Developer(s) | GexCon AS |
---|---|
Stable release | 10.1 |
Operating system | Microsoft Windows, Linux |
Type | Computational fluid dynamics software |
License | Proprietary software |
Website | www.flacs.com |
FLACS (FLame ACceleration Simulator) is a commercial Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software used extensively for explosion modeling and atmospheric dispersion modeling within the field of industrial safety and risk assessment. Main application areas of FLACS are in petrochemical, process manufacturing, food processing, wood processing, metallurgical, and nuclear safety industries.
FLACS has dedicated modules to simulate gas explosion, [1] [2] [3] dust explosion and explosions involving chemical explosives like TNT. FLACS is also extensively used to simulate flammable and toxic gas dispersion. [4] [5] It was applied in the investigation of many high profile accidents such as Buncefield fire, [6] [7] Piper Alpha, TWA Flight 800, [8] and the Petrobras 36 platform.
FLACS software development started in-house in the early 1980s under the sponsorship program, Gas Explosion Safety (GSP), funded by the oil companies BP, Elf Aquitaine, Esso, Mobil, Norsk Hydro and Statoil. FLACS-86 was released to GSP sponsors in 1986. Continuous research and development from then onwards resulted in many commercial releases. In 2006, FLACS v8.1 was released to customers. Till then FLACS was developed for Unix and Linux platforms. In 2008, however, FLACS v9.0 was released for Microsoft Windows platform. FLACS v9.1 and FLACS-Wind was developed in 2010. A fully parallelized FLACSv10.0 (using OpenMP) with a new solver for incompressible flows was released in 2012. FLACSv10.0 also constitutes a Homogeneous Equilibrium Model (HEM) for two-phase flow calculations.
A simulation is an imitative representation of a process or system that could exist in the real world. In this broad sense, simulation can often be used interchangeably with model. Sometimes a clear distinction between the two terms is made, in which simulations require the use of models; the model represents the key characteristics or behaviors of the selected system or process, whereas the simulation represents the evolution of the model over time. Another way to distinguish between the terms is to define simulation as experimentation with the help of a model. This definition includes time-independent simulations. Often, computers are used to execute the simulation.
FlightGear Flight Simulator is a free, open source multi-platform flight simulator developed by the FlightGear project since 1997.
Computer simulation is the running of a mathematical model on a computer, the model being designed to represent the behaviour of, or the outcome of, a real-world or physical system. The reliability of some mathematical models can be determined by comparing their results to the real-world outcomes they aim to predict. Computer simulations have become a useful tool for the mathematical modeling of many natural systems in physics, astrophysics, climatology, chemistry, biology and manufacturing, as well as human systems in economics, psychology, social science, health care and engineering. Simulation of a system is represented as the running of the system's model. It can be used to explore and gain new insights into new technology and to estimate the performance of systems too complex for analytical solutions.
LS-DYNA is an advanced general-purpose multiphysics simulation software package developed by the former Livermore Software Technology Corporation (LSTC), which was acquired by Ansys in 2019. While the package continues to contain more and more possibilities for the calculation of many complex, real world problems, its origins and core-competency lie in highly nonlinear transient dynamic finite element analysis (FEA) using explicit time integration. LS-DYNA is used by the automobile, aerospace, construction and civil engineering, military, manufacturing, and bioengineering industries.
In hydrodynamics, a plume or a column is a vertical body of one fluid moving through another. Several effects control the motion of the fluid, including momentum (inertia), diffusion and buoyancy. Pure jets and pure plumes define flows that are driven entirely by momentum and buoyancy effects, respectively. Flows between these two limits are usually described as forced plumes or buoyant jets. "Buoyancy is defined as being positive" when, in the absence of other forces or initial motion, the entering fluid would tend to rise. Situations where the density of the plume fluid is greater than its surroundings, but the flow has sufficient initial momentum to carry it some distance vertically, are described as being negatively buoyant.
Atmospheric dispersion modeling is the mathematical simulation of how air pollutants disperse in the ambient atmosphere. It is performed with computer programs that include algorithms to solve the mathematical equations that govern the pollutant dispersion. The dispersion models are used to estimate the downwind ambient concentration of air pollutants or toxins emitted from sources such as industrial plants, vehicular traffic or accidental chemical releases. They can also be used to predict future concentrations under specific scenarios. Therefore, they are the dominant type of model used in air quality policy making. They are most useful for pollutants that are dispersed over large distances and that may react in the atmosphere. For pollutants that have a very high spatio-temporal variability and for epidemiological studies statistical land-use regression models are also used.
Established in 1972, Rowan Williams Davies & Irwin Inc. (RWDI) is a Canadian engineering consulting firm that specializes in wind engineering and environmental engineering. The RWDI group of companies has offices in Canada, USA, United Kingdom, India, China, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Australia. The company's headquarters is based in Guelph, Ontario, Canada.
The National Atmospheric Release Advisory Center (NARAC) is located at the University of California's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. It is a national support and resource center for planning, real-time assessment, emergency response, and detailed studies of incidents involving a wide variety of hazards, including nuclear, radiological, chemical, biological, and natural emissions.
Reservoir simulation is an area of reservoir engineering in which computer models are used to predict the flow of fluids through porous media.
MERCURE is an atmospheric dispersion modeling CFD code developed by Électricité de France (EDF) and distributed by ARIA Technologies, a French company.
Specialized wind energy software applications aid in the development and operation of wind farms.
code_saturne is a general-purpose computational fluid dynamics free computer software package. Developed since 1997 at Électricité de France R&D, code_saturne is distributed under the GNU GPL licence. It is based on a co-located finite-volume approach that accepts meshes with any type of cell and any type of grid structure.
Quantitative risk assessment (QRA) software and methodologies give quantitative estimates of risks, given the parameters defining them. They are used in the financial sector, the chemical process industry, and other areas.
GoldSim is dynamic, probabilistic simulation software developed by GoldSim Technology Group. This general-purpose simulator is a hybrid of several simulation approaches, combining an extension of system dynamics with some aspects of discrete event simulation, and embedding the dynamic simulation engine within a Monte Carlo simulation framework.
CTAG is a computational fluid dynamics model for the behaviour of air pollutants on and near roadways.
CS Group, initially known as Communication & Systèmes (CS), is a French information-technology service company listed on the Paris Bourse as a member of the CAC Small index. The company designs information systems, develops and integrates software, manages projects and deploys industrial applications. Apart from that, it provides science, technology, and consulting services. CS Group is the French leader in air traffic control, the third-biggest supplier of traffic-management systems in the world and provides information technology consulting services.
MOOSE is an object-oriented C++ finite element framework for the development of tightly coupled multiphysics solvers from Idaho National Laboratory. MOOSE makes use of the PETSc non-linear solver package and libmesh to provide the finite element discretization.
WindStation is a wind energy software which uses computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to conduct wind resource assessments in complex terrain. The physical background and its numerical implementation are described in. and the official manual of the software.