Editor’s Pick: Design Exploration and Optimization Tools Enhance CFD

Dear DE Reader:

When Siemens PLM Software acquired CD-adapco, some bloviating pinheads like me wondered what would happen to CD-adapco's respected line of high-powered software. Turns out, good things. The latest release of STAR-CCM+ software for multiphysics computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation and analysis exemplifies that.

Now, right from Day One, STAR-CCM+ has been engineered so that engineers can—like, you know—be engineers instead of code mavens doing some engineering. That philosophy has evolved over the years to go beyond a single simulation toolkit to a multidisciplinary platform that handles all sorts of physics phenomenon for things like aeroacoustics, electromagnetics, rheology, solid mechanics and so on. Really, except when you use STAR-CCM+ to run a single-physics study, the only thing single about it is the single interface you work with regardless of your area of interest.

Version 12.04 of STAR-CCM+ software for multiphysics computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation and analysis debuts Design Manager. This integrated feature for automated product design exploration and optimization enables you to investigate differences and compare variants of one exploration project or even different projects in the same interface simultaneously. Image courtesy of Siemens PLM Software.

STAR-CCM+ v12.04 seems to have again moved the boundaries of what constitutes a multidisciplinary platform with its introduction of two capabilities. One is called Design Manager and the other STAR-Innovate. Both are highly automated features enabling product design exploration and optimization.

Design Manager is fully integrated into STAR-CCM+ v12.04. It's intended to help you explore multiple design options within your CFD simulations. It presents an automated, methodical approach that explores designs directly within STAR-CCM+. It evaluates variations in geometry and operating conditions, and you can use it on design families, including process management and performance assessment.

STAR-Innovate is an add-on based on Siemens' HEEDS high-end optimization technology. It's meant to take design exploration further by letting you search your design space intelligently. Aside: You'll find a link in today's main write-up for more on HEEDS' capabilities.

You use STAR-Innovate to perform optimization studies on a single part as well as complex systems. It comes with stochastic analysis capabilities. That means you can also determine how sensitive your simulation predictions are to small changes in input parameters like manufacturing tolerances on some dimension or fluctuations in boundary condition values.

Another neat enhancement in STAR-CCM+ v12.04 is new polyhedral particles for running DEM (discrete element method) models on granular stuff like rocks, powder, diet pills and the like. You can read more about that in today's main write-up and from a blog post linked at the end. Make sure to take in the on-demand webinar on STAR-CCM+'s Design Manager. Hit today's Editors Pick of the Week link to get started. Good stuff.

Thanks, Pal. – Lockwood

Anthony J. Lockwood

Editor at Large, DE