Computational research within the group focuses in the area of computational aero and fluid dynamics.

The group has been developing steady and unsteady numerical simulation methods for 20 years. Research has been in various fields, including developing efficient time and space marching schemes, low speed codes for propeller and wind-turbine design, theoretical and computational modelling of asymmetric vortex shedding, direct numerical simulation methods, boundary layer integration methods, viscous-inviscid interaction, free surface flows, unsteady fixed and rotary wing flows, reduced order modelling and system identification, combustion modelling, aeroelasticity and aeroservoelasticity, grid generation, adaptation and deformation, parallel processing, and visualisation. The group is a member of the UK Applied Aerodynamics Consortium for supercomputing in aerodynamics, and many of the methods developed in the group have been adopted within industrial simulation codes.

Recent efforts have concentrated on `empowering' technology; generic universal pre-, co-, and post-processing methods that make CFD methods easier to use, and methods to extract maximum information from CFD output. Examples include approaches to simplify and automate mesh generation, allow CFD-structural coupling for aeroelastics, surface shape parameterisation and optimisation, system identification, multi-dimensional data interpolation, and adaptive sampling and parameter space metamodelling.

The expertise in the group has formed the core of several EC research projects, and Bristol is the lead partner on the current three year 4M EUR H2020 'AEROGUST' project. The group participated in the previous BRITE-EURAM contracts, DACRO, SCIA, HELINOISE, HELISHAPE, and EROS.

The CFD group have collaborative contracts with all major UK aerospace companies, and collaborative links with many international research institutes, including DLR, FOI Stockholm, UTIAS (Toronto), Caltech, Toledo, and US Air Force Research Labs.