Another development is the use of the Internet to connect computers that may be separated by a considerable physical distance. Users set up their problems in a limited VR environment on their PC, and use the Internet to transmit their geometry and associated information to a network of parallel computers that can quickly provide a solution. This system requires only a PC, an Internet connection, and a knowledge of the process under consideration. Domain decomposition permits simulations to be performed with computational grids that are fine enough to represent the simulations adequately. Users can also move around their chosen geometry and view it from any angle.
Objects can be at any orientation, and entire geometries can be imported from a standard CAD file.
Laws and Models CFD rests on the sure foundation of the scientific laws that deal with mass, momentum, and energy. However, the rigorous calculations needed to work out the implications of all these laws would vastly overstretch modern computational power, even that of parallel processors. CFD therefore also rests on the less secure foundation of models of turbulence, radiation, and chemical reaction. These models are embodied in sets of mathematical equations, similar in form to those for the conservation of mass and momentum, which purport to describe the most significant aspects of the phenomena in question. The turbulence models now in use derive mainly from research projects performed at Imperial College in London in the 1970s.