Editor’s Pick: CD-adapco Releases STAR-CCM+ v8.02

Three times a year CD-adapco releases a major update to its STAR-CCM+ integrated multidisciplinary engineering solution. It just announced version 8.02, the first of this year. There’s a bunch of stuff going on here, so, for brevity’s sake, we’ll categorize the key areas of change broadly as usability, performance, and expanded coverage areas. Let’s give STAR-CCM+ v8.02 a quick run down with each of these in mind.

Usability: The company says that v8.02 reflects the first fruits of its “User Experience Team.” This team, if I have it right, scrutinizes everything about the software with an eye toward making your engineering simulation more effective and more productive. That implies more than just GUI enhancements, although the company reports that v8.02 has tweaks in that regard. Rather, productivity seems to be the big usability news in this version: Parts-based meshing, JT Open integration, and new surface preparation features.

Parts-based meshing lets you associate mesh definitions with geometric entities. This should give you better control, more automation, and faster performance. JT Open integration should cut import times from hours to minutes for importing large complex CAD assemblies. As an example, in the announcement webinar, the company said that a 2GB file that took hours to import in a recent version of STAR-CCM+ takes just four minutes to import in v8.02.

The new surface preparation functionality might be the sleeper with the greatest impact on your productivity. In a nutshell, this will help you spend less time cleaning up imported CAD geometry, especially large assemblies. It also introduces some Boolean operations to take on surface work.

Performance: V8.02 is said to improve runtimes for jobs dealing with things like SCR (selective catalytic reduction) devices and chemical sprays by at least a factor of 2.5 through Lagrangian and DEM (discrete element method) dynamic load balancing. CD-adapco has improved its AMG (algebraic multigrid) algorithm, resulting in faster simulation times for large-scale unsteady simulations such as aerodynamic and aero-acoustic analyses on high processor count clusters.

Expanded coverage: This is where version 8.02 sees a lot of interesting activity. First, there’s a new STAR-Cast add-on module. STAR-Cast brings you industrial casting simulation processes. It deploys a fully coupled computational continuum mechanics approach for performing multiphase casting simulations—liquid, solid, and gaseous. Next, there’s a coupling with AMESIM. This 1D multi-domain simulation tool enables simulations in such areas as hydraulics, IC engines, electro-magnetic and fuel injection systems. Additionally, the Fluid Film Model—think dew on your windshield—can now be used with the Moving Reference Frame model to simulate films on moving objects like pumps. The model can also now be used to simulate icing and de-icing effects.

You can learn more about STAR-CCM+ v8.02 from today’s Pick of the Week write-up. Take in the announcement webinar while you’re at it. It runs about 30 minutes. Hit the link over there to get started.

Thanks, Pal. — Lockwood

Anthony J. Lockwood

Editor at Large, Desktop Engineering

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