Three-dimensional flows with three periodic directions

Abstract

The numerical simulations of three-dimensional flows until two decades ago was possible only for those working in an institution where there was access to the biggest computers at that time available. It is interesting to recall that a simulation by a 32³ grid at the end of the seventies required the fastest commercial computer at that time, the CDC 7600. In that period a 64³ simulation at NASA Ames required the ILIAC IV, a parallel processor machine, with a special computer language that was accessible only to a few scientists. In the eighties, with the spreading of the CRAYs around the world, the simulations of 3D Navier-Stokes equations were accessible to a wide range of institutions. But even in that period, those computers were located in large research institutions and the number of researchers with access to them was still limited. Only in the last years the increase of the speed of the desk workstations is giving to almost everyone the possibility to perform simulations of 3D Navier-Stokes equations. In the review article by Moin & Mahesh (1998) the history of the DNS is reported.