Probing complex flow structure using computational tool.

With recent advances in computer hardware as well as numerical techniques, many complicated three-dimensional flows directly relevant to engineering interests can now be modelled and solved. The vast amount of information made available by the use of numerical computation can effectively complement the direct experimental measurements. This is particularly true for situations in which, due to either geometrical and/or physical restrictions, some aspects of flow structures cannot be easily revealed by experiments. It is advocated here that after obtaining satisfactory agreements between the theoretical and (often limited) experimental results, far more detailed study of the flow structures can then be conducted based on the numerical solutions. Effective flow visualization techniques are key to this unique contribution that the computational tool can make. Several real world flow examples are given to illustrate this viewpoint. (A)