This MRI award will support the purchase of equipment for research, research training, and education in computational fluid dynamics and visualization, at the Courant Institute. The aim is to create a state-of-the-art simulation and visualization center within our new Applied Mathematics Laboratory (AML), which is dedicated to education and research training in fluid dynamical simulation and visualization. The equipment will be shared by research groups engaged in various areas of fluid dynamics research at the Institute, and integrated with the present and future computational and visualization facilities owned by these research groups. The planned instrumentation includes computers, a mass storage system, projection facilities, network enhancements, third-party software licenses, and miscellaneous smaller items. . The research and research training to be conducted in the facility is dedicated to understanding complicated fluid flows - 2- and 3-dimensional - arising in biophysics, geophysics, and energy research as well as basic fluid dynamics, and to education in fluid dynamical computation and visualization. A major beneficiary of the requested instrumentation is the new Applied Mathematics Laboratory now under construction on the ground floor of Warren Weaver Hall. The AML is comprised of two components, the Wetlab and the ViSLab. The Wetlab is a demonstration and research laboratory of fluid mechanics. The ViSLab (Visualization and Simulation Laboratory) is the associated computational facility. The AML facility is designed to integrate research with research training and education, and to synthesize computation, visualization, and experimental research with research training and instruction. Research activities that will use the proposed instrumentation include the simulation of insect flight, computational studies of the dynamics of complex fluids, the fluid dynamics of the heart, three-dimensional niagnetohydrodynamic modelling for fusion science and solar physics, geophysical flows, and study of aerodynamic flow in complicated geometry. Through the present proposal it will provide our students with access to large-scale simulation platforms and to modern visualization and animation hardware and software. This research effort will be funded jointly by the Division of Mathematical Science, the MPS Office of Multidisciplinary Activities, and the MRI Program.
