SEAT is harnessing the power of MareNostrum 4, the most powerful supercomputer in Spain to improve the aerodynamics of its cars. The capacity of the MareNostrum 4 supercomputer located at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC)is equivalent to 40,000 PCs all working at the same time.
Enhancing the aerodynamics of a car consists in lowering its air drag coefficient. This results in vehicles that are safer and more efficient, with lower consumption and CO2 emissions, and better performance. The key areas of analysis are the front and rear end, undercarriage, tyres and wheels. Until now, in order to improve aerodynamics, life-size clay models were used combining simulations and actual tests in a wind tunnel.
“Working with a wind tunnel is expensive. The clay models deteriorate and constant changes have to be made”, says María García-Navas, an engineer in SEAT’s Department of Development and Aerodynamics.
“Furthermore, the computing power of the BSC’s supercomputer enables us to include more parameters and see how air behaves inside the rims when the wheels are moving. The idea is to increasingly narrow the gap between simulation and reality”, she adds.
The advantage of having 165,888 processors working at the same time is that we can perform studies in record time. “We introduce the geometry of the wheel converted to grid points, and each point is analysed by a set of processors working in parallel. If they were analysed individually it would take months”, says Oriol.