The Importance of Problem Formulation Process and an Overview of PHOENICS Use in the U.S.A.

The use of PHOENICS in the U.S.A. started at CHAM NA in 1980, with a few rather complex flow problems related to the Space Shuttle. Since then many problems have been analyzed and the results have made significant impact on actual designs of space shuttle systems. In these problems, in addition to the common governing equations and computer code, the common thread was the use of a building block approach in problem formulations. A few specific examples are discussed in this paper to illustrate the importance of systematic problem formulation.