Cloud-based simulation of aerodynamics of light aircraft

The results of this Fortissimo experiment enabled the end-user, Pipistrel, an aeroplane designer and manufacturer, to design its aircraft in a more optimal and cost-efficient way. For this experiment, a standard software package running on an HPC system was used to simulate the flow of air over the aircraft. The use of Cloud-based HPC allowed Pipistrel to run simulations of higher fidelity than was possible with its in-house systems. These simulations closely modelled real-world behaviour and gave accurate information on how the airplane behaved in flight. To simulate the flow with the required degree of accuracy, a large computer model was used for the experiments. In doing this, Pipistrel learned how to run, handle and post-process such big cases on a cloud-based HPC system. A typical large model would run in approximately 2 to 3 days on the HPC system. Such a problem would either be too big for the in-house systems to would take too long to run for an effective design process (around 20 to 30 days). The use of HPC therefore enabled Pipistrel to obtain results of much more complex simulations in a reasonable time.