Pieces are coming together for CFD Vision 2030

Demonstrating efficiently scaled computational fluid dynamics simulations on an exascale system is a key technology milestone for the CFD Vision 2030 activity. The term "exascale" refers to a system capable of performing one exaflop, or 1018 floating-point operations per second. The Frontier system at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee passed acceptance testing in April, making it available to over 1, 000 developers and researchers worldwide. GE Aerospace and the FUN3D group at NASA's Langley Research Center in Virginia are among the early users of this world-leading system, using it to attempt simulations that would have been impossible on previous systems. GE is using Frontier to assess aircraft engine design trade-offs, from the microscopic features of turbulence to the larger effects of how these flow features evolve and affect system performance and noise. NASA Langley researchers are pursuing simulations of long-duration reentry trajectories into the Martian atmosphere using retropropulsion to meet this key 2024 technology milestone. Located at the Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois, a second exascale-class system known as Aurora reached an important milestone in June when hardware installation was completed. Aurora is projected to provide a computational capacity exceeding two exaflops. Improvements in computer speed and memory size are key enablers for simulating the complex flow fields around aircraft and spacecraft. To leverage these capabilities efficiently, improvements are needed for solver algorithms and post-processing. A key goal of AIAA's CFD Vision 2030 Integration Committee is to see leading-edge research moved into production codes that can benefit industry and government programs. An example of such progress is Bell's V-280 tiltrotor. Its selection last year as the U.S. Army's Future-Long Range Assault Aircraft was upheld in April by the U.S. Government Accountability Office after a bid protest by Sikorsky, whose coaxial rotor aircraft, the Defiant X, was turned down by the Army. The decision to select