We're coming back from an insightful 2016 STAR Global Conference in Prague that focused on discovering better designs, faster. It's clear that the world of Computer-Aided Engineering (CAE) is shifting from troubleshooting and verification towards using modeling and simulation to drive innovation. Below are some examples of conference presentations that leveraged HEEDS technology to explore new concepts. As with each edition, we strive to bring you useful articles and examples of how HEEDS is being used to help engineers produce better products. Keep reading to learn more about exciting HEEDS-related happenings.

Customer Spotlight 

Maximizing Efficiency of Marine Propellers

Rolla SP Propellers SA improved the efficiency of a propeller fin cap system using STAR-CCM+® and Optimate+™(Powered by HEEDS). Boss caps with fins are intended to recover energy that is lost from the hub vortex generated by the propeller by redirecting the flux. Proper design may also reduce damaging cavitation effects. Normally this type of fin cap system is used on large, low-speed, container ships with large propeller diameters and low shaft RPM. In this case, a fast RPM propeller was studied. A fin cap was put after a Rolla propeller and open water CFD simulations were carried out. A design study was performed to automatically vary 13 parameters representing the geometry of the fins and cap in an effort to identify designs that increased efficiency and reduced maximum turbulent kinetic energy downstream of the propeller. The study resulted in a non-intuitive, high-performing design. View the presentation from last month's 2016 STAR Global Conference in Prague.

Improving Heat Transfer in Rectangular Ducts

Many applications of industrial interest involve heat transfer across rectangular ducts of high aspect ratio, for example, forced air pins--fin cooling of electronic devices or liquid pins--fin cooling for high power application (hybrid electric vehicles, gas turbine, blades, etc). The design of these systems aims to provide high heat transfer rates while maintaining low pressure drop. MBDA Missile Systems used STAR-CCM+® to first validate against published experimental data for rectangular ducts with staggered arrays of short pin fins. Average Nusselt numbers and pressure drop were shown to correlate well between simulation and experiment. HEEDS technology was then used to perform direct design search on a parametric heat exchanger in order to maximize heat transfer while simultaneously minimizing pressure drop. Vie presentation from last month's 2016 STAR Global Conference in Prague.

Improving Flow in an Airline Low-Speed Wind Tunnel

Uniformity and angularity are characteristics that define the quality of flow in the test section of a wind tunnel. In RUAG Aviation's large, low-speed wind tunnel (LWTE), a patchwork of meshes with different porosities was installed in the third corner of the airline to improve the flow homogeneity in the test section. A design study was conducted to identify designs that would maintain flow quality while minimizing pressure losses. STAR-CCM+® was used to simulate the complete airline in conjunction with a porous baffle to model the impact of the meshes. Optimate+™, based on HEEDS technology, was used to modify the pressure drop across the porous baffle as a function of position in the wind tunnel cross section to improve flow uniformity and angularity while reducing pressure drop. The work was presented at 2016 STAR Global Conference in Prague last month.

Capabilities Highlight

Exploring Design Performance Relationships

2016 International HEEDS User Conference