This book on computational techniques for thermal and fluid-dynamic problems arose from seminars given by the author at the Institute of Nuclear Energy Technology of Tsinghua University in Beijing, China. The book is composed of eight chapters-- some of which are characterized by a scholastic approach, others are devoted to numerical solution of ordinary differential equations of first order, and of partial differential equations of first and second order, respectively. In Chapter IV, basic concepts of consistency, stability and convergence of discretization algorithms are covered in some detail. Other parts of the book follow a less conventional approach, mainly informed by the author's experience in teaching and development of computer programs. Among these is Chapter III, where the residual method of Orthogonal Collocations is presented in several variants, ranging from the classical Galerkin method to Point and Domain Collocations, applied to numerical solution of partial differential equations of first order. In most cases solutions of fluid dynamic problems are led through the discretization process, to the numerical solutions of large linear systems. Intended to impart a basic understanding of numerical techniques that would enable readers to deal with problems of Computational Fluid Dynamics at research level, the book is ideal as a reference for graduate students, researchers, and practitioners.

Maurizio Bottoni was born in 1941 in Ferrara, Italy. After humanistic studies in Ferrara and basic courses in mathematics and physics at the Ferrara University, he studied nuclear engineering at the University of Bologna where he obtained a Ph.D in December 1965, with a thesis in neutron physics, which was awarded the RIGHI price of the Bologna University. For about 25 years Dr. Bottoni worked at the former Nuclear Research Centre of Karlsruhe (actually Karlsruhe Institute of Technology), Germany, and at the Argonne National Laboratory of Chicago, Illinois, on fast nuclear reactor safety analysis.

After the demise of the fast reactor projects, both in Germany and in USA, years followed as visiting professor at the Tokyo Institute of Technology (1996 - 1997) and at the TsinghuaUniversity in Beijing (1999 - 2002).

The experience gained with the research work in fast breeder reactor theory was collected in a series of monographs presented for the first time in 1994 at the Chinese Institute of Atomic Energy (CIAE) in Beijing. These preliminary teaching courses were extended and reorganized as a full course of about fifty teaching hours and formed the bulk of the teaching material for the lectures given over years at the Tsinghua University.

Excerpts of these courses were adopted between 2003 and 2006 for lectures held on numerical methods in atmospheric physics and molecular dynamics at the Physic Department of the University of Ferrara, Italy.