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6. Concluding remarks


At the end of this review of computer-aided engineering, or rather of that limited part of it with which he has some acquaintance, the present author finds himself optimistic about the future.

There have been disappointments, admittedly; for example:

  1. the turbulence models which came to prominence in the early seventies have proved to be less and less satisfactory the more they are used and studied;
  2. what early CFD-code developers thought were easy to use were found quite otherwise by those to whom they were provided;
  3. even now, scarcely any CFD calculations are carried out with grids which are fine enough for assured accuracy; and
  4. some CFD-code vendors, by claiming too much, have spread disillusionment among practical engineers.
Nevertheless, there are reasons or optimism; and specifically:-
  1. the scarcely-yet-explored multi-fluid turbulence models open vast new vistas;
  2. true ease of use now been made possible by exploiting techniques developed for the general computer-using populace (and especially children), such as virtual reality;
  3. the previously-separate worlds of stress analysis and CFD appear to be amenable to merging into SFT; and
  4. remote parallel computing, with "on-tap" advice, will greatly enlarge the number of engineers who can afford to use the simulation, analysis and design techniques.
Perhaps, when these advances have been made, engineers will soon be enabled to advance from CAD-1 all the way to CAD-2. Back to top

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