S2, EP4 - Celebrating Prof. Antony Jameson: A CFD Pioneer

In this episode of the Neil Ashton podcast, we celebrate the life and contributions of Professor Antony Jameson, a pioneer in Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). The conversation explores his early influences, academic journey, and significant contributions to aerodynamics and engineering. Professor Jameson shares insights from his career in both academia and industry, highlighting pivotal moments that shaped his work in CFD and transonic flow. Prof. Jameson discusses his journey through the complexities of numerical methods for fluid flow, his transition from industry to academia, the development of influential flow codes, and the evolution of computational fluid dynamics (CFD). He reflects on the challenges of teaching, the impact of his work on the aerospace industry, and the commercialization of CFD technologies. In this conversation, he shares his journey from academia to industry, discussing the challenges and successes he faced in the field of aerodynamics and computational fluid dynamics. He reflects on the importance of innovation, the impact of industry experience on academic research, and offers valuable advice for aspiring professionals in aeronautics. The discussion also touches on the evolution of computational power and the role of machine learning in the field.
Chapters
00:00 Introduction to Computational Fluid Dynamics and Professor Jameson
05:02 Professor Jameson's Early Life and Influences
20:00 Academic Journey and Contributions to Aerodynamics
34:50 Career in Industry and Transition to Academia
48:52 Pivotal Moments in Computational Fluid Dynamics
50:19 Navigating Numerical Methods for Fluid Flow
57:02 Transitioning to Academia and Teaching Challenges
01:06:25 Developing Flow Codes FLO & SYN and Their Impact
01:12:21 The Evolution of Computational Fluid Dynamics
01:19:10 Commercialization and the Future of CFD
01:30:34 Journey to Success: From Code to Commercialization
01:37:02 Innovations in Aerodynamics: Control Theory and Design
01:43:06 The Impact of Industry Experience on Academic Research
01:51:24 The Evolution of Computational Power in Aerodynamics
02:01:29 Advice for Aspiring Aeronautics Professionals
Summary of key work:
(see http://aero-comlab.stanford.edu/jameson/publication_list.html for the publication number)
Th first work that had a strong impact on the aircraft industry was Flo22. The numerical algorithm used in Flo22 is analyzed in detail in Publication 31, Iterative solution of transonic flows.
The next work that had a worldwide impact was the JST scheme in 1981. The AIAA Paper 81-1259 (publication 67) has more than 6000 citations on Google Scholar. Prof. Jameson gave two other presentations a few months earlier which describe the numerical method in more detail. These are publications 63 and 65. More recently he gave a history of the JST scheme and its further development in publication 456, which also gives a detailed discussion of the multigrid scheme which was first described in publication 78.
The Airplane Code described in AIAA Paper 86-0103 (publication 104) was the first code that could solve the Euler equations for a complete aircraft, the culmination of 15 years of his efforts to calculate transonic flows for progressively more complex configurations and with more complete mathematical models. It was never published as a journal article. The design of algorithms for unstructured grids is comprehensively discussed in his book (publication 500).
He proposed the idea of using control theory for aerodynamic shape optimization in 1988 in publication 127, and its further development for transonic flows modeled by the RANS equations is described publications 222 and 229. Its most striking application was the aerodynamic design of the Gulfstream G650 in 2006, when he performed the calculations with Syn107 on a server in his garage.