ABSTRACT
To obtain numerical solution to the physical variables of the fluid field, various techniques are employed:
• manipulating the defining equations
• dividing the fluid domain into a large number of small cells or control volumes (also called mesh or grid)
• transforming partial derivatives into discrete algebraic forms and • solving the sets of linear algebraic equations at the grid points Modern CFD can handle fluid flow associated with other phenomenon such
as chemical reactions, multi-phase or free surface problems, phase change (melting, boiling, freezing), mass transfer (dissolution) and radiation heat transfer. A CFD code has three basic components - preprocessor, solver and postprocessor. The solver is the heart of a CFD code and is usually treated as a 'black box' while the other two components provide user/computer interface. Solver is based on one of the three major discrete methods - finite difference method (FDM), finite element method (FEM) or finite volume method (FVM).
