Parts-Based Shells: Exhaust Pipe

Simcenter STAR-CCM+ provides support for thin-walled structures that are best represented by a single-cell layer during simulation. These single-cell layers are known as shells. One of the main advantages of using shell elements is that it reduces the computational time and resources required for simulations.

In this tutorial, you study the temperature distribution along the thin-wall of an exhaust system in response to hot gas entering the inlets. You use shell elements to represent the wall of the exhaust system. The image below shows a schematic diagram illustrating the setup of the case.

To prepare the geometry for this tutorial, you first import the CAD model of the exhaust pipe into the 3D-CAD geometry modeler. 3D-CAD provides a suite of tools that helps you prepare the CAD model so that it becomes suitable for simulation. The image below shows the geometry that is used in this simulation.

After preparing the CAD mode, you create attached shell parts from the solid bodies of the exhaust pipe. When you generate the mesh, Simcenter STAR-CCM+ creates a single-cell layer for the shell parts.

As well as demonstrating the CAD preparation and volume meshing steps, this tutorial illustrates how to set up the necessary interfaces, physics models, and boundary conditions for running a CHT simulation with a thin-walled structure.