ABSTRACT
The aim of this section is to provide a brief overview of what a CFD simulation actually is. To put this into layman’s terms, when we solve a CFD model or undertake a CFD simulation, what are we solving for? For many engineers who have seen or been shown a CFD simulation visualization, a question that may arise might be: how was the flow field generated? This section aims to provide a brief explanation to answer this question. Most books on CFD will touch on the equations used in the model. This book, however, focuses on the concept and the overall idea of CFD. This will be particularly useful for engineers who have not undertaken an advanced course in fluid flow or numerical modeling. Therefore, the theoretical aspects or the equations involved will be covered only briefly. The theoretical aspects of fluid mechanics or transport phenomena essential in CFD are covered in typical undergraduate or in advanced engineering courses. Even if one is familiar with the theoretical aspects, this chapter may give a “ practical” aspect of the theory. The focus is mainly to familiarize the readers with the jargon and the basic concept behind CFD simulations, which will be essential for further reading in this book. For simplicity, only a discussion of a two-dimensional aspect of CFD simulations will be presented; however, the
concept discussed can be easily extended to three-dimensional or to different coordinate reference frameworks. This section, however, is not a complete theoretical treatment of the CFD technique. More detailed literatures on the basic of numerical solutions can be found from the references provided (Patankar 1980; Versteeg and Malalsekera 2007). The basis of the “teaching approach” of this section draws inspiration mainly from the work of Patankar (1980).
