Benchmark test cases for CFD in mechanical engineering

Abstract

The importance of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) as a major tool for analysis and design of fluid dynamic problems is nowadays unquestionable. Actually, it evolved from the early days, at mid past century, in which it was mostly seen as a narrow field and a pretty limited research tool, into a major component of fluid dynamics work. Today CFD is at the same level as the approaches based on experiments or in theoretical analysis. From the former, it is perfectly evident that Central European Journal of Engineering (CEJE) should also be seen as a gathering point for researchers working in CFD. A strong advantage of the journal being its multidisciplinary character that is beneficial for innovation. Actually, it can introduce into the CFD community novel tools and concepts, bringing in new questions, and thus provide groundbreaking problems. Accordingly, in order to trigger the use of CEJE by the CFD worldwide community we have envisaged this special issue on “Benchmark Test Cases for CFD in Mechanical Engineering”. The provision of well defined and state-of-the-art testcases is of continuous importance for the accurate use of CFD tools. Consequently, we have issued a challenge to worldwide researchers in order to start defining benchmarks for the future key problems in their respective fields. A strong answer from the scientific community was felt, and many investigators have proposed their work in order for that it can be examined and new test cases adopted. The papers herein available describe new benchmarks that will certainly foster new developments in the targeted research topics. An extensive pool of very active scientists, that are worldwide leaders in their field of research, assisted us in the review process to insure a very deep and detailed review of each paper submitted. We owe a debt of gratitude to them for their generous work. Following this procedure we are now publishing the ten papers that have successfully surpassed all the review procedure. The papers provide a pleiad of work themes, and diverse approaches, related to CFD. We can find works representative of canonical and of more complex industrial flows, both for liquid and gases. The themes range from turbomachinery to ground vehicle aerodynamics, passing through marine currents and multiphase flows. Besides computational, also experimental test-cases are offered that can be used for benchmark by other researchers. It is unquestionable that the quality of the presented papers will promote their use by other researchers, demonstrating the usefulness of CEJE as an archival quality journal also in the field of CFD. However, the most lasting proof will come from their future adoption and consequent citation in future works.