta plots on-the-fly.

With over two decades of experience in rocket aerodynamics, ICON’s team of expert aerodynamicists is here to support you at every step. From initial design to final validation, we’ve been partnering with industry leaders to develop launch vehicles that excel in performance—let us help you reach new heights with your next project.

One key objective of External Water Management (EWM) is to enhance driver comfort and safety by effectively managing water flow around the vehicle. Common regions of interest for EWM analysis include the A-pillar, side windows, and side mirrors. To perform this analysis in a multi-physics environment with specific requirements for each department involved in car development (acoustic, aerodynamic, structural, etc.), a validated virtual wind tunnel is essential for faster vehicle development cycles. Our multiphase methods for EWM simulation combine a thin film model on the vehicle surface, coupled with Lagrangian particles (rain droplets) and the surrounding airflow (external aerodynamics). This integrated approach enables accurate and efficient analysis of water flow behavior under various conditions, ultimately optimizing vehicle design and performance.

The coupling between the thin film model, Lagrangian particles, and primary airflow can be activated when necessary. While this increases CPU cost, it ensures the most accurate results in certain scenarios. The decision to use coupling depends on a solid understanding of the physical problem being modeled. A typical example where strong coupling is required is the study of rain impact on the side mirror glass, where the trajectory of the particles is directly influenced by the transient mirror wake.

ICON’s film detachment model captures various physical phenomena that occur when the film exceeds a critical thickness. These include film separation due to substrate curvature, gravity-induced dripping, edge-induced shedding, and wave stripping. The integration of these different film re-entrainment models enables accurate prediction of rain impingement across the entire vehicle surface, providing a comprehensive approach to managing water flow behavior in EWM simulations.

The wiper motion plays a crucial role in the development of the water film over the windshield and side windows. ICON’s wiper model uses a parametric representation of real wiper geometry, combined with the Immersed Boundary Method (IBM), offering a faster simulation compared to traditional dynamic mesh approaches with real wiper geometry. This efficient method reduces the additional time required for a simulation with wipers to less than 10% compared to one without, making it an attractive solution for industrial applications where speed and accuracy are key.

To simulate surface film development with iconCFD, a one-cell layered mesh is first created by extruding the vehicle surface. However, this physical mesh extrusion can sometimes result in poor-quality cells, particularly for complex or under-refined vehicle surfaces. Over-refining the surface mesh to capture small geometric details can help achieve a successful extrusion, but it often comes at the cost of unnecessarily refining the primary mesh. To eliminate this resolution constraint, ICON introduces a novel method that virtually extrudes the vehicle surface while perfectly preserving the shape of the substrate surface mesh. The virtual mesh is essentially a copy of the surface mesh, with virtual cells approximated by the discrete faces of the surface when the virtual extrusion thickness is close to zero.

ICON maintains strong collaboration with OEMs to understand their needs and continuously improve their methodology, achieving higher accuracy in delivered results while reducing simulation time. In this context, all functionalities used in EWM simulations are rigorously validated on fully detailed car geometries with climatic wind tunnel data. These validations ensure the reliability of soiling predictions and their relevance to real-world conditions. Examples of such validations can be found in the following publication links: [1], [2].