A Tribute to an Exceptional Life:BRIAN SPALDING
Dr. Akshai K. Runchal
Analytic & Computational Research, Inc.
CFD Virtual Reality Instituterunchal@gmail.com
CHT-17

May 29-June 1, Naples, Italy
Analytic & Computational Research, Inc.

An Exceptional Life
 Brian Spalding made remarkable contributions to❖ Combustion❖ Heat & Mass Transfer❖ Turbulence❖ Two-Phase Flows❖ Unification of Flow and Transfer Processes❖ CFD❖ Global Heat and Mass transfer community❖ Commercialization of CFD Engineering Services
 Wrote 15 books and hundreds of publications❖ Books on Combustion, Mass Transfer, Turbulence andCFD had a large impact on teaching and engineering
practice.
Analytic & Computational Research, Inc.

Honors & Awards
 FRS (1983)
 FREng(1989)
 James Clayton Prize (1970)
 Max Jakob Award (1978)
 Medaille d'Or (1980)
 Bernard Lewis Medal (1982)
 The Luikov Medal (1986) Global Energy International Prize (2009) Benjamin Franklin Medal (2010)
 A. V. Luikov Prize (2010):
 Huw Edwards Award (2011) 75th Anniversary Medal of the ASME HT Div (2013)
 Numerous other Honors and memberships
Analytic & Computational Research, Inc.

A Quick Review
 Born on 9th January 1923 in New Malden
 Died: 27th November 2016 in London
 Kings College School from 9 to 18
 Admitted to Air Force but wanted to become aRADAR operator, so joined Oxford University
 1944  B.A. Eng Sci Oxford University
 1945  RPE: Ministry of Aircraft Production
 1948  M.A. Oxford
 1952  Ph.D. Cambridge
 1954-1988  Imperial College, London
 1988-2016  CHAM
Analytic & Computational Research, Inc.

Context
First met D. Brian Spalding in 1965 when heaccepted me as his Ph. D. Student❖The fact that I had an ICI scholarship for my Ph.D.
– as had he – may have played a role

❖Later in life we talked of the coincidence that wewere both selected for air force - neither joinedPopularly known as DBS in IC circles

Deep Brain Stimulation❖My association with him was certainly DBS❖And changed the course of my life
Analytic & Computational Research, Inc.

Phases of DBS Career 3 major phases to his professional career❖ Combustion❖ Unified Theory❖ CFD
 Made notable contributions to society❖ Brought Heat & Mass Transfer community together throughjournals and societies.
❖ Led a campaign for freedom of soviet scientists Started the field of Commercial CFD
 A linguist – English, German, Russian & French Had a deep interest in Poetry❖ Translated Soviet poets❖ Wanted to be remembered as poet
Analytic & Computational Research, Inc.

Origin of Interest in Combustion
 Joined RPE❖ Set up in response to German V2 rockets❖ Had no rockets yet.

 1945-1946: Germany❖ Luftfahrtforschungsanstalt Herman Goering near

Braunschweig❖ Worked with team that developed motor for
Messerchmidt 163 rocket-propelled airplane❖ The propellants were hydrazine hydrate andH2O2. Highly unstable.
❖ Set them to work converting to kerosene and LOx❖ In 1946 the team was transported to England 1948  ICI Fellowship to Cambridge for aPh.D. kin Liquid Fuels
Analytic & Computational Research, Inc.

Remarkable Ph.D. in Combustion
 Ph.D. Thesis unified key concepts of:❖Hydrodynamic: von Karman [1921]❖Heat Transfer: Kruzhilin [1936]❖Mass Transfer: Eckert [1949].
 Created a general theory of H & M T with & without
combustion.
 Developed the B factor – Spalding Transfer Number
 Made a then unforeseen prediction that:❖Rate constants have no influence on combustion until
a critical rate of mass transfer is reached.
 Deduced critical rates by adapting the concepts ofZeldovich and Frank-Kamenetsky, and Semenov, Led to a general theory for prediction of flame-extinction a breakthrough for combustion engineers
Analytic & Computational Research, Inc.

Other Contributions in Combustion Other notable contributions in combustion include:❖A cooled porous burner for measuring flame speedsDetermining Adiabatic Flame speed by measuring
non-adiabatic flame speeds❖'centroid rule' : a range of flame-speeds fall on a singlecurve❖The cooled-liquid- film burner for measuring
combustion rates❖An innovative method for measuring extinction
conditions❖An electrical analogue of combustion - unique concept
to my knowledge.
❖Eddy Break-Up model for turbulence-kinetics
interactions❖Multi-fluid model for turbulence- kinetics interactions
Analytic & Computational Research, Inc.

To Imperial College
 Recruited by Prof. Owen Saunders
in 1954 to join as Reader inApplied Heat, in MED at theImperial College, London.
 Spalding continued working incombustion❖ Key and innovative contributions inevaporation burning of droplets❖ Remarkable book on Heat and Masstransfer [1963] that has greatly
influenced subsequent work in thisfield.

Analytic & Computational Research, Inc.

Unified Theory
 In late 1950s Spalding turned his attention to shear flows.
 The turbulent velocity profile for walls; a 3 part profile:“viscous”, “transitional” and “fully turbulent” layers.
 Found an unconventional and elegant solution: Y+(U+)❖ This enabled a continuous-function 'wall law'.
 Unified Theory of Turbulent Boundary Layers, Jets and Wakes.

❖ His “grand” design to build on the insights of Taylor❖ A single theory for BL, Wakes and Jets.
❖ Based on the remarkable insight of a “universal” entrainment law❖ A suitable two-part profile to represent the wall and wake regions❖ A number of students worked on UT [Escudier, Nicoll, Jayatillaka].

Analytic & Computational Research, Inc.

1964-1965 – Recap of UT The standard method to solve BL equations was “profilemethod” developed by Polhausen❖ This required a suitable profile that met flow constraints❖ This was problem specific and painful Brian concluded that profile can be “universalized” byrepresenting it as a piece-wise polynomial❖ Freed one from the tyranny of having to find an “ideal” profile❖ Had already determined “optimal” entrainment functions, log-law
constants and heat and mass transfer resistance required todescribe a wide range of flows.
❖ Worked with a series of students with fair success.

 Patankar successfully❖ Developed a general “integral-profile” code
❖ GENMIX
Analytic & Computational Research, Inc.

1965 – End of UT Dream Spalding was confident that most flows ofengineering interest can be represented by UT.
 Soon became apparent that search was not yet over
❖ Generated solutions that were occasionally spurious orsingular.

 Unified Theory also failed for flows with:❖ High stream-line curvature
 Cavity Flows❖ Separated flows with adverse pressure gradients
Flow behind step in a pipe
❖ Strong favorable pressure gradients
Impinging Wall jets

Analytic & Computational Research, Inc.

Early CFD Phase: 1965-1969
 Spalding started with 2-D steady state flows
 Stream-function (ψ) & vorticity (ω) as state variables
 Wolfshtein started with Impinging Wall Jets
 Runchal started with Square cavity & Pipe-StepAnalytic & Computational Research, Inc.

Status of CFD in 1968 - Key Innovations
 1966 saw the first success in using FD for separated
flows and impinging wall jets
 For high Re flows Brian made an analogy❖ Wind from pigsty always stinks (He had grown up close to apigsty)❖ Wind from the north always brings cold.
❖ This led to Brian proposing the “upwind” concept.

 He also Introduced the concept of tanks (controlvolumes) connected by tubes (grid).
❖ The formalization was later renamed “Finite Volume”
 T&T was a key breakthrough❖ Focus of interest is Fluxes not variables (velocities).
❖ No Taylor’s Series; no basis functions❖ No equating “order” with ‘accuracy”.
 “Physical” rather than “mathematical” approach
Analytic & Computational Research, Inc.

“Birth” of CFD - 1969
 In 1969 Brian organized a Post-Experience Course
at Imperial College❖ Targeted at both academic and industrial communities.
 The work done at IC, including the ANSWER code,
became widely available through the book byGosman et al., 1969.
 The computer code to solve generalized transport
equations for any 2D flow was freely distributed
 It ushered in CFD as an engineering tool.
 Brian incorporated CHAM Ltd.
 Commercial services in CFD became available
through CHAM.
Analytic & Computational Research, Inc.

Mature Phase of CFD – 1972
The SIMPLE Life By 1970 Brian became convinced that ψω approach was not viable for 3D flows he turned to primitive variables
 Harlow [1965] had introduced astaggered grid and a decoupled pressure
for transient flow.
 Cholesky [1967] had pointed out that any
scalar can be used in lieu of pressure.
 Patankar and Spalding [1967] hadalready used this approach for parabolicflows.
 Patankar and Spalding [1972] combined
these insights into SIMPLE❖It revolutionized the CFD practice.
Analytic & Computational Research, Inc.

Spalding & Turbulence Brian knew that CFD will not be a really useful
unless it dealt with turbulence and chemical
reactions.
 He built upon the work of Kolmogorov [1942],
Prandtl [1945], Chou [1945] and Rotta [1951]
 He turned to getting the constants from experimental
data with bold assumptions about their“universality” (or usefulness) .
 This led to the k, k-l and k-ω methods and later theEBU.
 Harlow and coworkers [1967] published the 1st paperon k-ε model Launder and Spalding “standardized” the k-ε method
Analytic & Computational Research, Inc.

CFD Post – 1975 Phase 1969 – 1981 Spalding led the largest CFD groupin the world with more than 30 researchers
 1988 Spalding left IC to devote full time toCHAM PHOENICS, 1st commercially available CFD tool,1978.
 Brian went on to invent highly useful tools:❖ IPSA Algorithm for predicting multi-phase fluid flow
❖ A simple algorithm to determine the wall distance❖ A multi-fluid approach to turbulence and turbulent
combustion❖ A novel approach for integrated radiation
computations❖ A methodology to unify fluid and solid mechanics
Analytic & Computational Research, Inc.

Harlow & Spalding Brian always had a great sense of humor. When I informed himthat Harlow had died, he remarked – “he has upstaged me again”.
 Harlow started almost a decade before Spalding - Los Alamos hadcomputers a decade earlier❖ Many key CFD breakthroughs at Los Alamos❖ Primitive Variables, staggered grid, pressure decoupling❖ Eulerian and Lagrangian approaches❖ 2-Equation Turbulence models
 Harlow focus was on “science” than “engineering”❖ Steady state was viewed as asymptotic to transient❖ Expensive for practical engineering applications❖ No commercialization or dissemination of tools
 Primary focus of Spalding was “engineering” flows for industry.
 Spalding made his CFD technology widely available❖ Personal contacts❖ Post-experience courses❖ Free distribution of computer programs❖ Publication of books.
Analytic & Computational Research, Inc.

Synopsis - I
 Brian did not invent the “science” of CFD but morethan anyone else, he created CFD as an
Engineering Tool.

❖ Most of today’s commercially available CFD tools trace their
origin to the work done by Spalding and his group in thedecade spanning 1965-1975.

 He made enduring contributions in combustion,
turbulence, heat & mass transfer and CFD.
 Brian was the first to focus on turbulence energy andits role on wall heat transfer for separated flows.
❖ Breakdown of Reynolds Analogy
 He was also first to formally propose that all 2nd ordertransport equations can be expressed and solved as asingle generalized transport equation.
Analytic & Computational Research, Inc.

Synopsis - II
He had over 80 graduate students.
❖Many well-known names in CFD, turbulence or

combustion today have a 1st or 2nd generation ICconnection.
 He foresaw that unifying flow, heat and mass transport
will lead to practical tools for engineers.
 He foresaw that CFD - once turned into to a design tool– would revolutionize engineering.
 His other work on turbulence, multi-phase, solid-fluid
interaction and wall distance computation has not yet
seen the same popular adaption as these but he haspointed to path-breaking research that may bear fruitin the future.

Analytic & Computational Research, Inc.

Farewell: D. Brian Spalding You lived a remarkable life

 In Newton’s words: You stood on the shoulder ofgiants and saw farther than your peers.
 You lived to Richard Feynman’s Motto: You Did Not
Care What Other People Think.
 You were so fond of re-phrasing Virgil: You did what
you did because you didn't know you could not.
 Farewell my Mentor, my Friend and my intellectualFather
 You may not be with us but your legacy will survive
for a long time to comeAnalytic & Computational Research, Inc.

We Remember

Analytic & Computational Research, Inc.