Gas dynamics of cellular automata (review)

The goal of the review is to acquaint experts in combustion and explosion with the method of cellular automata, also called the lattice-gas method, a comparatively new approach to modeling of gas-dynamic processes. The motion of a continuous medium is modeled directly by calculating the evolution of a special microworld of particles, which move in a fixed two- or three-dimensional lattice and collide with each other at the lattice sites. In essence, what is involved is the most simplified version of molecular dynamics. Examples are given of application to various problems, including calculation of reacting flows, unstable problems, and flows in a complex geometry. Possible applications of the method in the physics of combustion and explosion are discussed.