TUFLOW FV

"During the first half of 2021 the TUFLOW FV team have been busy with some great improvements and new features. Spoiler alert… the second half of 2021 will be big!!! We will be releasing highly anticipated new features, including the Water Quality module and an engine update that will achieve additional simulation speeds when distributing the compute load across multiple CPUs or GPUs.

Before we get into the details though, firstly we’d like to thank you for your excellent feedback and the support we’ve received on our new software features. Over the past eighteen months we have seen a large increase in the size of our user base. We are proud of the TUFLOW FV community and are always impressed and encouraged by the wide breadth of project applications we see TUFLOW FV being used for.

We’d like to wish you all the best for the remainder of 2021. We hope your modelling is going well. Remember you’re not alone out there, and if you need help we are always here to assist."     

Mitchell Smith and the TUFLOW FV Team

Staff Update

To support the growth of our user base, in April 2021 we welcomed Mengmeng Han to the TUFLOW FV software research, development and support team. Mengmeng has a background in offshore coastal engineering and research. She brings substantial experience in fluid mechanics, marine structures, and hydrodynamic modelling (including CFD) to the team. If you meet Mengmeng via support@tuflow.com please welcome her.

Software Release News

We released our 2020.03 update recently. It included a range of user enhancements, fixes and an Application Programming Interface (API) for external water quality models. This update is a precursor to the release of the Water Quality module later this year. It also provides a defined structure/format should you wish to dynamically link your own water quality models into TUFLOW FV. Please get in touch via support@tuflow.com if you're interested to learn more.

2021 is the year of Water Quality (WQ). Following the formalisation of our partnership with our long-term colleagues at the University of Western Australia, we have been busily working on the WQ module. The WQ module will allow users to undertake water quality modelling with ease using TUFLOW's familiar control file structure and format. Substantial effort is being invested into the simulation log and result reporting, and 3D visualisation within QGIS using TUFLOW Viewer. A core aspect of our work is focusing on ease of use. These developments will greatly improve industry access to state-of-the-art water quality modelling science. Internal alpha testing is underway at present with a release launch scheduled for later this year.

Speed is an important metric for computer science. Faster simulation, without compromising accuracy, enables higher quality assessments, whether it be through modelling at a higher cell resolution, greater extent or over a longer temporal scale.  High quality assessment outputs support informed evidence based decision making. In 2020 we achieved up to 100x simulation speed increase via the new GPU module. Benchmarking demonstrating these speed-up results are available in the TUFLOW Library. As impressive as this speed-up result is, it doesn't satisfy our hunger. To further improve speed performance, CPU compute scalability via domain decomposition techniques and the ability to run models using multiple parallel GPU cards is scheduled for release later this year.

External to TUFLOW FV, though still related to TUFLOW FV modelling, we have continued with the development of free Python libraries and GIS integration tools including the recent release of a suite of SWAN GIS Tools. The free tools assist with the development of coupled SWAN spectral wave / TUFLOW FV models, greatly improving the user experience and workflow efficiency.

Educational Resources

In addition to our software development activities, we have continued to work on building our user education database. We recently published free sediment transport, particle tracking and SWAN GIS tutorials. We have been busy running free monthly webinars through the Australian Water School. Notable past webinars that included TUFLOW FV modelling were, "3D Water Quality", "Sediment Transport" and "Introduction to Coastal Modelling". We will be running a session focusing on 3D freshwater lake water modelling later this year. To view recordings of past events or register for upcoming ones please visit the Webinar page of the TUFLOW Library.

On the training front, the second half of 2021 should see the announcement of new TUFLOW FV training courses, including e-learning training courses for core features such as meshing, hydrodynamic model setup, result visualisation and post-processing. Over time we will extend this training material to our key modules: advection dispersion, 3D, sediment transport and morphology, particle tracking and water quality. If there is particular training content you would like us to develop, please let us know.