MicroCFD®
3D Virtual Wind Tunnel
The 3D Virtual Wind Tunnel imports stereolithography (STL) files, a standard CAD format based on surface triangulation. It runs a boundary layer modeled, viscous, compressible flow solver for high Reynolds number flow with turbulent wakes.
All simulations shown below ran on an HP Pavilion Elite (h8-1360t) in four to eight hours using either CUDA core GPU or quad-core CPU. The Cartesian mesh consisted of 31 million fluid and solid cells, equally divided into near field and far field of the flow.
A validation study was performed with the space shuttle orbiter, comparing the aerodynamic forces calculated by the 3D VWT with NASA flight test data. At lower pitch angles, lift was minimally underpredicted and drag slightly overpredicted.
The 3D Virtual Wind Tunnel installs on Microsoft Windows 64-bit and requires 6 GB of system RAM and an HD display (1920x1080). Please watch the video tutorial, which will demonstrate its ease of use. The software has a 14-day free trial period.
Mach number contour over F-15E aircraft. STL model created by David Thomas.
Mach 0.70 at 10.0 km altitude (265 hPa, 223 K).
Mach number contour over Shuttle Orbiter. STL model created by Chris Shakal.
Mach 1.83 at 20.0 km altitude (55.3 hPa, 217 K).
Density contour over Space Shuttle. STL model created by Chris Shakal.
Mach 1.47 at 11.6 km altitude (206 hPa, 217 K).
Mach number contour over Ferrari 555. STL model created by Tommy Mueller.
Mach 0.20 near sea level (1000 hPa, 300 K).
Mach number contour over Demag building. STL model created by Hans de Ridder.
Mach 0.20 near sea level (900 hPa, 300 K).