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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.
Battery
The tutorials in this set illustrate various Simcenter STAR-CCM+ features for setting up a battery model:
Electro-Thermal Modeling: Battery Pack Cooling
The design of battery pack thermal management is critical in order to ensure that the battery pack operates in a safe temperature range. The objective is to prevent any part of the pack from overheating or from operating in too low temperature conditions. If the battery pack is not sized accordingly, the temperature can accelerate its aging, create an imbalance of the modules and cells in the pack, or lead to hazardous situations.

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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:
- 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:
  - Electro-Thermal Modeling: Battery Pack Cooling
    The design of battery pack thermal management is critical in order to ensure that the battery pack operates in a safe temperature range. The objective is to prevent any part of the pack from overheating or from operating in too low temperature conditions. If the battery pack is not sized accordingly, the temperature can accelerate its aging, create an imbalance of the modules and cells in the pack, or lead to hazardous situations.
    - Loading the Starting Simulation File
      You are provided with a starting simulation file that contains the battery geometry— plate with coolant fluid inside, one initial battery cell, and an initial set of tabs and busbars—and pre-defined surface pattern mesh operations. You use these pattern mesh operations later on to complete the battery pack geometry.
    - Selecting the Physics Models and Material Properties
      For this unsteady electro-thermal battery simulation, you use the Battery model in conjunction with the Circuit model for the solid battery. You define the battery components—cell, plate, tabs, and busbars—as a multi-part solid. The coolant is defined as a constant density liquid.
    - Defining the Coolant Region
      To cool the battery pack, cooling liquid flows through a coolant channel inside the plate with a mass flow rate of 0.15 kg/s and at an inflow temperature of 27 °C. The flow leaves the coolant channel through a pressure outlet.
    - Completing the Geometry by Using Linear Patterns
      The initial geometry on the starting simulation file consists of only one battery cell that is placed on the plate and an initial set of tabs. You use the pre-defined linear pattern mesh operations to pattern the cell and the tabs across the plate.
    - Defining the Pack Region
      The pack region is of type solid. You associate the individual battery components with their material properties from the physics continuum: the plate is made of aluminum, the busbars and the tabs are made of copper, and the battery cells are made of a composite material definition, which represents the mixture of all the materials used to manufacture a cell.
    - Generating the Volume Mesh And Interfaces
      You generate a polyhedral mesh for the fluid and the solids with conformal interfaces between them to compute the conjugate heat transfer. For the tabs and the busbars, you use the Thin Mesher.
    - Configuring the Battery Cells
      You create a battery cell using the 0D RCR model in Simcenter STAR-CCM+. Although there are 16 battery cells in the pack, you do not need to create 16 battery cells—since all 16 cells are equivalent, you reuse this battery cell definition for all 16 cells within both modules.
    - Defining the Battery Modules
      You define two battery modules—each with four battery cells in series and two in parallel, then you specify the geometry parts for each of the cells in both modules.
    - Creating the Circuit
      You use the circuit editor to create connections, which join the two modules in parallel, with a table that runs a World-wide harmonized Light duty Test Cycle (WLTC) on the battery pack.
    - Setting the Solver Parameters and Stopping Criteria
      You set the simulation to stop after 331.0 seconds with a time-step of 1.0 second.
    - Setting Up Reports
    - Creating Monitors and Plots
      You create monitors and plots to display the current within the two modules, the state of charge of the battery cells, the pack voltage, the battery volumetric heat, and the average cell temperature.
    - Visualizing the Coolant Flow and Battery Temperature Distribution
      You create a scalar scene to display the pressure and velocity within the cooling channel, and a scalar scene to display the temperature of the battery components.
    - Running the Simulation and Viewing the Results
      Once the simulation is complete, you can view the results in the plots and scenes.
  - Thermal Runaway: Battery Pack Heat Release and Venting
    Thermal runaway in batteries occurs when a battery cell overheats due to thermal or mechanical failure, short-circuiting, or overcharging/over-discharging. At elevated temperatures, the battery cell materials can start to decompose in exothermic reactions, leading to self-heating behavior. When the self-heating of the battery cell exceeds the rate at which heat can be dissipated to the surroundings, the cell temperature rises exponentially, the battery structure can rupture, and all remaining thermal and electrochemical energy is released to the surroundings.
  - Simcenter STAR-CCM+ Batteries: Cell Thermal Analysis
    This tutorial introduces the battery modeling capabilities of Simcenter STAR-CCM+. It simulates the battery heat generation that occurs during the first 90 seconds of a discharge cycle.
  - Cylindrical Cells: Cell Thermal Analysis
    This tutorial demonstrates how to model a battery module in Simcenter STAR-CCM+ using cylindrical cells. It simulates three cylindrical cells in series in a staggered configuration with an external casing.
  - Li-Ion Battery Cell Model: Cell Electrochemistry Analysis
    In this tutorial, you model a Li-Ion battery cell at the microscale level. The simulation introduces the method for the prediction of the three-dimensional microstructure of porous battery electrodes.
- 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.

Electro-Thermal Modeling: Battery Pack Cooling

The design of battery pack thermal management is critical in order to ensure that the battery pack operates in a safe temperature range. The objective is to prevent any part of the pack from overheating or from operating in too low temperature conditions. If the battery pack is not sized accordingly, the temperature can accelerate its aging, create an imbalance of the modules and cells in the pack, or lead to hazardous situations.

This tutorial demonstrates the workflow for setting up a Simcenter STAR-CCM+model to perform a battery pack cooling analysis of an electrified vehicle. You use the new Simcenter STAR-CCM+ Batteries workflow, which does not require any input files from Simcenter Battery Design Studio.This workflow allows you to perform an electro-thermal simulation where a tight coupling between the electrical behavior of the cell and its thermal response is operated. Therefore, Simcenter STAR-CCM+ provides you with a tool to study the performance of a cooling strategy or a cooling system design for managing situations such as fast charge or drive cycles in various conditions.

In this tutorial you simulate a small battery pack consisting of two modules lying on a liquid cooling plate. Each of the modules contains four cells connected in series into two parallel strings.

The following image shows the battery pack geometry:

You use the Equivalent Circuit Model in Simcenter STAR-CCM+ to perform the electro-thermal analysis. This model is of type resistance capacitance resistance (RCR) and uses hybrid pulse power characterization (HPPC) type test data to characterize the battery cell internal behavior. To capture diffusion effects, the model uses two RC elements. To model temperature dependency accurately, the model has four temperature levels from 10 °C to 50 °C.

The battery pack characteristics are as follows:


Pack	2 modules, each with 8 cells
Nominal cell voltage	3.5 V/cell
Nominal pack voltage	28 V = 3.5 V/cell x 4 cells in series x 2 modules in series
Capacity per cell	50 Ah/cell
Module capacity	100 Ah = 50 Ah x 2 strings in parallel
Pack energy	2.8 kWh = 100 Ah x 28 V