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Rotating System Tutorials

The tutorials in this set illustrate two different methods of modeling fluid flow systems containing moving parts. Both tutorials describe simulations of the same rotating fan case, but the first one uses Moving Reference Frames to do so whilst the second one uses Rigid Body Motion. The problem involves an idealized fan assembly whose axis and 12 equally-spaced blades are rotating at 2,000 r.p.m. while the external body remains stationary. Air enters through the inlet, shown in red below, at 5 m/s and exits through a pressure boundary, shown in orange.

Note that it is necessary to complete the Moving Reference Frames Tutorial first since the Rigid Body Motion Tutorial restarts from it.

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Moving Reference Frames Tutorial

This tutorial outlines the steps needed to set up and run a rotating radial fan analysis. It uses the Moving Reference Frame model, a steady-state approach involving two or more frames of reference that can be stationary or moving relative to each other. The problem geometry is shown in the introductory Rotating System Tutorials section. In this case, two reference frames are used for the analysis a spinning one representing the fan and blades and a stationary one representing the fan body and inlet section.

Importing the Mesh 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. Continue by importing the mesh and naming the simulation. A hexahedral cell mesh has been prepared for this analysis and saved in file fan.ccm. Select File > Import... from the menu bar. In the Open dialog, navigate to the doc/tutorials/rotatingFan subdirectory of your STAR-CCM+ installation directory and select file fan.ccm

Click Open to start the import. The Import Mesh Options dialog will appear. Select the following options:

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Run mesh diagnostics after import Open geometry scene after import

Ensure that the Dont show this dialog during import option is not selected and then click OK STAR-CCM+ will provide feedback on the import process, which will take a few seconds, in the Output window. Two mesh regions named Fluid and Rotating will be created in the Regions node representing the grid domain. A geometry scene showing the fan will be created in the Graphics window. Finally, save the new simulation to disk under file name fan_mrf.sim.

Visualizing the Geometry

The external surface of the geometry is displayed in the Graphics window. To view the internal surfaces and examine the boundary regions, we will make the geometry translucent. Select the Scenes > Geometry Scene 1 > Displayers > Geometry 1 node

In the Properties window, change the Opacity property to 0.5 Rather than use the mouse facilities to adjust the view approximately, click on the button at the top of the Geometry Scene 1 window and

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location of this boundary

Scaling the Mesh

The original grid was built using millimeters as the length unit, but no scaling factor was applied when the grid was saved in the .ccm file. As can be seen from the output produced at import, the mesh regions extend from roughly -113 to 240 units in the x-direction, -133 to 98 in the y-direction and -16 to 184 in the z-direction. Without any further action, these values will be interpreted by STAR-CCM+ as meters, which would make this a rather large fan! The region therefore needs to be scaled by a factor of 0.001 so that the dimensions are correctly specified. To do this: Select Mesh > Scale Mesh... from the menu bar In the Scale Mesh dialog, make sure that the Fluid and Rotating regions

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within that node.

Save the simulation by clicking the

(Save) button

The default material properties for air are suitable for this case so we can proceed to Setting Initial Conditions.

Setting Initial Conditions

The turbulence parameters set as part of the initial conditions need to be changed as follows:

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Now select the Turbulence Dissipation Rate > Constant node

Change the Value property to 150 J/kg-s

Similarly, change the turbulent kinetic energy to 1.5 J/kg Save the simulation

Creating Interfaces
All regions in a STAR-CCM+ simulation require an interface to be present between them that will transfer the appropriate mass and energy quantities during the calculation. In this example, we need to create two interfaces between the Fluid and Rotating regions. This involves creating so-called In-place interfaces between the default wall boundaries enclosing each region. The first interface will be created between the inlet and rotating section. Open the two Boundaries nodes inside the Fluid and Rotating nodes Select the two nodes named Interface1 from each boundary grouping (use the <Ctrl><Click> method to select non-contiguous items)

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Interface2 [In-place 2].

Save the simulation

Specifying Moving Reference Frame Conditions

We must now specify moving reference frame conditions for the rotating region. Select the Rotating > Physics Values > Moving Reference Frame node

In the Properties window, click the property customizer button ( ) of the Rotation Rate property to open the Moving Reference Frame - Rotation Rate dialog. Change the Units to rpm and enter a Value of 2000

Click OK

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Velocity Specification node

In the Properties window, change the Reference Frame property to

Absolute

This completes the specification of boundary conditions. Save the simulation

Setting Solver Parameters and Stopping Criteria

To ensure that a reasonable solution is obtained, we will alter some of the solver parameters.

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Select the Stopping Criteria > Maximum Steps node

Change the Maximum Steps property to 600 in the Properties window Save the simulation

Visualizing the Solution

We will visualize the solution while it is being updated by plotting velocity vectors on a xy-section bisecting the problem geometry. To create the section: Right-click on the Derived Parts node and select
New Part > Section > Plane...

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Reporting, Monitoring and Plotting

STAR-CCM+ can dynamically monitor virtually any quantity while the solution develops. The process involves setting up a report which defines the quantity of interest and the parts of the region to be monitored. A monitor is then defined based on the report which controls the update frequency and normalization characteristics. An X-Y graph plot can then be made from the monitor. A report monitor will be used for this case to track the area-averaged pressure at the inlet boundary. This will be a useful measure of whether the solution has converged. In the simulation tree, right-click on the Reports node and select
New Report > Area Averaged

This will create a new node called Area Averaged 1 within the Reports node. Right-click on this node and rename it Area Averaged Inlet
Pressure

In the Properties window for the Area Averaged Inlet Pressure node, add Fluid: Inlet to the Parts list and change the Scalar Field Function property

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The Area Averaged Inlet Pressure Plot at the end of the calculation should look as shown below.

Note that the pressure at the inlet has almost converged to a steady value. However, it is unlikely to do so completely as the solution to this problem is not truly steady-state. Save the simulation

Visualizing the Results

Click on the tab for the Vector Scene 1 display to see the velocity vector

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Rigid Body Motion Tutorial

This tutorial models the same radial fan problem as the Moving Reference Frames Tutorial, whose geometry is shown in the introductory Rotating System Tutorials section. However, instead of using the steady-state moving reference frame model, this tutorial uses the transient Rigid Body Motion model to solve the problem. To avoid having to set up the entire case again, this tutorial restarts from the .sim file created in the Moving Reference Frames Tutorial.

Loading an Existing Simulation

Start up STAR-CCM+ in a manner that is appropriate to your working environment. Select the File > Load Simulation... option from the menu bar. The Load Simulation dialog will appear

Click Browse... and locate the fan_mrf.sim file created in the Moving Reference Frames Tutorial Select this file and then click Open in the file browser

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The Physics Model Selection dialog should look as shown below when you are done.

Click Close. Save the simulation by clicking the (Save) button.

All material properties plus initial and boundary conditions are to be kept the same so we can proceed to Setting Solver Parameters and Stopping Criteria.

Setting Solver Parameters and Stopping Criteria

As the analysis is now unsteady, we need to specify the time-step size.

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window

Save the simulation

Monitoring the Solution

The plots and scenes required to view and monitor the solution are already created and only one slight change is required for this analysis. For most unsteady cases, it is more useful to monitor the solution progress by reporting a quantity every time-step rather than every iteration. To set up the maximum wall pressure as the monitoring quantity: Select the Monitors > Area Averaged Inlet Pressure Monitor node

In the Properties window, change the Trigger property to Time-Step Similarly, for the vector scene:

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Double-click on the Scenes > Vector Scene 1 node to display it

During the run, it is possible to stop the calculation by clicking the (Stop) button in the toolbar. If you do halt the simulation, it can be continued again by clicking the (Run) button. If left alone, the simulation will continue until all 288 time-steps are complete. After the run is finished, save the simulation

Checking the Results

Display the Area Averaged Inlet Pressure Plot by double-clicking on its

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Summary
This tutorial introduced the following STAR-CCM+ features: Loading an existing simulation Defining a rigid body motion model Setting solver parameters and stopping criteria for an unsteady analysis Monitoring the solution progress using plots and vector scenes Running the solver for a set time Analyzing the results using STAR-CCM+s visualization and XY-plot facilities

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