Cloud-based CFD simulation in automotive design

The automotive industry heavily relies on CFD for its design needs. Traditionally, commercial CFD software has been used. Given the growing complexity of these simulations, HPC is often the only realistic way to produce results within an acceptable time frame. The commercial software licensing models, which often charge on a per-core or per-CPU basis, can become very costly, making them beyond the reach of SMEs. For this reason, SMEs are increasingly moving to the alternative open-source solutions. The result of this Fortissimo experiment is the deployment of Open Source CFD software on cloud-based HPC systems. The combination of an open-source software package and Cloud-based access to HPC systems enables both large and small companies to have access to significant computing resources on a pay-per-use basis. This is very attractive to many companies. They do not need to have a very significant outlay to buy a large machine which is only used for a fraction of the time, yet which is powerful enough to perform simulations quickly in a burst mode. The economics of this are clear and unless an HPC system is loaded at more than about 50% of its capacity then it is more cost-effective to buy cycles rather than buy and support a hardware system. Furthermore it is advantageous for many small companies to move computing costs from capital expenditure to operational expenditure with consequent smoothing of cash flow.