Chapter 930 Challenges from COMSOL


    Although he said he wanted to chat with Zheng Liangqun, he had been transferred out of the capital after commanding the 50th anniversary military parade the year before last and went to work at the Jiangcheng Command Post of the Air Force.


    ?At this juncture, it is impossible for Chang Haonan to fly thousands of kilometers to find someone just for some personal matter.


    Besides, Chang Jiayao and Zheng Hui are not 23 yet, so there is still time.


    So, Chang Haonan is still preparing to return to his own job first—


    ? He ??has not forgotten the expectations that brother units put forward for Torch Group at the aerospace theme meeting on September 11th.


    In any case, the TORCMultiphysics software must undergo a major update.


    However, what Chang Haonan didn''t expect was that in the more than three weeks since he had focused his attention on the attack, the Torch Group had already ushered in a strong competitor.


    …


    October 8, the first working day after the National Day holiday.


    ??Song Jingming, Office Director of Torch Group, and Wei Yongming, Head of the Technical Department, came to the Aviation Power Group with a report—


    ?Now that Torch Group has become a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Aviation Power Group, Chang Haonan saves the trouble of running around every day and can handle most specific matters at the group headquarters.


    “Mr. Chang.”


    There was a knock on the door, causing Chang Haonan to look away from the computer screen and look at the office door.


    "Old Song Dynasty...and Old Wei Dynasty?"


    Chang Haonan looked happy, and at the same time stretched out his hand to signal the two of them to sit down on the sofa:


    “You two arrived just in time. I am planning to contact you in two days.”


    ??As he spoke, he turned his office chair and faced the two people who were looking hesitant and said:


    "Some time ago, I discussed with several core users. The plan is to release version 2.0 of TORCH Multiphysics from the end of this year to the beginning of next year. The main updates of the new version are, first, the introduction of a new turbulence based on DNS simulation and RANS simulation. model, the second is to introduce the level set method for multi-phase interface simulation and topology optimization problems.”


    “Especially the latter, it can be said to be the top priority of this upgrade. I have already pushed the theoretical part of the conservation level set method to you before. I wonder how it is currently being advanced at the application level?”


    ??Song Jingming naturally has no chance to speak out about this purely technical issue.


    ?So Wei Yongming immediately took over the conversation:


    “Mr. Chang, based on the algorithm theory you gave us, we have implemented numerical simulations on the second-level time scale for common multi-phase processes such as combustion, atomization and evaporation in the internal test version.”


    “As for the topology optimization problem, this is still being tackled, but the progress is pretty good. If the time node for the new version is the end of this year... it may be a bit nervous, but there should be no problem before the Spring Festival next year.”


    ? Wei Yongming was born in Qinghua University, and was initially responsible for developing embedded operating systems for Torch-C.B. Ferrari.


    ?However, he soon showed his talents in other development fields, and was transferred to the head office to be responsible for the daily work of the entire technical department, which can be regarded as sharing a lot of Chang Haonan''s pressure.


    “Before the Spring Festival…”


    Hearing the other party''s answer, Chang Haonan was naturally quite satisfied, but he still lowered his head and pondered for a moment:


    “Old Wei, let’s try not to ask our comrades to work overtime during the Spring Festival holiday. If the progress is really fast, then we can accept that the new version will be launched before the second quarter of next year.”


    Whether it is Torch Group or the entire Aerospace Power Group, due to the special nature of work, continuous overtime work is objectively unavoidable.


    ??But after all, Chang Haonan worked as a screw for decades in his previous life, so he can still consider it from the perspective of a worker.


    You must know that in the field of numerical calculation software, Torch Group has become the world leader in a literal sense -


    I worked overtime when I was lagging behind, but now I am ahead. If I still work overtime, wouldn’t my lead be in vain?


    So, in industries related to computer algorithms, although Torch Group does not offer the best treatment, it has always been relatively humane in terms of work intensity.


    ? Wei Yongming, who is directly in charge of the technical department, agrees with Chang Haonan’s philosophy in this regard.


    ?But this time, he did not nod immediately, but hesitated for a moment, looked at Song Jingming next to him again, and then said solemnly:


    “Mr. Chang, there is a situation now. You are not in the company during this period, so you may not know about it yet.”


    "oh?"


    Chang Haonan raised his eyebrows:


    “Tell me more specifically?”


    “Just last month, during the National Day holiday, the Swedish company COMSOL suddenly announced that they would launch the 2.5 version update of COMSOLMUltiphysics in late October.”


    Wei Yongming stood up and put the report he had just held in front of Chang Haonan:


    "The specific situation is written in this report, please read it." Chang Haonan immediately sat up straight and opened the folder on the desktop.


    In fact, the reason why he named his numerical calculation software TORCH Multiphysics was inspired by the products of this Swedish company.


    Of course it is inspired by the previous life.


    ?However, due to a strange combination of circumstances, in this timeline, the opponent became a challenger chasing after him.


    ? Just in the past few years, many friendly companies, including COMSOL and ANSYS, have not been able to truly shake the dominant position of Torch Group.


    The content in the report is not complicated to summarize. The Swedes hired a very capable American professor to develop a set of unstructured grid generation algorithms that can adapt to drastic changes in the interface by referring to the unstructured grid generation algorithm proposed by Chang Haonan a few years ago. Lagrangian method.


    Since this method does not involve high-precision formats, but follows the traditional finite volume method, it is highly universal. The most important thing is that when the quality of grid generation is poor, a certain accuracy can still be guaranteed. .


    …


    Looking at the content in front of him, Chang Haonan frowned in confusion.


    ??If the other party can really do this without using a high-precision format, it will indeed have a considerable impact on TORCMultiphysics, even version 2.0 of TORCMultiphysics.


    You must know that the grid generation method specially developed by Torch Group is highly efficient, but it is also more efficient than others when the quality of grid generation is the same.


    Generally speaking, this step still takes a long time.


    In most cases, it is impossible for users to find the optimal solution in one grid generation-simulation calculation cycle.


    So, if you can use a low-quality mesh to achieve 80% or even 70% of the effect, the appeal is very high.


    The only problem is…


    Is it really possible?


    “Old Wei.”


    Chang Haonan closed the report and looked up at Wei Yongming:


    "Is there any more specific technology... uh... technology that is unlikely to be made public, and a more specific theoretical derivation process?"


    “Professor Anthony Jameson of Stanford University developed this method.”


    Wei Yongming replied:


    "He has indeed published several papers related to the finite volume method recently. If you need it, I can send it to you when I get back."


    “That’s not necessary…”


    ?Chang Haonan came back to the computer:


    “I’ll just check it myself…”


    He quickly typed in A. Jameson in the search bar, and then selected Stanford University in the filter.


    Soon, dozens of related papers popped up.


    It was only then that Chang Haonan vaguely remembered the name.


    “I went...it turned out to be him?”


    Anthony Jameson.


    Before the 1990s, he was the man who made the most theoretical contributions to the field of CFD.


    It is no exaggeration to say that throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Professor Jameson made more contributions to the promotion and application of CFD than all other people in the world combined.


    ??Although Professor Jameson''s rate of producing results has slowed down slightly since the mid-1990s, Chang Haonan still feels a little pressure to be able to invite such a legendary figure.


    He sorted the search results by time and quickly found the article Wei Yongming mentioned.


    Afinite-volumemethodfortheLagrange-Eulerequations…


    ? Published in TheJournalofChemicalPhysics.


    ?Compared to the JCAS where Chang Haonan''s paper was published, this JCP is definitely the top journal in the industry.


    "If this is the case, then the tradition of not working overtime during the Spring Festival may have to be broken..."


    Chang Haonan thought this while opening the PDF document just downloaded to the desktop...


    (End of this chapter)