S & I Engineering Solutions Pvt. Ltd.

A product of research

Number 301, Block A, Raghuram Residency

30, MSR Road, Gokula, Bangalore 560012
Karnataka, India
Website: http://www.sandi.co.in
Phone: +91802345 4359
Fax: +91802337 6035
Mobile: +9194490 54359

About the company

Indian Institute of Science (IISc), a premier research institute of India, supports commercialization of quality research initiatives on the campus, through an MCIT funded program,
under the SID banner. The Simulation and Innovation (SandI) is an outcome of such an
initiative and is housed in the incubation centre of IISc.
The code High Resolution Flow Solver on Unstructured Meshes (HiFUN), the primary product of SandI, features some of the most recent CFD technologies. HiFUN is fine tuned to
solve typical Aerospace applications and certain flow problems encountered in Automotive
industries. The code has been extensively used for solving a number of problems, over a wide
range of Mach numbers, ranging from Airship aerodynamics to aerodynamics of Hypersonic
vehicles. SandI presents with pride, this robust, fast and accurate flow solver to the CFD
community.

Why HiFUN ?
HiFUN imbibes most recent CFD technologies; many of them home grown.
HiFUN is robust, accurate and fast.
HiFUN exhibits highly scalable parallel performance with its ability to scale upto several
thousand processors on massively parallel computing platforms.
HiFUN is available at an extremely competitive price.
HiFUN can be customized to meet specific user requirement.

Services offered
Consultancy services
State of the art high end CFD services using HiFUN, both to the Aerospace and Automotive industries.

Customized code development

To meet specific user requirements.

Sales and maintenance of the SandI products

Sale of HiFUN at a competitive price and postsale maintenance/upgrades.

CFD Education
For an uninitiated user of CFD tool.

CFD Research
For continuous value addition to HiFUN.

Present features of HiFUN

Unstructured Face based data allowing for arbitrary polyhedral volumes
The solver allows the use of four basic mesh elements, namely, hex, tet, prism and pyramid, in combination.
The adaptive capability of the solver, allowing for hanging nodes, results in arbitrary polyhedral volumes.

Higher order spatial accuracy

Higher order spatial accuracy is achieved by using a linear reconstruction procedure based on either method
of least squares or GreenGauss procedure. Use of Venkatakrishnan limiter ensures monotonicity of the
solution for high speed flows.

Numerical Flux Formula

The solver supports a number of numerical flux formulas, in addition to an option for the user to include his
favorite flux formula.

Viscous Discretization
A positive viscous discretization ensures robustness of the flow solver even on grids with highly skewed cells.
This is indeed an unique feature of this solver.

Non conformal block interface algorithm

The flow solver is equipped with an efficient algorithm to handle non conformal grids at an interface between
two blocks.

Moving wall boundary condition

It is possible to simulate translating and rotating walls in the flow solver.

Multiple rotating frames of reference algorithm

The flow solver is equipped with an efficient algorithm to handle multiple rotating frames of reference in a
given problem.

Algorithm to simulate porous media

The flow solver is capable of simulating flows through porous media.

Turbulence Models
The solver supports SpalartAllmaras and kOmega turbulence models. The model equations are solved in a
decoupled manner. A robust discretization used for the model equations ensure high levels of convergence
even for the turbulence quantities.

Wall Function
For turbulent computations, standard equilibrium wall function gets automatically activated if grid resolution
near the wall is not adequate to resolve viscous sublayer.

Convergence Acceleration
A matrixfree implicit procedure ensures rapid convergence, both for steady and unsteady computations (in
dual time mode).

Parallel
A unique four layered approach to data handling on each of the processors ensures there is no degeneration
in the performance of the parallel code as compared to a serial code, while at the same time achieving a linear
speed up even for several thousand processors. The MPI is used for message passing across the processors.

Features of HiFUN in advanced level of implementation

Higher order time accuracy
Formal second order time accuracy is achieved both on stationary and moving grids using a dual time stepping
procedure. On the moving grids the solver is GCL compliant.

Grid Adaptation
A hybrid adaptive strategy employing sensors based on both residual error estimator (referred to as R

Parameter) and error indicator is made use of. The cell division is isotropic.

Migratory Memory Algorithm

This unique memory saving device substantially enhances the problem size a given machine can handle using
HiFUN.

HiFUN validation: 1st AIAA High Lift Prediction Workshop

First AIAA High Lift Prediction Workshop (HiLiftPW1) was conducted on 2627 June 2010 in
Chicago, USA. The focus of this workshop was to evaluate accuracy of RANS codes to predict
high lift flows. The configuration considered for the study was NASA TRAP WING (given
in figure 1). There were 18 participants in the workshop across the globe which include
IIScSandI, ANSYS, Boeing, DLR, NASA, JAXA and ONERA. Based on the comparison of
simulation results with experiments, HiFUN was adjudicated as one of the very good codes
by the workshop technical committee. HiLiftPW1s summary presentation can be downloaded
from the link http://hiliftpw.larc.nasa.gov/Workshop1/ParticipantTalks/rumsey-summary.pdf.
The salient features of the computations performed for HiLiftPW1 are as follows:
RANS computations with SpalartAllmaras turbulence model.
Three hybrid unstructured grids with 7.5, 21 and 63 million volumes were employed.
Computations were performed on IBM Blue Gene and 1024 processors were employed for
fine grid.
Accurate CLmax and max predictions which is considered to be a challenge in CFD literature.
HiFUN exhibited high level of convergence for mean flow as well as turbulent equations.

Figure 1: NASA TRAP WING: Configuration (left) and pressure fill plot (right)

HiFUN validation: 4th AIAA Drag Prediction Workshop

Fourth AIAA Drag Prediction Workshop (DPW4) was conducted on June 2021, 2009 in San
Antonio, TX, USA. The focus of this workshop was to evaluate accuracy of RANS codes to
3

predict drag for transonic transport aircraft. The configuration considered for the study was
common research model (given in figure 2). There were 28 participants in the workshop
across the globe which include IIScSandI, ANSYS, Boeing, DLR, NASA, JAXA and ONERA.
Figure 3 depicts the grid convergence of total drag and moment coefficients obtained using
different codes participated in workshop. From figure 3 it can be seen that amongst various
codes, the scatter of total drag on finest grid is about 30 counts (1 count = 0.0001). In
this figure, the blue lines depict the results obtained using HiFUN. The performance of the
individual codes would be known once the experimental results are disclosed shortly. In the
absence of such an information, it is interesting to note that HiFUN data represents the mean
of the CFD data for both the aerodynamic coefficients of interest. The salient features of the
computations performed for DPW4 are as follows:
RANS computations with SpalartAllmaras turbulence model.
Three hybrid unstructured grids with 6.3, 21 and 57 million volumes were employed.
Computations were performed on IBM Blue Gene and 1024 processors were employed for
fine grid.
HiFUN exhibited high level of convergence for mean flow as well as turbulent equations.

Figure 2: Common Research Model: Configuration (left) and pressure fill plot (right)

Figure 3: Grid convergence: Drag coefficient (left) and Moment coefficient (right) with blue
line indicating HiFUN results

HiFUN on EKA
Computational Research Laboratories (CRL) high performance computing platform EKA was
adjudicated as fourth fastest computer at the supercomputing conference in September 2007.
EKA has 14400 compute nodes connected by high speed interconnects. With its unique parallel framework, HiFUN demonstrates high level of parallel scalability on EKA for a range of
grid sizes. Figure 4 depicts the plot of time per iteration per million volumes obtained on
EKA for various grids against number of processors. From this figure, it can be seen that for
a given number of processors, the time per iteration per million volumes remains invariant
independent of the grid size. This plot clearly brings out ability of HiFUN to exploit consistent parallel performance of EKA. The performance of HiFUN on EKA has enunciated that for
grand challenge problems it is possible to obtain reliable design data in time short enough to
impact design cycle. Table 1 gives the typical grid size on a given set of processors of EKA for
which a drag polar with about 1215 data points can be obtained within one day.

Figure 4: Performance of HiFUN on EKA: Number of processors v/s time per iteration per
million volumes for various grid sizes

Number of processors 32
Grid size in millions 0.68

64
1.25

128
2.5

256 512
5.0 10.0

1024
20.0

2048
40.0

4096 8192
80.0 160.0

Table 1: Grid size on a set of processors for which drag polar can be obtained in a day

Space shuttle launch vehicle computations using HiFUN

Computations are performed for space shuttle launch vehicle (SSLV) configuration using HiFUN at a supersonic Mach number equal to 1.05 and angle of attack of 3.0o . Figure 5
depicts the configuration and the surface grid while figure 6 depicts the Mach fill plot and
the streamlines around the configuration. These computations clearly bring out the ability of
HiFUN to carry out simulations for complex geometries involving intricate flow physics.

Figure 5: Space shuttle launch vehicle: Configuration (left) and grid (right)

Figure 6: Space shuttle launch vehicle: Mach fill plot (left) and Streamline plot (right)

Formula one racing car computations using HiFUN

HiFUN has a number of capabilities to perform computations for high speed car configuration;
some of which are listed below:
Translating and rotating wall boundary condition to simulate sliding and rotating components.
Non conformal block interface algorithm to handle complex grid.
Algorithm to simulate porous media flows through radiators/condensers.
Multiple rotation frames algorithm to simulate rotating components.
Using aforementioned features, simulations have been made for real life formula one (F1)
configurations; the details of which can not be disclosed for reasons of confidentiality. Hence
the results are presented for a generic formula one racing car available in open literature at
free stream velocity of 50 m/s. Figure 7 depicts the surface grid and static pressure fill plot
while figure 8 depicts the the streamlines around the configuration.

Figure 7: Formula one car: Surface grid (left) and pressure fill (right)

Figure 8: Formula one car: Streamlines front (left) and rear (right) views