PhD Thesis - staffweb - University of Greenwich

2.4.1 Develop a new CFD engine from scratch and add interactivetechniquesPhD Thesis by John Ewer.It would be possible to create a CFD framework from scratch based on the plethora of availableliterature. Many of the papers about CFD cover many advanced topics of CFD research and thefine-tuning needed for specific application areas. The problem is that there are very few "single"information sources, which cover all aspects of developing a general-purpose CFD code. Thereare also a number of additional problems with regards to this approach.2.4.1.1 Development time factorMany CFD codes (either commercial or in-house research codes) have been developed over aperiod of many years by numerous developers. This is largely due to the diverse methodsavailable for CFD research as well as improvements and replacements for both the genericnumerical methods and application-area specific empirical techniques. In this sense most CFDcode development is an evolutionary process both in terms of increasing hardware capability(which tends to highlight limitations in traditional techniques as the problem size and simulationcomplexity are increased - For example the availability of more memory and faster hardware maylead researchers to use finer meshes which may actually give less stable simulations or worseresults because there are considerably more degrees of freedom for the flow path in a finer mesh)and software capability. Given the limited duration, human resources (Approximately 3 personyears)and CFD expertise available for this research it was concluded that it would not bepossible to create a complete and well validated CFD system from basic first-principles.2.4.1.2 Reliability of CFD softwareThe huge investment in man-power to develop CFD codes and the customary evolutionarydevelopment life-cycle of such codes mean that most CFD codes have a large and dedicatedfollowing of users who trust in the capabilities of particular codes (It is also the case that CFDcodes have many optimal branches and fine tuned coefficients that are tailored to specificapplication areas). Indeed many CFD users are so tied to a particular CFD system that they areincapable or extremely reluctant to use any other CFD software outside of their previous2-20