CD-adapco, Ben Ainslie Racing Team Up

CFD focused provider of Computer Aided Engineering software, CD-adapco, says it has formed a partnership with  Ben Ainslie Racing, enabling the America’s Cup team to utilize the CD-adapco simulation tool, STAR-CCM+ in the design of its yacht entrant for the 2017 race.

The focus of the 35th edition of the America’s Cup is sustainability, the set of restrictive rules means this is likely to be the most challenging America's Cup ever from an Engineering Simulation point of view. The introduction of much tighter design specifications, including "one design" components such as a common wing for all contenders, reduces the scope for large design differences between the boats and will likely mean that victory is decided by the smallest of margins. Since the rules will likely prohibit actual sailing of the boats until about 5 months before the competition, most of the important early design decisions will have to be based on data from CFD simulations.

Dr.-Ing. Rodrigo Azcueta, Design Engineer for Ben Ainslie Racing commented, "The America's Cup is ultimately a design race, and facing a fresh, three-year campaign, the Ben Ainslie Racing team were determined that they would need the best possible CFD package. So we committed to an extensive evaluation period and benchmarked several CFD providers.

"At the end of the day we had a clear winner: the power and flexibility of STAR-CCM+; the new optimisation package `Optimate´ added to the outstanding technical support at CD-adapco. Now we look forward to working closely with them and taking our simulation skills to the next level."

“Hydroplaning America's Cup boats are as much airplanes as they are boats, so the winning team will have to utilize simulation technology that takes account of the combined effect of aerodynamics, hydrodynamics and transient wave impact, in order to optimize their designs,” said CD-adapco Executive Vice President Bill Clark. “We call this approach Multi-Disciplinary Design Exploration, and we are delighted that BAR have chosen STAR-CCM+ as a key tool in their quest to win the America’s Cup.

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