Advances in verification and validation in computational fluid dynamics

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) has played an increasingly important role in major engineering fields, and its credibility is the key constraint to its further extensive engineering application. It is widely accepted home and abroad that verification and validation is the only way to evaluate and guarantee the credibility of CFD. Through systematic verification and validation, the potential programming errors can be effectively identified, the reliability of numerical solving process can be guaranteed, the adequacy and prediction capability of mathematical models in the intended use can be objectively evaluated and improved when necessary. In this paper, with regard to two key issues, ‘what is verification and validation’ and ‘how to perform verification and validation’, the research progress of verification and validation in CFD is introduced from the aspects including basic concept, implementation processes, main methods, calibration model experiments and platform tools, with focusing on numerical error estimation and uncertainty quantification. At the end, the shortcomings of current research are reviewed and the key research directions are prospected. © 2023 Advances in Mechanics.