With ALE3D For Industry, companies and academic users will have access to one of DOE’s premiere multi-physics codes and the ability to run on Livermore Computing’s HPC platforms. For over 30+ years, LLNL has been developing its ALE3D multi-physics simulation tool and providing it for U.S. Government use. ALE3D has had extensive validation and verification and is used to solve a wide variety of 2D and 3D engineering and physics problems. Now, ALE3D for Industry (ALE3D-4I) makes the multi-physics capabilities of ALE3D available for use on industry’s simulations needs - the Laboratory’s massively parallel supercomputers – machines with tens of thousands of processors working in tandem. More specifically, the software will be available to U.S. companies and academics interested in using the code and LLNL's high-performance computing (HPC) resources.
Customized for industrial uses, the ALE3D4I code allows a user to not only switch between the Lagrangian and Eulerian techniques but also combine the two so that the mesh “relaxes” at the leading edge of the object. The amount of relaxation is determined by the user, who can “weight” the simulation so that more zones are forced into a specific area of interest, for greater accuracy at that spot. Supporting mesh relaxation broadens the scope of applications in comparison to codes that are restricted to Lagrangian- or Eulerian-only approaches. For some applications, ALE3D4I can deliver accuracy similar to that of other simulation techniques but with as few as one-tenth the number of mesh elements.
Beyond its foundation as a hydrodynamics and structural code, ALE3D4I has multi-physics capabilities that integrate various packages through an operator splitting approach. Additional features include heat conduction, chemical kinetics, species diffusion, incompressible flow, a wide range of material models, chemistry models, multi-phase flow, and magnetohydrodynamics, which can be used in numerous combinations for long (implicit) to short (explicit) time-scale applications.
For a more detailed description of ALE3D4I, see the webinar presentation, “ALE3D For Industry: Multiphysics Simulations for the Nation's Future” and visit the ALE3D4I website.
Potential applications include the advanced manufacturing of high-technology components, home care products, and food processing and safety. The rapidly growing industry of additive manufacturing – also known as 3D printing – is also keen to conduct simulations modelling possible breakthrough technologies. Specific applications for ALE3D4I include simulating:
- Fluid Structure Interaction
- Hydrodynamics (Impact, Shocks)
- Heat Transfer
- Electromagnetics
- Reaction Chemistry
- Additive Manufacturing
- Forming/fabrication
- Casting
- Penetration Mechanics
- Fracture/fragmentation
- Implicit/Explicit (Long/Short time scales)
- Laser Simulation
AL3D4I has been tested on LLNL's HPC platforms and is ready for access by industrial users. ALE3D for Industry is scalable out to 100,000 processors. With ALE3D For Industry, companies will have access to one of DOE's premiere multi-physics codes and the ability to run on LLNL's HPC platforms. As part of the access agreement, users are also provided with access to ALE3D4I’s extensive user manual and example problems. Training and one-to-one consulting as well as help line support is also available.