A workstation-based engineering expert system environment for a CFD laboratory Navier-Stokes computer code

Computational fluid dynamics techniques are finding increased utilization in the prediction and analysis of fluid-thermal flow systems. A major detraction is the level of expertise required to use existing CFD algorithms successfully. Computational problems tend to be difficult to define and convergence of the numerical procedure can be hard to achieve. Considering the high computer and labor costs involved, the user can hardly afford to waste computation time on a problem that has been incorrectly defined. The purpose of this research project is the development of an "engineering expert system environment" to interface the non expert user with a finite element CFD Navier-Stokes computer code. With such a pseudo-expert system in place, the non expert engineer may conduct computational experiments successfully, thereby increasing the effectiveness of CFD as an analytical and design tool.