Siemens has acquired Nextflow Software, an independent provider of advanced particle-based computational fluid dynamics (CFD) solutions. The transaction was closed on June 1, 2021, however, the company did not disclose the terms.
Nextflow Software, a startup, focuses on developing innovative Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) meshless CFD methods and plays a critical role in moving it from academic labs into the hands of analysts across industries, helping simulate complex transient problems faster and earlier in the product development cycle.
According to the company, Nextflow Software will become part of Siemens Digital Industries Software. It will help the company expand the Simcenter software portfolio (part of the Siemens' Xcelerator portfolio of software and services) with rapid meshless CFD capabilities to accelerate the analysis of complex transient applications in the automotive, aerospace, and marine industries such as gearbox lubrication, tank sloshing or electric motor spray cooling.
Siemens Digital Industries Software is already positioned firmly in the CFD market, providing both CAD-centric and high-fidelity solutions across mechanical and electrical design scenarios. The addition of Nextflow Software's Smooth-Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) technology into the Simcenter portfolio can enable analysts to leverage the complementary nature of meshless and mesh-based solvers to capitalise on each of their strengths, opening the door to new applications that were previously difficult to address.
Jean-Claude Ercolanelli, Senior Vice President, Simulation and Test Solutions, Siemens Digital Industries Software, said the customers need to leverage sophisticated simulations earlier and more often in their design process. This is creating a strong demand for rapid and automated Cbehaviournamic gas-liquid flows. Meshless technology has emerged as a leading solution to significantly reduce the setup and solving times for this class of problems, accelerating time to results and proving products' behaviour at a reduced time and cost.
Vincent Perrier, CEO of Nextflow Software, said no single validation approach fits all industrial applications. As engineering problems become more complex and design cycles are shortened, analysts must find the optimal trade-off between accuracy and computation time. Nextflow Software's SPH solutions suitably complement the existing CFD offering in the Simcenter Portfolio to overcome complexity and long run-times challenges.