Ansys announced a major update in GPU accelerated simulation in collaboration with Volvo Cars and NVIDIA. By utilizing 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 hours. This advancement allows for multiple design iterations per day. The companies said it facilitates more optimization studies for battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and accelerating time-to-market. This collaboration sets a benchmark for industries requiring precise fluid flow simulation, including automotive, aerospace, motorsports, and consumer electronics.

Volvo Cars and Advanced Computing

Volvo Cars relies on advanced computing and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to improve electric battery performance, it said. Robust simulations are critical for reducing aerodynamic drag, a significant factor affecting electric vehicle range. However, high-fidelity CFD simulations can be time-consuming, compute-intensive, costly, and allow little opportunity for optimization.

Enhanced Energy Efficiency with GPU Accelerated Simulation

To enhance the energy efficiency and drive range of the fully electric EX90, Volvo Cars and Ansys scaled Fluent to eight NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs. This created an optimized workflow where meshing 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 represents a 2.5 times speed increase in solve time. This technology allows Volvo Cars to run multiple CFD simulations per day, it said. The success of this GPU accelerated simulation highlights the growing role of high-performance computing in EV design.

Statements from Industry Leaders

“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. “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 to perform extremely high-fidelity analyses. Also, the added NVIDIA infrastructure supercharges the computation. We can consider a greater number of design possibilities and reach an optimal car design faster.”

This accelerated process has the potential to further help Volvo Cars meet critical emissions, range, and efficiency standards, it said.

“This breakthrough underscores how GPU-accelerated simulation can drive innovation and get products to market faster,” said Shane Emswiler, senior vice president of products at Ansys. “The combination of modeling and solver speed empowers customers to run more simulations.”

“The efforts of Ansys and Volvo Cars showcase the performance and scalability of our latest Blackwell infrastructure offerings and its applicability to engineering simulation,” said Tim Costa, senior director of CAE, EDA and quantum at NVIDIA. “We are paving the way for the future of computer-aided engineering and scaling.”