A CRITICAL LOOK AT THE PROGRESS IN NUMERICAL HEAT TRANSFER AND SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR IMPROVEMENT

In the last two decades interest in numerical solutions of heat transfer problems has grown significantly; the evolution of this international journal is itself a very good indication. However, this interest has not yet been converted into common practice. The purpose of this article is to analyze why it has not been so and to propose how the process can be accelerated. To do so, a variety of heat transfer problems, ranging from conduction to multiphase flow and heat transfer, are discussed first in the context of their amenability to numerical solutions. Then the evolution and status of one computational fluid dynamics (CFD) methodology are presented with the objective of illustrating the capabilities of current numerical methods. Finally, some observations and arguments are presented in an attempt to discuss possible reasons and remedies for the slow impact of CFD on industry.