FDS 4 Release

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

All

We've put a self-installing version of FDS 4 on the web site

http://fire.nist.gov/fds/

You should all move up to 4 unless you are in the midst of a
project using 3. Most input conventions should be the same
as for 3 with the following exceptions:

1. Particles and droplets are handled differently
2. Restarting is slightly different
3. Starting a calculation is slightly different, especially
the parallel version
4. Opening and closing vents, creating and removing
obstructions upon the activation of a HEAT detector is
slightly different.

If you run into any trouble with the new version, check the
new User's Guide to make sure that your input parameters
have not changed in name or function.

The new FDS Tech Guide has several sections on verification
and validation work, including references to work done with
FDS over the past few years. We will continue to update
these sections, so let us know if something you have written
involving FDS/Smokeview is published in the open literature.
Also let us know as soon as possible if there is some
misrepresentation of your work in the guide.

For those having trouble with the NIST FTP site, we will
soon move all the material, like source code, executables
for other machines, etc., to a web site linked to the
official FDS/SV web page. This will enable us to quickly
post updates and other miscellaneous items to the linked
page.

Those interested in trying FDS on a Mac, we have posted an
executable for Mac on the FTP site
(ftp://ftp.nist.gov/pub/bfrl/mcgratta/FDS4/MAC/fds4). We've
had difficulty porting this executable to other Macs. We
compile using IBM's XL Fortran compiler on a G5, and we hope
to have created an executable that will run on most OSX
machines. Let us know.

We've noticed a fair amount of FDS/SV question/answer
traffic at
http://fireforum.senecac.on.ca/
Those new to FDS/SV might want to check it out, or even more
experienced users might pick up some interesting info.
Especially interesting are the discussions of parallel
computing platforms. We're still interested in knowing how
easy or difficult it is for people to run FDS in parallel.

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