CFD Users vs. Time
 

I'm reading a paper [Fujii, K., 2005, “Progress and Future Prospects of CFD in Aerospace – Wind Tunnel and Beyond,” Progress in Aerospace Sciences, 41, pp. 455 – 470] that claims between the mid-1990s and now, the number of researchers entering the field of CFD became less than the number of researchers leaving the area.

This is a pretty bold statement. Does anyone have anything to validate or disprove this?

Thanks!

Interesting statement. I wondering if it could reflects a "maturation" of the field (i.e. more industry users but less research).

It also raise another question: where do researchers leaving the field go? Another area or just retiring?

For my part, I am enjoying it and not ready to leave - but I am not doing research anyway...

I was considering that, as well. Certainly, there must be more practitioners of CFD now than in the 1990s. The software, both commercial and open source, is much more widely available.

On the other hand, it's difficult to say if there are less researchers. There are many companies, universities, and institutions that develop in-house codes. How can they keep track?

Thanks for the response.