The Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) Laboratory was established in 1997 by Prof. Timothy E. Dowling, an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering. Professor Dowling's research specialty is numerically modeling the atmospheric dynamics and thermodynamics of the gas giant planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune). He is the author of a general circulation model (GCM) for planetary studies called the Explicit Planetary Isentropic-Coordinate (EPIC) atmospheric model. The EPIC model runs on distributed-memory parallel computers using the Message Passing Interface (MPI) standard, which is a freely available suite of library routines that allows one to turn any Unix computer cluster into a parallel computer.

Using NASA funding, Professor Dowling has acquired an 8-processor (4-dual processor Pentium-II boards) Beowulf parallel computer that is dedicated to running EPIC model simulations. The operating system is Linux, a free version of Unix that runs on PC hardware and is well supported. The processors are connected by a fast ethernet (100 Mbps) switch. The CPU total is 2600 MHz, and the system was designed and built for less than $20,000 by Perijove Systems. (This price/performance ratio is remarkable considering that the system is faster than a 512-node nCUBE 2 machine used at MIT for similar simulations, which was purchased in the early 1990's for a million dollars. )