v.Flow

The world’s first commercial software based on the grid-free, vortex method.

v.Flow is based on Vorcat’s innovative & patented technology by which incompressible, turbulent flow is simulated in three-dimensions by a time-accurate and physically consistent numerical methodology.

Vorcat is the world’s leading CFD developer of the grid-free, vortex method. This ground breaking technology offers a quantum leap in the accuracy of turbulent flow simulations.

 
 
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Grid-Free

Grid-free representation of the flow except for a very thin layer next to solid surfaces that is needed to resolve the strong gradients at the viscous sub-layer. This thin grid is automatically grown from an unstructured surface mesh,

 
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Hybrid Sheet Filament

A hybrid sheet-filament representation of the vorticity field that mimics turbulent flow physics without requiring end-users to input ad-hoc turbulence models and,

 
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Fast Multipole Method

An adaptive, parallel, Fast Multipole Method (FMM) that allows the simulation of high Reynolds-number applications in reasonable turn-around times and,

 
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Moving Boundary Capability

A moving boundary capability that is based on solving the equations in inertial and non-inertial frames of reference without elaborate dynamic re-meshing.

 

Faster, More Meaningful Analyses

v.Flow reduces the end-user gridding and pre-processing requirements to a minimum (only triangulation of the surface mesh is required) and together with our powerful visualization tool v.Viz, allows for fast post-processing and meaningful analyses of the different aspects of complex turbulent flow applications

General Capabilities

  • Full 3D

  • Time-accurate (unsteady) solutions

  • Mixed Eulerian-Lagrangian algorithm

  • Incompressible flow (including low Mach number, subsonic flows)

  • Inviscid flows

  • Transitional flows

  • Turbulent flows – no (a-priori) turbulence modeling required

  • Reynolds-number accurate flows

  • Only standard surface mesh is required to describe solid boundaries

  • No need for dynamic meshes for moving rigid bodies

  • Acoustics analogy for prediction of flow-induced noise

  • Heat transfer including forced, natural and mixed convection

  •  Lagrangian trajectory calculation for dispersed phase (particles)

  • Volumetric sources of mass, momentum, and heat

  • Extensive customization capability via user-defined functions

  • Material property data base

 
 

Mesh Capabilities

  • Unstructured surface mesh is only required to describe solid boundaries. The software creates a prismatic thin layer that grows outward normal to the surface.

 
 

Numerical Method

  • A unique, mixed Eulerian-Lagrangian solver

  • Finite volume method based on unstructured meshes used on a thin surface layer

  • Lagrangian tracking of vorticity-carrying particles everywhere in the flow field

  •  Unique, parallel, adaptive Fast Multipole Solver (FMM)

  • Dynamic memory allocation

  • Single and double precision executables

  • Pressure field computed on solid boundaries as an option

  • Transitional and turbulent flows are captured automatically without extra modeling required

 
 

Lagrangian Dispersed Phase Modeling

  • Trajectory calculation for particles

  • Momentum, heat, and mass transfer coupling with fluid

  • Multiple choice of built-in drag laws for spherical particles

  • Built-in options to include added mass, Saffman lift, and Brownian forces

  • Particle size distribution through linear distribution or Rosin-Rammler equation

  • Multiple choice of boundary conditions for particles including reflection, deposition, etc.

  • Turbulent dispersion via discrete random-walk model

  • Heat transfer between fluid and dispersed phase, including convection and radiation effects

 
 

Boundary conditions

  • Multiple flow inlets/exits, with specifications of:

    • Velocity or mass flux inlet

    • Inlet fluid temperature

    • Inlet turbulent flow profile

    • Periodic boundary conditions

 
 

Platform Requirements

  • Supported Architectures:

    • SGI UV 1000 cc-NUMA

    • Cray T3E

    • SGI Origin 2000 & 3000

    • IBM SP 2 & 3

    • Linux Clusters

    • Compaq Supercomputers

  • Additional Software:

    • Message Passing Interface (MPI)

  • Recommended Minimum Platform Configuration:

    • 16 or more 1-2 GHz processors

    • 2-4 GB  memory per processor

    • 4 GB available disk space for output files

v.Flow Licensing

If you would like more information regarding v.Flow, please fill out the form below and we’ll be in touch shortly.

Coming Soon from Vorcat:

Vorcat 3.0 is under development! The new version will be faster with GPU computing and offer even better scalability (patent pending).