The purpose of this paper is to explain the attractive applicability of the advanced vortex element methods and their contribution to the beginning of the new generation of CFD, with introduction of epoch-making application of the methods to simulation of unsteady flows around bluff bodies and virtual operation of fluid machinery. The vortex methods have been developed and applied for analysis of complex, unsteady and vortical flows in relation to problems in a wide range of industries, because they consist of simple algorithm based on physics of flow. Nowadays, applicability of the vortex element methods to various engineering problems has been developed and improved dramatically and it has become encouragingly clear that the vortex methods have so much interesting features that they provide easy-to-handle and completely grid-free Lagrangian calculation of unsteady and vortical flows without use of any RANS type turbulent models. In this paper, the mathematical background and numerical procedure of a vortex method developed by the group of the present author are briefly explained, and topics of calculated flows around bluff bodies, an oscillating airfoil, a swimming fish, virtual operation of fluid machinery (pumps and water turbines) are introduced.
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