Page 8 - Process Modelling and Simulation With Finite Element Methods

FOREWORD

I would especially like to thank the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research
Council of the United Kingdom for the award of an Advanced Research
Fellowship on the topic of “models of helical mixing and reaction: a new
approach to chemical reaction engineering.” Without the flexibility of the
fellowship, I doubt I would have felt adventuresome enough to afford the time to
run so far - developing an intensive training module and writing a textbook on a
topic that is relatively new to me and was not envisaged when I wrote the
original research strategy for the fellowship in 1998. It has turned out to be
integral to my plans for turbulence modeling, although this is not reflected in
the book.
Johan Sundqvist and Ed Fontes of COMSOL have been most supportive of
my two projects, lending considerable resources to helping me to iron out
difficulties in modeling, contributing to the intensive modules, and providing
critiques of the draft chapters. I would have thought the crew at COMSOL
would have tired with the endless e-mails from my research group. With most
packages I use, I have no intention of being “cutting edge,” so the FAQs on the
web site usually already have my queries - asked and answered. It is both novel
and refreshing to have identified (and sometimes solved or worked around) new
bugs or puzzles. To Ed and Johan, a wholehearted thanks for welcoming me to
the FEMLAB developers community.
Many thanks to the team of collaborators and chapter co-authors who have
encouraged this effort. Buddhi, Alex, Kiran, Jordan, Peter, George and Julia
have always had a kind word and a willingness to brainstorm and contribute.
Finally, thanks to attendees at my intensive modules for spotting
inconsistencies, patiently wading through “experimental” teaching material
(guinea pigs who are so intelligent are a rare find!), and putting up with my
sometimes convoluted explanations. Not to mention those awkward times as we
uncovered clangers in the demonstrations. It has always been a conceit of mine
that computer demonstrations should be realistic - bugs and all - since
debugging is an integral programming skill that relies on intuition and
experience. So thanks for sharing the experience!

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