Flow, thermal & stress simulation in a single solver
Stephen Ferguson, CD-adapco London

Since it’s first release 20 years ago, STAR-CD has established a reputation for versatility and is unrivalled in its ability to tackle problems involving multiphysics and complex geometries. In the latest release, STAR-CD V4.02 enhances this reputation further with an improved meshing process and the ability to simulate physics till now beyond the reach of mainstream CFD technology.

STAR-CD V4.02 provides direct access to the latest automatic surface cleaning and mesh generation technology from within the pro-STAR environment. This technology, pioneered in sister code STAR-CCM+, has proved exceptionally popular with users and in many cases reduced the time-to-mesh from days to hours.

“Our polyhedral mesh technology is now even more powerful”, says Director of STAR-CD Development Dr Riaz Sanatian. “The combination of high quality automatic polyhedral mesh generation and efficient solver technology will provide you with improved ease-of-use, faster turnaround times and increased solution accuracy, for all classes of flow, in all application areas.”

STAR-CD V4.02 also pushes back the boundaries of CFD by introducing a number of key multi-physics capabilities, available for the first time in a general purpose CFD code. STAR-CD 4.02 is able to simulate problems involving solid stress and melting or solidification.

“These capabilities will rapidly mature and open the door to routine analysis of a range of applications, such as strongly-coupled fluid/solid interaction problems and mould-filling, that were either very difficult or impossible to solve before”, says Dr Sanatian.

STAR-CD V4.02 is available on request from CD-adapco’s User Services site or your local CD-adapco office.