Editorial for Special Issue on Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) Applications in Energy Engineering Research and Simulation

1. Introduction

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) has been firmly established as a fundamental discipline to advancing research on energy engineering. Since the early work by D. Brian Spalding [1,2,3,4], B.E. Launder [1,4,5,6], S. V. Patankar [2,4,7], and many other contributors to the establishment of computational fluid dynamics as a discipline to solve real engineering problems, there has been significant progress during recent decades. Numerical methods and physical models have been developed, and computer power, graphics, and 3D CAD design have also developed impressively. The major progress achieved during the last two decades both on software modeling capabilities and hardware computing power have resulted in the considerable and wide spread of CFD interest among scientist and engineers. Numerical modeling and simulation developments are increasingly contributing to the current state of the art in many energy engineering aspects, such as power generation, combustion, wind energy, concentrated solar power, hydro power, gas and steam turbines, fuel cells, and many others.

Today, CFD is a very well-established discipline and tool in both industry and academia. Commercial vendors have developed software with highly relevant capabilities, able to cover a wide range of applications. Graphical user interfaces are much improved, enabling the expansion of the business, and allowing more users to become involved in CFD. Nevertheless, CFD remains a very specific and highly demanding tool in terms of knowledge requirements for ensuring the quality and reliability of the simulation results (it is not a plug and play tool). A very high level of knowledge on discretization schemes, numerical methods, fluid mechanics, heat transfer, and chemical reactions is needed for the successful and valuable use of any CFD software.

With over 1000 journal publications on CFD yearly, it is obvious that industry and academia are highly involved in research activities both for the development and application of CFD. This Special Issue on “CFD Applications in Energy Engineering Research and Simulation” is aimed at covering some of the most recent advances in the applications of CFD in the field of energy engineering.

2. Review of Contributions

This Special Issue contains a wide range of topics within the contributions (Figure 1), with a particular focus on rotating machinery (pumps, turbines, and compressors). Oil and gas applications are also well covered, together with novel technologies such as electrolysers and redox flow batteries. The overview of the main topics covered is depicted in Figure 1, but nevertheless, additional topics are present in this Special Issue as well, such as hydrogen pre-cooling for fast filling, pressure valve modeling, CFD numerics and codes, CFD-DEM coupling, fiber spinning processing, shell and tube heat exchangers, indoor air quality, steam soil disinfection, desalination, waterjet propulsion, and solar radiation heat transfer for spacecraft applications. A perspective on “CFD Applications in Energy Engineering Research and Simulation” is also included in this Special Issue.

In terms of geographical contributions, the high relevance of China (Figure 2) is noteworthy, along with a significant number of contributions from the USA, Korea, Mexico, and Spain.

Overall, this Special Issue contains contributions from 22 countries, involving a wide representation of CFD activities in different countries and sectors.

It is worth mentioning that some of the contributions have high potential for subsequent research activities, which represents a success, as the contents of this Special Issue have fostered further research and progress in the field. In this sense, it is worth mentioning the contributions to the field of pumps by Zikang Li et al. [8], Bowen Li et al. [9], and Hongqiang Chai et al. [10], centrifugal fans (Zhehong Li et al. [11]), shell and tube heat exchangers (Xuejun Qian et al. [12]), alkaline water electrolysis (Jesús Rodríguez and Ernesto Amores [13]), redox flow batteries (García-Salaberri et al. [14]), indoor environmental quality (Payam Nejat et al. [15]), energy performance in greenhouses (Aguilar-Rodriguez et al. [16]), and waterjet propulsion systems (Chuan Wang et al. [17]).

It is expected that these research articles, as well as all the others published in this Special Issue, will significantly contribute to the further research of CFD in different energy engineering applications.