In this article, a new computational spectral algorithm is developed for simulation of general three-dimensional, time-dependent, incompressible channel flow. The development is based on a general functional formalism of non-equilibrium thermodynamics, and, although it is illustrated here for a Newtonian fluid, it is easily adapted to non-Newtonian fluids. The advantage of this algorithm is that the scalar pressure is eliminated from the discrete spectral analog to the equations of motion, which are expressed solely in terms of the spectral coefficients of the velocity vector field. This alleviates the need for the application of boundary conditions on the pressure, the specification of which can be a major source of difficulty in direct numerical simulations. At the same time, the velocity spectrum is quite general, and not subject to any a priori constraints. Thus, it is anticipated that the ideas exposed in the present algorithm can lead to the development of better numerical simulation techniques for complicated three-dimensional and turbulent flows. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.