PowerFLOW 2020

RELEASE NOTES

©2020 Dassault Systèmes. All rights reserved. DesignGUIDE, DIGITAL PHYSICS, DigitalROCK, EXA, ExaADAPT, PowerACOUSTICS, PowerCASE, PowerCLAY, PowerCOOL,
PowerCOTHERM, PowerDELTA, PowerEXPORT, PowerFLOW, PowerINSIGHT, PowerREALITY, PowerTHERM, PowerVIZ, SIMULIA Cloud, 3DEXPERIENCE®, the Compass icon, the
3DS logo, CATIA, SOLIDWORKS, ENOVIA, DELMIA, SIMULIA, GEOVIA, EXALEAD, 3D VIA, BIOVIA, NETVIBES, IFWE and 3DEXCITE are commercial trademarks or registered
trademarks of Dassault Systèmes, a French “société européenne” (Versailles Commercial Register # B 322 306 440), or its subsidiaries in the United States and/or other
countries. All other trademarks are owned by their respective owners. Use of any Dassault Systèmes or its subsidiaries trademarks is subject to their express written approval.
PowerFLOW is 1996-2020Dassault Systèmes Simulia Corp.

This page specifies the patents, trademarks, copyrights, and restricted rights for PowerFLOW:

Patents
PowerFLOW is protected by one or more U.S. Patents number 7,558,714; 8,224,633; 8,346,522; 9,031,819;
9,037,440; 9,223,909; 9,542,506; 9,576,087; 9,646,119; 10,262,087; other patents pending.

Trademarks
DesignGUIDE, DIGITAL PHYSICS, DigitalROCK, EXA, ExaADAPT, PowerACOUSTICS, PowerCASE, PowerCLAY,
PowerCOOL, PowerCOTHERM, PowerDELTA, PowerEXPORT, PowerFLOW, PowerINSIGHT, PowerREALITY,
PowerTHERM, PowerVIZ, SIMULIA Cloud, 3DEXPERIENCE, the Compass icon, the 3DS logo, CATIA, SOLIDWORKS,
ENOVIA, DELMIA, SIMULIA, GEOVIA, EXALEAD, 3D VIA, BIOVIA, NETVIBES, IFWE and 3DEXCITE are commercial
trademarks or registered trademarks of Dassault Systèmes, a French “société européenne” (Versailles Commercial
Register # B 322 306 440), or its subsidiaries in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are
owned by their respective owners. Use of any Dassault Systèmes or its subsidiaries trademarks is subject to their
express written approval.

DS Offerings and services names may be trademarks or service marks of Dassault Systèmes or its subsidiaries.

Third-Party Copyrights Notices

Certain portions of PowerFLOW contain elements subject to copyright owned by the following entities:

Copyright © Massachusetts Institute of Technology

© Oracle Corp.

PowerFLOW may include open source software components. Source code for these components is available upon
request. The original licensors of said open source software components provide them on an “as is” basis and without
any liability whatsoever to customer (or licensee). For detailed information, see the PowerFLOW User’s Guide.

Restricted Rights
This clause applies to all acquisitions of Dassault Systèmes Offerings by or for the United States government, or by any
prime contractor or subcontractor (at any tier) under any contract, grant, cooperative agreement or other activity with
the United States government. The software, documentation and any other technical data provided hereunder is
commercial in nature and developed solely at private expense. The Software is delivered as “Commercial Computer
Software” as defined in DFARS 252.227-7014 or as a “Commercial Item” as defined in FAR 2.101(a) and as such is
provided with only such rights as are provided in Dassault Systèmes standard commercial end user license agreement.
Technical data is provided with limited rights only as provided in DFAR 252.227-7015 or FAR 52.227-14, whichever is
applicable. The terms and conditions of the Dassault Systèmes standard commercial end user license agreement shall
pertain to the United States government's use and disclosure of this software, and shall supersede any conflicting
contractual terms and conditions. If the DS standard commercial license fails to meet the United States government's
needs or is inconsistent in any respect with United States Federal law, the United States government agrees to return
this software, unused, to DS. The following additional statement applies only to acquisitions governed by DFARS
Subpart 227.4: “Restricted Rights - use, duplication and disclosure by the Government is subject to restrictions as set
forth in subparagraph (c)(l)(ii) of the Rights in Technical Data and Computer Software clause at DFARS 252-227-7013.”

PowerFLOW © 1996-2020, Dassault Systèmes Simulia Corp.

ii
Contents
Chapter 1: PowerFLOW Release 2020
General Changes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
DesignGUIDE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Next Generation PowerFLOW Simulation Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Deforming Rotating Treaded Tires . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Application Templates Library. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
libxcb Version 1.9 Required on Linux Systems. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
PowerFLOW Discretizer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Incremental Discretization No Longer Supported . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Vertex Snapping Disabled to Improve Robustness of the Solver. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
PowerCASE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
PowerCASE Design Study Package . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Tire Object on Subsystems Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Parts Imported via Import Face Measurement Now Use Same Name as in the CDI File . . . . 5
Parts Imported via Import Face Measurement Now Preserve Inverted State in the CDI File 6
PowerTHERM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
New Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Battery Thermal Extension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Moisture Transport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
View-Based Statistics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Enhancements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Human Thermal Modeling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Exhaust Streams. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Multiple Radiation Sweeps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Geometry Import . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Conduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
PowerVIZ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
New Default Font. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Default Shortcuts for Saving Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Particle Tracking Supports Hit Points with Surfel Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Design Margins Enhancement. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
PowerINSIGHT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
DesignGUIDE: Design Studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Implicit Inheritance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Optimization Solution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Change to Case Design Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Passing Geometry from PowerDELTA to PowerCASE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Python Modules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

iii
Contents

Documentation Versioning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Fixed Bugs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Chapter 2: General System and Release Information

Supported Platforms and Operating Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
PowerFLOW Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
PowerFLOW Client . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Deprecated Platforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Dropped Platforms. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Hardware Requirements for Desktop Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
VNC Server Version . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Realistic Rendering in PowerVIZ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
System Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Using NVIDIA Optimus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Release Performance Comparison . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Compatibility of Files Between Releases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
PINS File Compatibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

iv
1
PowerFLOW Release 2020
This chapter describes the enhancements and bug fixes included in SIMULIA® PowerFLOW®
Release 2020.

You can find release notes for the previous releases in the Documentation section of the Support
site (https://www.3ds.com/support). Detailed information about PowerFLOW releases,
including validation of new features, best practices, and performance data is also available.

For the latest version of the release notes, see the Support site.

General Changes
DesignGUIDE
PowerFLOW 2020 introduces DesignGUIDE™, a new set of functionality in PowerINSIGHT
that, together with complementary functionality in PowerCASE and PowerDELTA, enables
you to interactively explore in 3D the impact of design changes on performance.
DesignGUIDE also provides intuitive design guidance to achieve engineering performance
targets and design requirements. The following figure shows the user interface for
DesignGUIDE:

1
PowerFLOW Release 2020 General Changes

When designing a vehicle or other product to achieve performance targets, it is often

challenging to understand and decide how to change the design when relying solely on
traditional simulation results analysis. In addition, competing objectives between
engineering and design departments, and between engineering groups responsible for
different disciplines, can lead to delayed or suboptimal design decisions. DesignGUIDE
provides an environment to efficiently explore these multidisciplinary trade-offs.
In PowerDELTA, you set up a set of surface morphs parameterized by design variables (such
as roof height and roof length), ranging from some minimum to maximum boundaries, that
define a design space. In PowerCASE, you can set up case design variables, such as speed
and mass flow, to be included in the design space. The definition of the design space,
including the affected geometry, is collected in design study packages and stored in the
frame and case files.
The design study packages are imported into a PowerINSIGHT design study. In a design
study, you can review the design space interactively, using the highly performant design
study 3D viewer. In particular, you can animate surface morph design variables in real time
to verify that the surface quality remains high and the ranges of the morphs are acceptable.
Using a design exploration submission tool such as Isight or the Optimization capability on
SIMULIA® Cloud, you run a set of simulations exploring the design space, collecting
performance data (response variable values such as aerodynamic drag coefficient and
overall sound pressure level from PowerFLOW simulations) for each design. You import the
design and performance values into a design study using a CSV file so you can explore how
each design change affects the geometric design and performance, all in real time.
Performance data is provided in the 3D viewer, as well as in a set of graphs and a run table.
These are all synchronized in the design study viewer to provide information for the
currently selected design point. Predicted performance values are provided for designs that
have not yet been simulated.
Switching the design study into Guide mode displays a deformation color map on the
surface of the geometry, showing a recommended design direction for improving
performance with respect to an objective. The intuitive color map representation of the
design direction makes it easy for both engineers and designers to understand how the
design needs to change to improve performance, shortening time required for analysis and
facilitating interactive exploration of design possibilities. There is a different guide for each
performance objective. You can create new guides to combine multiple objectives, enabling
engineers from different departments to understand how to achieve each performance
target and collaboratively work toward a solution considering the performance trade-offs.
As you explore the design space and guides, you can bookmark designs of interest as
favorites. You can refer to these favorites later when reviewing the results with designers
or other engineers. In addition, you can simulate some of these favorites using your design
exploration tool to verify the performance at these design points, update the design study,
and drive toward a design that satisfies the design and multi-disciplinary performance
targets.

2
PowerFLOW Release 2020 General Changes

Next Generation PowerFLOW Simulation Architecture

This release includes a major revamp of the PowerFLOW simulator architecture. The new
architecture improves robustness, performance, and scalability, but does not change any of
the fundamental physics.
• Robustness
• Improved thin wall treatment — In previous releases, heat occasionally leaks through
thin surfaces that split voxels. The simulator now robustly accounts for fluxes in the
vicinity of split voxels, which should eliminate such behavior. Similar improvements
can be observed for particles traveling in voxels split by thin surfaces. Now particles
are tracked accurately as they travel through split voxels.
• Improved mass conservation for particles — In previous releases, simulations
occasionally experience loss of particle mass during collision with the surface and re-
entrainment into the fluid. The new simulator has a number of enhancements to
improve mass conservation of particles.
• Performance — Expected simulation times based on several performance benchmark
tests run on Skylake processors are shown below. Simulations run with 5-2020 will
consume up to 10% more memory than 5-2019. Memory consumption for 6-2020 and
6-2019 are comparable.
Table 1: Normalized Times for Isothermal Simulations

Release 5 6
2019 1.0 0.7–0.85
2020 0.7–0.85 0.68–0.83

Table 2: Normalized Times for Heat Transfer Simulations

Release 5 6
2019 1.0 0.8–0.95
2020 0.8–0.95 0.78–0.93

• Scalability — Scalability has been considerably improved for simulations that include
tires modeled with immersed boundaries.

Deforming Rotating Treaded Tires

PowerFLOW 2020 introduces the ability to simulate deformed rotating treaded tires.
Starting with a stationary mesh of a tire in a loaded condition, PowerCASE uses a
specialized algorithm to automatically separate the imported tire mesh into tire tread and
carcass.
The algorithm also analyzes the shape of the imported mesh to create a parametric
representation of the deformed tire. In simulation, the tire tread is modeled with an
immersed boundary that rotates through the voxel grid, whereas the carcass is assigned a
rotating wall boundary condition. As the tire tread rotates, it follows the parametric
representation in order to closely approximate the real-word deformation.
These capabilities enable you to perform vehicle simulations with the tire tread motion and
deformation present in real pneumatic tires. This provides more precise evaluation of
overall vehicle performance in realistic conditions, which may be particularly important for
WLTP certification.

3
PowerFLOW Release 2020 PowerFLOW Discretizer

This capability of separating tread and carcass can also be used for undeformed treaded
tires, automating the recommended setup process. Previously, external tools were used to
manually perform the separation.

Application Templates Library

PowerFLOW 2020 includes the following new templates to support automated workflows
for passenger vehicles:
• Brake dust soiling
• Rain water management

libxcb Version 1.9 Required on Linux Systems

All desktop applications now require libxcb version 1.9 or higher to be installed on your
Linux system. For CentOS 6.7 and higher, there are official packages that must be installed.
Packages of libxcb1 are available all recent Linux distributions.

PowerFLOW Discretizer
Incremental Discretization No Longer Supported
Incremental discretization, whereby a previously discretized model is partially
re-discretized (only where the model changed), is no longer supported in PowerFLOW
2020. The performance benefit of this capability was quite modest, and the cost of
continued support quite high, particularly in light of the simulator revamp described
previously. As a result, a decision was made to drop the capability and instead focus on
other, more promising methods of improving the performance of discretization and
simulation.

Vertex Snapping Disabled to Improve Robustness of the Solver

The PowerFLOW discretizer has always snapped coordinate-aligned facets to increments of
0.001 finest voxels. This vertex-snapping process was introduced long ago to deal with
poor-quality input geometry, in particular to close tiny gaps due to inaccurate placement of
surfaces intended to be perfectly abutting (for example, between an idealized flat-
bottomed tire and a ground plane), and to clean up non-coplanar meshes of ostensibly
planar geometry.
It has recently become clear that in highly complex models typical in PowerFLOW
simulations today, vertex snapping creates more problems than it solves, in most cases
because it induces contact that proves to be challenging for later phases of discretization.
The problems are typically evident as hot or cold spots in pressure or temperature, or as
unphysical tones in sound pressure level spectra originating from acoustic simulations.
Therefore, beginning with the PowerFLOW 2020 release, the vertex-snapping process has
been disabled to simplify the discretizer process, reduce significantly or remove these
anomalies, and improve the robustness of the solutions.
In our testing, some of the cases that previously benefited from vertex snapping now have
simulation artifacts (such as hot spots in pressure) in places where vertex snapping was
formerly applied, but these cases tend to have extremely poor-quality geometry (judged
according to modern standards), such as duplicated parts sitting on top of each other.
Cleaning up the geometry generally eliminates the need for vertex snapping.

4
PowerFLOW Release 2020 PowerCASE

PowerCASE
PowerCASE Design Study Package
In PowerCASE, you can now create a design study package that defines the design space to
be used in a PowerINSIGHT DesignGUIDE design study. To create a design study package,
you specify the following:
• PowerDELTA frame file — (Optional) All surface morph design variables included in the
PowerDELTA design study package (found in the frame file) become part of the design
space. All parts affected by the surface morphs will be imported into the case directly
from the frame file.
• Default model view — All morphing parts and the parts that are not hidden in this
model view will be presented in the DesignGUIDE viewer in PowerINSIGHT.
• Default viewpoint
• Default surrounding (3D viewer environment)
All case variables marked as design variables are also part of the design space. When a case
is used in a DesignGUIDE design study, the case’s design study package defines the
available design variables.
Note that the PowerFLOW Optimization Solution modules for Isight and modeFRONTIER
now use a PowerDELTA design study package to pass parts from PowerDELTA to
PowerCASE, rather than NASTRAN files exported from PowerDELTA (see Passing
Geometry from PowerDELTA to PowerCASE on page 10).

Tire Object on Subsystems Tab

The new Parameters:Subsystems tab includes a new Tire object that optionally separates a tire
into tread and carcass, and generates a variety of objects associated with the tire, including a
rotation axis, coordinate system, and boundary conditions. The Tire object supports both circular
and deformed (or loaded) tires.
For more information about this functionality, see Deforming Rotating Treaded Tires on
page 3.

Parts Imported via Import Face Measurement Now Use Same

Name as in the CDI File
The naming convention for a part imported via the Import Face Measurement feature has
changed. Specifically, the part will now be given the same name that it had in the CDI file,
rather than the user-specified name of the Import Face Measurement object, and will
replace an existing part of the same name. All dependent objects associated with the
original part and its faces (such as boundary conditions) will be preserved. This streamlines
case setup for a number of workflows where you typically need to replace a part in an
initial case:
• Transient boundary seeding — Replace a part defining a sampled face measurement
that captures transient measurements to be used in seeding. Some of the faces of the
replacement part become an inlet. PowerCASE will remove the sampled face
measurement if the replacement part is designated as Solid on the Import Face
Measurement (after a warning).

5
PowerFLOW Release 2020 PowerTHERM

• Upstream turbulence noise cancellation — Replace a part defining an upstream

turbulence inlet with an equivalent part from the calibration measurements collected in
a calibration simulation. You need to keep the dependent objects, specifically the
upstream turbulence inlet.
• Cabin cooling — Replace a part defining an inlet with an equivalent part from sampled
face measurements collected in a previous simulation. You need to keep the dependent
objects, specifically the inlet.
Note that if the replaced part is a solid, the imported part will also be designated as a solid,
even if the Add as Solid on Fluid/Solid page option is left unchecked.
Parts imported via Import Face Measurement in previous versions of PowerCASE will retain
their old names until they are reimported.

Parts Imported via Import Face Measurement Now Preserve

Inverted State in the CDI File
If a part imported via the Import Face Measurement feature is marked as inverted in the
CDI file, the Invert check box will be checked automatically. The dialog also includes
feedback about whether the part is inverted in the CDI file.

PowerTHERM
PowerFLOW 2020 includes PowerTHERM 13.1.

New Features
Battery Thermal Extension
The Battery Thermal Extension has been integrated into PowerTHERM (accessed by
selecting Edit > Battery Setup). The new Battery Setup dialog enables you to:
• Add inputs for battery modeling.
• Set electrical model and pack-level battery properties.
• Configure battery cells and buses.
• Export and import the battery parameters.
Although battery configuration files are deprecated, you can import them into the Battery
Setup dialog for quick setup.

Moisture Transport
Now you can set moisture transport properties on standard geometry and multi-layer
parts.
You can:
• Define liquid-dependent clothing materials for the thermal simulation. Clothing
materials can be modeled with lateral diffusivity.
• View, plot, and export latent heat rates, humidity ratio, relative humidity, and liquid
content in the Post Process tab.

6
PowerFLOW Release 2020 PowerTHERM

• Set the Human Thermal Extension to use either Moisture Transport or Latent Heat Only
sweat evaporation models.

View-Based Statistics
Now you can view statistics for the current view in the graphics window by selecting
Window > View-based Statistics. This functionality is available only for the Temperature
view of the graphics window.
The View-based Statistics dialog provides a results statistics list and histogram of the
distribution of graphics window pixel data. In addition, you can export the statistics,
histogram, or image with embedded statistics of the current view.
To export results for multiple views and timesteps, select File > Export > Export View-
Based Statistics.

Enhancements
Performance
This release includes the following performance enhancements:
• Reduced memory usage in the GUI by approximately 8%.
• Greatly improved the performance of design temperatures in the post-processor and
thermal reports.
• Improved the speed of calculating neighbors, particularly in models with many volume
elements.

Human Thermal Modeling

Corrections to Overall Sensation Algorithms
This release corrects the overall sensation algorithm (Method 1) to be consistent with the
Zhang publication.
This release also corrects the overall sensation algorithm (Method 2) to be consistent with
the Berkeley publication, including the addition of three more segments (Face, Breath, and
Neck). You must update any older models using Berkeley Comfort before you can run them
in Release 13.1; update the body part map, Berkeley setpoints, initialization, and Berkeley
segments files (if used).

7
PowerFLOW Release 2020 PowerTHERM

New Smoothing Algorithm

This release includes a new algorithm that smooths jumps between Berkeley sensation
model states. The following new configuration file options affect this algorithm:

Keyword Description
EnableBerkeleyOverallSensation Determines whether smoothing is applied
Smoothing among different Berkeley overall sensation
model states (TRUE or FALSE)
BerkeleyOverallSensationSmoothing The scale factor alpha to use when smoothing
ScaleFactor is enabled for the overall sensation calculation
WriteBerkeleyOverallSensation Controls whether to write the index of the
ModelIndex overall sensation model state to the results file
(TRUE or FALSE)
WriteOSModelIndexToResults Controls whether to write the index of the
overall sensation model to the results file

Sweat Evaporation Models

Now the Human Thermal Extension supports both the Latent Heat Only and Moisture
Transport sweat evaporation models.

Exhaust Streams
This release includes the following changes to exhaust streams:
• Now stream generation detects potential errors relating to free edge non-loops in the
geometry. In addition, PowerTHERM shows a warning with a list of parts that might
need to be fixed before stream generation is complete.
• This release includes improved modeling of:
• All components at low- and zero-mass flow rates
• Turbochargers at high-mass flow rates

Multiple Radiation Sweeps

When using the Multi-Grid solver, you can direct PowerTHERM to perform multiple
radiation sweeps for each iteration to improve convergence when running large models.
This functionality is available as fields on the Advanced Solution Parameters dialog and as
user preferences.

Geometry Import
There is a new import preference, Merge Tetrahedrons into Pyramids, that controls
whether tetrahedral elements are merged into pyramid elements if any inconsistent mesh
interfaces are found when importing the geometry.
This preference is also available as the -mergetetrahedronsintopyramids command-line
switch.

Conduction
Now conduction can be computed between non-conformal elements.

8
PowerFLOW Release 2020 PowerVIZ

PowerVIZ
New Default Font
In previous releases, the default font in PowerVIZ is Helvetica on Linux systems and Arial
on Windows systems. However, these fonts are not available on many systems.
Beginning with PowerFLOW 2020, Noto Sans is the default font for PowerVIZ. This font
has the same appearance on both Windows and Linux systems.
Because PowerVIZ will not automatically change the font stored in existing user settings,
only new users will see this new font. In addition, PowerVIZ will not change the font
stored in existing scripts — only new projects will use the new default font.

Default Shortcuts for Saving Projects

By default, PowerVIZ now supports the standard shortcuts Ctrl + S (save project) and Ctrl +
Alt + S (save project as).
If a project has been saved before and you use Ctrl + S, you can either override the existing
file or save the project under a new name.
You can override these shortcuts using the Customize dialog.

Particle Tracking Supports Hit Points with Surfel Geometry

In previous releases, you must load a CDI file to calculate and visualize the hit points of
particle traces. Now PowerVIZ can calculate and visualize hit points of particle traces when
only fluid and surface measurement files are loaded. In addition, you can visualize the
results from simulator particle simulations when only surface measurement and particle
result (.pmr). files are loaded.

Design Margins Enhancement

The results table for design margins includes a new column, Time First Exceeding. This
column shows the time at which the design margins for each part are exceeded for the first
time.

PowerINSIGHT
DesignGUIDE: Design Studies
DesignGUIDE enables you to interactively explore the impact of design changes on
performance and acquire intuitive design guidance to achieve engineering performance
targets and design requirements. The PowerDELTA and PowerCASE design study packages
are imported into a PowerINSIGHT design study. The design study provides an integrated
environment with a 3D viewer, interactive surface morphing, design exploration graphs,
and a run table. These tools enable you to understand how each design change affects
performance, obtain visual design guidance to improve performance with respect to
multiple objectives, and identify promising designs.
For more information, see DesignGUIDE on page 1.

9
PowerFLOW Release 2020 Optimization Solution

Implicit Inheritance
By default, the directory and content template fields for folders and run nodes in the
project are now inherited from their parent nodes in the project tree. These fields can still
be customized to something other than the settings inherited from the parent nodes. At
the parent node level, you can reset all descendants to inherit from their parent nodes via a
context menu. This new implicit inheritance functionality provides faster setup of folders
and run nodes in a project.

Setting the directory and content templates for the default run node is now done by
editing the Runs folder.

Optimization Solution
Change to Case Design Variables
Design variable extraction and value setting now apply to only the case variables marked as
design variables (as designated in the case file), not all case variables. This change is most
noteworthy for users who have existing optimization project files that include non-design
case variables.

Passing Geometry from PowerDELTA to PowerCASE

Geometry is now passed from PowerDELTA to PowerCASE using the PowerDELTA design
study package, rather than by writing and reading NASTRAN files. Previously, you would
set auto-export on a result node in the PowerDELTA frame file, and then during execution,
PowerDELTA would export NASTRAN files for the parts in the result node, and PowerCASE
would import those NASTRAN files.
Now, auto-export is no longer used and no NASTRAN files are written. Parts that are
affected by PowerDELTA design variables are updated and collected in the PowerDELTA
design study package stored in the frame file. PowerCASE then reimports the parts from
the PowerDELTA design study package to update the case prior to simulation.

Tools
Python Modules
The following Python modules have been removed from the PowerFLOW distribution
because they are covered by the Gnu Public License (GPL): CVXOPT, JBIG-KIT, and PyQT5.
You can download these modules on your own to use in conjunction with the Python
distribution included with PowerFLOW.

Documentation Versioning
In previous releases, there are separate documentation sets for the 5x and 6x versions of
the PowerFLOW products. Beginning with Release 2020, there is a single documentation
set. Any functionality that pertains to only 5x or 6x is marked accordingly.

10
PowerFLOW Release 2020 Fixed Bugs

Fixed Bugs
Table 1 lists the key bugs that have been fixed in Release 2020.

Table 1: Fixed Bugs

Problem Description
PowerFLOW Simulator
In previous releases, only one All children resulting from particle breakup are now
child particle resulting from measured in trajectory measurements. Changes in particle
particle breakup is measured. diameter after breakup are also recorded in particle traces.
In previous releases, if a Now the film travels correctly through the sliding-mesh
rotating wall traverses a sliding- boundary.
mesh boundary, the film does
not travel correctly travel
through the boundary.
In previous releases, particle Now particle traces are handled properly at periodic
traces are not handled correctly boundaries, and the exit and entry points are connected
at periodic boundaries. correctly in the particle trace.
The simulator sometimes issues Previously, a numerical instability might develop at a
floating-point exceptions during pressure outlet boundary in extreme conditions. This issue
particle simulations when has been fixed.
boundary seeding is used.
In some coarse cases, the forces The algorithm has been fixed to ensure that force computed
computed by the fan model by the fan model converges.
might grow unbounded.
PowerCASE
The Import Measurement Now the Import Measurement feature can import CDI files
feature cannot import CDI files that contain encrypted geometry.
that contain encrypted
geometry.
In PowerCASE 2019 R4, Now exasumcdi can process CDI files that contain rain
exasumcdi crashes when emitters. In addition, the output includes more monitor
processing a CDI file that information, including convergence criteria and whether the
contains rain emitters. monitor controls the simulation end time.
If a coarse variant or upstream Now you can switch templates successfully.
turbulence calibration variant
excludes measurements that are
defined in the wind tunnel
controls, PowerCASE will crash
if you try to switch templates.
In previous versions, the In the current release, all such measurements, and the
Disable Particle Modeling monitors that reference them, are disabled automatically
option in the Coarse Variant when the Disable Particle Modeling option is selected.
dialog causes the PowerFLOW
simulator to crash, if you do not
also manually disable all
measurements related to
particle modeling variables.

11
PowerFLOW Release 2020 Fixed Bugs

Table 1: Fixed Bugs

Problem Description
For realistic wind calibration Now you can select a face as the inlet parameter, even if the
variants, you cannot select a face is not a member of a partition segment.
face as the inlet parameter
unless the face is a member of a
partition segment.
The part multi-select feature Multi-selection works properly in this release.
(Check All Selected/ Uncheck
All Selected) does not work
properly if you select multiple
items by dragging the cursor
over the check boxes for those
items.
In previous releases, CASE files Now exacase2cdi can process CASE files that contain
that contain user-defined time user-defined time units.
units cause exacase2cdi to
crash.
PowerVIZ
Clicking on a font takes the user Now when you open the font editor, the current font is listed
to the wrong one. correctly.
PowerINSIGHT
Closing certain pins files with Now closing pins files with large content templates is
large content templates takes immediate.
up to a minute.
The row index value for a Now when you add a response variable from a table in a
response variable in content content template, the row index is automatically set to the
template is incorrectly set to 0 correct value.
automatically.
A run statistics table fails to Now you can display a run statistics table even if you do not
display when you do not have have write permissions to the directory.
write permission to the relevant
location in the powerinsight
directory.

12
2
General System and Release
Information
This chapter provides general information about platform and system requirements for the
PowerFLOW 2020 release. The topics are as follows:
• Supported Platforms and Operating Systems, page 13
• Realistic Rendering in PowerVIZ, page 15
• Release Performance Comparison, page 17
• Compatibility of Files Between Releases, page 18

Supported Platforms and Operating

Systems
See the PowerFLOW Installation Guide for the current prerequisites for each of the
supported operating systems.

This section lists the platforms and operating systems supported by PowerFLOW 2020.

PowerFLOW Server
Platform Operating System Interconnect Support
Cray XC40 Cray Linux Aries
x86-64 Linux (64-bit) RHEL 6 or 7 Ethernet, InfiniBand, and Omni-path
SLES 12

PowerFLOW uses dynamically linked executables. In some configurations of the Cray Linux
Environment, it might be necessary to set the environment variable CRAY_ROOTFS. For
example:
export CRAY_ROOTFS=DSL

Typically, this is done in a PBS batch script. Consult your system administrator about
whether this setting is necessary on your system.

13
General System and Release Information Supported Platforms and Operating Systems

PowerFLOW Client
Platform Operating System
x86-64 Linux (64-bit) RHEL 6 or 7
SLED 12
x86-64 Windows (64-bit) Windows 7 or 10

Deprecated Platforms
• Support for RHEL 6.7 and earlier is deprecated.
• Support for Windows 7 is deprecated.

Dropped Platforms
• Support for SLES/SLED 11.x is dropped.
• The PowerFLOW simulator is supported only on CPUs that implement the AVX
instruction set. This instruction set was introduced by Intel in the Sandy Bridge family
of processors in 2011, and is now a feature of all server-class CPUs from both Intel and
AMD.
• PowerVIZ realistic rendering is no longer be supported on Kepler-based NVIDIA graphics
cards (for example, K4000). Maxwell and Pascal-based NVIDIA based cards such as
M4000 and P4000 are supported.

Hardware Requirements for Desktop Applications

Item Requirement
RAM 8 GB; 64 GB for production-size models.
CPU 4 cores minimum, 8 cores for standard user, and 16 cores for heavy post-
processing.
NOTE: Recent generation Intel® Xeon™ processors are recommended.
However, Xeon Phi processors are not supported.
Graphics NVIDIA Quadro class card or later
• NVIDIA Quadro M4000 or M6000 (or later) is recommended.
• To have a stable experience in PowerVIZ, you need at minimum 4 GB of
GPU memory.
For more information, see Realistic Rendering in PowerVIZ on page 15.

VNC Server Version

Beginning with Release 5.4a, any users running PowerCASE, PowerVIZ, or PowerINSIGHT
in a TurboVNC session must use VirtualGL 2.5.1 or later and TurboVNC 2.1-20160920 or
later. Older versions will not accept keyboard inputs correctly, and will introduce display
artifacts when windows are resized. No change to the VNC viewer is needed.

14
General System and Release Information Realistic Rendering in PowerVIZ

Realistic Rendering in PowerVIZ

System Requirements
System Requirement Description
RAM GPU • Minimum: 2 GB
• Recommended: 4 GB
NOTE: The NVIDIA® Quadro® Maxwell™ class of GPU (or later) is
recommended.
CPU For better performance when loading the surroundings, a CPU
that supports AVX2 instructions is recommended (Intel® Haswell
architecture or later).
Graphics cards GPU mode (Rasterizer):
• GPU NVIDIA Quadro® class Kepler (Knnnn), Maxwell (Mnnnn),
or Pascal (Pnnnn).
NOTE: If the name is Quadro nnnn or FXnnnn, the Rasterizer is
not supported.
• NVIDIA Quadro M4000 or M6000 (or later) is recommended.
CPU-based Raytracing or Global Illumination mode:
• Works on a wide array of hardware, using a CPU with at least
sse2 or higher (Pentium 4 or later).
• The number of CPU cores used for rendering is defined in the
Customize dialog (General:Multiprocessing page).
If your machine uses NVIDIA Optimus®, see Using NVIDIA
Optimus on page 16 for information about selecting which GPU
to use with realistic rendering.
Drivers The following NVIDIA driver versions are recommended:
• Windows systems: 385.69
• Linux systems: 384.69
In the Manage 3D Settings panel of the NVIDIA Control Panel,
set Global presets to 3DEXCITE – Compatible.

Note the following:

• If your machine GPU does not meet the requirements for Rasterizer mode, PowerVIZ
uses Raytracer mode (CPU-based) and does not expose the Rasterizer option in the GUI.
You still have access to the highest rendering quality (Global Illumination mode).
• When using PowerVIZ in a Virtual GL environment, launching PowerVIZ with the option
--vglmode is recommended. Although performance is impacted negatively
(approximately 1/3 to 1/2 frame rate loss), the complete realistic rendering
functionality will be preserved.

15
General System and Release Information Realistic Rendering in PowerVIZ

Using NVIDIA Optimus

NVIDIA Optimus includes integrated graphics on top of the NVIDIA graphics so you can
easily switch between the integrated GPU and the NVIDIA GPU. To use realistic rendering,
you must use the NVIDIA GPU.
To select which GPU to use:
1. Right-click on the screen background, then select NVIDIA Control Panel from the context
menu.
2. In the left panel of the NVIDIA Control Panel dialog, select 3D Settings > Manage 3D
settings.
3. Select the Program Settings tab.
4. Select the Show only programs found on this computer check box.
5. Click Add.
6. Select PowerVIZ, then click Add Selected Program. You return to the Manage 3D
Settings tab.
7. Select the NVIDIA GPU option to use with PowerVIZ.
8. Click Apply to apply your changes.
9. Close the NVIDIA Control Panel dialog.

16
General System and Release Information Release Performance Comparison

Release Performance Comparison

Table 1 shows the performance of various PowerFLOW releases for a typical isothermal
simulation with turbulence modeling running on a single core of a server-class Intel
Skylake processor. The table presents run time normalized to the same simulation in
Release 5.4a. In previous releases, this table was based on older generation Intel processors
(Ivy Bridge and Broadwell), which did not show a significant performance improvement for
the 6.x series of releases.
Visit the Support site for more detailed information about simulator performance across a
variety of different types of simulations.

Table 1: Release Performance

Release Linux Intel Xeon x86-64 AVX

5.4a 1.0
5.4b 1.0
5.5a 1.0
5.5b 1.0
5-2019 1.02
5-2019 R1 1.02
5-2019 R2 1.02
5-2019 R3 1.02
5-2019 R4 1.08
5-2019 R4 HF01 1.02
5-2020 0.8
6-2019 0.8
6-2019 R1 0.8
6-2019 R2 0.8
6-2019 R3 0.8
6-2019 R4 0.8
6-2020 0.78

17
General System and Release Information Compatibility of Files Between Releases

Compatibility of Files Between Releases

Table 2 lists the normal rules for file compatibility between releases of PowerFLOW. The
table uses the following terms:
• Backward-compatible — If the file was generated by a program in an old release of
PowerFLOW, it can be read by programs included in a new release of PowerFLOW.
• Forward-compatible — Backward compatible plus if the file was generated by a program
in a new release of PowerFLOW, it can be read by programs included in an old release of
PowerFLOW.
• Restricted to release — If the file was generated by a program in release N, it can be read
only by programs included in release N.
Table 2: Compatibility Rules

File Type Compatibility

.case Backward-compatible only
.cdi Backward-compatible only
.lgi Restricted to release
Full checkpoint (.ckpt) Restricted to release
Measurement file (for example, .fnc or .snc) Forward-compatible (see exceptions below)
MME checkpoint file (.ckpt.fnc) Forward-compatible
PowerVIZ project, layout, script files Backward-compatible only

Exceptions for Release 4.4x and higher:

For cases that include sliding-mesh rotating reference frames, measurement files generated
by PowerFLOW 4.4x and higher cannot be read by pre-4.4a versions of PowerVIZ,
PowerEXPORT, exa_meas_copy, and so on.
Exceptions for Release 4.5 and higher, and 5.x:
For cases that include double precision measurements, measurement files generated by
PowerFLOW 4.5 (and higher) and 5.x cannot be read by pre-4.5a/5.0a versions of
PowerVIZ, PowerEXPORT, exa_meas_copy, and so on.
Exceptions for Release 5.1 and higher:
For cases that use the High Subsonic Mach Regime simulation option, measurement files
generated by PowerFLOW 5.1 and higher will report incorrect results in pre-4.6a/5.1a
versions of PowerVIZ, PowerEXPORT, and so on. These pre-4.6a/5.1a products will refuse
to load high-subsonic measurement files created by future PowerFLOW 5.x point releases
(starting with 5.2a).

PINS File Compatibility

Similar to the behavior of CASE files, a PINS file can be opened with the PowerINSIGHT
version used to save it, and any future release of the software. However, once you have
saved a PINS file to a newer version, it cannot be opened in older releases. For example, a
PINS file created and saved using PowerINSIGHT 5.4a can be opened in PowerINSIGHT
5.4a, 5.4b, and so on. But if you open the PINS file in PowerINSIGHT 5.5a and then save it,
you will be able to open it only in PowerINSIGHT 5.5a and later.

18