New FDS Manuals

[Kevin McGrattan <kevin.mcgrattan@nist.gov>]

All,

I've posted draft copies of the FDS Tech Guide and User's
Guide on the FTP
site

ftp://ftp.nist.gov/pub/bfrl/mcgratta/FDS4/MANUALS

These are currently undergoing review at NIST. During this
time, feel free
to look the manuals over, paying attention to a few things:

1. Note that there are no authors listed. I've included
Acknowledgment
sections in each manual, listing contributors. The Tech
Guide list is 
fairly long, as there have been many who have contributed in
some way to
the FDS development over the years. The persons listed come
off the top of
my head, my email list, publications, etc. I do not intend
to exclude 
anyone, so if your name is not on the list and you think it
should be, don't
be shy and let me know. I want everyone to get the credit
they deserve.
The User's Guide Acknowledgment list is smaller, limited to
those who have
contributed to the development of the FDS computer software.
Right now,
I've listed those who have written pieces of the source
code. I'd like to
expand the list to include those who have spent time working
with the
unreleased versions of the software, beta testing,
debugging, compiling,
etc. If you'd like to be listed as a beta tester, send me
your name and
institution/company/address (city, state, country). I know
how frustrating
it can be to sort out annoying bugs, and the feedback from
users has been
extremely useful.

2. For those who sent in validation material to Erin Mack of
Combustion
Science and Engineering, look to see if your work is
included, check the
brief description of it for accuracy, check the reference to
it. There is
an extensive list of references in the Tech Guide, and the
completeness
of these references is very important. If your material is
not included,
it's probably because the reference was too obscure or there
was not enough
validation work contained within it. This is a judgment call
by Erin, so 
if you feel that your work should be included, we can add it
back in under
a section on case studies or qualitative assessment or some
such. Most
importantly, the work has to be easy to obtain. Unpublished
works are 
appreciated for development, but the Guide can only list
work in the open
literature.


In other matters, we're moving towards a release of version
4 mid-June.
There are still a few technical issues to deal with, in
particular, several
users have seen erratic behavior of velocities in tunnel or
channel
scenarios when multiple meshes are used. Thought we had this
one beat, but
there are still a few cases where things are not working
right. Should
be able to take care of it during the review process.

That's all for now.

Kevin

 
-- 
Kevin McGrattan
National Institute of Standards and Technology
100 Bureau Drive, Stop 8663
Gaithersburg MD 20899-8663

Telephone: (301) 975 2712
FAX:       (301) 975 4052