PRODUCT

Brochure

Product Overview

SPH-flow is one of the most advanced Smoothed-Particle Hydrodynamics

(SPH) solver dedicated to complex Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) SPH-flow history & awards
simulation developed by Nextflow Software and its academic partners,
Ecole Centrale Nantes (ECN) and CNR-INM (ex-INSEAN). 2000 1st thesis at ECN LHEEA
2007 Industrialization by HydrOcean
2014 HPC Innovation Excellence award
2015 “Innovation des Trophées de
The SPH method is part of a new generation of numerical methods, la Simulation” award /SPHeric
developed to overcome meshing-related constraints with traditional Conference’s “Joe Monaghan
approach while still being based on the Navier-Stokes equations. Classical Prize” triannual award
methods like Finite Volume that require volume meshing are not suitable
for many applications such as dynamic flows with complex interfaces, which 2016 14th thesis, 4th postdoc & 8th
SPH can address. collaborative research projects
launched
Thanks to its Lagrangian characteristic and its particle-based approach,
SPH-flow is particularly well suited for high-dynamics flows, deformable 2018 For the 2nd time in a row, SPHeric
and complex boundaries, interfaces with fragmentations/reconnections Conference’s “Joe Monaghan
such as: solid impacts, shocks, breaking waves, jets and splashes, moving Prize” award
parts, deformations…

SPH method characteristics

Meshing-free Fluid is described by No need for complex 3D meshes, easy to setup

particles which interact with Perform simulations with very complex fluid topologies and solid
each other geometries
Process complex configurations of moving or deformable bodies

Lagrangian Particles are straight- No convective terms to model

forwardly advected without Extremely accurate for convection-dominant flows: complex free
convective terms to model surface, waves, shocks…

Explicit time Allows implementation of Efficient for high-dynamics flows

discretization complex physics Capture with great details impact pressure points on very short
Very small timestep simulation time
Efficient parallelization for HPC Scalable on many-cores GPU/CPU clusters with billions of particles

Implicit free Allows implementation of Well-suited for Multiphysics (FSI, thermal…), multi-species problems
surface complex physics Simulate intrinsically arbitrary species: liquids, gas, solids,
Very small timestep deformable media
Efficient parallelization for HPC Model several fluids without diffusing interfaces or mixed solids and fluids
 Features

SPH-flow can solve complex applications, such as: complex topologies and geometries, complex
free surface problems, complex physics involving multi-fluid simulations, fluid structure
interactions.

Advanced scheme Riemann solver, gradient renormalization, MUSCL reconstruction,

STATE-OF-THE- particles shifting, ALE…
ART ACCURACY
Advanced boundary Ghost method, normal flux method
treatment

Various physics Viscosity, heat transfer, surface tension, multi-fluid…

WIDE
MODELING
Boundary conditions Wall, inlet, outlet, periodicity, wave…
CAPABILITIES

Solid body Imposed motion, 6-DOF

Fluid-Structure Interaction Coupling with various FEM solvers including 3DS SIMULIA Abaqus,
(FSI) MSC Software Nastran

Easy particle initialization Setup < 1 hour

INDUSTRY-
PROOF
Complex surface mesh Tri, Quad dominant based on iges, step or STL
capability

Well adapted for HPC MPI scalable parallelization

clusters

Convenient post-processing Sensor probes, export for ParaView & Tecplot

 Applications

SPH-flow can address various applications in many industrial fields and domains. Below are
some iconic example application cases.

Gearbox lubrication
Sophisticated gearbox design with complex
free-surface flow (jet, splash...)
Setup < 1h
• Complex surface from mesh or CAD
• Easy setup of gear motions
• Carter automatically filled with user-specified oil volume
• ~1.5 million particles generated
Performance
• 120h on 128 cores
• Effective scalability up to 1024 cores (the more CPU cores,
the faster the computation)
Accurate non-invasive measurement
• Predictive flow-rate at key locations inside the carter
• Predictive resistive torque measurement

Tire hydroplaning
Intense and brief Fluid-Structure Interaction (FSI) with
highly-constrained flow Coupling
• Fluid solved by SPH-flow, Structure by FEM solver
• Usual FEM solver input, setup, capability…
• Setup: SPH-flow < 1h, coupling < 0.5h
Performance
• Efficient MPI communication between solvers
• 280h on 28 cores
Business operational predictability
• Qualitative and quantitative agreements with test rig
• In-depth understanding of physical phenomenology
ROI
• 1 simulation cost ~ 1/10 of specimen manufacturing and
track testing

Aircraft ditching
6-DOF helicopter impact involving multi-physics
multi-fluid multi-scale flow
Full physics capabilities
• Fluid viscosity, surface tension, cavitation detection
• Boundary condition with wave generator (HOS)
• 6 degrees of freedom solid, with gravity and
aerodynamic forcing
• FSI coupling with inflated float model
Performance
• Local particle refinement: computation does cost only
where needed
• 70h on 300 cores
Safe prediction of the (almost) untestable
• Local and global stresses
• Aircraft motion and structural integrity
 Supported Platforms

SPH-flow runs on Linux machines, for a list of supported platforms:

• CentOS release 6.5 (kernel Linux 2.6.32-431)
• CentOS release 7.0 (kernel Linux 3.10.0-123)

Both with Intel® Parallel Studio XE 2017 Update 4 Cluster Edition for Linux

SPH-flow also runs on Microsoft Windows 10 machines.

SPH-flow is fully optimized for High-Performance Computing (HPC) on parallel computation clusters
based on the Message Passing Interface (MPI) technology.

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