Aeronautics research in Germany is based on a close partnership between industry, large-scale research facilities and universities. Research assignments are diverse, and reflected in the specialist disciplines of the institutions and faculties involved. Among the fundamental aspects is numeric simulation with its various areas of application, for example in flow mechanics (from air flow around aircraft to internal flow dynamics in turbines), structural mechanics or noise simulation. High-quality public sector research and development work is of great importance to the German aeronautics industry in maintaining its position in international competition.

In this context, an important role is played by large simulation codes that are developed in DLR institutes and at universities using innovative algorithms and are therefore more powerful than commercially available products. These codes are used either directly by industrial companies or by research partners on their behalf. Examples include the DLR Institute for Propulsion Technology’s TRACE turbine flow solver, or the DLR Institute for Aerodynamics and Flow Technology’s TAU unstructured hybrid flow solver and PIANO noise simulation code.

These codes are used both industrially and in university training and research. TRACE and TAU for example are applied at many higher education institutions to process research assignments.

The very active collaboration within this research network currently enjoys IT support only at a rather rudimentary level. Software and data are exchanged by FTP server, e-mail or data carriers, collaboration on joint projects is mainly co-ordinated by telephone or e-mail, and calculations are usually processed with local resources. This causes significant organisational overheads, increases processing times and holds the danger of inconsistent results due to the use of different program versions.