Simulation software supplier for prototyping and manufacturing processes ESI Group has announced that Dassault Systems', PLM MarketPlace, has been accepted, after completion of its technical and business requirements.

PLM MarketPlace is an online community that connects software development and business partners. Resellers can now search and find costless solutions through the PLM MarketPlace.
 
Thierry Collet, vice president, global field marketing, Dassault Systems, believes that the PLM MarketPlace provides considerable business synergy and is integral to the company's strategy to facilitate value channel network selling. He further adds, "Referenced on the PLM MarketPlace, ESI Group's specialised simulation applications built on top of our CATIA platform solutions are well positioned and directly accessible by Dassault Systems' worldwide reseller network."

Currently, the ESI Group provides diverse applications for CATIA users. In the composites field, PAM-QUIKFORM for CATIA enables composites designers to get fast feasibility assessment of manufacturability inside the CATIA composites application; and PAM-RTM for CATIA offers injection simulation software for composites manufacturing integrated in CATIA. ESI Group's portfolio of applications also includes metal forming solutions, part feasibility check and rapid die creation with PAM-TFA for CATIA and PAM-DIEMAKER for CATIA.

In yet another announcement, the ESI Group, released version 2008.0 of its CFD-ACE+ software platform.

The company says CFD-ACE+ is the industry's most advanced computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and multi-physics software. This software enables simulations of fluid, thermal, chemical, biological, electrical and mechanical phenomena for a variety of applications across a wide range of industries.

The software has been designed to be very modular and expandable, offering users ample flexibility. The CFD-ACE+ includes the latest numerical and physical models. It also incorporates an advanced design environment which is simulation based. It also supports various modelling technologies with data links for the oft-used formats of CAD, CAE and EDA.

The V2008.0 release marks a milestone in CFD-ACE+ meshing capabilities due to the addition of polyhedral-honeycomb technology. Honeycomb meshing helps in providing faster and realistic simulations.

Richard Thomas, CFD product manager said, "We foresee a great opportunity to be the leaders in providing this new technology to anyone simulating complex 3D geometries, such as external flows for full aircraft or automotive configurations, as well as complex internal configurations like those found in process and control equipment."

Key enhancements to CFD-ACE+ are:

• The new honeycomb meshing for complex 3D geometries now allows tetrahedral mesh system to be converted to superior quality polyhedral mesh with fewer cell counts and a strengthened convergence, thereby providing an improved cell quality
• The inclusion of multi-step electro-chemistry for fuel cell modelling that aids fuel cell developers to use simulation-based designs to create precise models to show effects of fuel/air starvation and optimise fuel cell designs. This will help avoid carbon corrosion and also prevent decay of fuel cell membrane electrolyte assembly (MEA).
• A new boundary layer meshing option allows the creation of either highly stretched prismatic or hexahedral layers near desired surfaces prior to tetrahedral mesh generation. This method will help minimise the number of cells and it also allows proper resolution of near wall behaviour for applications such as aerodynamic drag calculation and wall heat transfer, where high accuracy is required.