America's Cup - Oracle Team USA design team to use Numeca

by Oracle Team USA on 1 Apr 2014 Innovative CFD (computational fluid dynamics) software force Numeca has been named as an official supplier to Oracle Team USA’s design team.

'Numeca has partnered with Oracle Team USA to provide the design team with a comprehensive CFD analysis solution in its defense of the 35th America’s Cup,' said general manager Grant Simmer.

'In addition to delivering advanced simulation technology through its FineMarine software suite, Numeca will be a significant contributor to our modeling activities by providing key numerical optimization tools, expert technical support, and aligning its software development roadmap with the design team's modeling objectives.'

CFD has become critical for America’s Cup design teams as they move away from physical model testing to a combination of virtual design / performance prediction tools and on-water boat-on-boat testing.

'The CFD tool is important because it gives us an accurate description of the aerodynamic and hydrodynamic forces that are acting on the boat, the wing and the appendages,' says Oracle Team USA designer Len Imas.

'We can’t always measure these forces so we use the CFD tools to give us an accurate estimate of forces under different conditions when we design the boat.'

Imas says the Numeca software tool does a better job of modeling the forces acting on foiling multihulls as they operate at speeds approaching 50 knots.

'This arrangement gives us a modeling tool that is able to capture the physics of boats moving at speed accurately,' Imas said. 'We want to do a better job of predicting boat performance and working with Numeca will start us down that path.'