Better CFD Process with Rapid Design Space Optimization

 

Rapid Design Space Optimization (RDSO) with HydroComp NavCad Premium allows a naval architect to focus CFD resources on high-value computations and avoid irrelevant time and expense.

 

HydroComp NavCad provides resistance and propulsion prediction for naval architects. With the recent introduction of the Premium Edition, NavCad is now able to provide integrated support for design optimization.

 

To ensure that process efficiency and cost-effectiveness of resource-intensive CFD calculations are as high as possible, it is necessary to make use of Rapid Design Space Optimization (RDSO). Coupled with third-party software for management and optimization, NavCad Premium is a simulation solver for Rapid Design Space Optimization.

 

The ship design process often follows a path from a starting “parent” toward an optimized solution that meets certain design objectives. The set of all possible solutions is the design space. Design Space Optimization (DSO) is simply the analytical narrowing of this limitless scope to the superior solutions. NavCad Premium allows researchers and designers to rapidly evaluate many design variants, and to focus time and resources on regions of the design space worthy of study with CFD simulations.

 

• It is critical to establish and confirm the big design decisions early in the design spiral, and

• detailed design optimization by CFD or model testing is made more efficient and effective when predicated by knowledge from an initial RDSO study.

 

The advent of more affordable and accessible CFD offers exciting possibilities for DSO in naval architectural offices – and one can make the optimization and analysis from CFD more effective by using NavCad Premium to “set the table” for it. A preparatory RDSO study establishes a starting geometry and condition for CFD that is substantially closer to the final outcome, increasing the success of CFD-analyzed designs.

 

In addition to quickly narrowing the design space, NavCad Premium can also be used to provide a quantitative benchmark for establishing confidence in CFD results. NavCad predictions are well-behaved, accurate and robust, allowing CFD prediction studies – for both hull and propulsor performance – to be judged against the results generated by NavCad Premium during its RDSO investigation.

 

To ensure that overall process efficiency and cost-effectiveness of a design solution is as high as possible, it is necessary to make use of Rapid Design Space Optimization. A NavCad Premium RDSO solution ensures that a company’s potent CFD resources start with the best initial “parent” and can therefore focus on detailed optimization and validation of results.