Parallel computers have grown so powerful that they are now able to solve extremely complex fluid flow or structures problems in seconds. Unfortunately, it may take a researcher many hours or even days to set up a complex problem before it can be solved. Furthermore it may take hours or often weeks to extract insight from the volume of data the simulation produces, if using standard techniques. For discovery and design questions, where the next variant of the problem requires a change to the problem definition, these delays disrupt the flow of experimentation and the associated intuition and learning about how the change in the problem definition relates to a change in the solution. To address this issue, a paradigm shift, referred to here as "immersive simulation", is planned to enable new approaches to problem definition editing that allow practitioners to interact with the simulations (visual model iteration) in a manner where they can dynamically experience the influence of parameter variations from a single, live, and ongoing simulation. Examples include a surgeon virtually altering the shape of a bypass graft on one computer monitor and then virtually observing the change in the blood flow patterns not only within the bypass but throughout the vascular system. Likewise, an engineer altering the shape of a virtual car to see if the flow pattern improves or worsens. These applied research examples have parallels in fundamental research where live insight into the flow physics of unsteady, turbulent flows and their sensitivity to live parameter changes will be made available to researchers for the first time. Visually connecting the solution change to the visually iterated geometry and/or parameter change will enable a new age of intuition-driven discovery and design. This paradigm shift will also be incorporated into foundational undergraduate and graduate courses to enable deeper, experiential-based learning.
The central goal of this project is to advance state-of-the-art tools into generic components that, when integrated, will make the following capabilities available to any partial differential equation solver: 1) live, reconfigurable visualization of ongoing simulations, 2) live, reconfigurable problem definition to allow the dynamic solution insight to guide the choice of key problem parameters, 3) real-time parameter sensitivity feedback, 4) adaptive simulation control to account for discretization errors and geometry changes, and 5) integration and demonstration of reliable, immersive simulation. The first communities that these software components will be developed with include cardiovascular flow and aerodynamic flow control. They have already articulated a need for software to more rapidly explore the performance of their systems under a broad parameter space with intuitive and quantitative parameter sensitivity. This software will enable not only design (applied research e.g., exploring bypass vs. stent type and placement for a particular patient's diseased vasculature or flow control actuator placement), but also discovery (fundamental research e.g., explore physics of flow response to discover completely new surgical procedures and flow control processes and devices). This twofold and complementary software application will have a similar impact on education, where foundational courses will use the integrated software modules to create immersive simulations that build intuition about flow physics, and then reinforce that learning in an applied nature in capstone design courses. While the ideas will be prototyped and proven within the field of fluid dynamics, they will be developed generally, with sustainable software engineering, for easy adoption by other fields that make use of simulation. The successful development, integration, and demonstration of these tools at scale will transform massively parallel simulation from a series of I/O-intensive steps to live, reconfigurable discovery using carefully designed interfaces that blaze the trail for all simulation.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
