SHIPFLOW4.

2
RELEASENOTES
ALL PLATFORMS
2008-11-21

Chalmers Tvrgata 10, P.O.Box 24001, S-400 22 Gothenburg, Sweden,

Tel. +46 31 41 05 06, Fax. +46 31 41 50 60
E-mail: info@flowtech.se, Internet: http://www.flowtech.se

Version 4.2

Index
1 Known issues..................................................................................................................................................2
2Differencesbetween 4.2 and 4.1 .........................................................................................................................3
2.1GENERAL................................................................................................................................................3
2.2XCHAP....................................................................................................................................................3
2.3XMESH/XPAN/XBOUND.........................................................................................................................3
3Differencesbetween 4.1 and 4.0.01 .....................................................................................................................4
3.1GENERAL................................................................................................................................................4
3.2XMESH/XPAN.........................................................................................................................................4
3.3XBOUND.................................................................................................................................................5
3.4XCHAP....................................................................................................................................................5
3.5SPOST......................................................................................................................................................5
4Differencesbetween 4.0.01 and 4.0.....................................................................................................................6
4.1Flow solvers..............................................................................................................................................6
4.2SPOST......................................................................................................................................................6
4.3GUI..........................................................................................................................................................6
5 Differencesbetween 3.4 and 4.0.........................................................................................................................7
5.1General.....................................................................................................................................................7
5.2XFLOW....................................................................................................................................................7
5.3XGRID.....................................................................................................................................................7
5.4XCHAP....................................................................................................................................................8

SHIPFLOW ReleaseNotes

Known issues

Version 4.1

Known issues

Hereisthelistofknownissueswiththisrelease:
1) ImportedgridsmusthavedifferentnamesinordertobevisibleinSPOST.
2) Localrefinements:Ifarelativelysmallappendageisadded,itmaybenecessarytoincreasetheresolutionof
theenclosingXGRIDgrid,bothtogetagoodinterpolationbetweenthegridsandtoresolvethewakebehind
theappendage.InthiscontextitisattractivetolocallyrefinetheenclosinggridwiththeREFINEcommand.
Whendoingsoitisimportantthattheappendagegridsarecompletelyenclosedbythelocalrefinementgrid
withamarginofafewcells.Ifthisisnotrespected,thecomputationmaydiverge.Problemswithcombining
overlappinggridsandrefinementgrids.
3) Inletplaneposition:TheinletplaneforXGRIDmustbepositionedwherethehullsurfaceisclosetotangential
withthexaxis.Thisisbecausethatfortheinletvelocityprofile,v=w=0,soiftheconditionaboveisnot
fulfilled,theboundaryconditionontheinlettriestopushfluidintothehulliftheinletispositionedtoofar
forwardandviceversa.Theresponseoftheflowsolverisexaggeratedvelocitiesclosetothehullintheformer
case.
Ifthehulldoesnothaveagoodpositionforaninletplane,i.e.thereisnoparallelmidshipsection,thezonal
approachisnotappropriateandtheinletshouldbepositionedaheadofthebowsothatthewholehullis
gridded.

SHIPFLOW ReleaseNotes

Version 4.2

Differences between 4.2 and 4.1

2 Differences between 4.2 and 4.1

2.1 GENERAL
Windows installation
TheSHIPFLOWrelease4.2andthelicensesoftware(Flexnet)isinstalledinseparatefoldersintheFLOWTECH
folder.ThisprocedureenablesconcurrentinstallationsofdifferentSHIPFLOWversions.

2.2 XCHAP
Improved XCHAP performance on Linux
ImprovedoptimizationofXCHAPgivesabout20%increaseoftheperformance.

New vortex generator grid

The number of blocks in the vortex generator grid has been reduced to four. This gives an improvement of the
performancewhenusingmanythreads.

Faster visualization of meshes

AnewoptionXCHAPoptionCONTROL(GRID)canbeusedforfastervisualizationofXCHAPgridobjects.Thisis
usefulwhenworkingwithpositioningandmeshingofappendageobjects.Thecomputationisstoppedbeforeentering
thepointclassificationstage.

2.3 XMESH/XPAN/XBOUND
XBOUND error handling
TheCGNSfilecouldbecorruptafteranerroneousXBOUNDcomputationthatcreatedNAN(Notanumber)inthe
solution.AnerrormessageisnowdisplayedandzeroswrittentotheCGNSfile.

Visualization of XPAN groups in SPOST

AlltypesofXPANpanelgroupsaresavedintheCGNSfileandcanbevisualizedwithSPOST.

SHIPFLOW ReleaseNotes

Differencesbetween 4.1 and 4.0.01

Version 4.1

3 Differences between 4.1 and 4.0.01

3.1 GENERAL
64-bit and multi-threading on Windows
SHIPFLOWisnowalsoavailableinboth32bitand64bitunderbothWindowsandLinux.Under32bitWindows
SHIPFLOWcannotruncasesbiggerthen1.52GB,butwith64bitcompiledSHIPFLOWa64bitWindowsuserdo
nothavethatrestrictionanymore.
MultithreadingnowalsoworksunderWindows(both32bitand64bitversions).ThisenablesXCHAPtoessentially
run in parallel on a multicore computer. The number of threads used is controlled by the command
XCHAP:PARALLEL:NTHREAD.

CGNS and HDF

SHIPFLOWnowonlygivestheoutputinCGNSformat.TheHDFformatisnotusedanymore.TheLinuxversion
SPOSTcanstillreadhdffiles..

3.2 XMESH/XPAN
Free surface with transom
Therearetwonewkeywordstocontrolthefreesurfaceflowaroundatransom.XWEDGEwherethewaveprofilewill
continuehorizontallybehindthetransomandXYZWEDGEwherethewaveprofilewillfollowtheslopeofthewedge
behindthetransom.InStandardcaseinputmodetheyarespecifiedinHULLTYPEandinNormalinputmodetheyare
specifiedintheTRANSOMgroup.

Easier support for grid refinements

InStandardcaseinputmodetherearethreepredefinedsettingsforBDENSandFDENS:

COARSE=>BDENS=1.0andFDENS=0.8

MEDIUM=>BDENS=1.5andFDENS=1.1

FINE=>BDENS=2.0andFDENS=1.5

ThebehaviorforFDENShasalsochangedslightly.FDENS=1.0correspondsto20panelsperfundamentalwavelength
atallFroudenumbers.EarliertherewasareductionatlowFn.

Ordering of groups in XMESH

IntheNormalinputmodetheorderingofthegroupsinXMESHcanbearbitrary.

XENT bug fixed

Itisnowpossibletospecifythepositionofthelasttransversewavecut,XENT,alsoinStandardcaseinputmode.

XCOF bug fixed

TheinitialvalueofXCOFwillbeusedinmultiplespeedruns.

OBPOINT bug fix

Asmallbugfixtomakethisworkbetter.

SHIPFLOW ReleaseNotes

Version 4.2

Differences between 4.1 and 4.0.01

3.3 XBOUND
Extra panels
Takesextrapanelsintoaccount.Earlieriteffectedthetracecommandandskinfrictionintegration.

3.4 XCHAP
Lifting line propeller model
In4.0.01supportforselfpropulsionwasincludedintheliftinglinemodel.Thatfunctionalityhasnowbeenextendedso
thataCTvaluecanbeassignedtothepropeller(XCHAP:LLINE:CTGIVEN)ifruninselfpropulsionmode.Alsoif
more than one propeller is used a certain fraction of the total load can be assigned to each propeller
(XCHAP:LLINE:FRACTION).

Appendage objects
AvortexgeneratorobjectcanbecreatedwiththecommandXFLOW:VORTEXGEN.SeetheUsersManualformore
info.
TheHYPSURFobjectcanbeturnedwiththekeywordANGLE.

Extracted wake data moved

Earliertheextractedwakedatawasprintedintheid_OUTPUTfile.Nowitisputinaseparatefileinstead.Thenewfile
iscalledid_propid.html.

3.5 SPOST
New license
ThenewversionofSPOSTisbasedonAVS/Express7whichmeansthatalluserswillneednewlicenses.Whenyou
contactusforanewSHIPFLOWlicenseyouwillalsobegivenanewSPOSTlicense.

Wake fraction plots

DiagramsofwakefractiondistributionsatconstantradiiversustheanglecanbeplottedinSPOST,seeData:XCHAP
WakesontheMenubar.

SHIPFLOW ReleaseNotes

Differencesbetween 4.0.01 and 4.0

Version 4.1

4 Differences between 4.0.01 and 4.0

4.1 Flow solvers

Selfpropulsiontestcanbesimulatedwiththeliftinglinemodel.SeedocumentationfortheLLINEinthis
document.

Theliftinglinemodelcouldearlierundercertainconditionsbecomeunstable.Thisproblemisnowremoved.

4.2 SPOST

ThevisualizationofthefreesurfacewasdifferentintheCGNSandHDF.Theresultsarenowexportedand
displayedinthesameway.

Thereparametervaluesforthesliceplanewaslimitedto100intheorthogonalslicemapperintheXCHAP
visualizationtoolbox.

4.3 GUI

InSHIPFLOW4.0theGUIwasthefullFramework.In4.0.01itistheSHIPFLOWGUIthatcomeswiththe
regularshipflowlicense.

SupportforvisualizationofXGRIDgrids.

SHIPFLOW ReleaseNotes

Version 4.2

Differences between 3.4 and 4.0

Differences between 3.4 and 4.0

5.1 General
Graphical User Interface
Agraphicaluserinterfaceisadded.

Licensing with FLEXnet

The GUI, thegrid generators and thesolvers in SHIPFLOW 4.0 use FLEXnet for licensing control. This license
replacestheoldlicensingsystemwiththelicensekeyinthefileshipflow/bin/SHIPFLOWlicense.Inthedirectory
shipflow4.0/lictherearetoolsforobtainingthehostid,startingthelicenseserver,checkingthestatusofthelicense
serverandstoppingthelicenseserver.
Inordertogeneratealicenseweneedahostidfromtheyou.Theutilityprogramlmtools.exeisrecommendedfor
Windowsusers.ItisfoundfromtheSHIPFLOWstartmenuorintheshipflow\licfolder.
Thehostidcanalsobeobtainedbyrunninginthecommandprompt(Windows)orinaterminal(Linux):
lmutillmhostid
Pleasesendthehostidtosupport@flowtech.seandyouwillreceivealicensefileshortly.
Whenyougetthelicensefileputitinshipflow4.0/licandstartthelicenseserverwiththecommand:
lmgrdc<licensefilename>l<logfilename>
Ifyouwanttocheckthestatusoflicenseserverusethecommand:
lmutillmstata
lmutillmdiag
Tostopthelicenseserverdo:
lmutillmdownvendorsfllmd.
Important:Thelicenseserverwillneedtobestartedeachtimethecomputerisstartedup.

5.2 XFLOW
New geometries
NewgeometryWSECTIONforgeneratingagridarounda2Dwingsection.
NewgeometryHYPSURFforgeneratingahyperbolic2Dsurfacefromasubdivisioncurve.
NewgeometryROTBODYforgeneratingagridbyrotatinga2Dgridarounditsxaxis.
RUDDERgridcannowbeclosedinbothendswithflatorroundedtips.

5.3 XGRID
Size
XGRIDhasthedefaultsize120x30x60.Wenowprovide3additionaldefaultsettingswhicharesetbyaddingoneofthe
commandsXGRID:SIZE:COARSE,XGRID:SIZE:MEDIUMorXGRID:SIZE:FINE.
XGRID:SIZE:FINEchangesthedefaultsizeto160x70x100.Thestretchinginaxialdirection(XGRID:XDIST)isthen
also changed to XCH1=0.88, XCH2=0.99, KSI1=75 and KSI2=120 and the y+ target value is set to
XGRID:YPLUS:YTARGET=0.7.Thiswillgiveagridofabout1000000cellsandwithaconcentrationofcellsin
importantregions.
COARSEwillgiveagridofaround400000cellsandMEDIUMagridofslightlymorethen700000cells.
SHIPFLOW ReleaseNotes

Differencesbetween 3.4 and 4.0

Version 4.1

WehavefoundthattheFINEsettinggivesgoodwakepredictionsformoststandardhullsandwerecommendtheuserto
usethisiftimeormemoryisnotaproblem.

Quality check of offset file

TocheckthequalityoftheoffsetfilethecommandXGRID:CONTROL:OFFTESTcanbeused,seeAppendixA

5.4 XCHAP
Parallelization
TheXCHAPsolvercannowpartlyruninparallelonsharedmemorymachinesbyusingthreads.Theparallelexecution,
i.e.numberofthreads,iscontrolledwiththePARALLELcommand.
Note:DoesnotworkunderWindowsyet.

Tecplot
ThenewcommandTECPLOTisusedtogenerateTecplotasciifileswithahigherdegreeofcontrolofthefilecontent
thanwhentheTECPLOTkeywordintheCONTROLcommandisused.

Refine
ThedefaultinterpolationschemeintherefinecommandinXCHAPnowproducesbetterrefinements.Theinterpolation
schemegivessmoothgridswithoutcreatingoscillations.

SHIPFLOW ReleaseNotes