Expert: Mark Janus - 7/26/2007

Question
Dear sir,
       I'm sai doing aerospace engineering in a reputed institute in moscow..i would like to clarify my doubts about COMPUTATIONAL FLUID DYNAMICS(CFD)

  My questions are:
1.Please give a brief explanation on this course,its duation to complete and its scope.
2.I'm doing my specialization in system analysis and controls.How far is this field different from my specialization?

I'm eagerly awaiting your reply...
                       thanking you,
                                                 sai.

Answer
Hi,
Computational Fluid Dynamics is the study of fluid flow in and around objects.  The mathematical equations that describe fluids are not readily solvable by hand (analytically), so we resort to the use of computers to solve them numerically.  The obtaining viable solutions of the equations of fluids motion is what CFD is all about. As far as how long does it take, we have several students come through our university (knowing very little about CFD) who major in that topic who finish a MS in ~2 yrs, and then others who go on to do PhD work for another 3 yrs....
There are specialty areas within this field, e.g. low speed flow, extremely high speed flow, chemically reacting flows, combustion, etc.
Just off hand I would say that CFD is quite different from systems analysis and controls, but I'm not as knowledgable about that area.

Thanx for your question,
mj