Success Is Flowing for NIKA

The German software company NIKA has established a new trend by making flow simulation part of day-to-day design work. Engineers can now plan the fluidic properties of gases or liquids on screen during the product development process. Bettina Redepenning

Roland Feldhinkel, Chief Executive: »We see EFD.V5 as an important element in the overall PLM concept and at the same time as a milestone on the road to integrated digital product development using CATIA V5.« Picture: NIKA GmbH

For most people, the term flow simulation tends to call to mind some powerful images - aerodynamic tests in a wind tunnel on rockets, aircraft and racing cars. Hardly anyone thinks of ovens, vacuum cleaners or mixer taps in this context. However, engineers developing these kinds of everyday products are also faced with crucial fluid mechanics issues: Is the temperature distribution in the oven even, what is the air flow in the vacuum cleaner nozzle and is there an optimum distribution of water temperature in a mixer tap? Engineers normally have to rely on their years of experience to answer these questions. In a best-case scenario, results of laboratory tests may also be available to them. In any case, flow calculations are complicated, time consuming and expensive, as traditional flow simulation programs are genuine high-end tools. To operate this software, you need staff with special mathematical knowledge who work with expensive hardware and software in a separate calculation department. All but the largest companies shy away from the associated costs. This means that to date, the majority of engineers could not perform complicated non-linear flow calculations. Since 2002, the “EFC.Lab” stand-alone solution for Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) from NIKA has opened up a world of new possibilities for designers. Simulating the heat management for an electronic assembly using EFD.Lab. Easy Flow Simulation Flow simulation is all about optimising turbulence and mixing processes and minimising pressure losses. One very important area is to identify the optimum heat transfer, i.e. is sufficient heat dissipated, is the temperature distribution even or does a component get too hot at an unfavourable point? These processes can occur in fans, valves, fittings, nipples and nozzles in computer housings, electronic equipment or refrigeration and air-conditioning systems. The ability to predict these kinds of relationships helps to improve the quality of new products and to cut development times and costs. The key innovation is that NIKA has packaged the mathematical algorithms that describe these relationships into a user interface that can be operated by an engineer. The engineer can develop his products free from the need for complex mathematical and numerical work but still take account of the fluidic properties of his designs. The software does the work of an experienced calculation specialist internally and unnoticed. As the mathematical knowledge is integrated into the software, there is no longer any need for an expert to be sitting in front of the screen. EFD.Lab is an open system that uses interfaces to communicate with all standard CAD products on the market, and thus imports CAD and geometric data from other systems. However, the data can also be created in EFD.Lab itself using the configured volumetric modeller. An EFD.Lab license costs 19,500 Euro, and users also pay 25 percent maintenance per year. EFD.V5 automatically identifies the flow space for internal and external flows. NIKA Speaks Russian EFD.Lab is the second product to be released by NIKA. With its first product, ‘FloWorks’, the company moved into the mainstream market for flow simulation. At present, NIKA employs 50 staff, 37 of which are software developers in Moscow. It was Russian scientists who appeared at CeBIT in 1996, looking for marketing opportunities in the west for their flow simulation software. Roland Feldhinkel, who is now the CEO of NIKA, was quickly won over by the program code, which at that time was not yet linked to a user interface, and the co-operation began. Although the core of the product is Russian, the entire product philosophy, the architecture concepts and the specifications all originate in Germany. It took three years to set up the German software house NIKA GmbH with the assistance of private investors, and the first flow simulation program for designers was launched in 1999. FloWorks is based on the ‘SolidWorks’, volumetric modeller, which means that geometry creation is controlled directly by the underlying CAD system. The flow space is automatically identified using the SolidWorks model, which makes modelling of the fluid region superfluous. FlowWorks has been a certified Gold Partner Product for SolidWorks from day one. As a result of its huge success, SolidWorks took over the global distribution rights. Today, the system is sold exclusively through the worldwide network of SolidWorks dealers under the name ‘COSMOSFloWorks’. By contrast, for EFD.Lab there are six direct sales staff in Germany, a further sales team working in France and individual system houses in the rest of the world that sell the NIKA software under licence. Flow speeds in the spray arm of a dishwasher. NIKA Goes CATIA NIKA uses well-established sales channels to market its products, which allows it to concentrate its efforts on enhancing the software itself. The latest result of this ongoing development programme is the world’s first flow simulation package for CATIA V5. As in FloWorks, NIKA’s simulation tool uses the original data, i.e. NIKA works directly with the CATIA model data. ‘EFD.V5’ is seamlessly integrated into CATIA V5 and makes direct use of the original CATIA V5 components and assemblies, with no need for separate modelling of the flow space. NIKA sees EFD.V5 as an important new element in the overall PLC concept and, at the same time, as an important milestone on the road to integrated digital product development using CATIA V5. The analysis options in EGD.V5 include compressible and non-compressible liquids and gases, laminar and turbulent flows, heat transfer and material transfer for stationary and non-stationary flow relationships and a range of other physical models. EFD.V5 is ideal for development and optimisation of vehicle components, electronic devices and modules, aerospace and space travel components, air-conditioning systems, hydraulic or pneumatic components and medical equipment. Marketing is performed by the Cenit AG system house, a provider with excellent experience and references in the PLM sector.