Numerical Simulation, An Art of Prediction 1

ConclusionThe Meaning of a Technique?

Let’s go back to industrial numerical simulation to conclude this first volume. It has been used regularly – if not intensively – for only a few decades. Among the engineers who retired around 2010–2015, some of them made their first steps with this technique and themselves programmed and used the first calculating machines, working with punch cards! A technique closer to the analytical engine of Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace than the supercomputers used nowadays in HPC. Today, the computing power and ease of use of simulation codes make numerical simulation accessible on a laptop computer! The mathematical models with a few dozen unknowns used more than 30 years ago to dimension real structures nowadays serve as case studies for the practical work of engineering students [SIG 15], while industrial models now reach several hundred million unknowns… In a few decades, engineers have built rules of good practice for this technique [DUB 16] and they use digital simulation without knowing in detail the algorithmic subtleties, which are the property and exclusivity of the tool editors. To the best of their ability, engineers practice it with a critical eye on the results produced by a calculation.

One of the most important issues concerning digital simulation today remains its practical use and possible evolutions in relation to data sciences. As we have mentioned several times in this first volume, numerical simulation is not intended to ...