STAR-CCM+ Computational Fluid Dynamics simulation software is a powerful tool with which numerical values of the velocity and temperature can be indicated in nearly every point of the flow. But after every STAR-CCM+ simulation the following question remains: Does the numerical results correspond to the values in the reality?
One possibility is to measure the velocity at different points of the flow using a prototype and a test bench. This option is not developed here. Another possibility is to compare analytical results with the STAR-CCM+ simulation. For the first time, the analytical results of the laminar Poiseuille flow are compared to the STAR-CCM+ simulation of the same Poiseuille flow - a very easy exercise that can be done with students in two hours. The two approaches do not give the same values: begins the chase for the reasons for this divergence. The explications of this divergence are important for more complicated cases which cannot be resolved analytically.
In a second time a heat transfer problem is added: the heating of the oil film in a plain cylindrical journal bearing due to the oil viscosity. This time, three approaches are compared: an analytical solution, a solution by programming the finite volume method with visual basic and the STAR-CCM+ simulation. Students discover the algorithms enabling the STAR-CCM+ simulation and the problems which can occur during the STAR-CCM+ simulations by this approach.