Robert Allan Makes Major Investment in CFD Resources

Robert Allan Ltd. naval architects will soon multiply its CFD computing power by a factor of six with the purchase of a new dedicated High Performance Computing (HPC) cluster.

“Needless to say, this represents a major advancement in our processing capability,” says Bart Stockdill who heads the CFD group at Robert Allan Ltd. “To keep up with demand, we need to make this bold step.”

Indeed, the last four years have seen CFD’s role within the company evolve from basic flow and resistance predictions to highly sophisticated propeller analysis, wake wash studies and predictions for tug escort performance.

Not only will the HPC cluster speed up CFD simulations generally, but it will also open the door to sea-keeping analysis and other more dynamic problems typically tackled in model basin testing.

“Our clients in the workboat market have been impressed with what we have been doing so far,” according to Mike Fitzpatrick, Vice President of Projects, “and they really like the time and money we save for them by having the people and CFD resources to confirm performance early in the design process.”

With over 320 cores, the processing power of the new high performance computing cluster will rival that of much larger companies and research institutions. The HPC cluster will also leverage Robert Allan Ltd.’s various in-house research and development projects.

This major investment in CFD resources is another sign that Robert Allan Ltd. is committed to developing the best performing and most efficient designs for their clients well into the future. The new cluster is expected to be up and running in April of 2014.

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ral, March 31, 2014