Research and development

CLIMB:

ComputationaL methods with Intensive Multiphysics Boltzmann solver.

Summary

CLIMB is a three-year research project funded by Banque Publique d’Investissement. It is carried out by fifteen European partners including industrial companies, universities, research institutes and research laboratories. It received support from the competitiveness clusters Systematic and LUTB.
The project aims at developing innovative HPC (High Performance Computing) methods and tools allowing multiphysics simulations in CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics). By bringing together players from the entire value chain, the ambition of the project is to develop and federate technological bricks in the following areas:

High performance computing: new-generation processors, infrastructure management, HPC services.

Computational fluid dynamics: innovative algorithms, high-fidelity numerical models and state-of-the-art pre and post-processing tools.

Multiphysics simulations within and industrial context: software coupling, complex workflow management.

All the research and development carried out in CLIMB is based on ProLB (previously called LaBS).

Partners

CLIMB is carried out by the following partners:
Activeeon
Airbus
Aix-Marseille Université
Cerfacs
CNRS
CSSI
Distene
Ecole Centrale de Lyon
Gantha
Kalray
Matelys
ONERA
Renault
Technova
Université Paris-Sud
Valeo

ActiveEon is an Open Source ISV offering automation and scalability solutions for IT, Big Data and Internet of Things (IoT) with jobs distribution and parallelization allowing acceleration of business processes and reduction of infrastructure costs. ActiveEon clientele includes L’Oréal, SeaEngineering, JoyGlobal, Home Office, Legal & General, CEA, Amadeus, INRA, Mediametrie, TAGSYS, La Française Asset Management, CNES and many more.

ActiveEon was created by a team of scientists, researchers in parallel and distributed computing, and thus has a strong R&D background in high-performance computing. R&D is at the core of product development at ActiveEon, and the team is mainly composed of highly-qualified R&D engineers and experienced developers who shape the product in agile and customer-oriented mode. The company constantly grew over the years of existence and thanks to fund raising, offering interesting positions to engineers from different countries, involving diverse technologies and skills.

As a CLIMB project partner, Activeeon brings advanced workflow management tools and its expertise in automation in the cloud.

Airbus is a global pioneer in the aerospace industry, operating in the commercial aircraft, helicopters, defence and space sectors. The Company is a leader in designing, manufacturing and delivering aerospace products, services and solutions to customers on a worldwide scale.

The Company operates under a unique brand: Airbus, which stands for internationalisation, innovation and integration. Every part of the business contributes to the brand equity – and every part benefits from it. All worldwide market activities across commercial aircraft, helicopters, defence and space businesses as well as any future core business entities operate under the same Airbus brand. The Airbus brand is not just a logo, it is the reason why our customers choose us. It represents our culture, our personality, our products and services and the way these are delivered.

As the largest aeronautics and space company in Europe and a worldwide leader, Airbus is at the forefront of the aviation industry, building the most innovative commercial aircraft and consistently capturing about half of all commercial airliner orders. Thanks to its deep understanding of changing market needs, customer focus and technological innovation, Airbus helps airlines grow and people connect.

As the world’s No. 1 helicopter manufacturer, Airbus provides the most efficient civil and military helicopter solutions to its customers, who serve, protect, save lives and safely carry passengers in highly demanding environments.

The Company contributes to the defence and security of nations through its strong capabilities in military aircraft, intelligence and growing capabilities in cybersecurity. Airbus’ space technologies also have an increasing impact on people’s daily life: from deep-space exploration and scientific missions to today’s most reliable secure telecommunications and Earth observation satellites.

Within Airbus Engineering, the three departments Acoustics, Thermal and Aerodynamics work closely together on numerous research projects in the field of numerical simulation. Today, the ProLB code (formerly LaBS) and more generally the LBM approaches present a very high potential for unsteady isothermal calculations at low velocity. Tomorrow, thanks to the CLIMB project, this potential will be extended to the aerothermal and high-speed flows. The role of Airbus in the CLIMB project is therefore firstly to specify the problems encountered, secondly to provide detailed and relevant validation cases, and thirdly to carry out demonstrators aimed at confirming that the methods implemented are applicable in an industrial environment.

The Laboratory for Mechanics, Modelling and Green Processes (M2P2 UMR 7340), which is a common research laboratory of Aix-Marseille Université, CNRS and Ecole Centrale de Marseille.

The M2P2 Laboratory is a leading laboratory in the field of fluid mechanics and related numerical methods and physical modeling. The main fields of applications are aerospace engineering, nuclear engineering, ground transport, biomechanics and urban physics. The laboratory hosts 39 permanent researchers, among whom 21 are directly working in the field of Computational Fluid Dynamics. About 60 PhD students and post-doctoral fellows are present every year at M2P2. M2P2 hosts the new AMU-CNRS platform “Simulation Numérique pour l’Aérodynamique, l’Aéroacoustique et l’Aérothermique” (SNA3) for the development of industrial applications based on LBM methods.
The scientific production rate is considered as outstanding by the HCERES, with about 2.5 articles published in international journals per year and per permanent researcher. The M2P2 laboratory is greatly involved in both curiosity-driven and application-driven research, with the development of many collaboration with academic and industrial partners. The scientific leadership of M2P2 is proved by the fact that many researchers have received national and international prizes and awards, and that 5 of them are members of editorial boards of top-ranked international journals.

The role of M2P2 in CLIMB project is to develop new numerical models to extend ProLB to the simulation of new physical phenomena such as:
– the physic of humid air,
– turbulent atmospheric boundary layers,
– thermal flows with new thermodynamic closure,
– pollutant dispersion,
– …

All of these developments are mainly focused on the extension of ProLB to urban flow simulations in order to make ProLB an efficient solver for pedestrian wind comfort assessment, pollutant dispersion inside city, wind loads assessment on buildings, urban energy balance and urban acoustic propagation.

Web site : www.m2p2.fr

CERFACS is a basic and applied research center, specialized in modeling and numerical simulation. Trough its facilities and expertise in High Performance Computing, CERFACS deals with major scientific and technical research problems of public and industrial interest.

CERFACS hosts interdisciplinary researchers such as physicians, applied mathematicians, numerical analysts, software engineers who design and develop innovative methods and software solutions to meet the needs of the aeronautics, space, climate, energy and environmental fields.

CERFACS is involved in major national and international projects and is strongly interacting with its seven shareholders : Airbus Group, Cnes, EDF, Météo France, Onera, Safran et Total. It is also associated with partners like CNRS (Associated Research Unit), Irit (common laboratory), CEA and Inria (cooperation agreements).

As a member of CLIMB project, CERFACS contributed to both development inside ProLB software, and numerical validations on industrial test cases. The development part mainly includes new numerical schemes for the simulation of thermal and compressible flows, while aeroacoustic validations using standard LBM were performed on a four-wheel landing gear (RLG) and a high-lift device (FTEG) test cases.

The National Center for Scientific Research, or CNRS, is a public organization under the responsibility of the French Ministry of Education and Research. Founded in 1939 by governmental decree, the CNRS aims to :

– Evaluate and carry out all research capable of advancing knowledge and bringing social, cultural, and economic benefits for society.
– Contribute to the promotion and application of research results.
– Develop scientific information.
– Support research training.
– Participate in the analysis of the national and international scientific climate and its potential for evolution in order to develop a national policy.

The research laboratories involved in the CLIMB project are CNRS joint research units in partnership with their host institution. Some researchers and engineers involved in the project are CNRS employees.

CS is a designer, integrator and operator of mission-critical systems. Our expertise in applications and mission-critical systems makes us a preferred partner in a number of major economic sectors, in particular defense and security, space, aeronautics and energy.

CS is leader and coordinator of CLIMB. Also, CS contributes to the following work packages:

– Performance optimization
– Developing a Saas offer based on ProLB
– Pre and post-processing optimizations
– Improving numerical models in the software
– Software validation

Distene is a leading developer and supplier of meshing software components and technologies, MeshGems, that enables CAE/CAD application providers to incorporate fast, reliable and quality meshing capabilities into their CAE application products for simulation, optimization and digital product development processes.”The MeshGems suite is the trusted meshing technology chosen by leading CAE/CAD vendors such as ANSYS , MSC.Software, Dassault Systèmes, Siemens PLM, PTC, Autodesk, LSTC and many more customers of ours.

Distene worked with the partners of the CLIMB project to help the automation of  LBPre, the pre-processing step of ProLB, with high-end Surface Meshing or Mesh Cleaning technologies that have been derived from the MeshGems library.

Distene also contributed in the integration and automation of EnSight as one of the Post-Processing tool of the ProLB software chain, maximizing the engineers productuvity, thanks to its high performance and communication capabilities.

Internationally, nationally and industrially renowned, research at Ecole Centrale de Lyon is performed around 6 laboratories, all Joint research units (UMR) CNRS.

In an increasingly globally competitive environment, coupled with economical and societal expectations, Centrale Lyon has put in place a dynamic scientific policy, structured around 5 main disciplines: nanotechnology and nanomaterials, transport, energy, environment and bio-engineering.

With more than 50 theses presented each year, the Ecole plays an important role in education through research. Numerous former doctorates of Ecole Centrale de Lyon take up key positions in R&D services of large industrial groups or devote their time to a career in a university, at the Ecole, at a public university or in other research organisations.

The Ecole Centrale de Lyon is characterised by a remarkable balance between academic research and research partnerships, guaranteeing the highest level of scientific research whilst maintaining an indispensable practicality in the eyes of the enterprises. One of the advantages of research in the Ecole is the power of its test facilities, designed around platforms of ambitious sizes. Thanks to its recent success in the proposal of the Plan Investissements d’Avenir, and in coordination with other establishments in Lyon as part of a site policy where it is one of the main stakeholders, the Ecole reinforces today its test facilities with the establishment of 3 “Equipments of Excellence” (EQUIPEX): IVTV, Phare and Manutech.

Internationally, the Ecole’s research policy is targeted around a concentrated number of main activities, notably the establishment of the Laboratoires Internationaux Associées (LIA) or the Unités Mixtes Internationales (UMI). The Management of Research coordinates all the research-based activities and doctoral studies. Relying on the Conseil Scientifique of the establishment, the Ecole puts in place the scientific policy of the School and ensures the coordination with partner establishments.

The partner ECL contributes in CLIMB to the subgrid modeling of turbulence and the development of Lattice Boltzmann schemes adapted to composite multi-resolution grids.

Web Site : www.ec-lyon.fr/en/research

Gantha is an engineering company working in construction, industry, energy and environment sectors since 15 years.
Gantha advances its expertise in acoustic and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) through participation in development and innovation projects carried out in collaboration with major industries and research laboratories.

Gantha’s contribution to CLIMB addresses the development of a post-processing software for ProLB’s results and the validation of ProLB through computations on industrial cases.

Web Site : www.gantha-cfd.com

Kalray is the pioneer of processors for new intelligent systems. As a real technological breakthrough, “intelligent” processors have the capability to analyze on the fly, and in an intelligent manner, a very large amount of information, and make decisions and interact in real-time with the outside world. These intelligent processors will be extensively deployed in fast-growing sectors such as new-generation networks (intelligent data centers) and autonomous vehicles, as well as healthcare equipment, drones and robots.

The Kalray offering encompasses processors as well as complete solutions (computer boards and software). Created in 2008 as a spin-off of CEA (“Commissariat à l’Énergie Atomique”, the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission), Kalray addresses a broad spectrum of customers, among them server manufacturers, intelligent system integrators and consumer product manufacturers, such as car makers.

Kalray’s contributions to the Climb project include OpenCL developments and the evaluation of LBM methods porting on its MPPA (Massively Parallel Processor Array).

Web site : www.kalrayinc.com

Matelys is an independent research laboratory, founded in 2005, dedicated to materials, acoustics, mechanics, thermodynamics and flow. The field of applications of Matelys covers Buildings, Transports (cars, trucks, trains, ships, planes), Domestic appliances (vacuum cleaners, washing machines, fitness equipments…) and Environment (road surfaces, noise barriers…).
Matelys has been awarded in 2011 the Research Golden Decibel by the French National Council of Noise (CNB) and the Industrial prize in 2012 by The French Acoustical Society (SFA) “for the design of innovative acoustic treatments and its action towards the dissemination of the knowledge which are particularly noteworthy.

Matelys is involved in the CLIMB project to develop features related to porous media. Its mission covers both models and post-processing tools. Three axis of modelling are investigated:

(i) predicting the macro-properties of porous materials under flow from the description of their micro-structures,
(ii) modelling of porous media using the surface impedance,
(iii) modelling of porous media using a bulk (volume) representation.

Matelys has also developed the non-reflective boundary conditions, which are of great interest in aeroacoustic simulations to avoid spurious reflections, to decrease computation cost and to increase accuracy.

ONERA is the French National Research Institute for Aerospace. Being the major research institution in the field of aerospace activities in France, it contributes to many research and development programmes through either theoretical or experimental aspects. ONERA has activities in fundamental and applied research, supports industry in long and medium term projects, and also gives a direct support to industrial projects. ONERA is organised in seven scientific departments (Aerodynamics Aeroelasticity and Acoustics, Electromagnetism and Radar, Materials and Structures, Multi-physics for Energetics, Optics and Associated Techniques, Physics Instrumentation Environment and Space, Information Processing and Systems) covering all the disciplines involved in Aeronautics. In addition, the Computing and Network Divison and the Engineering and Testing Facilities Divisions include computer systems, workshops and testing facilities, covering a wide range of possible applications and Mach numbers, to support the research activities.
 
ONERA in the ProLB project :
ONERA contributes to the ProLB project via a contribution to the CLIMB consortium and via an internal project named OneLaBZ (Onera activities in the domain of the Lattice Boltzmann method).
The first objective of Onera is to evaluate the capabilities of the ProLB solver for aeronautical applications. In this context, the fields of aerodynamic and aeroacoustic are the main drivers, including landing gear and airfoil noise, but also propeller and turbomachinery noise. Moreover, aeronautic applications in various domains such as aeroelasticity, optics,  porous materials, plasmas, contrails and polluant dispersions are also actively evaluated.
In terms of contributions to the solver development, Onera is involved in :
– the improvement of the numerical treatment of the octree grid refinement (1-to-2) surfaces,
– the implementation of efficient wall laws for the realistic simulation of boundary layers along immersed solid boundaries,
– a contribution to the extension of the solver capabilities towards higher Mach numbers,
– a contribution to the development of a GPU version of ProLB.

Groupe Renault has been making cars since 1898. Today it is an international multi-brand group, selling close to 3.5 million vehicles in 127 countries in 2016, with 36 manufacturing sites, 12,700 points of sales and employing more than 120,000 people.

To meet the major technological challenges of the future and continue its strategy of profitable growth, the Group is harnessing its international growth and the complementary fit of its five brands, Renault, Dacia and Renault Samsung Motors, Alpine and LADA, together with electric vehicles and the unique Alliance with Nissan and Mitsubishi. With a new team in Formula 1 and a strong commitment to Formula E, Renault sees motorsport as a vector of innovation and brand awareness.

ProLB is the CFD software used by Renault for aerodynamic and thermal simulations in the framework of its vehicle development process. In CLIMB, Renault provides automotive use cases for the development of pre/post processing tools and for the industrial validation of thermal co-simulations. Renault also contributes to the development of some physical algorithms and thermal models.

Laboratoire de mathématiques d’Orsay :

The members of the LMO are currently located in 3 buildings, 425, 430 and 440 in the valley of the Faculty of Sciences of Orsay. Soon, they will be gathered in the new Institute of Mathematics of Orsay.

The research topics covered in the LMO cover a very wide area, ranging from the most fundamental to the most applied. The researchers are divided into 5 research teams: Harmonic Analysis, Numerical Analysis and Partial Differential Equations, Arithmetic and Algebraic Geometry, Probability and Statistics, Topology, Geometry and Dynamics.

The team “Numerical Analysis and Partial Differential Equations » is made up of some 60 members, including some 30 permanent staff and 30 doctoral students.

Its research activities explore the entire spectrum of partial differential equations, from mathematical analysis to modeling and numerical simulation.

Among the themes currently being studied in the team are mathematical physics, fluid mechanics, hyperbolic or dispersive nonlinear equations, micromagnetism, biological modeling and reaction-diffusion systems.

Every Thursday afternoon, the team organizes a seminar (sessions at 2:30pm and 4:00pm) around recent results in these different fields. In addition, several working groups are devoted to more specialized presentations.

Finally, the members of the team animate the specialty “partial differential equations and scientific computation” of the Master of Fundamental and Applied Mathematics (MFA) of the University Paris-Sud.

Partner of the CLIMB project, LMO brings its theoretical knowledge of the Lattice Boltzmann Method to propose and investigate new schemes for the simulation of compressible flows.

Valeo is an automotive supplier, partner to all automakers worldwide. As a technology company, Valeo proposes innovative products and systems that contribute to the reduction of CO2 emissions and to the development of intuitive driving. In 2016, the Group generated sales of 16.5 billion euros and invested over 11% of its original equipment sales in research and development. Valeo has 166 plants, 20 research centers, 38 development centers and 15 distribution platforms, and employs 100,900 people in 32 countries worldwide. Valeo is listed on the Paris stock exchange and is a member of the CAC 40 index.

As part of its research and development activities, Valeo is extending its research capabilities and promoting digital developments, from initial design phases until product validation.
Partner of the Climb project, Valeo brings its industrial know-how in order to evaluate and specify functionalities in ProLB which are necessary for its use in production. Validation cases dealing with aerodynamics and aeroacoustics are simulated and compared to experimental data from instrumented parts, including complex geometries and rotating wheels for ventilation.

ALSO READ

CONTACT US