Simulation CFD software provides computational fluid dynamics and thermal simulation tools to help you make great products. Part of the Digital Prototyping solution, Simulation CFD helps you predict product performance, optimize designs, and validate product behavior before manufacturing. With flexible options, solve on your local machine and use the cloud for additional capacity.
Simulation CFD vs. CFD Advanced vs. CFD Motion
Simulation CFD solver licenses are available in three levels. Pair the Simulation CFD Design Study Environment with the Simulation CFD, Simulation CFD Advanced, or Simulation CFD Motion solver to meet your simulation needs.
| Simulation CFD | Simulation CFD Advanced | Simulation CFD Motion | |
| DESIGN STUDY ENVIRONMENT (SOFTWARE SOLD SEPARATELY) | |||
| MultiCAD data exchange | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Design study automation | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Multi-scenario design review center | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Model-centric interface | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Customizable material databases | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Heat sink, compact thermal, LED, and TEC models | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Fan, porous media, HX, TIM, and PCB models | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Non-Newtonian fluid materials | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Point, wall, and bulk-flow data extraction | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Pre- and post-processing API | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Customizable report generator | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Web and mobile storage, sharing, and viewing | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| FSI with Simulation Mechanical | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Simulation Data Management with Vault | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Export results to Showcase, 3DS max, VRED, Maya | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| FLUID FLOW | |||
| 2D and 3D Cartesian | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| 2D axisymmetric | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Laminar flow | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Turbulent flow | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Incompressible flow | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Subsonic flow | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Compressible flow | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Steady state (time-independent) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Transient (time-varying) | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Lagrangian particle tracking | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Two-fluid scalar mixing | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Two-phase flows (humidity and steam) | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Nucleate boiling | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Height of fluid | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Free surface (Volume Of Fluid) | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Compressible liquid (water hammer) | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Cavitation | ✓ | ✓ | |
| HEAT TRANSFER | |||
| Conduction and conjugate heat transfer | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Forced, natural, mixed convection | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Thermal comfort calculation | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Temperature-dependent heat source | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Radiation heat transfer | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Radiation through transparent media | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Solar loading | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Temperature-dependent emissivity | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Joule heating (temperature-dependent resistivity) | ✓ | ✓ | |
| INTELLIGENT MESHING | |||
| Geometry mesh diagnostics | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Automatic mesh sizing | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Solution-adaptive mesh | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Global and local size adjustment | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Boundary-layer mesh enhancement | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Interactive mesh-refinement regions | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Extrusion meshing | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Mesh growth-rate control | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Fluid gap and thin solid refinement | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| TURBULENCE MODELS | |||
| K-epsilon | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| K-epsilon with intelligent wall formulation | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Low Reynolds number K-epsilon | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| SST k-omega | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| SST k-omega SAS (Scale Adaptive Simulation) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| SST k-omega DES (Detached Eddy Simulation) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| RNG | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Eddy viscosity | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Mixing length | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Automatic turbulence startup | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Laminar | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| SOLID BODY MOTION | |||
| User prescribed or fluid driven motion | ✓ | ||
| Multiple rotating frame of reference | ✓ | ||
| Linear | ✓ | ||
| Angular | ✓ | ||
| Combined linear and angular | ✓ | ||
| Combined orbital and angular | ✓ | ||
| Nutating | ✓ | ||
| Sliding vane | ✓ | ||
| Unconstrained (6 DOF) motion | ✓ | ||
| HIGH-PERFORMANCE SOLVING (INCLUDED) | |||
| Multicore single machine | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Microsoft HPC cluster | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Remote solving | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Parallel solving on multiple machines* | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
