The Bramble Story
bramble started out with a vision – to create a CFD platform that let you focus on engineering. Our engineers wanted to streamline the whole CFD process, freeing up time to allow engineers to spend that time focusing on innovation.
But let us first go back to the beginning. Although bramble is a fairly new kid on the block, our story starts over 25 years ago…
25 Years Ago
Our group of CFD engineers started out in 1997, in a company called Advantage CFD running simulations for Reynard Motorsport.
Five years later Advantage CFD was employing 25 staff in 5 teams – two consultancy projects teams working on customer projects, two F1 project teams working on the BAR Honda F1 car, and a software development team writing in-house software to enhance and automate all stages of the CFD process.
The Advantage CFD team →
← The TotalSim family on a day out in 2017
is Launched
In March 2007, they left Honda F1 and formed
TotalSim Ltd, going on to became world leaders
in Computational Fluid Dynamics.
Desire swiftly grew at TotalSim for a CFD platform
that would maximise the value of simulation for
their customers.
is Launched
In March 2007, they left Honda F1 and formed
TotalSim Ltd, going on to became world leaders
in Computational Fluid Dynamics.
Desire swiftly grew at TotalSim for a CFD platform
that would maximise the value of simulation for
their customers.
← The TotalSim family on a day out in 2017
is Born
is BornSo in 2022, with 25 years of CFD expertise under
our belts and 5 years worth of developing, bramble was launched.
Designed to boost productivity, increase customer
engagement and enable best practice simulation.
Team building day with bramble CFD and the whole TotalSim family →
Meet our Managers
Rob Lewis
Managing Director of the TotalSim Group
Rob has a PhD from the University of Leeds and is a Fellow of the Institute of Mechanical Engineering and the Institution of Engineering and Technology.
Rob was at the forefront of CFD use within Formula 1 during 1990s and early 21st century at British American Racing and Honda F1. His company, AdvantageCFD succeeded in setting the standard in motorsport CFD from inception to its closure in 2007.
In late 1997, Rob left FLUENT to start AdvantageCFD with Adrian Reynard at Reynard Motorsports. Here they supported all of Reynard Motorsports designs from Champ Car to the BAR F1 cars. By 2006, the organisation had become an essential part of Honda F1 aerodynamics department and employed 25 people.
The Honda F1 Racing Team then moved away from any outside consulting. This gave Rob and some of the team at A-CFD the chance to continue working with their clients by creating TotalSim Ltd, the parent company of bramble CFD.
In the Queen’s Birthday Honours List 2017 Rob was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire. In October 2017 Rob received his award from HRH The Princess Royal at Buckingham Palace.
The OBE has been awarded for services to science applied to sport in recognition of Rob’s contribution to the performance of British athletes’ over the last 3 Olympic campaigns.
Ivor Annetts
Bramble CFD Group Leader
Ivor has a Masters (MSc) in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Manchester. As well as 19 years of experience in aerodynamics, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and software development.
Ivor started his career as a CFD Engineer at BAR Honda F1 Team in 2004 before leaving to join TotalSim as its first employee in 2007.
TotalSim are a world renowned CFD consultancy specialising in automotive and motorsport projects. Ivor worked as a CFD Engineer and then Project Lead on a range of applications including different tiers of motorsport from classic F1 to Le Mans prototypes and WRC.
In 2015, TotalSim started the development of database driven CFD process that would allow our engineers to create and run simulations quickly and easily and also manage the large datasets that are generated. This project became known as bramble. Ivor took over the development and management of bramble in 2017 and continues in this role today.
In 2022, Bramble CFD was spun out from TotalSim as a separate company providing bramble not only to the TotalSim Group, but external customers including famous OEM automotive companies, a range of motorsport teams and elite cycling squads. The team has grown to 10 people including developers, HPC and CFD specialists.