Researchers in Professor Fred Stern's lab use simulation-based design to develop a safer, less expensive way to design modern high-performance naval vessels.

Under Stern’s leadership, researchers at IIHR—Hydroscience & Engineering have developed a groundbreaking computer code, CFDShip-Iowa, simulating air and water flow around a virtual ship. This Reynolds-averaged Navier Stokes computer program allows researchers to predict the performance of a virtual ship prototype under different conditions. CFDShip-Iowa is the most advanced computational fluid dynamic (CFD) computer code in the world for ship hydrodynamics. Already in use in several navy design efforts, CFDShip-Iowa is one important reason IIHR remains a leader in hydrodynamic research sponsored by the Office of Naval Research.