CFD-Mature Technology?

Over the past 30 years numerical methods and simulation tools for fluid dynamic problems have advanced as a new discipline, namely, computational fluid dynamics (CFD). Although a wide spectrum of flow regimes are encountered in many areas of science and engieering, simulation of compressible flow has been the major driver for developing computational algorithms and tools. This is probably due to a large demand foe predicting the aerodynamic performance characterstics of flight vehicles, such as commercial, military, and space vehicles. As flow analysis is required to be more accurate and computationally efficent foe both commercial and mission-oriented applications (such as those encountered in meteorology, aerospace vehicle development, genenal fluid engineering and biofluid analysis) CFD tools foe engineering become increasingly important for predicting safetu, performance and cost. This paper predents the author's perspective on the maturity of CFD, especially from an aerospace engineerng point of view.