A Program of Research in Environments for Scientific Computation

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The fundamental goal of this research is the development of the science base necessary to reduce the time and effort required to assemble and use computer tools for simulation and analysis of physical systems. Most existing simulators solve a limited range of problems, are difficult to modify, and are difficult to integrate because each uses its own representation scheme. The research will address these issues and build an environment that automates many of the steps in creating a simulator. Defining a simulator requires; choosing equations to model the behavior of the physical systems, choosing and implementing computational methods for solving the equations defining mechanisms to handle the complex control flow of simulations, and choosing representation schemes for physical objects, their properties, equations, etc. Currently, these steps are carried out implicitly, without computer aid. The researchers will design a software architecture that allows simulators to be described in terms of equations and mathematical properties naturally suited to the problem. The research will develop: a model representation system for representing the quantities and laws that describe the physical behavior in a given analysis model; and analysis specification system, a language for defining the behavior of a simulation in terms of the laws and quantities; a scene editor; and a low level interface for integrating existing modules such a numerical packages or finite element codes.