In This Article:
Ansys solutions on NVIDIA hardware enable more optimization studies, critical to increasing EV range
/ Key Highlights
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Ansys Fluent® fluid simulation software delivers high-fidelity computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models that are critical for designing next-generation, energy-efficient vehicles
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Leveraging just eight NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs, Ansys accelerated solver speed by 2.5X when compared to the same simulation run on 2,016 CPU cores and cost-equivalent hardware
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Using Ansys simulation to reduce aerodynamic drag, customers can design battery electric vehicles (BEVs) that are more performant and travel farther on a single charge
PITTSBURGH, March 18, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Ansys (NASDAQ: ANSS) today announced a significant breakthrough in aerodynamics simulations in collaboration with Volvo Cars and NVIDIA. Using the combination of eight NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs for the solver and CPU cores for meshing, the companies reduced total simulation run time from 24 hours to 6.5 — enabling multiple design iterations per day, facilitating more optimization studies for BEVs, and accelerating time-to-market. This collaboration sets a benchmark for the automotive industry and those beyond that require precise fluid flow simulation, including aerospace, motorsports, and consumer electronics.
Volvo Cars relies on advanced computing and CFD to drive innovation and improve electric battery performance. Robust simulations are critical for reducing aerodynamic drag — a significant factor on EV range. However, high-fidelity CFD simulations can be time consuming, compute-intensive, costly, and allow little opportunity for optimization.
To improve the energy efficiency and drive range of the fully electric EX90, Volvo Cars and Ansys scaled Fluent to eight NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs, enabling an optimized end-to-end workflow wherein meshing only took one hour and the solver took 5.5 hours. Compared to solving the same simulation on cost-equivalent hardware using 2,016 CPU cores, this equates to a 2.5X speed increase in solve time. The technology combination can allow Volvo Cars to run multiple CFD simulations per day, evaluating a range of design variants to quickly enable a step change in design optimization.
"Using Ansys simulation has the potential to help our teams obtain favorable designs and carry out virtual testing in much less time than traditional approaches allow," said Torbjörn Virdung, technical leader CFD, at Volvo Cars. "To make our products more efficient, we must first take stock of the tools and solutions we're using to get there. In this case, the capability of Ansys Fluent can allow us not only to perform extremely high-fidelity analyses, but the added NVIDIA infrastructure supercharges the computation, so we can consider a greater number of design possibilities and reach an optimal car design faster."