Aerospace History
Pointwise as a meshing software was born out of the aerospace industry in the 1980s. It was initially funded by the United States Air Force, NASA Langley and Ames Research Centers and has been applied to almost every major military aircraft and spacecraft in the last 30 years. These include the F-16, F-15, F-18, F-22, F-35, F-117, B-2, E-2C, P-3C, Space Shuttle, Space Station and more.
Application
Pointwise reduces the number of computational cells needed for aerospace CFD simulations because of its ability to generate high aspect ratio cells, critical to resolve high Reynolds number boundary layer flows. It also allows a great deal of control over the mesh details and quality, making it easy switching between structured & unstructured surfaces and volume meshes.
More Recently
Pointwise has increased the ability to automate the mesh generation process, decreasing turnaround times. In particular, the T-Rex, anisotropic tetrahedral extrusion technique automatically generates layers of regular hexahedral cells to resolve boundary layers while conforming to specified spacing and quality constraints. The end result is high-quality, high aspect ratio cells generated quickly in an automated process.
Workshop
In the workshop we will conduct live, interactive demonstrations of Pointwise meshing which will focus on:
- The Nida glider,
- Structured meshing with the Lockheed Martin 1021 low boom supersonic transport aircraft,
- Glyph scripting with an aerospace example,
- Overset meshing
- Mesh adaption for aircraft wake dominated flows with Python, Pointwise and Caelus
- Future developments including Goal-oriented surface meshing, Higher order meshing, and desktop performance enhancements.
We will also present technical background information about the how meshing techniques were developed and why, honing in many years of experience in Pointwise.
This event is free to attend, but registration is required. Attendees do not have to be customers of Pointwise.
| 9:30 | Registration/Coffee and Snacks |
| 10:00 | Welcome and Introductions |
| 10:15 | Pointwise Technology Overview Rick Matus, Ph.D., Pointwise, Inc. |
| 11:00 | Interactive Pointwise Meshing Demonstration – Structured meshing with Lockheed Martin 1021 low boom supersonic transport aircraft. Martin Leahy, Ph.D., Applied CCM. |
| 12:00 | Lunch |
| 13:00 | Interactive Pointwise Meshing Demonstration – Overset grids, Glyph scripting for Bombardier example Rick Matus, Ph.D., Pointwise, Inc. |
| 14:00 | Case Study - Mesh Adaption of Nida Glider and Wing/Store with Python, Pointwise and Caelus Martin Leahy, Ph.D, Applied CCM |
| 14:45 | Break |
| 15:00 | Future Developments – Automate, Innovation and Accelerate Rick Matus, Ph.D., Pointwise, Inc. |
| 15:45 | Questions and Answers |
| 16:30 | Close |
Rick Matus
Rick Matus joined Pointwise during its first year of operation. He leads the sales and marketing activities. Previously, Dr. Matus was product manager for the RAMPANT CFD solver, predecessor of Fluent, at Fluent, Inc. and for several years supervised and performed applied CFD at General Dynamics Fort Worth Division. Dr. Matus earned a B.S. in aerospace engineering from Texas A&M University in 1980, an M.S. in aerospace engineering from Texas A&M in 1981, and a Ph.D. in aerospace engineering from the University of Texas at Arlington in 1986.
Martin Leahy
Martin Leahy joined Applied CCM in 2018, as a Senior CFD Engineer, and has been performing CFD studies, OpenFoam training and support, as well as Pointwise training support and sales. Prior to that, Dr Leahy was a CFD consultant in the environmental, oil and gas industries for 5 years. Dr Leahy earned his BSc(Maths) at La Trobe University in 2002, and PhD (Chem Eng) from The University of Melbourne in 2006. His PhD focussed on CFD modelling of chemical reaction transport processes in copper extraction from heap leach pads.