Cp on the symmetry plane, the F-16 aircraft, and a slice below the F-16 aircraft. Rendered in Flow360 Web UI.
Flexcompute and GridPro are excited to partner in providing an integrated solution to redefine computational fluid dynamics (CFD) for the Aerospace and Defense Industries. This collaboration allows users to generate high-fidelity structured meshes using GridPro and directly import the exported meshes into Flow360 to leverage its lightning-fast and robust GPU-based CFD platform. The combination of both provides:
A more streamlined workflow
Fast simulation and meshing
Joint technical support to minimize interoperability issues
Accelerated data collection and iterations for rapid advancements in R&D
For companies that already rely on GridPro, this new partnership provides an invaluable starting point for running CFD simulations.
To show this collaboration between Flexcompute and GridPro in action, a real-world use case was conceived. The F-16 aircraft, operating in supersonic conditions, is demonstrated below. A high-quality mesh was first generated using GridPro. Then, the exported CGNS mesh was imported into Flow360 for running the simulation.
Simulating high-speed flow around fighter aircraft requires a meticulously crafted mesh that can both capture the fine geometric details and resolve the complex physics of shock waves and boundary layers. To meet these demands, a high-resolution, flow- and geometry-aligned structured multiblock mesh was generated using GridPro.
The computational domain was extended to 50 times the aircraft length in all directions to minimize boundary effects. To accurately resolve the boundary layer, 21 layers of cells were stacked orthogonally to the aircraft surface, with a first cell height of just 1 micron—sufficient to maintain a target y+ of 1.
The final mesh comprises approximately 41.0 million cells and 41.2 million nodes, with about 75,000 quadrilateral elements used to discretize the aircraft’s surface. Such detailed flow field resolution enables precise capture of shocks, separation zones, and flow transitions across the aircraft body.
To avoid unnecessarily fine grids in the farfield, GridPro’s Local Enrichment Tool was used to loop back block structures, efficiently containing the high-resolution mesh to regions near the aircraft.
A combination of C-type topology around the nose and O-type topologies around the wings, vertical stabilizer, and horizontal stabilizers was applied. This hybrid topology approach enhances mesh quality, improves mesh smoothness and alignment with flow structures.
Quality metrics confirmed the robustness of the mesh. The mesh has high quality in critical regions, ensuring solver stability and accuracy. The final mesh was exported in CGNS unstructured format, including all necessary attributes for seamless integration with Flexcompute’s Flow360 solver for high-fidelity simulation.
Mesh generated by GridPro with the F-16 aircraft colored green and slices in the wake and under the aircraft.
After the mesh was generated, it was directly imported into Flow360, and a steady simulation was run at Mach 2, 0° angle of attack, and an altitude of 10,000ft. The Spalart-Allmaras turbulence model was used for this simulation.
CFD Results in 2 minutes
Cp on the symmetry plane with the aircraft colored white.
In the CFD simulation, the convergence was defined when both CL and CD changed less than 1% across 500 pseudosteps. This required only 2750 pseudo steps. For running this simulation of a ~40 million nodes mesh, on 8 B200 GPUs, Flow360 took only 121 seconds, which is just 2 minutes.
Plots of CL and CD convergence during the simulation
Flow360 has been at the forefront of providing really fast and accurate CFD solutions, and this partnership with GridPro makes it even easier for users to create workflows with ease and achieve useful insights about the designs quickly. The goal still matches the Flexcompute vision - Allowing customers to make hardware innovations as easy as software with physics intelligence.
In addition to running the simulation, Flow360 also provides ease in visualizing the results as well with its in-built post-processing features. The visualization of Cp and Cf contours from Flow360’s WebUI on F16 aircraft can be seen in the images below. The WebUI also has a variety of additional tools that can be used to paint a full picture of aircraft performance and highlight areas for improvement. The templated version of CFD results can also be generated using Flow360’s New Report Generation capability.
Coefficient of friction as a vector with LIC visualization (left) and coefficient of pressure (right) on the aircraft surface
Flow360’s Python API can be easily used in conjunction with the GridPro API for a streamlined workflow. The intuitive WebUI for Flow360 makes importing any GridPro mesh simple and fast. This collaboration takes a step in accelerating hardware innovation, boosting design quality and reducing the iterations needed to get high-quality products.
Ready to take your CFD workflow supersonic? Start integrating GridPro’s high-fidelity meshes with Flow360’s lightning-fast GPU-native solver today. Whether you're modeling an aircraft for urban air mobility or designing the next generation fighter jet, this partnership streamlines your path from mesh to insight.