NCSI: Visualization of Turbulent Events in Wall-bounded Flows via Virtual Reality

Status	Completed
Mentor Name	Guillermo Araya
Mentor's XSEDE Affiliation	Research Allocation
Mentor Has Been in XSEDE Community	4-5 years
Project Title	Visualization of Turbulent Events in Wall-bounded Flows via Virtual Reality
Summary	Turbulence is mainly characterized by randomness, chaos and disparate range of turbulent scales and mixing. Despite its chaotic behavior, investigation performed during the last six decades has conclusively demonstrated the presence of organized motions in turbulent boundary layers, so called coherent structures (CS). These structures can be considered the building-blocks of turbulent boundary layers, and significant attention has recently been given to explanation of their creation, development and destruction. This project involves time-dependent 3D scientific visualization of coherent structures and turbulent events from a Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS) database of spatially-developing turbulent boundary layers subject to streamwise favorable pressure gradient by means of a fully immersive approach or virtual reality (VR). The main purpose of the EMPOWER internship project will be to develop a post-processing code in C++, Blender and Unity platforms with GPU capabilities in order to perform flow visualization in a virtual reality environment.
Job Description	The learner position is at the High Performance Computing and Visualization Lab (HPCVL) at the Dept. of Mechanical Engineering in the U. of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez (UPRM). The undergraduate student intern will work on a post-processing code in the area of C++ platform programming with GPU capabilities to mitigate the performance issues. The principal objectives/tasks of this internship can be summarized as follows: - Develop a C++ code for managing/reading a large database of Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS) related to accelerating spatially-developing turbulent boundary layers [1-3]. - Obtain the corresponding .obj and .stl files readable in Blender and Unity software. - Perform 3D flow visualization by the HTC Vive virtual-reality headset. References [1] Araya G., Castillo L. and Hussain F., The log behavior of the Reynolds shear stress in accelerating turbulent boundary layers, J. of Fluid Mechanics, Vol. 775, pp 189 – 200, 2015. [2] Araya G. and Castillo L., DNS of turbulent thermal boundary layers subjected to adverse pressure gradients, Physics of Fluids, 25, 095107, 2013. [3] Araya G., Castillo L., Meneveau C. and Jansen K., A dynamic multi-scale approach for turbulent inflow boundary conditions in spatially evolving flows, J. of Fluid Mechanics Vol. 670, pp. 581–605, 2011.
Computational Resources	The DNS database is already stored in Ranch (TACC). These simulations were performed in Stampede under XSEDE computational allocation #TG-CTS170006. The intern will be set as a user of this account in order to get access to the TACC computational resources.
Contribution to Community
Position Type	Learner
Training Plan	The intern will initially receive training on data management, Linux programming, data transfer, visualization kits and fluid mechanics at the HPCVL lab from the PI and other skilled students by weekly meetings. The purpose of this position is to encourage students from underrepresented communities to pursue STEM careers at a graduate level.
Student Prerequisites/Conditions/Qualifications	This internship position at a learner level is opened for undergraduate students at the University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez. Candidates should have basic knowledge on: C++ programming, Linux, fluid mechanics and turbulence. In addition, students should demonstrate independence to perform research, willingness to learn parallel computing and to use Blender and Unity platforms. A skilled intern has already been identified.
Duration	Semester
Start Date	02/01/2018
End Date	05/31/2018