What is Computational Fluid Dynamics or CFD?
Computational Fluid Dynamics constitutes a new third approach in the philosophical study and development of the whole discipline of fluid dynamics. In the 17th century, the foundations for experimental fluid dynamics were laid. The 18th and 19th centuries saw the gradual development of theoretical fluid dynamics. As a result, throughout most of the 20th century, the study and practice of fluid dynamics (indeed, all of physical science and engineering) involved the use of pure theory on the one hand and pure experiment on the other. If you were learning fluid dynamics as recently as, say, 1960, you would have been operating in the two-approach world of theory and experiment. However, the advent of the high speed digital computer combined with the development of accurate numerical algorithms for solving physical problems on these computers has revolutionized the way we study and practice fluid dynamics today. It has introduced a fundamentally important new third approach in fluid dynamic
