close

Ansys solutions help Emirates Team New Zealand win Louis Vuitton cup

2 min read

CANONSBURG and SAN FRANCISCO – Emirates Team New Zealand is crediting its use of Ansys engineering simulation software with helping it caputre the Louis Vuitton Cup and win the right to compete in the 34th America’s Cup.

The best-of-17-race series begins Sept. 7 in San Francisco.

Faced with the challenge of making fast design improvements to its yacht to stay hyper-competitive, Emirates Team New Zealand used a 100 percent simulation-driven development process, eliminating the need for physical prototypes.

Team engineers used computational fluid dynamics solutions from Southpointe-based Ansys to virtually test different designs, considering up to 750 operating conditions per design. The simulation results led to a series of seven wins against Louis Vuitton Cup rival Luna Rossa of Italy.

Ansys said in a press release Monday its CFD solutions enabled Emirates Team New Zealand to optimize such complex challenges as flow interaction between the wing (main rigid sail), the headsail and the yacht itself. That led to a design in which the yacht platform is used to enhance the aerodynamic performance of the wing and sails.

“We’re thrilled to have won the Louis Vuitton Cup with the help of Ansys,” said Nick Hutchins, CFD engineer, Emirates Team New Zealand. “Without Ansys software, it would have been impossible to improve designs at the pace required in this intense development environment. We’re going to need that competitive edge as we’re preparing for the America’s Cup.”

“Witnessing the aerodynamic improvements and incredible achievements that Emirates Team New Zealand has made over the last few weeks has been inspiring to all of us,” said Gilles Eggenspieler, Ansys’ senior fluids product line manager.

CUSTOMER LOGIN

If you have an account and are registered for online access, sign in with your email address and password below.

NEW CUSTOMERS/UNREGISTERED ACCOUNTS

Never been a subscriber and want to subscribe, click the Subscribe button below.

Starting at $3.75/week.

Subscribe Today