This paper presents a survey on the development of physically based fluid simulation in computer animation, with a detail introduction to the classification of the topic as well as the methods employed in the field. The methods applied mainly include Euler method and Lagrangian method, for simulating the fluid phenomena such as smoke, fire, explosion, wave, bubble, free surface etc. Future work is also discussed, including detail techniques, acceleration techniques and control techniques used to meet the demands of reality, real-time production, and flexibility.