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Tutorials
Tutorials show you how to use Simcenter STAR-CCM+ for various applications in a step-by-step format with recommendations for setup, initialization and steps of the solution process specific to the application. Macro and simulation files are available for download for a large proportion of cases.
Motion
The tutorials in this set illustrate various STAR-CCM+ features for simulating problems with moving geometries and meshes, dynamic fluid body interaction, and rigid body motion:
Overset Mesh Small Gap Modeling: Lobe Blower
Rotary lobe blowers are valveless positive-displacement units. Fluid is pumped by two counter-rotating lobes that are mounted on parallel shafts. Fluid enters through the expanding volume at the suction side of the pump. As the lobes continue to rotate, the fluid is compressed between the lobes and the pump casing and hence transported towards the discharge.

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Tutorials
Tutorials show you how to use Simcenter STAR-CCM+ for various applications in a step-by-step format with recommendations for setup, initialization and steps of the solution process specific to the application. Macro and simulation files are available for download for a large proportion of cases.
- Using Tutorial Macros and Files
  Macros, input files, and final simulation files for a range of tutorials are provided as an optional download package on the Support Center website. These macros and final simulation files are provided as an aid to the written tutorials, so that you can check your final results against the downloaded files, or against a simulation that is built and run using the macros.
- Introduction
  Welcome to the Simcenter STAR-CCM+ introductory tutorial. In this tutorial, you explore the important concepts and workflow. Complete this tutorial before attempting any others.
- Foundation Tutorials
  The foundation tutorials showcase the major features of Simcenter STAR-CCM+ in a series of short tutorials.
- Geometry
  The tutorials in this set illustrate various Simcenter STAR-CCM+ features for creating and working with parts and 3D-CAD.
- Mesh
  The tutorials in this set illustrate various STAR-CCM+ features for building CFD meshes.
- Incompressible Flow
  The tutorials in this set illustrate various Simcenter STAR-CCM+ features for incompressible fluid flows as well as porosity and solution recording
- Compressible Flow
  The tutorials in this set illustrate various Simcenter STAR-CCM+ features for compressible fluid flows as well as harmonic balance.
- Heat Transfer and Radiation
  The tutorials in this set illustrate various Simcenter STAR-CCM+ features for heat transfer, radiation, and thermal comfort.
- Multiphase Flow
  The tutorials in this set illustrate various Simcenter STAR-CCM+ features for simulating multiphase fluid flow problems
- Discrete Element Method
  The tutorials in this set illustrate various Simcenter STAR-CCM+ features for simulating Discrete Element Method problems
- Motion
  The tutorials in this set illustrate various STAR-CCM+ features for simulating problems with moving geometries and meshes, dynamic fluid body interaction, and rigid body motion:
  - Moving Reference Frames: Rotating Fan
    This tutorial outlines the steps that are required to set up and run a rotating radial fan analysis. It uses the Moving Reference Frame model, a steady-state approach that involves two or more frames of reference that can be stationary or moving relative to each other.
  - Rigid Body Motion: Rotating Fan
    This tutorial models the same radial fan problem as the Moving Reference Frames: Rotating Fan tutorial. However, instead of using the steady-state moving reference frame model, this tutorial uses the transient Rigid Body Motion model with actual mesh rotation.
  - DFBI: Lifeboat with Overset Mesh
    This tutorial demonstrates use of the Overset Mesh feature with free surface flow and DFBI to model the motion of a lifeboat falling into water. Simcenter STAR-CCM+ automates the grid overlapping process.
  - DFBI and AMR: Boat In Parameterized Waves
    In Dynamic Fluid-Body Interaction (DFBI) simulations, you can use Adaptive Mesh Refinement (AMR) to dynamically refine the mesh around a moving 6-DOF body based on the computed flow solution.
  - Marine Resistance Prediction: KCS Hull with a Rudder
    This tutorial demonstrates the workflow for setting up a resistance prediction simulation for a marine application.
  - Moving Reference Frames: Marine Propeller in Open Water
    This tutorial demonstrates the workflow for setting up an open water simulation for a marine propeller.
  - Body Force Propeller Method: Marine Self-Propulsion
    One of the challenges in marine engineering is to predict the speed with which a ship hull moves through water in response to the thrust supplied by a spinning propeller. Simcenter STAR-CCM+ provides a methodology by which you can predict this speed.
  - Blade Element Method: Helicopter Rotor-Fuselage Interaction
    The rotating main rotor blades of a helicopter generate a complex flow field that leads to periodic aerodynamic loads on the airframe. Because of these aerodynamic loads, the passenger cabin can be subject to noise and vibration. These aerodynamic interactions affect the performance of helicopters and they can cause structural damage. Simcenter STAR-CCM+ provides a method for simulating the flow generated by rotor blades that does not require you to mesh the blades individually. This method allows you to predict the complex flow field around a helicopter taking into account the fuselage and rotor flow field interaction.
  - Morphing: Cylinder with Boundary Motion
    Simcenter STAR-CCM+ contains a Morphing Motion Model that enables you to define motion on boundary surfaces using several methods.
  - Overset Mesh Small Gap Modeling: Lobe Blower
    Rotary lobe blowers are valveless positive-displacement units. Fluid is pumped by two counter-rotating lobes that are mounted on parallel shafts. Fluid enters through the expanding volume at the suction side of the pump. As the lobes continue to rotate, the fluid is compressed between the lobes and the pump casing and hence transported towards the discharge.
    - Importing the Background and the Overset Meshes
      For this tutorial, you are provided with an input file that contains three meshes—one background mesh and two overset meshes. Inflow and outflow occurs through the background mesh. Each of the rotating lobes has an overset mesh. The meshes are available as regions with the individual boundary surfaces and boundary types defined.
    - Selecting the Physics Models
      As this simulation involves moving parts in real time the implicit unsteady solver is selected. Air is modeled as ideal gas with default material properties. The air flow is turbulent.
    - Defining the Lobe Rotations
      You set Lobe 1 to rotate around the Z axis of the laboratory coordinate system with a rotation rate of 500 rpm. Lobe 2 rotates in the opposite direction at the same rate.
    - Creating the Overset Mesh Interfaces with Prism Layer Shrinkage
      The overset mesh approach generally requires one static mesh, (the background mesh), and one or more overset meshes that contain the surfaces describing the moving geometry. The overset meshes overlap with the background mesh and can also overlap with each other.
    - Defining the Overset Topology
      The overset topology setting instructs the overset hole cutting algorithm where to search for the overset boundary in the course of the simulation. Here, the two overset regions enclosing the lobes are not completely surrounded by an overset boundary. The top and bottom boundaries are wall boundaries. Therefore, the hole cutting algorithm requires the direction in which the overset boundary appears to be closed.
    - Setting Overset Properties on Boundaries
      The boundary types are already set on the tutorial input file. Prism layer shrinkage properties must be set on boundaries that are expected to approach others in close proximity.
    - Performing a Mesh Preview Run
      You are advised to perform a mesh preview run before performing a full transient physics simulation with motion. A mesh preview run simulates the mesh motion only without any physics models involved. This approach allows you to analyze and verify the mesh motion that you define. A simulation without physics runs much faster and lets you trouble-shoot possible motion or meshing errors. For a mesh preview run, you define the motion and assign it to the moving regions of the mesh. Then, you employ the unsteady solver with a large time-step.
    - Visualizing the Velocity Distribution
      You visualize the velocity distribution inside the pump on a mid-section through the geometry in the form of velocity contours.
    - Visualizing the Gap Distance between the Lobes
      You use the overset gap distance field function to monitor the distance between the rotating lobes in the course of the simulation. You create a report that outputs the minimum distance between the two lobe wall boundaries. You also visualize the plot of this report over time as an annotation to the gap distance scene.
    - Running the Simulation
      The transient simulation runs for a physical time duration of 1 s with a time-step of $4 \cdot 10^{- 4}$ s. The solver performs 10 iterations per time-step.
    - Analyzing the Results
      You can follow the progress of the solution using each of scenes that you created previously.
  - Trajectory Motion: Paint Dipping of a Chassis on a Fixed Skid
    Paint dipping is a process by which a component is coated with paint in a dipping tank. Simcenter STAR-CCM+ allows you to simulate this process and therefore study the effects of different trajectories and component speeds.
  - General Remesh: Gerotor Pump with Small Gap
    A Gerotor pump is a unit with an inner and an outer rotor that have different rotational speeds related to their tooth numbers. The dynamically changing volume between the rotors transports the liquid from inlet to outlet.
- Reacting Flow
  The tutorials in this set illustrate various Simcenter STAR-CCM+ features for simulating reacting flows such as combustion.
- Solid Stress
  The tutorials in this set illustrate various Simcenter STAR-CCM+ features for computing deformation, strain, and stresses in solid regions. They also show how such computations can be coupled to the fluid behavior in an analysis of fluid-structure interaction.
- Aeroacoustics
  The tutorials in this set illustrate various Simcenter STAR-CCM+ features for solving aeroacoustic simulations.
- Electromagnetism
  The following tutorials illustrate features for solving problems that involve electromagnetic fields.
- Electrochemistry
  The following tutorial demonstrates chemical reactions induced by an electrical current.
- Battery
  The tutorials in this set illustrate various Simcenter STAR-CCM+ features for setting up a battery model:
- Automation
  The tutorials in this set illustrate various Simcenter STAR-CCM+ automation and macro features.
- Design Exploration
  The tutorials in this set illustrate various features for running design exploration studies in Design Manager.
- Coupling with CAE Codes
  The tutorials in this set illustrate various Simcenter STAR-CCM+ features for coupling with CAE codes:
- Analysis Methods
  The tutorials in this set illustrate various Simcenter STAR-CCM+ features for analysing and visualizing simulation data.
- Simcenter STAR-CCM+ In-cylinder
  The tutorials in this set illustrate features for simulating internal combustion engines in Simcenter STAR-CCM+ using the dedicated add-on Simcenter STAR-CCM+ In-cylinder.

Overset Mesh Small Gap Modeling: Lobe Blower

Rotary lobe blowers are valveless positive-displacement units. Fluid is pumped by two counter-rotating lobes that are mounted on parallel shafts. Fluid enters through the expanding volume at the suction side of the pump. As the lobes continue to rotate, the fluid is compressed between the lobes and the pump casing and hence transported towards the discharge.

This tutorial demonstrates the workflow for setting up an overset mesh simulation that models air flow through a lobe blower. The following diagram shows the lobe blower geometry:

Air enters the computational domain through a stagnation inlet boundary. After passing through the rotating lobes, which both rotate at 500 rpm in opposite directions, the air leaves through a pressure boundary. The casing is a static wall boundary.

The motion of the lobes is modeled by using rigid body rotation applied to overset mesh regions surrounding each lobe. Both lobe meshes—the overset meshes—overlap with each other as they rotate. They also overlap with the background mesh for the inflow and outflow channel. To handle small gaps that occur between the lobes or between the lobes and the casing, Simcenter STAR-CCM+ provides a prism layer shrinkage mechanism. Prism layer shrinkage redistributes prism layer cells in small gaps thus maintaining a good mesh quality.

For more information on prism layer shrinkage, see Prism Layer Shrinkage.