Review: Early development of implicit methods for Computational Fluid Dynamics at NASA Ames

The development of implicit finite-difference methods at the Computational Fluid Dynamics Branch (NASA Ames Research Center) in the 1970 to early 1980s timeframe is presented. The seminal work of Drs. Robert F. Warming and Richard M. Beam is highlighted. Their contribution (along with that of others in the Ames CFD Branch) paved the way for modern large scale application codes. The focus will be on a few of the significant developments (e.g., approximate factorization) and results from those early pioneering days.