Design Exploration and Optimization Tools Enhance CFD

Siemens PLM Software recently announced version 12.04 of its STAR-CCM+ software for multiphysics computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation and analysis. The company reports that v12.04 introduces two new capabilities intended to enable automated product design exploration and optimization: Design Manager and STAR-Innovate. The former is said to enable users to explore multiple design options within their CFD simulations. STAR-Innovate uses high-end design optimization technology found in the company’s HEEDS optimization software, a technology Siemens obtained as part of its 2016 acquisition of CD-adapco.

Version 12.04 of STAR-CCM+ software for multiphysics computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation and analysis debuts Design Manager, an integrated feature for automated product design exploration and optimization. Also new is STAR-Innovate, an add-on for exploring multiple design options within CFD simulations. Image courtesy of Siemens PLM Software.

Design Manager is an integrated feature that automates the systematic exploration of designs by evaluating variations in geometry and operating conditions, explains Siemens. With it, users can set up and evaluate families of designs directly within STAR-CCM+ automatically, including process management and performance assessment. Some of its capabilities are interactive 3D scene files, synchronized views as well as interactive tables and plots.

Using STAR-CCM+ v12.04’s new Design Manager capability, you can investigate differences and compare variants of one exploration project or even different projects in the same interface simultaneously. Image courtesy of Siemens PLM Software.

Design Manager, says Siemens, leverages the all-in-one platform, automated meshing, pipelined workflow and physics within STAR-CCM+ to overcome the complexities that have historically prevented many from using CFD simulation in this manner. Design Manager is included with every instance of STAR-CCM+ v12.04.

With the new Design Manager capability introduced in STAR-CCM+ v12.04, you can create design exploration projects with a single click. Among Design Manager’s features are interactive 3D scene files, synchronized views as well as interactive tables and plots. Image courtesy of Siemens PLM Software.

With the STAR-Innovate add-on, users can perform single- and multi-objective optimization studies to search their design space intelligently. It also provides stochastic analysis to help engineers and designers determine the sensitivity of their simulation predictions to small changes in input parameters, such as manufacturing tolerances on a critical dimension or fluctuations in boundary condition values.

STAR-CCM+ v12.04 introduces polyhedral DEM (discrete element method) particles, which lets you build or import a realistic representation as a geometric part. A polyhedral particle (left image) is said to be less computationally expensive than a comparable composite particle (right image). Polyhedral DEM particles are said to provide a more efficient solution and reduced simulation time. Images courtesy of Siemens PLM Software.

Among the other enhancements in STAR-CCM+ v12.04 are extended Query-Based Selection functionality and polyhedral DEM (discrete element method) particles. STAR-CCM+‘s Query-Based Selection function now can be applied to regions, boundaries, subgroups, interfaces and reports. This, the company explains in a blog post, eliminates the need to manually update part selections for these properties after a part was added, modified or removed. Replace Assemblies and 3D-CAD Part Synchronization can now also use Query-Based Selection.

Polyhedral DEM particles can help designers and engineers more accurately model real objects by enabling them to “put the corners back into particles,” according to Siemens in a blog post. Rather than working with a composite particle requiring many spheres to obtain a near-realistic shape, users can build or import a realistic representation as a geometric part, which then forms the basis of a particle. For many objects, this new polyhedral particle is said to be less computationally expensive than a composite particle, provides a more efficient solution and reduces simulation time.

“STAR-CCM+ is the only multiphysics CFD offering that seamlessly enables engineers to perform design exploration studies backed by an industrial-strength optimization tool like HEEDS,” said Jean-Claude Ercolanelli, senior VP of Product Management at Siemens PLM Software, in a press statement. “As a result, engineers can spend less time setting up and monitoring simulations, and more time assessing the outcomes to determine what makes good designs great. This is a game-changer.”

STAR-CCM+ is developed by Siemens’ product lifecycle management (PLM) software business and is part of the company’s Simcenter portfolio of simulation and test solutions.

For more information on STAR-CCM+, click here.

For a blog post on Design Manager, click here.

Check out a blog on the enhancements to Query-Based Selection.

This blog has more details on polyhedral DEM particles.

Watch an on-demand webinar introducing Design Manager.

Download the STAR-CCM+ brochure.

See why DE‘s Editors selected STAR-CCM+ v12.04 as their Pick of the Week.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.