Over the past thirty years computer simulation of fluid flow has become a more useful tool as cheaper, faster hardware has become available and the software has become more sophisticated. The simulation of flows is related to the solution of the well known equations of motion which form a set of partial differential equations for which there is no analytical solution. The simulation relies therefore on approximating the solution by a range of iterative techniques such as Finite Difference, Finite Volume and Finite Element.

The packages are so sophisticated that even inexperienced users can now produce simulations of quite complex problems and produce graphical output which has led to the term Colourful Fluid Dynamics instead of Computational Fluid Dynamics. In the practice of CFD it is very easy to produce colourful plots of data which can look very convincing but the experienced designer must be aware of the limitations of the current technology.