Ercofact

European Research Community On Flow, Turbulence And Combustion

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United Kingdom

Purpose and focus of the pilot Centre

The UK Pilot Centre for ERCOFTAC is based at the BAE Systems Advanced Technology Centre in Filton Bristol.

Contact

Dr. Iain Barton
BAE Systems ATC – Sowerby
Department of Mathematical Modelling
FPC 267 PO Box 5 Filton
Bristol BS34 7QW
Tel: +44 (0) 117 302 8251
Fax: + 44 (0) 117 302 8007
iain.barton@baesystems.com

The role of the Pilot Centre is to

Draw together and foster the ERCOFTAC community within the UK, promoting both communication and information exchange on all Flow, Turbulence and Combustion (FTAC) matters and building membership value – with particular interest in deriving value from the UK-led Special Interest Groups (SIGs).

Reach out to young researchers in order to stimulate and engage their interest in pursuing rewarding careers in applied fluid dynamics. Support them in every possible way.
Deliver and enhance value to industry drawn from the ERCOFTAC community of leading research groups in flow, turbulence and combustion. A particularly strong activity is support for the maintenance and development of the QNET CFD knowledge base and the Best Practice Guidelines.

Current activities include:

The Annual Osborne Reynolds Research Student Award

The annual Osborne Reynolds Research Student Award is organised by the UK Pilot Centre and was launched in 2002. Since then, it has gained enormously in prestige and is now regarded as one of the highlights in the UK FTAC calendar. The Award recognises the quality of young Researchers studying applied fluid dynamics in the UK and their ability to communicate their work. The competition is open to all researchers providing:

They are a PhD student studying in the UK, or
They have been awarded a PhD degree from a UK University no earlier than January of the preceding year
Their research topic is in the field of flow, turbulence or combustion.

The award finalists are selected on the basis of submitted abstracts will and are invited to present their work at a gathering of the FTAC community in a suitable venue. The presentations are judged by a panel of eminent researchers. The winner is awarded the Osborne Reynolds Prize of £400, and the runner-up will receives £100. All finalists are presented with a commemorative medal in recognition of their effort. In addition, the three highest ranked finalists are entered into the Europe-wide annual Da Vinci award which features as part of the ERCOFTAC Autumn Festival.

This year, 2009, the event was hosted by the BAE Systems at Filton, Bristol on the 18th June. The finalists’ presentations were be preceded by two invited guest speakers talks.

UK Coordinated Special Interest Groups

The QNET CFD Knowledge Base

The QNET-CFD Knowledge Base (KB) is set to become the world’s foremost repository of structured knowledge and advice designed to underpin the quality and reliability with which CFD is practised in industry. Under the stewardship of ERCOFTAC, the aim is to create a living resource which grows and adapts, and is continuously enriched as domain knowledge and capability evolve. In this way the insight and experience of the relatively few is transferred in a highly structured way to a large population of users across a wide range of applications QNET CFD Knowledge Base . The UK PC is host to the Knowledge Base, and maintains it on their servers. Currently, the PC is working to produce a wiki version of the KB to accompany the rigorously quality-checked so called gold version. The PC is also extending the KB functionality through the use of a semantic knowledge management infrastructure.

Joint Initiatives

The UK Pilot Centre currently works with a number of other organisations on FTAC related initiatives.

The annual series of one-day seminars ‘Quality and Reliability of CFD Simulation’ is organised within the UK in association with NAFEMS.
A continuing initiative in collaboration with the CFMS organisation (https://www.cfms.org.uk/default.htm ) to derive mutual value from knowledge and best practice in the industrial application of CFD. For example a jointly organised LES/DES Best Practice Workshop was held in the UK late in 2008.

Support for the Industry Engagement Officer

ERCOFTAC has appointed a full-time Industry Engagement Officer (IEO) charged with implementing forward strategy aimed at sustaining growth in industrial membership and engaging industrial interest and participation outside of Europe. The IEO is centered in the UK (Richard.Seoud-ieo@ercoftac.org) and is supported by the UK PC in carrying out his duties