This Element presents a unified computational fluid dynamics framework from rarefied to continuum regimes. The framework is based on the direct modelling of flow physics in a discretized space. The mesh size and time step are used as modelling scales in the construction of discretized governing equations. With the variation-of-cell Knudsen number, continuous modelling equations in different regimes have been obtained, and the Boltzmann and Navier-Stokes equations become two limiting equations in the kinetic and hydrodynamic scales. The unified algorithms include the discrete velocity method (DVM)–based unified gas-kinetic scheme (UGKS), the particlebased unified gas-kinetic particle method (UGKP), and the wave and particle–based unified gas-kinetic wave-particle method (UGKWP). The UGKWP is a multi-scale method with the particle for non-equilibrium transport and wave for equilibrium evolution. The particle dynamics in the rarefied regime and the hydrodynamic flow solver in the continuu
