SOLUTION REUSE FOR MODEL GENERATION IN NUMERICAL-SIMULATION

A knowledge-based tool that assists engineers with mathematical modell ing in numerical simulation is described. The application domain cover ed includes engineering problems described by partial differential equ ations (e.g. heat transfer, fluid dynamics, structural analysis). In t hese applications, it is argued that mathematical modelling is primari ly experiential in nature and is characterised by a weak domain theory . To date, existing research efforts have largely ignored this problem class and instead have focused on modelling in simpler application do mains. This has been mainly achieved by exploiting approaches based on reasoning from first principles. One of the key issues that arises in modelling research is whether existing first principle approaches can be scaled to deal with more complex engineering application problems. In this work, this challenge is addressed by developing a modelling t ool based on an alternative approach which exploits solution reuse. (C ) 1998 Elsevier Science Limited. All rights reserved.