Critique of Numerical Modeling of Fluid-Mechanics Phenomena

Both the fluid-mechanics phenomena numerically modeled to date and the numerical methods used in their calculation are briefly reviewed. I t is shown that oneand two-dimensional problems, both steady and nonsteady, are solvable by various processes, and current work is both developing new methods and determining the potentialities of present methods. Problems of three space dimensions, especially nonsteady ones, are on the edge of present capability both of methods and of computing-machine capacity (or reason­ able running time). Finally, treatment of the phenomena of turbulence by a straightforward approach is well beyond present machine capability; much new work is still required before approximate methods of known and general validity will make such computation feasible, even for academic research.