Fluent Releases Airpak 2.0 - Airflow Modeling Software Comes of Age

Business Wire, June 18, 2001

Business/Technology Editors

LEBANON, N.H.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 18, 2001

Fluent Inc., world leader in flow modeling software, announces the release of Airpak 2.0 - a major new release of this airflow modeling software, which made its market debut last year.

"The demand for airflow modeling to be done upfront in the design process for ventilation systems is heating up," says Airpak Product Manager Walter Schwarz, "and more and more firms are selecting Airpak as their tool of choice. The features that we've added with this new release are our response to the continuous market demands for faster model building, faster solutions, and easier ways to produce effective pictures, plots and animations from simulation results."

Airpak is an easy-to-use computational fluid dynamics (CFD) tool that lets the user accurately model airflow, heat transfer, contaminant transport, and thermal comfort in ventilation systems as well as external building flows. It eliminates the guesswork in designing ventilation systems. Airpak can reduce the risk for new designs and improve the efficiency of current designs while saving time and money.

Easy Animation Export

Airpak 2.0 makes it unnecessary for users to purchase additional software so that they can export the computer animations of their results. Airpak exports the animation in MPEG, AVI, animated GIF or FLI file formats. "Exporting directly into an animation gives our users the fastest way ever to convert results into valuable marketing pieces," says Schwarz.

CAD Integration

Airpak users can already import existing CAD geometries in either IGES or DXF formats. The new version has an enhanced import capability that directly converts IGES surfaces into Airpak objects, saving the time and expense of building a computer model from scratch.

Quick and Accurate Modeling of Indoor Airflows

Airpak 2.0 includes a new zero-equation indoor turbulence model that addresses the need for a simple but reliable turbulence model for room ventilation.

Diffuser Macros

Airpak 2.0, with its new diffuser macros, makes it easy to quickly and accurately model air inlet diffusers with simplified boundary conditions that capture the diffuser performance. "By including results from the latest ASHRAE-sponsored research in simplified boundary conditions for diffusers, we have removed the need for guesswork," says Schwarz.

Let the Sun Shine

Airpak 2.0 has a special capability that enables users to quickly compute solar loading boundary conditions on various Airpak objects, accounting for day, time, geographical location and surface orientation.

Other Speed Enhancements

New grid-to-grid interpolation allows users to change geometries as needed and to rapidly reuse previous solutions to examine the effects of the changes. Parallel processing on multiple-CPU machines or across networked machines, automatic report writing, and an auto save feature are just a few of the additional enhancements designed to increase efficiency and decrease time-to-solution.

Pricing and Availability

Airpak 2.0 is currently available on Unix, Linux, and NT/2000 platforms worldwide from Fluent Inc. Annual license fees include unlimited technical support and start at $27,000. Visit the Airpak web site (www.airpak.fluent .com) for a listing of worldwide offices and distributors.

Corporate Background

Fluent Inc. is the world leader in the rapidly growing field of computerized design and simulation software. Its software is used to predict fluid flow, heat and mass transfer, chemical reaction, and related phenomena. Fluent's software products and services help engineers with detailed product development, design optimization, scale-up, and retrofitting. The software significantly reduces engineering cost while improving the final design of products in applications ranging from design of electronic components and systems to automotive engineering, and from combustion system design to process plant troubleshooting.

Fluent's headquarters are located in Lebanon, New Hampshire, USA, with offices throughout the United States. Its European headquarters are located in Sheffield, England with additional offices in France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, and Sweden. Its Asian headquarters are in Tokyo, Japan. Fluent's software is also available around the world through joint ventures, partnerships, and distributors in Australia, Brazil, China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, the Czech Republic, and most European countries.

Graphics Available

Graphic images and accompanying captions to support this release can be found on the web at airpak.fluent.com/news/index.htm by following the links to this release. Fluent Inc. grants permission for use of these graphics and their captions in conjunction with any or all of this press release.

Airpak is a trademark of Fluent Inc., and is a joint development of Fluent Inc. and ICEM-CFD Engineering.