The benefits of outsourcing are well known: reduced overall costs, additional capabilities and resources, increased performance, reduced risk, etc. Icon offers a fully managed consultancy package which includes the following services:

Model Templates

Building the first CFD/CAE model is often the most technically demanding and time consuming. This is often outsourced so that a working model is made available for running subsequent analyses. This service is tailored to both:

• Customers embarking on a complex activity but wanting to limit their initial effort in setting-up and optimising the new process.
• Customers that are new to a CFD/CAE process and wish to gain maximum knowledge in a minimum time period.

Examples:

• First vehicle soiling simulation
• First IC-engine calculation
• First Optimisation analysis
• First OpenFOAM CFD model
• Introducing a new software

CAD model preparation

The first step in the CFD/CAE process corresponds to the definition of a solution domain in the form of suitable CAD model. Any problems ignored at this stage will be therefore carried downstream, and for this reason it is critical to ensure the CAD is “correct”. This stage can be divided into two processes: the construction or retrieval of CAD data and the subsequent preparation and cleaning of this data for analysis purposes. ICON has extensive experience in handling industrial CAD data assemblies for both of these processes. Furthermore, advice is offered on related subjects like best practices for CAD to CFD process for customers who are faced with the following situations:

1. No CAD data available
2. Partial/Incomplete/pre-treated data available
3. Complete raw CAD data assembly available

Our expertise includes:

• CAD construction
• CAD cleaning/correction
• CAD preparation
• CAD translation Mesh generation

ICON has over 15 years experience in delivering high quality surface and hex-dominant volume meshes to industry. All mesh generation is performed with strict consideration for the numerical methods to be applied. Our expertise includes:

• Surface wrapping
• Surface mesh generation
• Volume mesh generation
• Feature-line resolution
• Extrusion-layer insertion
• Mesh distortion minimisation
• Polyhedral mesh generation
• Automatic mesh generation
• Flow aligned mesh generation
• Mesh generation for optimisation application
• Mesh generation for LES/DES simulation

Mesh quality statistics are routinely delivered along with one baseline calculation. Complex application cases such as full vehicle simulations and aircraft assemblies have been meshed and successfully solved with up to 70 million cells. Our philosophy is to invest our efforts in producing high-quality hex-form meshes. This investment is immediately returned when the calculations are recieved in a minimal time and with minimal strain on the solver.

Our moving-mesh know-how goes back to some of the toughest and most labour intensive days in CFD history. The first calculations to be performed at ICON in 1992 were for Internal Combustion Engine simulations with moving valves and pistons. This experience makes us confident that we can move the most demanding models using the increasingly flexible tools that are currently available.

Numerical Model Implementation

Access to the latest physical models and the model source code itself provides clear benefits to those performing repeated calculations with commercial or bespoke software. A team of experienced software developers and programmers is able to implement a specific numerical model of your choice.

Over 100 software development projects have been completed and extensive experience has been accumulated in C++, FORTRAN and C programming. Example implementations include the following:

• turbulence models
• injector/spray models
• experimental configuration/setups for simulation verification
• combustion models

For further information about our software development services please refer to Services>Development>Software.

Simulation analysis and reporting

Consultation on the results of our CFD/CAE analyses takes place at each key stage in the delivery process. Our engineers are experienced in working alongside testing departments to fully validate our CFD models. The output, analysis and reporting of the CFD/CAE model results is all customised to specific requirements. Furthermore, expertise in the graphic design and programming of multimedia and Internet applications provides the ability to create unique multimedia presentations of your analysis results. Dynamic visualisation and CDROM or intranet based presentations help to ensure that the complexities of simulations are more easily understood.

CFD Software customisation

It is not always possible for commercial CFD/CAE software to solve a complex or demanding flow problem. In this instance, specific models or methods can be developed as user supplied coding or arrangements can be made for the full implementation into your preferred software. Customisation of CFD software has been performed to tailor-make the user interface to contain only the necessary pre-processing, monitoring and post-processing operations.