CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
26 May 2010
Product News
STAR-CCM+ and Abaqus Co-Simulation Makes Seamless Fluid-Structure Interaction a Reality
CD-adapco announced that, CD-adapco’s simulation tool, STAR-CCM+, now includes a direct link to Abaqus FEA from SIMULIA, delivering fully coupled, two-way, fluid-structure interaction (FSI).
From the bending of a tree’s branch in the wind to the flutter of an aircraft wing as it crossed the Atlantic, fluids and solids interact in harmony everywhere in the real world. However, in the virtual world of engineering simulation, the picture has rarely been quite so harmonious. Structural analysis and fluid dynamics, although intrinsically linked, have long been quite separate disciplines with the interaction between deforming structures and flowing fluids only being considered at a most basic level.
The first products available for FSI simulations were often prohibitively expensive, in terms of computer resources and timescales, and relied upon third-party inter-code communication that had to be specifically configured for each new scenario. For these reasons, the numerical simulation of FSI problems has traditionally been the preserve of research projects and academic studies, operating outside of the main engineering design process.
Not anymore. For the first time, CD-adapco’s simulation tool, STAR-CCM+, will have a direct link to Abaqus FEA, delivering fully coupled, two-way, fluid-structure interaction. Using direct co-simulation coupling provides efficiency and reduced overhead associated with things such as data transfer through file exchanges or use of external middleware software. This will make coupled fluid-structure-thermal calculations a regular part of the engineering design process.
CD-adapco’s partnership with SIMULIA also means that setting up and running the problem may all be done within the STAR-CCM+ environment, with no need for writing scripts and input files or mapping data. Simply point STAR-CCM+ at the Abaqus job you want to run and press “Go.” The powerful physics of both codes may be leveraged in coupled FSI with STAR-CCM+’s full range of available models, providing the ability to study coupled, single and multiphase flows, chemical reaction and combustion as well as flow regimes from low speed to hypersonic. The options available in Abaqus are similarly broad, with coupled simulation supported for static stress/displacement, dynamics (implicit and explicit), heat transfer, temperature-displacement, thermal-electrical and piezoelectric analysis.
Put simply, the close-coupling between STAR-CCM+ and Abaqus brings the solution of a wide range of FSI problems within the easy reach of a typical engineer. In terms of both practicality and accuracy, co-simulation (in which both codes exchange data as they simultaneously run) is the only way to tackle problems such as aerodynamic flutter, fluid induced bending, vortex induced vibration and galloping.
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