PhD Thesis - staffweb - University of Greenwich

PhD Thesis by John Ewer.2.4.2.1 Sensitivity of commercial softwareMost commercial CFD software is closely guarded by the developers because of the hugeinvestment of resources required to develop and maintain it. Access to some of the empiricalapproximations, numerical methods or specific implementation techniques would givecompetitors considerable advantage. It is generally the case that commercial software is onlyinfrequently available completely in source code form.2.4.2.2 Access to commercial softwareAs previously mentioned the new research requires complete access to all of the softwareinternals because of the requirements for interactive dynamic control. Also the methodologyused to incorporate User Interface code within a software system are generally highly invasivefor the provision of comprehensive interactive control, run-time data monitoring and run-timevisualisation.2.4.2.3 Authority to modify commercial softwareGiven the sensitivity of most commercial CFD codes it is unlikely that authority would be givento re-engineer or modify such a code extensively because such modifications would createseveral different versions of the software which would then have to be maintained. If a decisionwas taken to only proceed with the modified "interactive" version then that would haveimplications on the development techniques that would have to be employed (e.g. QAprocedures, regression testing, comprehensive validation, software design with managementwalkthroughs) and also on the company requirements for the delivery software. Suchcommercially driven research would be unlikely to be as flexible as pure research because of thelimitations of product and user requirements which often cannot afford to support extensivespeculative pure research.2.4.2.4 Access to developers' expertiseIt is unlikely that a commercial software development house would welcome external access to2-23