History of CFD
 

Hello All,

Im a final year student having to write a dissertation on the history of CFD. My initial finds have been fruitless, and any help regarding links, books, artcles, etc.. would be gratefully recieved.

Thankyou for your time

Re: History of CFD
 

(1). I started working on numerical solution of 3-D, Navier-Stokes equations in early 70's and got my PhD in 1973. (2). In 60's, people were mainly working on boundary layer equations. (3). But then, in mid 70's, NASA/Ames started working on the transient compressible formulations, explicit method, then implicit methods. (4). But the turbulence models they used were mainly the algebraic Baldwin-Lomax types. (5). At the same time, the two-equation turbulence models developed at the Imperial College became widely used in 70's. This included the Reynolds stresses model development. But it turned out that the two-equation k-epsilon model was a popular one, even with the known limitation of the epsilon equation. (6). In the 80's, the development of CFD was mainly in the full configuration applications. The CAD integration at this point became very important in both the geometry modeling and the mesh generation. (7). In late 80's, the cut-back in defense spending in US signified the end of the large scale CFD development. (8). After many years of economic depression of early 90's, the commercial CFD codes become available in late 90's. This is not a new phenomenon, because back in late 70's and eraly 80's, there were consulting firms doing CFD works already. The difference in late 90's is that the graphic pre- and post-processing are being widely used. (to provide "beautiful, colourful pictures") (9). The "commercial codes" simply means that the survival of the engineer now depends on the sale of the code, instead of the government research budget money. (10). So, I think, it is the right time to write the history of CFD. In this money oriented market of late 90's, being able to survive and have some income seems to be the average goal. (11). Then there is this CFD forum, it is just like the numerous PC users' gruop in 80's. People traded software for a few dollars, listened to the demo of new programs and games, and showed off the computer graphics in 2-D paint or animation. (12). Well, time really has not changed at all. But the name has. So, I think, it is a good time to write a history book on CFD.

Re: History of CFD
 

Dear John, I suppose you are right. Especially for new entrants into the field of CFD such as myself a history lesson on CFD will do a lot of good. I think experienced users like you and others in this forum should get together and give a serious thought to this idea.

Cheers

Re: History of CFD
 

a good place to start is to look for survey papers in the field. also the introductions of CFD texts such as John Anderson's and Tannehill, Anderson and Pletcher's would be a good place to start. i think i might have some old survey papers at home. email me directly if you need the names and i can get to you. also try asking your professors about more recent survey papers

Re: History of CFD
 

Dear Mark Feed back given by other people will be useful for u i suppose.I will strongly advise you to read some books e.g. by CFD by Anderson, CFD for Engineers by Hoffmann and Chiang. Wish u good start

--kumar

Re: History of CFD
 

Here is a good overview of the history of CFD at Los Alamos National Lab. This is one of the original birth places of CFD.

http://gnarly.lanl.gov/History/CFD_paper_6_24_96.pdf

Re: History of CFD
 

What can you tell me about phoenics?