Wiki History

From QNET-CFD Network to the ERCOFTAC Knowledge Base Wiki

The Knowledge Base originates from the EU Network on Quality and Trust in the Industrial Application of Computational Fluid Dynamics. This was a four-year project which brought together the expertise of 43 participating organisations across Europe. The main objective of the Network was to improve the level of trust that can be placed in industrial CFD calculations by assembling, structuring and collating existing knowledge encapsulating the performance of models underlying the current generation of CFD codes.

The membership was principally built from industry, although there was a strong representation from universities and national research organisations and from the major European CFD code vendors. The network was co-ordinated by the University of Brussels (VUB), with WS Atkins plc acting as assistant co-ordinators. The Network was organised around six Application Areas; between 2000 and 2004 it created a Knowledge Base containing 43 Application Challenges and 43 Underlying Flow Regimes. Each test-case submission was subjected to a quality control by members of the Network with the aid of special templates.

Following the end of the EU Network in July 2004, the Knowledge Base passed to the control of ERCOFTAC, the European Research Community on Flow, Turbulence and Combustion, with the remit of enhancing and expanding the Knowledge Base and bringing it online for the benefit of applied Fluid Dynamicists and CFD users worldwide. This is achieved by the QNET-CFD Wiki which has been developed from the prototype pioneered by the network. During the transfer process, the quality of the test cases was checked once more by the Knowledge Base Editor appointed by ERCOFTAC, and some test cases found to have insufficient quality were removed. All test cases added after the launch of the Wiki (in September 2009) were also quality checked by the Knowledge Base Editor. These additions are listed in News.