The release of STAR-CCM+ version 10.06 will feature a new computational rheology simulation for non-Newtonian fluids. The release also focuses on multidisciplinary design eXploration (MDX) with fully-coupled fluid/structure analysis.

Joel Davison, lead product manager for STAR-CCM+, explained, “We have new capabilities and advanced technologies so users have real confidence in the results.”

Computational Rheology Fluid Flow Simulations

With the addition of computational rheology into STAR-CCM+, engineers can now simulate fluids that are dominated by diffusion and viscous or viscoelastic behavior.

Modeling these simulations are made possible thanks to STAR-CCM+’s finite element solver added in version 10.04.

This new simulation method will be useful to engineers in the consumer product, waste processing, and food and beverage industries who work with mixers, flow containers, slurries, extrusions and material processing.

A general guide for when a user should use STAR-CCM+’s computational rheology finite element solver vs a more conventional finite volume solver, according to the Reynolds Number (Re) of the fluid flow, is outlined below:

Use finite volume solver when Re>>1
- Newtonian
- Non-Newtonian
  - Power law
  - Cross Carreau-Yasuda
Use computational rheology finite element solver when Re ~ 1
- Non-Newtonian
  - Oldroyd-B
  - Giesekus-Leonov
  - Phan Thien–Tanner/Johnson-Segalman

“Computational rheology allows our customers to find solutions for a whole new category of applications ranging from extrusions to polymer and material processing, and they will benefit from this new technology without requiring an additional license,” said Jean-Claude Ercolanelli, senior vice president of product management at CD-adapco.

The computational rheology method is accessible using the STAR-CCM+ platform and can be used with all other STAR-CCM+ features.

Improved Fluid-Structure Coupling

Another addition to STAR-CCM+ allows users to set up a two-way coupling between fluids and structures.

This will help to improve the accuracy of simulating systems, such as a car driving through a puddle of water or a reactor vessel injected with water at ambient temperature undergoing thermal stress/strain.

“When you have the density of the solid and the density of the fluid fairly close, the forces on the fluid to the solid and the displacements back to the fluid tend to be highly coupled,” said Davison. “Solving these in a coupled manner was a challenge in the past.”

Davison noted that even analysts had a tough time simulating problems like this in STAR-CCM+. However, with this improvement, users can set up this problem without using multiple codes.

Improved Interface

The user interface has also changed in version 10.06 with an improved simulation tree. Many of the nodes have been folded into each other or moved to help improve the ease of use, also reducing mouse movements and clicks. Additionally, the Property Content menu has been reorganized, making properties easier to find.

Many core users accustomed to the previous arrangement might have a difficult time finding where their tools have been moved, although the workflow should improve over time. There will be a learning curve until users get used to the new system.

The manual surface repair tool has also seen a facelift in version 10.06. The changes are designed to also improve the workflow for both new and old users.

Users should be able to repair their triangulated surfaces with less hassle once they get used to the new interface design.

Parts-Based Workflow

“We are seeing a trend from our users to look at more and more sophisticated models and larger and larger assemblies of parts,” said Davison. “We saw we needed to change the code to get peak performance when using these parts.”

To assess this need, CD-adapco included multipart solids and parts-based profiles. The former is used to specify material properties based on CAD assembly while the latter uses CAD assemblies to specify physics values instead of working strictly from boundary to boundary.

New to version 10.06 is a parts-based interface. “This is on the solver side and has a significant speed up from these parts,” said Davison. “This has also improved the scalability of the model if you have thousands of cores you can work on.”

This release also includes a new method for finding holes and fillets in the CAD and removing them automatically. This will also be useful when dealing with large assemblies.

Much of the improvements to STAR-CCM+ in this release are evolutionary as opposed to revolutionary. This is to be expected as CD-adapco’s release cycle deploys three new versions of STAR-CCM+ a year. If there is to be a revolutionary release for STAR-CCM+ expect to see it soon in there 11.0 release.

Other improvements include:

Electrical conduction in solid shells
Improved multi-edit usability for better grouping of values
Filter improvements for repeat data in large assemblies (query-based selection, predictive typing, filter creation, tips)
Directed mesh with 2D source to allow you to use the 2D mesher as the source of a swept mesh.