A Path to Enabling a Wider Use of Controlled- Accuracy 3D CFD in Industry and Academia
Wagdi G. Habashi
This article is written for a special issue honoring the illustrious career of Dr. Ned Allen which spans six decades as a scientist, an entrepreneur, and a brilliant innovator. This conceptual article identifies apparent impediments to the use of advanced 3D CFD, demystifies them, and proposes practical approaches to enable small and medium-sized enterprises to take advantage of the rapid and continuous advances in algorithmic and computational power without maintaining an onerous infrastructure.
The article also addresses the current basis of comparison between various computational fluid dynamics (CFD) codes, often leading to inconclusive results. It proposes to replace the hodge-podge nature of such workshops with a more scientific approach.
Examples are given from some areas of interest of the author, mainly aerodynamics, spanning low subsonic speeds up to hypersonics, an area in which the author got involved through the sponsorship, support, and encouragement of Dr. Ned Allen.
Keywords: Computational Fluid Dynamics, Mesh generation, Mesh adaptation, Mesh independent solutions, Automatically adapted CFD grids, CFD standards, CFD code comparison workshops, CFD icing code comparison workshops, CFD convergence, CFD accuracy, Reduced Order Modeling, Real-time CFD