When preparing a model for a CFD analysis, surfaces need to be closed in order to generate mesh. The process of surface wrapping therefore typically involves taking raw CAD data, closing holes in geometry, joining disconnected surfaces, removing interior and overlapping surfaces. The surface wrapping capability in pro-STAR, the pre- and post-processing package for STAR-CD, automatically ‘shrink-wraps’ a closed surface mesh made of triangles and/or quadrangles onto the geometry. The engineer simply takes the model, which can be an assembly of various sources such as native CAD (CATIA V4, CATIA V5, Unigraphics, Pro/ENGINEER), IGES, STEP AP203 ISO Standard, Parasolid, STL (Stereolythography), VDA-FS and NASTRAN formats and then shrink-wraps the surface.

Surface wrapping was originally developed for underhood modeling. It can however be applied to any situation in which creating a closed surface is an issue. Applications are extremely diverse including, for example: modeling flow through arteries, the design of turbines, external aerodynamics of cars, trains and aircraft, and the design of passenger compartment climate control systems. Major automotive companies such as DaimlerChrysler are already benefitting from huge time saving in the design of vehicle underhood, external, aerodynamics and passenger compartments. “STAR-CD’s surface wrapping feature is the most automatic approach that exists. It has saved us weeks of clean-up when carrying out our air flow studies and provides us with significant time and cost savings”, says Walter Bauer, DaimlerChrysler.