This biography of William F. Ballhaus Jr. discusses his role in creating the field of computational fluid dynamics at the NASA Ames Research Center.
[1] 99 In 1970, Magnus and Yoshihara published a transonic solution for a practical lifting airfoil with embedded shock. See R. Magnus and H. Yoshihara, "Inviscid Transonic Flows Over Airfoils," AIAA J. Dec. 1970, pp. 2157-2162. Murman and Cole's relaxation algorithm, which calculated solutions to the transonic small-disturbance potential equation for supercritical flows about 2D airfoils, soon followed. See E.M. Murman and J.D. Cole, "Calculation of Plane Steady Transonic Flows," AIAA J., Jan. 1971, pp. 114-121.
[2] Quoted in D.J. Born, "A New CEO for a New Era," Crosslink, Summer 2001, p. 5.
[3] W.F. Ballhaus and F.R. Bailey, Numerical Calculation of Transonic Flow about Swept Wings," AIAA Paper 72-677, 1972; F.R. Bailey and W.F. Ballhaus, "Relaxation Methods for Transonic Flow about Wing-Cylinder Combinations and Lifting Swept Wings," Lecture Notes in Physics , vol. 19, Springer Verlag, 1973; W.F. Ballhaus, "Some Recent Progress in Transonic Flow Computations," Computational Fluid Dynamics, Lecture Series 87, Von Karman Inst. for Fluid Dynamics, 1976, pp. 6-15.
[4] H. Lomax, F.R. Bailey, and W.F. Ballhaus, On the Numerical Simulation of Three-Dimensional Transonic Flow with Application to the C-141 Wing, NASA TN-6933, 1973; W.F. Ballhaus, Computational Aerodynamics and Design, NASA TM-84257, 1982.
[5] W.F. Ballhaus, Computational Aerodynamics and Supercomputers, NASA TM-85887, 1985.
[6] W.F. Ballhaus and H. Lomax, "The Numerical Simulation of Low Frequency Unsteady Transonic Flow Fields," Lecture Notes in Physics, vol. 35, Springer Verlag, 1975, pp. 57-63.
[7] W.F. Ballhaus, "Some Recent Progress in Transonic Flow Computations," pp. 52-54 (see ref. 3).
[8] W.F. Ballhaus and J.L. Steger, Implicit Approximate-Factorization Schemes for Low-Frequency Transonic Flow Equations, NASA TM X-73082, 1975; W.F. Ballhaus, "Some Recent Progress in Transonic Flow Computations," pp. 54-57 (see ref. 4).
[9] W.F. Ballhaus and P.M. Goorjian, "Computation of Unsteady Transonic Flows by the Indicial Method," AIAA J., Feb. 1978, pp. 117-124; H. Lomax, M.A. Heaslet, F.B. Fuller, and L.E. Sluder, Two- and Three- Dimensional Unsteady Lift Problems in High-Speed Flight, NACA Report 1077, 1952.
[10] W.F. Ballhaus and P.M. Goorjian, "Implicit Finite-Difference Computations of Unsteady Transonic Flows about Airfoils," AIAA J., Dec. 1977, pp. 1728-1735.
[11] W.F. Ballhaus, A. Jameson, and J. Albert, "Implicit Approximate-Factorization Schemes for Transonic Flow Problems," AIAA J., June 1978, pp. 573-579.
[12] W.F. Ballhaus and F.R. Bailey, "Computational Aerodynamics on Large Computers," Computers and Fluids, Mar. 1980, pp. 133-144.
[13] D.R. Chapman, "Computational Aerodynamics Development and Outlook," pp. 1297-1300; V.L. Peterson, W.F. Ballhaus, and F.R. Bailey, Numerical Aerodynamic Simulation (NAS), NASA TM-84386, 1983; D.R. Chapman, H. Mark, and M.W. Pirtle, "Computers vs. Wind Tunnels for Aerodynamic Flow Simulations," AIAA Aeronautics and Astronautics, Apr. 1975, p. 30.
[14] The winning paper was F.R. Bailey and W.F. Ballhaus, Comparisons of Computed and Experimental Pressures for Transonic Flows about Isolated Wings and Wing-Fuselage Configurations, NASA SP-347, pt. 2, 1975, pp. 1213-1231; H. Mark quoted in "Bailey/Ballhaus Honored," Astrogram,2 June 1977.
[15] V.L. Peterson, W.F. Ballhaus, and F.R. Bailey, "Numerical Aerodynamic Simulation (NAS)," p. 9 (see ref. 13); V.L. Peterson and W.F. Ballhaus, "History of the Numerical Aerodynamic Simulation Program," Supercomputing in Aerospace, NASA CP-2454, 1987.
[16] "Ballhaus Appointed to Headquarters Post," Astrogram,29 Jan. 1988; "Ballhaus Resigns from Ames," Astrogram, 14 Jul. 1988; W.F. Ballhaus, "A Message from the Director's Office," Astrogram,14 Jul. 1988.
[1] W.F. Ballhaus and F.R. Bailey, Numerical Calculation of Transonic Flow about Swept Wings, AIAA Pape72-677, 1972.
[2] W.F. Ballhaus and F.X. Caradonna, "The Effect of Planform Shape on the Transonic Flow Past Rotor Tips," Aerodynamics of Rotary Wings (AGARD Conf. Proc.)1973.
[3] H. Lomax, F.R. Bailey, and W.F. Ballhaus, On the Numerical Simulation of Three-Dimensional Transonic Flow with Application to the 141 Wing, NASA TN-6933, 1973.
[4] W.F. Ballhaus and H. Lomax, "The Numerical Simulation of Low Frequency Unsteady Transonic Flow Fields," Lecture Notes in Physics, vol35, Springer Verlag, 1975, pp.57-63.
[5] R.M. Beam and W.F. Ballhaus, Numerical Integration of the Small-Disturbance Potential and Euler Equations for Unsteady Transonic Flow, NASA SP-347, pt. 2, 1975, pp. 789-809.
[6] W.F. Ballhaus and J.L. Steger, Implicit Approximate-Factorization Schemes for the Low-Frequency Transonic Flow Equations, NASA TM 73082, 1975.
[7] W.F. Ballhaus, F.R. Bailey, and J. Frick, "Improved Computational Treatment of Transonic Flow about Swept Wings," Advances in Engineering Science, vol. 4, 1976, pp. 1311-1320.
[8] W.F. Ballhaus and P.M. Goorjian, "Implicit Finite-Difference Computations of Unsteady Transonic Flows about Airfoils," AIAA J., Dec. 1977), pp. 1728-1735.
[9] W.F. Ballhaus and P.M. Goorjian, "Computation of Unsteady Transonic Flows by the Indicial Method," AIAA J., Feb. 1978, pp. 117-124.
[10] W.F. Ballhaus, A. Jameson, and J. Albert, "Implicit Approximate-Factorization Schemes for the Efficient Solution of Steady Transonic Flow Problems," AIAA J., Jun. 1978, pp. 573-579.
[11] W.F. Ballhaus, "A Fast Implicit Solution Procedure for Transonic Flows," Lecture Notes in Physics, vol. 91, no. 2, Springer Verlag, 1977, pp. 90-102.
[12] T.L. Holst and W.F. Ballhaus, "Fast, Conservative Implicit Schemes for the Full Potential Equation Applied to Transonic Flows," AIAA J., Feb. 1979, pp. 145-152.
[13] W. F. Ballhaus, "Computational Aerodynamics and Design," Lecture Notes in Physics, vol. 170, Springer Verlag, 1983, pp.1-20.
[14] W.F. Ballhaus, "Computational Aerodynamics and Supercomputers," Proc. 28th Int'l Conf. IEEE Computer Society, IEEE CS Press, 1984.
Index Terms:
William F. Ballhaus Jr., computational fluid dynamics, NASA Ames Research Center, Illiac IV, Numerical Aerodynamic Simulation facility
Citation:
Michael R. Adamson, "Biographies," IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, vol. 28, no. 1, pp. 99-103, Jan.-Mar. 2006, doi:10.1109/MAHC.2006.5