FSI Remeshing and Tessellated Geometry Parts Contact: Rubber Sleeve

Simcenter STAR-CCM+ allows you to model the mechanical contact between a deformable structure and the tessellated surfaces of geometry parts within the simulation. This is useful to simulate the interaction between an elastic solid and a rigid obstacle, without modeling the obstacle explicitly.

In this tutorial, you model the contact between a deformable sleeve and the rigid components within a cleaning nozzle. The geometry consists of three parts: a connector, a rubber sleeve, and a nozzle.

The elastic rubber sleeve seals the assembly and acts as a valve. When the cleaning system is activated, a pump switches on and pressurizes the fluid in the nozzle. The sleeve deforms due to the fluid pressure. You model the contact between the sleeve and connector, and between the sleeve and nozzle. After you define the contacts, you apply a load to the rubber sleeve to simulate the sleeve deformation when the pump is activated. This results in a path beneath the sleeve, allowing the fluid to travel to the nozzle outlet:

When simulating large deformations, the mesh quality may deteriorate due to the morphing motion. In the nozzle, the deformation of the sleeve leads to a reduced mesh quality in the fluid region. In order to obtain a desirable mesh after deforming the geometry, you remesh the fluid domain.

Due to the concentric design of the cleaning nozzle, you only model a quarter of the nozzle geometry to reduce the cell count and run-time. Additionally, you assume that the deformation can be modelled with a one-way coupled approach, where you model the effects of the solid deformation on the fluid while neglecting the effect of the fluid on the solid.