SBIR Phase I: Development of Vorcat for Cloud-Based Simulations

该小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第一阶段项目将在高性能计算云环境中提供突破性的计算流体动力学(CFD)技术。着眼于消除物理测试的需要，现在能源、汽车、航空航天、化工等行业的普遍做法是使用CFD来预测固体物体内部和周围的湍流气体和液体流动。与传统的雷诺平均纳维斯托克斯(RANS)模型以及目前可用的大涡模拟(LES)技术相比，本项目所追求的新的CFD方法在有效地捕捉湍流物理方面具有明显的优势。流体工程中最单一、最复杂的现象。具体地说，这里提出的第一个应用将解决最复杂的流体工程问题之一，即旋转/移动物体的流动，这无疑将提高当前下一代能源、汽车和航空航天相关技术的设计能力。此外，通过在云应用中提供这一创新的CFD软件，该项目将为范围广泛的CFD用户提供独特的准确性和可靠性，包括中小型企业，对于这些企业来说，到目前为止，使用CFD进行大规模计算成本太高或技术上难以实现。该项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力是深远的。这对所有行业都有好处，包括节省产品开发的成本和时间、更好的工程设计、增强的安全性，以及探索对物理实验来说太难或太危险的先进概念。由于高端CFD软件需要访问高性能计算(HPC)系统，而且年度许可证相对昂贵，中小型企业很少拥有使用这些软件的专业知识或资源。该项目通过培育各种新的应用程序来利用云计算的可负担性，这些公司可以使用这些应用程序来解决以湍流为主的大量实际流动问题，从而创造公平的竞争环境并促进创新。虽然重点是将用于验证和上市目的的能源和汽车应用，但感兴趣的流动包括在开发风力/水力涡轮机、地面车辆、旋翼飞行器、波浪和洋流发电设备以及许多其他与广泛行业直接相关的应用方面遇到的应用。此外，在云中开发这项独特的技术将为学生和博士后研究人员提供负担得起的机会，让他们参与解决复杂的科学问题。

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will offer breakthrough Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) technology in a high-performance computing cloud environment. Looking towards eliminating the need for physical testing, it is now common practice in the energy, automotive, aerospace, chemical process industries, among many others, to use CFD to predict turbulent gas and liquid flows within and around solid objects. The new CFD approach pursued in this project has distinct advantages over both traditional RANS (Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes) modeling, as well as currently-available Large Eddy Simulation (LES) technology, in efficiently capturing the physics of turbulence ? the single, most complicated phenomenon in fluid engineering. Specifically, the first application proposed here will solve one of the most complex fluid engineering problems, namely flows about rotating/moving bodies, which will undoubtedly advance current design capabilities for next generation energy, automotive and aerospace-related technologies. Moreover, by offering this innovative CFD software in a cloud application, this project will provide unique accuracy and reliability to a wide range of CFD users, including small and medium-sized businesses for which large scale computing in CFD has heretofore been too costly or technically difficult to pursue.The broader impact/commercial potential of this project is far reaching. The benefits to all segments of industry include cost & time savings in product development, better engineering, enhanced safety and the exploration of advanced concepts that are too difficult or dangerous for physical experiments. Since high-end CFD software requires access to High Performance Computing (HPC) systems and annual licenses are relatively expensive, small and medium size businesses seldom possess the expertise or resources to utilize them. This project harnesses the affordability of cloud computing by fostering diverse new applications that these companies can use to solve a vast array of practical flow problems dominated by turbulence, thereby leveling the playing field and promoting innovation. Although the focus is on energy and automotive applications that will be employed for validation and go-to-market purposes, flows of interest include those encountered in the development of wind/hydro turbines, ground vehicles, rotorcraft, wave and ocean current power generation devices and many other applications of direct relevance to a wide range of industries. Furthermore, development of this unique technology in a cloud will provide affordable opportunities for students and postdoctoral researchers to engage in the solution of complex scientific problems.