Cloud-based CFD turbomachinery simulation

The result of this Fortissimo experiment is a cloud-based HPC-enabled method of finding the optimum set of parameters for the particular design goals of centrifugal pumps. Centrifugal pumps are widely used in many industrial applications, from oil and gas to water treatment, automotive and home appliances. Such devices may be required to operate over a wide range of flows. The prediction of operating characteristic curves is essential for a designer. Unfortunately, theoretical methods and experimental tests are unable to determine the source of poor performances sufficiently well. Simulation of such flows using an HPC system is becoming an important and common tool for pump designers. The numerical simulation of centrifugal pumps is not easy due to some difficulties including complex geometry, unsteadiness, turbulence, secondary flows, separation and boundary layers. These aspects require a high-fidelity CFD model, or, in other words, very fine computational grids and transient analysis. This approach is quite prohibitive for a typical SME. The aim of the Fortissimo HPC Cloud solution is to provide an attractive solution in terms of the business and technological perspective for SMEs which are unable to perform the necessary simulations using their own resources. The simulations carried out have already shown significant benefits for SMEs in the design of centrifugal pumps.