Computational Methods in Biomedical Fluid Mechanics: Past, Present, and Future

The study of fluid mechanics in the human body has developed from early rudimentary work in the 1950’s to complex computational marvels in the 1980’s. This trend has closely followed that of the expanded use of computers through this same era from the primitive digital computers and analog computers in the early days to the powerful mainframe, mini- and micro-computers in use today. The field of computation in biofluid mechanics is a wide one, encompassing several sub-catagories. These can be roughly listed as follows: data analysis of measured fluid mechanics parameters computerized solutions of the equations of motion computerized solutions of modified equations (usually relating simplified models and/or analogs to real world applications) analog computer solutions of modified equations