STAR-CCM+ User Guide

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Morphing Tutorials

STAR-CCM+ makes it possible to deform the computational mesh in response to various causes. This section contains a single introductory tutorial that demonstrates morphing of a cylinder in response to user-specified conditions on the wall.

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Cylinder Contraction and Expansion

STAR-CCM+ contains a Morphing Motion Model that enables the user to define motion on boundary surfaces using several methods. In this tutorial, two of the available methods are used to impose motion on the outer wall of a simple cylinder. A grid velocity is applied in the first part of the tutorial to cause contraction of the cylinder, and a boundary displacement is applied in the second part to cause expansion. These deformations are illustrated below.

Importing the Geometry and Naming the Simulation

Start up STAR-CCM+ in a manner that is appropriate to your working environment and select the New Simulation option from the menu bar. Click OK to accept the default options. The first step in this tutorial is to import the cylinder geometry from the Parasolid file supplied. Select File > Import Surface Mesh... from the menu bar. In the Open dialog, navigate to the doc/tutorials/morphingCylinder subdirectory of

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your STAR-CCM+ installation directory and select file cylinder.x_t.

Click the Open button to start the import. The Import Surface Options dialog will appear. Click OK to accept the default options and import the cylinder. STAR-CCM+ will provide feedback on the import process in the Output window. A new geometry scene will be created in the Graphics window showing the imported cylinder. Save the new simulation to disk under file name contraction.sim.

Visualizing the Imported Geometry

The mouse controls can be used to dynamically adjust the view in the Graphics window. Left-click anywhere in the Graphics window and drag the mouse in any direction. The view will rotate about the location where the left mouse button is clicked. This rotation will be constrained about a central axis if <Ctrl> is pressed before the left-click and drag operation. Similarly, right-click and drag the mouse in any direction to pan or shift the display.

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The surface mesh will now be shown in the Graphics window. Note that this comes from the initial tesselation that took place when the cylinder geometry was imported into STAR-CCM+.

As this surface mesh is only sufficient to define the geometry, it will be necessary to generate a new surface mesh before we can create the volume mesh. Switch back to the standard object tree by clicking the simulation button.

Preparing the Region and Boundaries

The single region will be renamed.

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Rename Boundary 1 3 to Inlet and set the Type property to Velocity Inlet in the Properties window. The boundary tree will be as shown below.

Generating the Volume Mesh

The volume mesh is generated by selecting the required meshing models in the Mesh Continuum, setting the appropriate sizing parameters, and running the mesh generator. Open the Continua > Mesh 1 node that was automatically created when we imported the geometry.

Right-click the Models child node and choose item

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node.

In the Properties window, change the Percentage of Base property to 65.0 and press <Enter>. The read-only Absolute Size property should update to 0.065 m.

The volume mesh can now be created. Click the (Generate Volume Mesh) button in the toolbar.

Visualizing the Mesh

To visualize the newly generated mesh:

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Setting up the Physics

A default Physics Continuum, Physics 1, was created when the volume mesh was generated. This continuum is used to define the physical models required for the simulation. Expand the Continua > Physics 1 node. Right-click the Models child node and choose item Select models...

The Physics Model Selection dialog will appear. Continue by selecting models from the various groups as follows: Select Morpher from the Motion group box. Select Implicit Unsteady from the Unsteady group box. Select Liquid from the Material group box. Select Segregated Flow from the Flow group box. Select Constant Density from the Equation of State group box. Select Turbulent from the Viscous Regime group box. Select K-Epsilon Turbulence from the Reynolds-Averaged Turbulence group box.

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Create Field Function for Grid Velocity

A radial velocity is to be set at the cylinder wall using a field function based on the axial position. The variation of the radial velocity with axial distance is shown in the figure below.

The equation for this profile is:

1 --x for x z < 2 8 z vr = 4 1 -- x for x z 2 8 z

(1)

where v r is the radial velocity in m s and x z is the z (or axial) coordinate of the face centroid in m . The field function for this profile is implemented as follows:

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The Properties window will be as shown below when you are done.

Setting Boundary Conditions and Values

The boundary types were set prior to the volume meshing stage to ensure prism layers were obtained only on the wall. In this section we will set physical values where necessary, and also specify conditions to control morphing of the mesh. It should be noted that morpher-specific conditions are required even on boundaries that will not be explicitly deformed. Expand the Regions > Fluid > Boundaries > Inlet > Physics Conditions node. Select the Morpher child node.

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Cylinder Radial Velocity using the drop-down menu as shown.

Setting Initial Conditions

The only change to initial conditions will be to set the axial velocity to 10.0 m/s. Expand the Continua > Physics 1 > Initial Conditions > Velocity node and select the Constant child node.

In the Properties window, set the Value to [0, 0, 10.0] m/s.

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In the Properties window change the Logical Rule property to And.

Having a Logical Rule of And means that the value of all four monitors (Continuity, X-momentum, Y-momentum and Z-momentum) must fall to 0.001 before the simulation will assume that an adequate level of convergence has been achieved and move on to the next time step. It is possible that one of the other Stopping Criteria could activate before reaching this level of convergence, in which case the simulation would move on to the next time step regardless. Select the Stopping Criteria > Maximum Inner Iterations node and, in the Properties window, set the Max Inner Iterations property to 10. Select the Stopping Criteria > Maximum Physical Time node and, in the Properties window, check that the Max Physical Time property is set to 1.0 s.

Creating Additional Monitors

It is generally useful to create one or two additional monitors to help assess convergence of the simulation. Right-click the Reports node and select New Report >

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Change the Trigger property to Time Step in the Properties window.

Right-click the Plots > Inlet Pressure Plot node and select Open. The Inlet Pressure Plot will appear as shown below.

Save the simulation.

Visualizing the Solution

A scalar scene will be created to show the deformation of the cylinder wall as the simulation proceeds.

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Setting Solver Verbosity

The Mesh Morpher solver has an option to display additional information in the Output window during runtime. This can be useful in gauging the proportion of CPU time devoted to the Morphing process. Select the Solvers > Mesh Morpher node.

In the Properties window, set the Verbosity to High using the drop-down menu.

Running the Simulation

To initialize the solution and run the analysis: Click on the (Initialize Solution) button in the Solution toolbar or use the Solution > Initialize Solution menu item. Click on the (Run) button in the Solution toolbar to run the analysis.

The Residuals display will automatically be created and will show the solvers progress. If necessary, click on the Residuals tab to bring the Residuals plot into view. The Cylinder Wall scene at the end of the simulation is shown below. The cylinder would continue to contract if the simulation were run for longer, as

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Finally, click Close.

The resulting Inlet Pressure Plot is shown below.

Visualizing the Results

A new scene will be created to show streamlines of velocity magnitude running through the geometry. Right-click the Scenes node and select New Scene > Geometry. Right-click the newly created Scenes > Geometry Scene 2 node and select Rename... Change the name to Streamlines in the Rename dialog and click OK. A derived part is created for the streamlines which can be added to the new scene.

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Expanding the Cylinder

The same exercise can be repeated to model an expansion of the cylinder instead of a contraction. A displacement is specified at the wall boundary instead of a grid velocity. Select File > Save As... and save the simulation with a filename of expansion.sim. Right-click Tools > Field Functions and select New. Rename the newly created User Field Function 1 to Cylinder Wall Displacement. In the Properties window, set the Type property to Vector. Click the (custom editor) button for the Dimensions property and set the Length dimension to 1 in the Dimension dialog. Click OK to close the dialog. Set the Function name to CylinderWallDisplacement. Click the (custom editor) button for the Definition and enter the following in the Definition dialog:
[(($$Centroid("Cylindrical 1")[2] < 2) ? 0.00625*$$Centroid("Cylindrical 1")[2] : 0.00625*(4-$$Centroid("Cylindrical 1")[2])), 0, 0]

Click OK. The completed Properties window should be as shown below.

The morpher conditions on the cylinder wall must be modified to use the new field function. Select the Regions > Fluid > Boundaries > Wall > Physics Conditions >

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The Cylinder Wall scene at the end of this second simulation is shown below.

Summary
This tutorial covered the following features: Import of a simple CAD geometry. Splitting boundaries and renaming. Generating a trimmed cell mesh with prism layers on the wall only. Selecting the Morpher motion model. Creating a field function to provide a grid velocity vector for the Morpher motion model. Applying appropriate boundary conditions for the Morpher. Creating a scene to display the centroid on the deformed surface of the geometry. Creating a streamline derived part and using it to visualize the velocity field.

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