STAR-CCM+ can dynamically monitor virtually any quantity while the solution develops. The process involves setting up a report which defines the quantity of interest and the region parts that will be monitored. A monitor is then defined based on the report, which controls the update frequency and normalization characteristics. Finally, an X-Y graph plot can then be created from the monitor.
A report monitor will be used in this case to track the heat flux at the interface of the heated fin and surrounding air. This process starts with the report definition.
This will create a new node called Heat Transfer 1 within the Reports node.
Next, the drag-and-drop method is used to select the part to be monitored, namely the Fin-Interface [In-place 1] interface boundary for the Solid region.
The Fin-Interface [In-place 1] entry will be listed in the Parts property of the Heat Transfer 1 node.
The reason for selecting the Fin-Interface [In-place 1] boundary instead of the Fin-Interface boundary is that during the calculation, the in-place interface conditions will supersede those of the original wall boundary. Therefore, any values you wish to extract from boundaries on region interfaces should always be from the in-place boundary interfaces.
The setup for the report is now complete, and a monitor can be made from that report.
This will create a new node called Heat Transfer 1 Monitor within the Monitors node.
With the new node selected, the default settings for the Heat Transfer 1 Monitor can be seen in the Properties window.
These settings will be used to update the plot at every iteration while the solution is running.
The monitor plot can now be defined.
This will create the Heat Transfer 1 Monitor Plot node under the Plots node.
With that new node selected, you can view the property settings for the plot in the Properties window.
Additional settings for the monitor plot can be adjusted via the subnodes of the Heat Transfer 1 Monitor Plot node.
A new plot display called Heat Transfer 1 Monitor Plot will appear in the Graphics window.
This display will be automatically updated with heat transfer data when the run starts.
This completes the pre-processing setup for the case.
