Unlike solid mechanics, fluid mechanics theories have been quite challenging to solve analytically for centuries. Hence, the easiest way to analyze and make engineering innovations related to fluid flow phenomena has been through experiments.
However, with the advancement of computational technology, it became possible for humans to solve highly complex discrete equations using computers within a reasonable time. Computational Fluid Dynamics, or CFD, is the computational method used to solve these discrete fluid equations.
As it has evolved, CFD methods have become capable of handling various fluid flow cases, ranging from incompressible flows like those around race cars to compressible flows like those around supersonic jets to complex flows involving combustion, multiphase flows, particle interactions, and more.
This book will discuss CFD from basic computation and modeling techniques. But first, the “FD” of CFD is “Fluid Dynamics,” so we must first discuss about the fluid dynamics or at least define some basic understanding of it.
To model fluid flows, similar to classical physics theories in general, three governing equations define the conservation laws: the conservation of mass (continuity), the conservation of momentum (Navier-Stokes equations), and the conservation of energy.
Some properties like velocity, pressure, shear stress, and temperature are typically used to define the fluid flow phenomena which are constructed in the governing equations.
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