Simcenter STAR-CCM+ vs. Simulink

For my personal use case, I found that STAR CCM+ was extremely easy to use, learn, and set up cases for Lagrangian particle tracking cases. Each option was easily found, and parameters to fine-tune the cases were very simple to execute. I had to create a custom field function with a nested If-else loop to account for particle capture on the filter media surface. Setting this up was very easy, and the reference material provided by STAR CCM+ was helpful. Sometimes, on the older version of STAR CCM+, when visualizing the volume mesh, some cells tend to disappear; this shows up even when plotting contour plots on the same section plane. This is improved in the newer version of STAR CCM+.

Incentivized

Simulink is a great tool for designing systems in the very early stages of projects. This lets you understand concepts and have a working model much faster, saving you time and money by being able to find errors really quick. On the other hand, when the projects reach a state of deployment you'll need to translate all the acquired knowledge and/or data from Simulink to the specific system you will be using. For example, you might design and validate a spacecraft propulsion system in Simulink, but when you build the real life model you will need to translate the designed algorithm/system to the actual code running aboard the spacecraft.

Incentivized

• Meshing is very easy to do in STAR CCM+
• Post-processing results is also very intuitive, making extracting results very enjoyable and easy to use.
• The Advanced rendering options that are available in STAR CCM+ can really help make very well-generated videos that can make the simulation easy to visualize, share with non-technical engineers, and showcase the study done.

Incentivized

• When you design a circuit or system, time is cheating because it gives results that are very close to reality.
• Time and financial gain by easily changing the design part.
• Support and include renewable energy sources.

Incentivized

• Implementing physics like Cox-Voinov model
• Mesh related stability issues
• Chemical & plasma physics
• Integration with other products from Siemens (similar level as we have with Abacus)
• Speed up the lagrangian solver
• Improved guidence on uFluidics & evaporation models
• Interoperability (HEEDS, AMEsim, System Modelling Workbench but also with non siemens products and open source codes required for LBM, DSMC, PIC, DFT...

• Learning curve for designing accurate models and getting useful results can be pretty steep for most people that aren't used to graphical based design and representation of systems.
• Simulink requires a lot of CPU power and computer resources to run smoothly without crashing. Together with the MATLAB environment, a standard installation consumes a lot of disk space and becomes greater when more toolboxes are included.
• Community for Simulink support and documentation is inferior to that of MATLAB and it isn't used as a standard tool by most of academia. I believe other tools such as Labview are far more common, making it easier to get help and find examples online.

Incentivized

Great single window GUI

Incentivized

STAR CCM+ technical support was very quick to respond when a ticket was raised for issues. For support in setting up a test case for the Lagrangian particle tracking technique, a support assist agent was assigned immediately, and after having a detailed discussion, my problem was understood by them, and a suitable test case was shared, which I was able to understand and use to build my case.

Incentivized

It is super easy when it comes to implementing it.

Incentivized

Competitive tools, both Fluent and STARCCM+, but the user interface and ease of learning, along with everything in a single interface, and a wide variety of proven physics capabilities, along with good scalability and automation, made the choice easy for me. Also, the user guide and tutorials available to explore various kinds of Physics capability, and A single license for access to all physics, also made it easy.

Incentivized

Control blocks and more detailed algorithms can be run in Matlab Simulink. Simulation and PCB drawing of electronic circuit boards are performed in Proteus.

Incentivized

• I can't think of anything but positive of course. I mean, we've been improving our products, we've been using this to test less to make sure that our products will meet the requirements and meet the objectives that we have. And I've never seen a case where it has been proven otherwise. So yeah, it's been great for us.

Incentivized

• Better data analysis
• Excellent data visualization
• Identification of areas of opportunity to attack

Incentivized