Enabling Cloud-Based Computational Fluid Dynamics With a Platform-as-a-Service Solution

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is widely used in manufacturing and engineering from product design to testing. CFD requires intensive computational power and typically needs high-performance computing to reduce potentially long experimentation times. Dedicated high-performance computing systems are often expensive for small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs). Cloud computing claims to enable low-cost access to high-performance computing without the need for capital investment. The cloud-based simulation platform for manufacturing and engineering simulation platform aims to provide a flexible and easy to use cloud-based platform-as-a-service (PaaS) technology that can enable SMEs to realize the benefits of high-performance computing. Our platform incorporates workflow management and multicloud implementation across various cloud resources. Here, we present the components of our technology and experiences in using it to create a cloud-based version of the Transport phenomena Analysis Tool CFD software. Three case studies favourably compare the performance of a local cluster and two different clouds and demonstrate the viability of our cloud-based approach.