One of the primary shortcomings identified during the NASA sponsored CFD Vision 2030 Study conducted during 2012-2014 was that the generation of meshes suitable for CFD simulations constitutes a principal bottleneck in the workflow process as it requires significant human intervention. Our solution to this problem is the development of a suite of tools to revolutionize the mesh generation process. This tools suite includes the HeldenSurface, HeldenMesh, and HeldenTool applications. HeldenSurface is a robust tool for automatially converting arbitrary starting geometry definitions into a collection of watertight CAD surfaces. These CAD surfaces are then used as the starting point for existing commercial grid generators such as our HeldenMesh unstructured grid generator. This represents a critical capability needed to automate the CFD mesh generation process – permitting the thousands of engineers performing CFD to focus their efforts on interpreting results instead of generating meshes. HeldenMesh is our rapid and robust commercial unstructured mesh generator that is used extensively used in industry by customers such as Gulfstream, The Spaceship Company (TSC), and Boom Technology. HeldenTool is a new graphical user interface (GUI) that simplifies the mesh generation experience. Our proposed effort further enhances the capabilities of these tool sets and demonstrates / validates them for a relevant active flow control application. We also offer a proven path to commercialization of HeldenSurface by leveraging our current success with the commercialization of our HeldenMesh grid generation software and we anticipate offering these new tools as a commercial product within 2 years of completion of the effort.

The successful completion of this Phase I effort supports all NASA programs and projects that use CFD for advanced aircraft concepts, launch vehicle design, and planetary entry vehicles. The technology developed under this project will enable design decisions by Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate (ARMD) and Human Exploration Operations Mission Directorate (HEOMD).

Helden Aerospace has already successfully transitioned its existing HeldenMesh commercial grid generator to industry. The completion of this effort would further improve the CFD toolset through automation and simplification of the mesh generation process. This effort results in a product with strong commercial viability as there is a significant need for this capability in industry.