History of Fluid Mechanics

• The first progress in fluid mechanics was made by Leonardo Da Vinci (1452-1519) who built the first chambered canal lock near Milan. He also made several attempts to study the flight (birds) and developed some concepts on the origin of the forces. 
• After his initial work, the knowledge of fluid mechanics (hydraulic) increasingly gained speed by the contributions of Galileo, Torricelli, Euler, Newton, Bernoulli family, and D’Alembert. 
• At that stage theory and experiments had some discrepancy. This fact was acknowledged by D’Alembert who stated that, “The theory of fluids must necessarily be based upon experiment.” For example the concept of ideal liquid that leads to motion with no resistance, conflicts with the reality.
• This discrepancy between theory and practice is called the “D’Alembert paradox” and serves to demonstrate the limitations of theory alone in solving fluid problems. 
• As in thermodynamics, two different of school of thoughts were created: the first be-lieved that the solution will come from theoretical aspect alone, and the second believed that solution is the pure practical (experimental) aspect of fluid mechanics.
• On the theoretical side, considerable contribution were made by Euler, La Grange, Helmhoitz, Kirchhoff, Rayleigh, Rankine, and Kelvin. 
• On the “experimental” side, mainly in pipes and open channels area, were Brahms, Bossut, Chezy, Dubuat, Fabre, Coulomb, Dupuit, d’Aubisson, Hagen, and Poisseuille. 
• In the middle of the nineteen century, first Navier in the molecular level and later Stokes from continuous point of view succeeded in creating governing equations for real fluid motion. 
• Thus, creating a matching between the two school of thoughts: experimental and theoretical. But, as in thermodynamics, people cannot relinquish control. As results it created today “strange” names: Hydrodynamics, Hydraulics, Gas Dynamics, and Aeronautics.
• The Navier-Stokes equations, which describes the flow (or even Euler equations), were considered unsolvable during the mid nineteen century because of the high complexity. 
• At the end of the twenty century, the demand for vigorous scientific knowledge that can be applied to various liquids as opposed to formula for every fluid was created by the expansion of many industries. 
• This demand coupled with new several novel concepts like the theoretical and experimental researches of Reynolds, the development of dimensional analysis by Rayleigh, and Froude’s idea of the use of models change the science of the fluid mechanics. 
• While the understanding of the fundamentals did not change much, after World War Two, the way how it was calculated changed. 
• The introduction of the computers during the 60s and much more powerful personal computer has changed the field. There are many open source programs that can analyze many fluid mechanics situations.