File:Van Leer and Lo's Poster on CFD History.jpg

The tableau is an allegory on the genesis of modern CFD in the period 1970-1985, specifically: the development of high-resolution methods (non-oscillatory methods of greater-than-first-order accuracy), and their ultimate adoption by the aerospace community. We see an exotic landscape dominated by a great pyramid. Three men are trying to reach its top by different means: Jay Boris (hammer en chisel), Bram van Leer (rope) and Vladimir Kolgan (ladder); the latter's untimely death in 1978 made him an unknown even in Russia. Note that the pyramid is also a giant capital Greek delta, symbol of the finite difference that pervades the equations of CFD. Keeper of the gate is John von Neumann, the father of CFD. From the prehistory of CFD are the busts, on the far left, of Richard Courant, Kurt Friedrichs and Hans Lewy, whose initials we know so well. On the far right we find, on beach chairs, Peter Lax and Sergei Godunov, giants of numerical analysis from the generation following Von Neumann. They relax while a younger generation struggles to raise the state of the art in CFD. In the foreground, going from left to right, we first encounter Bob MacCormack who, in the late 1960s, adapted the second-order Lax-Wendroff method to aeronautical uses, but was not able to tame its numerical oscillations. Next, Phil Roe, perhaps contemplating his approximate Riemann solver or Superbee limiter. Past the gate, Stan Osher and Ami Harten (died 1994), likely discussing TVD or ENO techniques. The latter three, together with Van Leer, were most influential in getting high-resolution methods accepted in aerospace engineering; much of the technology transition took place at ICASE, NASA LaRC. Last but not least, in the airplane, Tony Jameson, who went his own way, developing a suite of highly efficient CFD codes for steady aeronautics.

Lo and I created this poster to present an AIAA Fluid Dynamics plenary lecture titled, “History of CFD Part II,” which covers the period from 1970 to 1995.

2010-06-26

Bvalerius

See below.