CONVERGE Training

CONVERGE is an innovative multi-purpose CFD software that can provide insight into internal combustion engines, compressors, fans, blowers, pumps, fuel injectors and sprays, aftertreatment systems, gas turbines, biomedical devices, oil and gas applications, and many other systems. This two-day course offers a hands-on introduction to CONVERGE. You will learn about the CONVERGE solver and modeling options while working through a wide variety of example cases. Because CONVERGE has a completely automated meshing process, you do not need to spend any time preparing the volume mesh, which simplifies the case setup process.

During this course, you will have plenty of time for hands-on practice supervised by experienced CONVERGE support engineers. You will practice preparing the surface geometry, setting up input parameters, running the simulation, and post-processing results for a variety of cases.

Upon the completion of this course, you will know how to:

• Begin a new project in CONVERGE Studio
• Import a surface geometry from a CAD program
• Coarsen the surface triangulation to reduce the computational cost
• Create boundaries
• Manually repair surface defects
• Prepare moving boundaries for motion
• Set up inlaid meshes, including appropriate boundary and initial conditions
• Set up solver parameters and data files
• Set up appropriate boundary and initial conditions
• Set up wall heat transfer modeling and output heat transfer quantities for thermal analysis
• Set up additional modeling options, including for turbulence, combustion, and sources
• Control grid settings throughout the computational domain
• Run CONVERGE and monitor your simulation
• Post-process results in CONVERGE Studio

PREREQUISITES

None

WHO SHOULD ATTEND THIS COURSE

This course is intended for new users to CONVERGE and CONVERGE Studio. This course can also be used as a refresher for experienced or occasional users of previous versions of CONVERGE and CONVERGE Studio.

This course will cover some of the unique features in CONVERGE that support accurate and efficient internal combustion (IC) engine simulations. We will discuss in detail how to predict cylinder pressure with CONVERGE at different stages of the cycle and talk about what to do if the predicted cylinder quantities do not match the measured data. Additionally, we will go over the points you should consider when assessing the accuracy of the input parameters that you use as boundary conditions to your IC engine simulations.

*This session does not include hands-on CONVERGE Studio practice.
PREREQUISITES

This course offers a hands-on introduction to CONVERGE for battery modeling. We will discuss how to set up air- and liquid-cooled battery pack conjugate heat transfer simulations in CONVERGE to investigate battery thermal management. We will go through the different approaches available to model heat generation within the battery solid. In addition, we will cover how CONVERGE’s SAGE detailed chemistry solver can model gas-phase combustion of vent gases ejected during thermal runaway as well as solid-phase thermal runaway chemistry. We will present a variety of case studies involving thermal runaway propagation and discuss approaches to run coupled vent gas generation simulations through user-defined functions.

*This session includes hands-on CONVERGE Studio practice.

PREREQUISITES

Introduction to CONVERGE (or equivalent introductory CONVERGE training course)

This course offers a hands-on introduction to CONVERGE for compressor and pump modeling. Although compressors and pumps can feature significantly different geometries and motion types, all compressor and pump simulations benefit from CONVERGE’s autonomous meshing capabilities. In addition, many benefit from CONVERGE’s fluid-structure interaction modeling, multiple reference frame approach, advanced fluid property models, and other features. We will examine a variety of example cases for both positive-displacement and dynamic devices, including a scroll compressor, a screw compressor, a single channel pump, and a centrifugal fan.

PREREQUISITES
Introduction to CONVERGE (or equivalent introductory CONVERGE training course)

This course offers a hands-on introduction to modeling flows in electric motors with CONVERGE. Participants will work through the setup of an air-cooled motor simulation, including geometry creation, geometry import, boundary flagging, case setup, numerical models and parameters, case execution on HPC, and analyzing the flow and temperature field results. We will also discuss oil-cooled and external-water-jacket cooled devices and rotational jet impingement cooling. We will demonstrate different methods for treating the rotational motion of the motor, such as the moving geometry approach, the simplified fixed geometry approach, and the multiple reference frame approach. Furthermore, we will explore options for coupling the heat source and/or thermal solution with external electromagnetic software packages. 

*This session includes hands-on CONVERGE Studio practice.

PREREQUISITES

Introduction to CONVERGE (or equivalent introductory CONVERGE training course)

This course offers a hands-on introduction to CONVERGE for Urea/SCR engine aftertreatment modeling. We will discuss urea decomposition and hydrolysis to ammonia, and we will describe how to set up urea-water spray modeling in CONVERGE. In addition, we will discuss Kuhnke and Bai-Gosman wall interaction models, various phenomena that can lead to urea deposit formation (e.g., filming, rebounding, stripping, and separating), and the application of conjugate heat transfer modeling to obtain accurate wall temperatures. We will discuss aftertreatment system surface chemistry components, such as SCR, DOC, TWC, LNT, and DPF/GPF, which can be solved directly with CONVERGE or via coupling with GT-SUITE. This course will include sample cases for practical Urea/SCR systems as well as validation cases. Finally, we will discuss solution acceleration approaches, which allow CONVERGE to simulate timescales necessary for film and deposit evaluation.

PREREQUISITES
Introduction to CONVERGE (or equivalent introductory CONVERGE training course)

This course offers a hands-on introduction to CONVERGE for gas turbine combustion and combustor analysis. We will discuss how to set up liquid and gaseous fuels for gas turbines and discuss the use of the SAGE detailed chemistry solver, the thickened flame model, and the Flamelet Generated Manifold model for gas turbine applications. In addition, we will discuss wall temperature predictions with conjugate heat transfer; transient RANS and LES simulations and steady-state analysis in reacting and non-reacting cases; gas turbine ignition at high altitude, lean blow-out, and extinction; flashback; and emissions analysis for NOx, CO, and soot. Finally, we will examine some of the relevant kinetic analysis tools available in CONVERGE, including ignition delay, flamespeed, and adiabatic flame temperature calculators and the mechanism merge and reduction tools.

PREREQUISITES
Introduction to CONVERGE (or equivalent introductory CONVERGE training course)

There is extensive interest in using H2 as a fuel to power internal combustion engines (ICEs), gas turbines (GTs), and rotating detonation engines (RDEs). Several OEMs are either working on or have released prototype engines that use H2 as a fuel. H2 poses several modeling challenges for CFD, stemming from its high injection velocities, low density, high mass diffusivity in air, wide flammability range, high burning velocities, and low ignition energy. In this hands-on training session, we will show how CONVERGE is uniquely suited to address these challenges in relation to various applications, including flame flashback control in dual-fuel ICEs and GTs, lean blowout (LBO) in GTs, accurate NOx modeling, and the transition to detonation in RDEs.  

*This session includes hands-on CONVERGE Studio practice.

PREREQUISITES

Introduction to CONVERGE (or equivalent introductory CONVERGE training course)

This one-day course offers a hands-on introduction to CONVERGE for internal combustion (IC) engine modeling. You will practice setting up several types of IC engine cases, including diesel, PFI spark-ignited, and pre-chamber.

Upon the completion of this course, you will know how to:

• Prepare the piston and valves for motion
• Create an engine sector geometry for efficient computation
• Set up solver parameters and data files for engine simulations
• Control grid settings to obtain efficient and accurate engine simulation results
• Set up fuel injection via spray modeling
• Set up detailed chemical kinetics for accurate combustion and emissions modeling
• Set up wall heat transfer modeling in CONVERGE and direct CONVERGE to write heat transfer quantities for thermal analysis
• Set up additional modeling options that are important for engine simulations (e.g., turbulence and sources)
• Post-process engine-relevant results in CONVERGE Studio

PREREQUISITES
Introduction to CONVERGE (or equivalent introductory CONVERGE training course)

Wind energy is playing an increasingly important role as we transition to cleaner energy sources. In this course, we will demonstrate how to use CONVERGE to model wind energy applications. We will go through a recently developed modeling package that aims to streamline some of the biggest challenges in wind energy simulations. Specifically, we will cover how to model:

• Environmental flows, including atmospheric turbulence and oceanic waves
• Individual wind turbines and wind farms, including blade-resolved meshing and simplified actuator rotor models
• Floating offshore wind turbines, including fluid-structure interaction and mooring system models
• Blade aeroelasticity and turbine aeroacoustics, including coupled approaches with third-party software and integrated modeling options

*This session includes hands-on CONVERGE Studio practice.

PREREQUISITES

Introduction to CONVERGE (or equivalent introductory CONVERGE training course)

In this course, we will discuss timely and popular topics in internal combustion (IC) engine modeling. We will discuss how to leverage CONVERGE’s Adaptive Mesh Refinement and its coupled flow and detailed chemistry solvers to capture autoignition and propagating pressure waves to simulate engine knock. Furthermore, we will address how CONVERGE’s cell-based load balancing, excellent scalability, and variety of acceleration strategies lend themselves to running both multi-cycle simulations to understand cycle-to-cycle variation and multi-cylinder simulations to analyze cylinder-to-cylinder variation.

*This session includes hands-on CONVERGE Studio practice.

PREREQUISITES

Introduction to CONVERGE (or equivalent introductory CONVERGE training course)

CONVERGE Studio contains powerful tools for cleaning geometries with significant problems. In this workshop, we will discuss the advantages and limitations of several of these tools, focusing on the Coarsen, Boolean, Surface Healing, and Surface Wrapper tools. The Coarsen tool can be used to reduce the number of triangles in a geometry, which may be useful when working with a large geometry. The Boolean tool can perform Boolean operations including union, intersection, or difference. The Surface Healing tool, which was requested by many clients, can fix a variety of geometry problems at the click of a button. Finally, the Surface Wrapper tool can create watertight models by wrapping the existing geometry to create a new surface.
*This lecture includes hands-on CONVERGE Studio practice.

PREREQUISITES
Introduction to CONVERGE (or equivalent introductory CONVERGE training course)

CONVERGE features a variety of tools to perform simplified kinetics calculations and to manipulate and evaluate chemical kinetic mechanisms. These chemistry tools include zero- and one-dimensional calculators for estimating ignition delay and laminar flamespeed; table generation tools for the Flamelet Generated Manifold (FGM) model, Tabulated Laminar Flamespeed (TLF), and Tabulated Kinetics of Ignition (TKI); mechanism merge and reduction tool for combining and decreasing the size of mechanisms; a mechanism tuning tool to optimize reaction mechanisms; and a pathway flux analysis tool to visualize reaction pathways. Additionally CONVERGE Studio offers a surrogate blender tool for multi-component fuels. This workshop will discuss how to set up these tools in CONVERGE Studio and present strategies for effectively using them with CFD simulations.
*This lecture includes hands-on CONVERGE Studio practice.

PREREQUISITES
Introduction to CONVERGE (or equivalent introductory CONVERGE training course)

CONVERGE can model both CFD and solid heat transfer in the same simulation, making it straightforward to predict the temperatures in solids that are dependent on fluid interfaces, e.g., heads and valves in engines. This course will discuss conjugate heat transfer modeling in CONVERGE, including time control methods such as super-cycling, which accounts for disparate timescales in the solid and fluid domains by allowing the solid side of the simulation to progress with faster timescales than on the fluid side of the simulation. We will also discuss valve/seat contact resistance in engines, which is critical to accurate prediction of valve and head temperatures.
*This lecture includes hands-on CONVERGE Studio practice.

PREREQUISITES
Introduction to CONVERGE (or equivalent introductory CONVERGE training course)

CONVERGE and GT-SUITE can be coupled in a variety of ways. This workshop will discuss how to perform coupled 1D-3D modeling, in which CONVERGE performs a 3D simulation while GT-SUITE performs a 1D simulation. The information at the interfaces is exchanged or mapped between the two programs. This coupling approach allows you to select the appropriate numerical technique for the physics you wish to simulate. Additionally, we will discuss the differences between the full version of CONVERGE and GT-CONVERGE, a specialized version of the software embedded in GT-SUITE, and explore the applications for which each program is suited.
*This lecture does not include hands-on CONVERGE Studio practice.

PREREQUISITES
Introduction to CONVERGE (or equivalent introductory CONVERGE training course)

Reducing emissions to enhance performance and meet regulations is an important topic for designers and manufacturers of internal combustion engines, gas turbines, and other systems. For IC engines, there are two primary areas of focus for this pursuit: reduction of engine-out emissions and engine aftertreatment.  

In this course we will discuss CONVERGE’s emissions modeling options for soot, NOx, unburned hydrocarbons, and CO. We will look at CONVERGE’s acceleration strategies that make it feasible to use even detailed soot models (which includes gas-phase chemistry for its many sub-processes, such as formation via precursor-species, coagulation, and oxidation) in complex simulations, and we will discuss our recommendations for obtaining accurate emissions results.
*This lecture does not include hands-on CONVERGE Studio practice.

PREREQUISITES
Introduction to CONVERGE (or equivalent introductory CONVERGE training course)

Rigid-body fluid-structure interaction (FSI) modeling describes how the presence of immersed objects affects the flow field and how the forces from the surrounding fluid influence the dynamics of the object. CONVERGE can simulate both rigid-body FSI and non-rigid-body 1D beam deformation. In this session we will discuss the theory behind FSI, the numerics of the dynamics solver, and the coupling of the dynamics solver to the flow solver. We will consider several examples of FSI modeling in CONVERGE, including a two-cylinder compressor with spring-loaded valves, a pressure-relief ball valve, beam deformation under fluid forces, and a wastegate valve. We will also discuss options for performing coupled FSI simulations with third-party software, such as Abaqus, which enables simulating more complex deforming bodies (e.g., vortex-induced beam vibration or reed valve petals).
*This session does not include hands-on CONVERGE practice.

PREREQUISITES
Introduction to CONVERGE (or equivalent introductory CONVERGE training course)

In this workshop we will discuss mapping CONVERGE CFD results to different surface files for uncoupled heat transfer analysis in third party software. We will discuss CONVERGE’s htc_map utility, including the methodology of cycle averaging, details of the mapping method, how the geometry is aligned for surfaces, and best practices for mapping. We will review an example of a heat transfer analysis and explain how to bring the spatial temperature boundary condition prediction back to CONVERGE. Additionally, we will briefly discuss the best practices for heat transfer prediction in CONVERGE CFD simulations.
*This session does not include hands-on CONVERGE Studio practice.

PREREQUISITES
Introduction to CONVERGE (or equivalent introductory CONVERGE training course)

CONVERGE’s autonomous meshing capabilities ensure that you can be entirely hands-off when it comes to meshing—CONVERGE will automatically create the mesh at runtime, dynamically adapt it throughout the simulation, and invoke Adaptive Mesh Refinement to maximize both accuracy and computational efficiency. Sometimes, however, you may want your simulation to include a non-Cartesian local mesh (for example, along the boundary of an airfoil or around a spray cone), and CONVERGE’s inlaid meshing feature gives you this option. In this training you will learn how to set up a case that contains a non-Cartesian boundary layer or a spray-aligned conical mesh.
*This session includes hands-on CONVERGE Studio practice.

PREREQUISITES
Introduction to CONVERGE (or equivalent introductory CONVERGE training course)

CONVERGE contains several options for three-dimensional combustion modeling in combustion devices such as internal combustion engines, gas turbine combustors, and industrial burners. In this workshop, we will discuss several combustion models that can be used to simulate diffusion-controlled, non-premixed combustion: direct chemistry approach (SAGE), 3-Zone Extended Coherent Flame Model (ECFM3Z), and Representative Interactive Flamelet (RIF). This workshop will focus on the underlying theory and the advantages and disadvantages of each combustion model, as well as how these models are coupled with the CFD solver in CONVERGE. We will give recommendations and best practices, and we will show published CONVERGE results for non-premixed combustion modeling in several types of engines.
*This session does not include hands-on CONVERGE Studio practice.

PREREQUISITES
Introduction to CONVERGE (or equivalent introductory CONVERGE training course)

In CONVERGE we use the finite-volume formulation of the equations governing fluid flow with a Cartesian cut-cell method. Either the Pressure Implicit with Splitting of Operator (PISO) or the Semi-Implicit Method for Pressure-Linked Equations (SIMPLE) method can be used to solve the coupled equations. In this workshop, we will go over the basic principles of the PISO and SIMPLE algorithms and describe the difference between our linear solvers (SOR and BiCGSTAB). We will also explain preconditioning and discuss when it might be useful. We will use examples to discuss tradeoffs between the different flux reconstruction methods and when each option may be appropriate to achieve better accuracy and stability performance.
*This session does not include hands-on CONVERGE Studio practice.

PREREQUISITES
Introduction to CONVERGE (or equivalent introductory CONVERGE training course)

This workshop will focus on model optimization in CONVERGE, including Genetic Algorithm (GA) optimization and Design of Experiments model interrogation. We will discuss different types of optimization and the details of the GA methodology, and we will discuss how to set up the utility, select parameters, and run an optimization. Finally, we will discuss the best practices of optimization (e.g., model setup, parameter and range selection, and search space considerations) and advanced applications such as geometry modification.
*This session does not include hands-on CONVERGE Studio practice.

PREREQUISITES
Introduction to CONVERGE (or equivalent introductory CONVERGE training course)

CONVERGE Studio is not just for pre-processing! There are several powerful post-processing tools in CONVERGE Studio’s Line Plotting and Post-Processing 3D modules. This workshop will discuss (1) how to generate and customize plots and create reports, (2) how to combine output files from multiple restarts, (3) how to use the Fast Fourier Transform calculator to transform the signal between the time and frequency domains and to complete engine knock analysis, (4) how to use the Apparent Heat Release Rate calculator to calculate the apparent heat release from a pressure signal, (5) how to use the Engine Performance calculator to calculate the work and indicated mean effective pressure (IMEP) from cylinder pressure, and (6) how to convert binary output files for 3D visualization.
*This session includes hands-on CONVERGE Studio practice.

PREREQUISITES
Introduction to CONVERGE (or equivalent introductory CONVERGE training course)

CONVERGE contains several options for three-dimensional combustion modeling in combustion devices such as internal combustion engines, gas turbine combustors, and industrial burners. In this workshop, we will discuss several combustion models that can be used to simulate premixed combustion: direct chemistry approach (SAGE), G-Equation, Extended Coherent Flame Model (ECFM), and Flamelet Generated Manifold (FGM). This workshop will focus on the underlying theory and the advantages and disadvantages of each combustion model, as well as how these models are coupled with the CFD solver in CONVERGE. We will give recommendations and best practices, and we will show published CONVERGE results for premixed combustion modeling in several types of engines.
*This session does not include hands-on CONVERGE Studio practice.

PREREQUISITES
Introduction to CONVERGE (or equivalent introductory CONVERGE training course)

Radiative energy transfer is important in high temperature simulations that include gases and surfaces that emit, absorb, and scatter radiative energy. In this workshop we will discuss the P1 Spherical Harmonics Method and the Discrete Ordinates Finite Volume Method, the different radiation submodels, and how to model radiative energy transfer in CONVERGE simulations. We will set up example cases that have thermal radiation in flows with and without combustion.

PREREQUISITES

Introduction to CONVERGE (or equivalent introductory CONVERGE training course)

In this workshop, we will discuss scripts that expedite I/O file management, assist in monitoring CONVERGE jobs, and parallelize CPU-intensive post-processing. These utilities are available for those who use CONVERGE on a Linux-based platform.
*This session does not include hands-on CONVERGE Studio practice.

PREREQUISITES
Introduction to CONVERGE (or equivalent introductory CONVERGE training course)

CONVERGE includes state-of-the-art models for simulating liquid spray phenomena. In this workshop, we will describe the models in CONVERGE for liquid breakup, collision and coalescence, vaporization, drag, turbulent dispersion, and drop/wall interaction. In particular, we will discuss numerical mesh and parcel number settings for achieving grid convergence for RANS and LES simulations. In addition, we will discuss VOF-spray one-way coupling and ELSA capabilities in CONVERGE.
*This session does not include hands-on CONVERGE Studio practice.

PREREQUISITES
Introduction to CONVERGE (or equivalent introductory CONVERGE training course)

CONVERGE’s steady-state solver can be used for a host of applications, including flowbench, turbocharger, gas turbine, and aftertreatment simulations. This solver can be used with other CONVERGE features including multiple reference frames, combustion, conjugate heat transfer, and volume of fluid modeling. In this workshop we will discuss the theoretical background of this solver and how to set up a variety of steady-state cases.
*This session includes hands-on CONVERGE Studio practice.

PREREQUISITES
Introduction to CONVERGE (or equivalent introductory CONVERGE training course)

CONVERGE includes a full spectrum of methodologies, from RANS to LES, to model turbulence. In this workshop, we will discuss the theory behind different methodologies and different turbulence models, as well as recommendations for and limitations of each model. In addition, we will present the results of some published RANS and LES simulations. Finally, we will describe Detached Eddy Simulation, a hybrid RANS/LES model, and discuss the scenarios in which it is appropriate to use.
*This session does not include hands-on CONVERGE Studio practice.

PREREQUISITES
Introduction to CONVERGE (or equivalent introductory CONVERGE training course)

In this workshop we will explore the extensive world of user-defined functions (UDFs), which can be used to adjust existing models, implement new models, direct CONVERGE to calculate additional quantities, initialize or reinitialize physical variables, and more. We will discuss the different types of UDFs that CONVERGE supports, the process to set up a UDF, and the UDF structure. Finally, we will go through several examples demonstrating how to effectively use UDFs in CONVERGE.
*This session does not include hands-on CONVERGE practice.

PREREQUISITES
Introduction to CONVERGE (or equivalent introductory CONVERGE training course)

Volume of fluid (VOF) methods are some of the most popular numerical techniques for locating and tracking moving and deforming interfaces between fluids in multi-phase flow simulations. In this workshop we will discuss the numerical details of the various VOF options in CONVERGE and go through some example cases and validation calculations. One of the VOF methods in CONVERGE is based on the species mass fraction equation and is appropriate for miscible or compressible multiphase flow calculations. CONVERGE offers an option for VOF-spray one-way coupling. In this option, CONVERGE collects detailed fluid flow information near the nozzle exit during a VOF simulation and then uses this information to inject parcels for Lagrangian spray calculations. Another VOF method, which solves for the void fraction directly, is available in CONVERGE as two separate schemes: Piecewise Linear Interface Calculation (PLIC) and High Resolution Interface Capturing (HRIC). These schemes have been tested on a range of problems including a rising bubble, a breaking dam, and an impinging jet.. Each test case illustrates the ability of the VFS method to capture the interfaces sharply.
*This session includes hands-on CONVERGE Studio practice.

PREREQUISITES
Introduction to CONVERGE (or equivalent introductory CONVERGE training course)