Why is our latest foundation release for zCFD, our GPU high performance fluid dynamics solver so important? zCFD product lead Tom Wainwright, who has been busy on the updates explains why it matters …

Many software releases focus on flashy new features that change a tool overnight. At Zenotech, we’ve had our share of those in the past. Our DG solver, the overset grid functionality, overlapped IO were all major steps forward for zCFD.

But sometimes the significant updates are the quieter ones.

Our latest release, zCFD 2025.09.x, isn’t about headline features. Instead, it’s about setting the stage for what comes next. Think of it like Apple’s Snow Leopard release back in 2009, which wasn’t packed with new features, but made up for it with value. That release laid the groundwork for years of progress on macOS.

We hope to build a similar foundation with this update.

What do the upgrades mean? 

Here’s what we’ve been working on behind the scenes:

• Improved stability and performance: We’ve brought our support in line with the latest ParaView 6.0 release.
• Usability step-up: We now use the completely revamped Catalyst 2.0 API for in-situ visualisation.
• Fast and forward-looking: We’ve made toolchain updates and upgraded our compilers and CUDA support to target NVIDIA’s latest hardware.
• Quicker to download, faster to install: By trimming unnecessary dependencies, we’ve made the install package lighter.

Beyond the backend work, you’ll notice user-facing improvements, including:

• We’ve added new acoustic post-processing tools to zutil, making it easier to generate commonly used plots.
• The Cylinder FWH tutorial has been updated to showcase the new workflow and the improved run_fwh function.
• We’ve added a new test case on our website showing how zCFD has been used to perform simulations of large wind turbine blades in a moving reference frame.

What’s next?

Now that the heavy lifting under the hood is done, we’re shifting focus to new features.

• A reworked immersed boundary formulation, inspired by the approach used in HiPer.
• The addition of our coupled incompressible solver, improving simulation times for automotive, industrial, and low speed aerodynamics.

Download the latest zCFD release here.

Stay tuned. This release might have been a quiet one, but it’s a big step forward for what’s coming next …