[SIGCIS-Members] Historical Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) Software

Evan Hepler-Smith evan.heplersmith at gmail.com
Tue Sep 22 09:33:13 PDT 2020


Dear Ulf,

Ann Johnson was working on CFD when she passed away. I haven't seen
anything Ann published on this, but here's a video of 2017 talk:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ep3JAr-xauY

Evan

On Tue, Sep 22, 2020 at 11:00 AM Paul N. Edwards <pedwards at stanford.edu>
wrote:

> Dear Ulf,
>
> This may be because such software goes under different names in different
> fields, not always directly labeled “computational fluid dynamics” or even
> “fluid dynamics."
>
> The first two fields to take on the computational simulation of fluid
> dynamics were atomic weapons research and meteorology/climate science.
>
> My book on climate science, *A Vast Machine: Computer Models, Climate
> Data, and the Politics of Global Warming* (2010), describes (among other
> things) the history of the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, now at
> Princeton, one of the first labs to design such software starting in the
> 1950s.
>
> A major element of all modern climate models is a “dynamical core,” which
> simulates the physics of fluid flows (air) around the globe. Ocean models
> also have one.
>
> Both atomic weapons researchers and climate modelers used this textbook on
> methods for solving partial differential equations using finite difference
> techniques in the late 1950s: Richtmyer, R. D. (1957). *Difference
> Methods for Initial-Value Problems. *New York: Interscience Publishers.
> The last chapter is on fluid dynamics.
>
> Aircraft and ship design now rely heavily on simulating fluid flows,
> previously done physically in wind tunnels and tanks. The physics of
> turbulent boundary layers is one aspect of this modeling, again not naming
> “fluid dynamics” directly.
>
> I hope this gives you some hints for your search.
>
> Best,
>
> Paul
>
>
>
> On Sep 21, 2020, at 23:09, Ulf Hashagen <u.hashagen at deutsches-museum.de>
> wrote:
>
> Dear colleagues,
>
> I became interested in the history of "Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)
> Software" last week, but could not find much historical source material on
> this topic so far. May I ask for your advice and comments?
>
> Best, Ulf
>
> --
> PD Dr. Ulf Hashagen
> Leitung / Head
> Forschungsinstitut für Technik- und Wissenschaftsgeschichte / The Research
> Institute for the History of Science and Technology
> Deutsches Museum
> Museumsinsel 1
> 80538 München / Munich
> Germany
> Tel. +49/(0)89/2179-453
> Fax  +49/(0)89/2179-239
> u.hashagen at deutsches-museum.de
>
> http://www.deutsches-museum.de/forschung/wissenschaftl-mitarbeiter/pd-dr-ulf-hashagen/
>
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> ________________________
> Paul N. Edwards <https://profiles.stanford.edu/paul-edwards>
>
> Director, Program on Science, Technology & Society
> <http://sts.stanford.edu>
> William J. Perry Fellow in International Security and Senior Research
> Scholar
> Center for International Security and Cooperation
> <http://cisac.fsi.stanford.edu/>
> Co-Director, Stanford Existential Risks Initiative
> <https://cisac.fsi.stanford.edu/stanford-existential-risks-initiative>
> Stanford University
>
> Professor of Information <http://www.si.umich.edu/> and History
> <http://www.lsa.umich.edu/history/> (Emeritus)
> University of Michigan
>
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-- 
Evan Hepler-Smith
evan.heplersmith at gmail.com
339.203.1096
evanheplersmith.com
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