Specifying the Coupled Boundaries

Set up co-simulation zones to couple Simcenter STAR-CCM+ boundaries with their partner Abaqus surfaces or nodes.

You can define multiple co-simulation zones to apply different conditions on different sets of coupled boundaries. The fields that are exchanged between the codes, and the mapper settings, are set independently for each co-simulation zone.

By default, the External Links > [Link 1] > Zones node contains one co-simulation zone. To create additional zones:
  • Right-click the Zones node and select New.

To couple a Simcenter STAR-CCM+ boundary with an Abaqus surface, or node:

  1. Expand the Regions > [Region] > Boundaries node.
  2. Expand the boundary that you want to couple with Abaqus.
  3. Select the Physics Conditions > External Code Coupling Specification node and assign the boundary to a co-simulation zone through the External Code Coupling Specification property.
    Simcenter STAR-CCM+ automatically adds the boundary under the corresponding [Zone] > Conditions > Coupled Model Parts node.
To specify whether the boundary couples with a surface or a node on the Abaqus model:
  1. Expand the [Link 1] > Zones > [Zone] node.
  2. Select the Conditions > External Part Setting node and set Abaqus Region Type to one of the following options:
    • To couple with an Abaqus surface, set Option to Surface Zone.
    • To couple with an Abaqus node, set Option to Point Zone.
  3. To specify the Abaqus surface or node that is coupled to the zone use one of the following options:
    • Rename the [Zone] node to the name of the relevant Abaqus surface or node.

      By default the [Zone] name is automatically coupled to the Abaqus Region Name on the External Part Setting node. If you do not want the [Zone] name and Abaqus Region Name to be the same:

    • Select Conditions > External Part Setting and set Abaqus Region Name to the name of the relevant Abaqus surface or node.
    When you define the name of the zone the you should:
    • Always use capital letters.
    • Only use underscores ( _ ).
    • If there is no Assembly defined in the Abaqus model, include the prefix ASSEMBLY_.

    If these rules are not followed, Simcenter STAR-CCM+ will automatically convert the name to the Abaqus convention. If you do not want to Simcenter STAR-CCM+ to convert the name, case sensitive naming may be used by closing the same in quotation marks. For example "ASSEMBLY_parts".

    If Write Abaqus Keywords is on, Simcenter STAR-CCM+ uses the zone name to define the Abaqus co-simulation region in the Abaqus input file.

    For information on how to define co-simulation regions in Abaqus, see Specifying Co-Simulation Settings in Abaqus.

  4. If you wish to couple other Simcenter STAR-CCM+ boundaries with Abaqus using different co-simulation settings, for example different import/export specification, create a new co-simulation zone and repeat the previous steps to specify the coupled boundaries.
    To verify that the Simcenter STAR-CCM+ coupled boundaries and the Abaqus coupled surface/node are co-located, import the Abaqus model and inspect the fluid-structure interface in a scene.

    For information on how to specify the exchanged fields for a co-simulation zone, see Specifying Exported and Imported Fields.