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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:
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.

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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.
    - Prerequisites
      The instructions in this tutorial assume that you are already familiar with certain techniques in Simcenter STAR-CCM+.
    - Loading the Simulation File
      For this tutorial, you are provided with a simulation file that contains pre-defined objects and settings.
    - Selecting the Physics Models
      This marine self-propulsion simulation is a transient multiphysics problem for which you select a variety of physics models.
    - Setting Up Dynamic Fluid Body Interaction (DFBI)
      The Dynamic Fluid Body Interaction (DFBI) model simulates the motion of the ship according to the forces acting on it. For this simulation, the ship is allowed to move with three degrees of freedom to account for forward motion, sinkage, and trim.
    - Modeling the Propeller by Using the Virtual Disk Model
      For this simulation, you model the effects of the propeller on the ship using the body force propeller method. This method belongs to the virtual disk model.
    - Applying the Thrust Force to the Ship
      To apply the thrust force produced by the virtual disk to the ship, you must create an external force for the 6-DOF ship body.
    - Creating Mesh Refinement for the Virtual Disk
      To obtain a good resolution of the flow field around the virtual disk, you are advised to create a cylindrical volumetric refinement. You create the refinement using part shapes and mesh custom controls.
    - Generating the Volume Mesh
      Suitable for this type of application, you generate a trimmed hexahedral mesh with local refinements and prism layers along the walls of the wetted surface.
    - Defining the Water and Air Phases
      Using the VOF multiphase model requires that you create Eulerian phases for water and air.
    - Defining the VOF Wave and Initial Conditions
      The free surface water level changes over time during the simulation. Simcenter STAR-CCM+ provides the VOF Waves model that provides wave initial and boundary conditions. Here, you define a flat VOF wave as the ship is moving through calm water. To prevent wave reflections from boundaries, you also activate wave damping. Field functions from the wave model are applied as initial conditions.
    - Setting Up Boundary Conditions
      To specify wave damping, velocities, and variable water surface level at the surrounding boundaries of the ship, you apply field functions from the flat VOF wave.
    - Monitoring Force Balance, Trim, and Velocity
      You create several reports for the different forces such as drag, trim, and the virtual disk force components. In addition, you compute the net force in the X direction as this falls to zero when the vessel reaches its steady state velocity.
    - Setting Solver Parameters and Stopping Criteria
      To avoid excessive compute time, you introduce a stopping criteria that stops the simulation when the net thrust in the X direction is close to zero. At that point you know the steady propulsion point has been achieved.
    - Visualizing the Pressure Distribution
      You can obtain a good visualization of the pressure distribution around the ship hull by subtracting the hydrostatic pressure component.
    - Running the Simulation
      You are advised to run this tutorial on a multi-core machine with four cores or more. Depending on the specifications of your computer and the number of cores you assign, this tutorial takes several hours to complete.
    - Reviewing the Results
      The simulation completes when the net force balance falls below 0.1 N. At this point the ship has reached its steady propulsion point and you can extract the corresponding velocity.
    - Summary
      This tutorial has introduced the following Simcenter STAR-CCM+ features:
  - 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.
  - 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.

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.

This tutorial simulates the motion of a ship through calm water in response to the thrust produced by its propeller. The propeller is placed centrally at the stern of the ship and rotates at 2300 rpm. Propeller effects are important in these type of simulations, as they can significantly affect the performance of the hull due to the swirl and pressure gradients.

To model self-propulsion, the ship is placed inside a virtual towing tank in full scale. In this tutorial, you apply the Body Force Propeller method of the Virtual Disk model to represent the effect of the propeller on the ship. The Body Force Propeller method allows you to model the propeller and hull interaction without the added cost of modeling the propeller geometry with a fine mesh and smaller time scales. For more information, see Body Force Propeller Method in the User Guide.

Specific models used in this tutorial are:

Volume of Fluid (VOF) for the water and air. The simulation starts from a flat water surface.
Dynamic Fluid Body Interaction (DFBI) for calculating the ship motion in response to fluid forces acting on it. The ship can move forwards or backwards and is free to heave and pitch.

In this simulation, the ship moves accelerates until it reaches a steady velocity. To achieve this steady state in Simcenter STAR-CCM+, the thrust induced by the propeller must balance the drag forces on the ship hull.

The model uses the full geometry of the ship and does not employ symmetry conditions. The following boundary conditions are applied:

inlets with prescribed velocity and volume fraction at the upstream, top, bottom, and side boundaries
hydrostatic pressure corresponding to the undisturbed water surface at the downstream boundary of the tank
walls on the ship hull surface