Case Study: Fallbrook Technologies achieves accurate traction oil distribution prediction with Altair nanoFluidX and cloud HPC

Simulating Lubrication Flow to Predict Traction Oil Distribution Inside a NuVinci® Product

Fallbrook Technologies Inc., developer of the NuVinci® continuously variable planetary (CVP) transmission, needed to predict traction oil distribution to improve lubrication, efficiency, durability and cost of its products. To address this challenge Fallbrook partnered with Altair, using Altair nanoFluidX for SPH-based CFD together with Altair PBS Professional and Altair’s cloud GPU HPC services to run and manage the complex simulations.

Altair delivered a cloud-based, GPU‑optimized workflow (nanoFluidX with PBS Professional and models prepared in Altair SimLab) running on eight NVIDIA Tesla V100 GPUs, simulating splash lubrication at ~30 m/s with 12 imposed motions and more than 20 million particles. The solution produced overnight results that let Fallbrook visualize and validate oil distribution, accelerate design iterations, and do so cost‑effectively for a small business, while remote PBS access and Altair support simplified monitoring and troubleshooting.

Fallbrook Technologies

Brad Pohl

Chief Engineer, Advanced Engineering