Welcome back to our 2026x feature updates series. SIMULIA fluids modeling capabilities are wide and deep with multiple products on board. We cover a large spectrum in terms of fidelity and ease of use. On one side we have 3DExperience fluid dynamics engineer solution to model laminar and bounded flow types of problems in an environment suitable for design engineers. On the other side we have high-fidelity PowerFLOW and XFlow products to model highly transient and turbulent types of problems suitable for CFD specialists. This blog article covers the fluids modeling and plastics flow capabilities 2026x updates embedded in the 3DExperience platform.
Fluid Domain Creation: There are two main updates. In earlier release the opening of fluid domain to model inlets and outlets required closed edges support. That feature has been updated to support opening faces using lids. In earlier release, meshing is required to visualize the fluid domain that may have a time lag only to realize that domain is not defined as expected. The newer release allows users to visualize fluid domain with geometric support without executing mesh generation using conformal volumes. 2025xFD01
Fluid Meshing: Its now possible to define meshing parameters such as mesh size only once for the entire model instead of repeating the process for fluid and structural domain separately. This feature also ensures conformal mesh at the interface of fluids and structures for better performance of CHT models. 2025xFD01
Convergent Volume Meshing: This is a novel meshing technique for fluid domain that minimizes the number of elements for a given meshing parameter. The feature has been tested on couple of models and resulted in an average of 65 smaller mesh size compared to standard fluid meshing technique. 2025xFD01
Data Handling: In prior releases, the opening of simulation model from the server triggers import of mesh as well which can cause delays in case of bulky meshes. The latest release treats CFD mesh as a results entity stored in the results object instead of simulation model object. This obviates the download of mesh while opening the CFD model making it a faster task. 2025xFD02
CFD simulations are rich in results, particularly the contour-based results. Following are the key updates on the post processing side of the application in the 2026x release.
Contour plots at cross sections: Users can create contours of flow at any arbitrary cross section of the model using both planar as well as non-planar cuts. Both single cuts and multiple cuts features are supported. Custom sensors can now measure relative outputs such as temperature difference between two locations instead of an absolute value at given location.
Iso-Surface contours: This feature has been recently introduced though this is a trivial requirement in a CFD output. The user can specify a given temperature within the upper and lower bound to request an iso-surface contour. The results explorer app uses interpolation methods to extract an iso-surface between nodes and displays it as an output.
Path creation features: This feature is related to the path definition for history plots. The latest release can create a path based on intersection of surface with the sectioned plane. Its an interesting application for aerodynamics design where wing profile is a strong design parameter for airworthiness. 2025xFD02
Streamlines Enhancement: The fluid dynamics engineer role introduced rotating components boundary conditions few years ago to model fans and motors. The output velocity profiles did not support streamlines through the component. The streamlines stopped at the boundary. Now the streamlines can extend all the way to center of rotatory flow. Number of seeds for streamline can also be increased on the fly. 2025xFD03
KPI based stopping criteria: The history output feature can be used as support to define a stopping criterion. This terminates the simulation when the desired response reaches a steady state value and further computations are not required. In case of multiple such criterion, all must be satisfied before simulation terminates. 2026xGA
Time Averaging of Results: The transient phase of flow is characterized by rapid changes in pressures, velocities and temperatures. The resulting history plots can be noisy without any filtering. The time averaging measurement has been introduced as a filter to perform time step or iteration-based averaging of a given output while plotting it. 2026xGA
3DExperience Plastic Injection Modeling Enhancements 2026x
CAD Modeling App: The plastics injection engineer role now includes the geometry idealization essentials app to create, edit and simplify geometric features. This may help the users who do not have the Plastics Engineer Designer role and yet require geometry creation or idealization tools to utilize the simulation role efficiently. The CAD data imported into the 3DExperience platform from third party sources often require editing and fixing that can be done using the geometry idealization essentials app. 2025xGA
Material Database Update: A flagship feature of Plastics Injection Engineer role is its vast material database in collaboration with major plastics material manufacturers. This database has Physics based material properties of all Plastics grades that are essential inputs for simulations. In this release 29 new polymer grades from SABIC have been introduced, 10 grades updated and 4 obsolete grades removed. 2025x FD01
Mesh Diagnostics Updates: Negative volume elements can now be identified during mesh diagnostics that prompt the user to rectify the mesh and avoid simulation failures while solving. 2025xFD02
Convergence Volume Meshing: It’s a new meshing technique that creates meshes with lesser number of elements for similar meshing parameters. An additional advantage is greater robustness in conformal meshes between plastics domain and its surroundings such as cooling channels, inserts, runners etc. 2025xFD04
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