Flow Simulation with CFDnet

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Flow Simulation with CFDnet

• TICE 2000 , Colloque international
• Université de Technologie de Troyes, 18-20
  octobre 2000
• Julio Militzer, F. E. Ham and Theo A. Bell
• Dalhousie 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 ClientJava 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 Javaartifacto Server Software

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