Relics of Electronic Hallucinations. Gazing at Early Computational Fluid Dynamics Drawings from Los Alamos Nuclear Research Center
Contribution to Drawing Matter, July 2024.
Abstract:
During the 1950s and 1960s, the T-3 research group at the Los Alamos Nuclear Research Center produced the first drawings of what is now known as computational fluid dynamics. Using the prowess of early electronic computers—initially developed for the Manhattan Project, the T-3 lab, working under the auspices of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission—successfully simulated and visualised the complex behaviour of fluids and gasses in virtual environments. These drawings—some of which are presented here—allowed the scientists to understand the phenomena of shockwaves and high-speed collisions under which solids deform, liquify or vaporise—without having to conduct the experiments in the real world. Plotted by early electro-mechanical plotters and attached to the laboratory’s scientific reports, the drawings were done by means of mass calculations, creating and observing realities and spaces that did not physically exist.
