The International Journal of CFD Case Studies

The International Journal of CFD Case Studies publishes case studies that follow CFD best practice guidelines to demonstrate the application of CFD in industrial design.

At the time of the Journal's launch in April 1998, concerns were growing within the CFD community, particularly practicing engineers, regarding the quality of industrial simulations and how results were interpreted and applied. In his foreword to the first issue, Professor Charles Hirsch welcomed the Journal as a unique and valuable contribution to addressing these concerns.

Since then, quality and trust issues have moved to the centre of the industrial CFD stage and are yet to be fully solved. The problems arise from the fact that fluid dynamics is highly non-linear. As such, flow structures spanning a wide range of scales are likely to be present, and these must be resolved by judicious, usually a priori mesh design.

As often as not, engineering parameters are highly sensitive to uncertainties in the problem data. Furthermore, the flows of interest encompass various complex fluid physics such as turbulence, combustion, and interacting multiple phases. Solution affordability and the quest for practical simplicity dictate that these must be modelled semi-empirically, and such models can only be trusted within their limited calibration range.

Thus, in the industrial context, even if the myriad of complex model set-up decisions are made according to best practice, CFD provides a simulation rather than a solution, which must be interpreted from a position of considerable knowledge. It is a complex discipline, even in the hands of an expert, and the growing demand for CFD is outstripping the supply of experts.

The Journal provides insight into industrial best practice, results interpretation, and CFD application.

Editor: Professor Don McGlinchey, Glasgow Caledonian University

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