How To Understand Computational Fluid Dynamics Jargon

Unfortunately, jargon is a necessary, but often confusing part of any technical discipline. Where terms have specific technical meaning within a particular field, they are often not obvious to newcomers to that field. The purpose of this booklet is to provide engineers and their managers who come into contact with Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and users of CFD software with a resource to assist in understanding this complex field.

The list includes the most commonly used terms and is not intended to be fully comprehensive. Definitions and descriptions are designed to give a level of understanding which can then be progressed further with the aid of other resources, such as those listed in the bibliography at the back of this booklet or using other CFD, fluid flow, numerical analysis or application specific texts.

It should be noted that some terms have different meanings in different fields. The purpose of this booklet is to provide a guide to meanings within the context of CFD.

In several cases it is common for terms to be abbreviated to their initial letters. In those cases both the full term and the abbreviation are listed and cross-referenced.

A similar booklet has previously been published by NAFEMS on finite element jargon. In that case several mathematical, computer and solid mechanics terms were also described. The present publication differs from its forerunner in that it is generally limited to CFD terms only.

Contents

Introduction
CFD – An Overview
Definitions A-Z
Nomenclature
Bibliography

NAFEMS Members can also access this guide online.