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Flow Simulation with CFDnet

TICE 2000 , Colloque internationalUniversité de Technologie de Troyes,

18-20 octobre 2000

Julio Militzer, F. E. Ham and Theo A. BellDalhousie University, Halifax, Canada

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Overview

• What is CFDnet?• A Typical CFDnet Session• CFDnet as an Educational Tool• CFDnet - the Developmental

Version• Conclusions and Ongoing Work

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What is CFDnet?

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CFDnet is...

• Computational Fluid Dynamics • on the Internet

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The Client:Java Applet User Interface

• +• platform

independence• fast development• internet-based

access• no installation• instantaneous

updates

• -• relatively slow

(for now)• piracy issues• applets must be

small (transfer speed)

• thus not very powerful on their own...

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Adding Power to Java:“artifacto” Server Software

• “artifacto” allows the Java User Interface to start, stop, and interact with server-based processes

• CFDnet’s server-based processes include computationally intensive tasks like meshing, solving, and post-processing

• This division of labour is transparent to the Client

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The Solver

• Written in C• Multi-Block Body-Fitted Grid

Generation• Parallel Processing using PVM• Currently solves 2-D laminar and

turbulent incompressible flows .

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A Typical CFDnet Session

http://cfdnet.com

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Additional Features

• Tutorials are available through the web site to introduce users to some basic problems in fluid mechanics

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CFDnet as an Educational Tool

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Classroom evaluations

• CFDnet currently has more than 800 registered users.

• CFDnet was evaluated in the classroom by over 100 undergraduate and graduate students from Dalhousie University (East Coast) and University of Victoria (West Coast )

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Evaluation Results

020406080

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Flexibility Simulation Responsetime

Ease ofuse

UVic 97 DalTech 97 DalTech 00

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User Feedback

• 70% of students found CFDnet “easy” or “very easy” to use

• 82% felt the simulations were “good” or “very good”

• 77% felt response times were poor, 13% even suggested unacceptable

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Proposed improvements

• To improve response time we are currently:– Implementing copies of CFDnet on 4

IBM SP (multiprocessor) computers around Canada.

– Computers are interconnected by the 1 Gb/s CANet III.

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Conclusions andOngoing Work

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Conclusions

• An interactive, Internet-based educational CFD program has been developed and tested

• It incorporates Java programming, specialized server software, CFD meshing, solving, and visualization, and parallel processing.

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Ongoing Work

• Extend the capability of CFDnet to handle three dimensional multi-block turbulent flows.

• Improvement of the distributed high speed network of multiprocessor HPCs.

• Encourage colleagues to use it in their Fluid Mechanics courses and eventually...

• Develop a network of research partners to improve and extend the capability of all of the CFDnet components.