This award provides support for participants to the international conference on Discrete Simulation of Fluid Dynamics, held August 8-12, 2011 at North Dakota State University. This conference provides a forum to discuss novel numerical methods for fluid flow and their applications that are derived from microscopic models. The thematic focus of the meeting will be ?Computational Soft Condensed Matter?. The aim of the meeting is to bring together experts in simulation methods with experimentalists working on systems that would benefit from computational approaches. The numerical methods represented at the DSFD meetings include lattice gas automata, the lattice Boltzmann equation, discrete velocity methods, dissipative particle dynamics, smoothed-particle hydrodynamics, direct simulation Monte Carlo, stochastic rotation dynamics, molecular dynamics, and hybrid methods. This grant provides support primarily for underfunded participants, including minority groups from local Tribal Colleges.
Discrete simulations of fluid dynamics (DSFD) is a vibrant field that impacts many areas of research. The 20 DSFD meeting, held in Fargo, North Dakota, attracted participants from many different areas, including Mathematics, Physics, Geophysics, Chemical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Food sciences. What the researchers from all these fields have in common is that modeling fluids is esssntial in their research and this international meeting gives them the opportunities to discuss their projects with the close knit group of experts that have pinoneered this field. The small size of the meeting (90 participants drawn from 20 countries) and the informal atmosphere allowed productive discussions among the participants. Many particpants commented that the 2011 meeting was particularly well organized and attracted an impressive group of speakers. The areas discussed stretched from the development of methods to applications for developing filters for diesel engines. An example for a model development was the inclusion of fluctuations in lattice Boltzmann methods. This subject has deep implications in the basic science of non-equilibrium Statistical Mechanics, but it importance is much more wide ranging because such methods are needed if one wants to simulate suspensions of small particles, or the behavior of fluids near a critical point. We heared several presentations on this subject. An example for an important application is the fluid dynamic implications of inserting a stent to reduce the blood flow to an aneurysm. In an aneurysm a blood vessle starts to bulge out and eventually rupture. The development of such a bulge depends strongly on the blood flow rates and pressures in the bulge. By inserting a mesh stent the flow can be altered so that the bulge in the vessle is slowly reduced. We heard how using a lattice Boltzmann method it is possible to predict the blood flow in the presence of the mesh, and it is hoped that this can eventually be developed into a clinical tool. The support of the NSF was very helpful to allow students to participate in the conference.
