Below are frequenty asked questions about the Azore® CFD software and its capabilities.
Azore CFD can be used to simulate essentially any incompressible, steady-state or transient fluid flow model, including problems that involve conjugate heat transfer and species transport.
The latest version of Azore is compatible with Windows® 10 or higher, MacOS® 11 or higher, Linux™ Red Hat 7.6 or higher, and Linux Ubuntu 2.04 or higher.
The optimal amount of RAM and hard drive space for CFD simulations will vary based on the size of the mesh being solved. Roughly 1 GB of RAM is required for each 1,200,000 cells for the solver. We recommend at least 4GB RAM to allow small models to be run. Additional RAM will allow larger, more complex models. A typical mid-level choice is 16-32GB RAM, while a high-level, serious CFD simulation computer may have 64-128GB or more. Our technical staff will work with you to verify graphics card compatibility for optimal GUI operation.
There are several options for support, ranging from Base to Premier. All licenses include free Base support, covering installation and runtime questions. Advanced support is optional, where access to a CFD expert is available on an hourly basis. Support topics can include general CFD training, specific model set up questions, review of results/consulting engineering, advanced Azore usage training, script writing, etc. Premier support is an annual program that includes a wide variety of training at the users schedule.
Azore online tutorials and videos offer users 24/7 training opportunities. Azore personnel also offer quarterly webcast training courses or in-person training at our offices and client sites.
Azore users can purchase annual lease or perpetual licenses. Licenses are available for a single computer or on a network.
Azore supports students and instructors by providing a free 6-month limited solver license. Longer term licenses can be arranged by instructors or department heads.
Yes. Azore can run in parallel on multiple cores of a single machine with its openMP. In addition, an MPI solver capability allows Azore to run across a network to take advantage of multiple machines on a cluster. Azore has also partnered with high performance computing (HPC) company Sabalcore to run Azore simulations on thousands of cores on the cloud.
There are many answers to this question. Azore comes with an integrated and intuitive graphical user interface (GUI) and a full-featured post-processing engine. Azore is thus extremely user-friendly, with a shorter learning curve than open source codes. Azore is also fully backed with online or telephone technical support from experienced engineers and developers. In addition, Azore has been fine tuned over the past 2 decades to optimize the efficiency of fluid dynamic engineers. We like to say “Azore was written by engineers for engineers”, and we know that time really is money. Azore thus focuses on accuracy and efficiency, with many built-in short cuts to reduce the time required for post-processing and reporting of CFD simulations. Azore is also quite lean on RAM compared to other codes; the offers either faster compute times or larger meshes for the same computer hardware resources. This combination of capabilities makes Azore a top choice for engineers who demand high accuracy and maximum efficiency.
Yes, Azore comes with integrated pre- and post-processing capabilities at no additional cost. The pre-processor includes the ability to set boundary conditions, modify meshes, select monitoring points, and more. The post-processor is fully-featured for analysis of CFD data including plotting of results, allowing the user to write out data files, contour plots, iso-surfaces, animations, etc. Results can also be exported to other post-processing software, including Ansys-Fluent and Paraview.
Yes, while a full Azore license includes the solver and pre/post-processing, there is an opportunity to license only the post-processing software. For those engineers who use a variety of CFD solvers, Azore thus can be the post-processing tool of choice for consistent reports in the fastest time.
This is optional. The Azore CFD solver is offered as a standalone software (with pre- and post-processing). This allows users to adopt their own preferred meshing software. Azore supports importing .msh files from a variety of gridding software including Cubit, Pointwise, ANSYS Meshing, Gridgen, TrueGrid, snappyHexMesh, etc. Importing Ansys-Fluent case files is also supported.
For users with no previous meshing software, Azore can be licensed with Cubit, from our meshing partner Coreform, or Pointwise, from our partner Cadence.
The Azore CFD code has been validated against standard benchmark test cases and has been found to be equivalent or superior to other available CFD codes. Examples can be viewed on the validation page. Azore has also been used by consultants and applications engineers since 2007 on over 1000 industrial projects. Azore has a proven track record in providing accurate, cost-effective design solutions to flow and heat transfer problems. Numerous examples are available on the Azore case studies page and the websites of our channel partners.
Yes, the Azore GUI can connect with the solution process allowing the user to monitor the progress of the simulation predictions without stopping the simulation. There is also an animate data feature that provides methods for reducing data transfer bandwidth when dynamically accessing very large running simulations.
Yes, There are a rich set of tools for efficiently gathering transient data during the simulation process that can then be used by the Azore GUI to easily create the transient animation frames that can be gather into an animation. The animation in a recent press release was easily generated using the Azore tools (view here).
Azore's solver has the ability to run either the standard k-epsilon turbulence model or the k-omega SST model.
Yes, Azore allows simulation of gas species tracking within a flow stream. This is beneficial for mixing studies of multiple single phase flows (gas injection systems, emissions dispersion and tracking, converging/diverging streams, etc.). There is no limit to the number of species that can be tracked. This is available for gas or liquid flows, but not intermixed gas+liquid flows.
Not yet. The current version of Azore does not include two-phase Lagrangian particulate flows with momentum coupling to the Eulerien gas phase. This is under development in the solver.
Yes variable fluid properties can be easily defined for all fluid and solid properties (Laminar Viscosity, Specific Heat, Density, Thermal Conductivity). Common relations as a function of temperature are available such as piecewise polynomial and Sutherland’s as well as fluid densities that are dependent on mixture densities.
If you have additional questions about the Azore CFD software, please contact us.