POTENTIAL FLOW

THE RELAXATION ANALOG ("RELOG") COMPUTER IS A CONCEPT FOR A NEW KIND OF COMPUTING ARCHITECTURE FOR SOLVING THE PARTIAL DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS OF FLUID MECHANICS BY MEANS OF 3ELECTRONIC ANALOG SIMULATION UNDER THE CONTROL OF A STANDARD DIGITAL COMPUTER. THE SIMULATION OF THE FLOW FIELDIS PERFORMED BY SPECIAL ANALOG COMPUTING HARDWARE, WHICH WHICH IS USED IN AN ITERATIVE FASHION TO IMPROVE THE TRIAL SOLUTION; THETRIAL SOLUTION IS MAINTAINED AND EVALUATED BY THE DIGITAL COMPUTER, SO THAT THE CONVERGED SOLUTION HAS THEPRECISION OF THE DIGITAL COMPUTATION. THE CONCEPT HAS THE POTENTIAL OF INCREASING THE COMUTTATIONAL POWER OF DIGITAL, COMPUTERS BY SEVERAL ORDRS OF MAGNITUDE FOR LARGE, DIFFICULT PROBLEMS IN COMPUTATIONAL FLUID DYNAMICS, SUCH AS THOSE WHICH ARISE IN AERODYNAMIC PROFILE OPTIMIZATION, FLOW-VISUALIZATION DISPLAYS, AND METEOROLOGY. THE PHASE I EFFORT WILL BE DEVOTED PRIMARILY TO A HARDWARE DEMONSTRATIONUSING AN ANALOG MODEL WHICH REPRESENTS THE TWO-DIMENSIONAL POTENTIAL-FLOW EQUATIONS OF FLUID MECHANICS. IN ADDITION, DETAIL DESIGN INFORMATION WILL BE DEVELOPED FOR ESTIMATING THE COST OF A PRODUCTION PROTOTYPE SYSTEM FOR SOLVING THE NONLINEAR, THREE-DIMENSIONAL, COMPRESSIBLE-FLOW EQUATIONS, WHICH IS TO BE DEVELOPED AND DEMONSTRATE IN PHASE II.