Overture plays on methods for faster, more accurate models

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Connecting to the grid

For instance, Henshaw and his fellow researchers developed a method that applies rectangle-shaped Cartesian grids throughout most of an area being modeled.  Cartesian grids are simple and efficient, but difficult to use on complex geometries, like flow over an airplane’s surface. So, Henshaw’s methods use composite or overlapping grids in parts of the domain modeling those complex geometries.

“We’ll use Cartesian grids away from the boundaries, where you can take advantage of the very efficient representation,” Henshaw says.  “You can come up with algorithms that are as efficient as methods used for Cartesian grids, but you also get the higher accuracy at boundaries.”

Many of these methods are packaged into the Overture toolkit.  Henshaw and his fellow researchers have used them on projects ranging from modeling coolant flow in the next generation of high-temperature nuclear reactors to simulating ice buildup on airplane wings.

One of the more unusual applications, however, is modeling what happens when a bomb goes off.

“Even though people are very good at designing them, they don’t really understand a lot of the basic properties of explosives,” Henshaw says.  “They don’t really understand exactly when you set off the explosive, how the initial phase works. … Unless you can understand that, it’s hard to design explosives with new properties.”

Modeling an explosion is, as you might guess, quite tricky.  The boundary between burnt and unburnt material – the place where the explosive energy is generated – is exceedingly small and moves exceedingly fast.

“There’s a lot of detailed structure in that very narrow region, so you have to have a good method that can represent that,” Henshaw says.

It’s the kind of challenge he loves.  Although Henshaw is a mathematician working on algorithms, his favorite part is seeing the results.

“You can understand a certain amount by analyzing the equations, but you understand another part by actually doing simulations and seeing things that you couldn’t initially see,” he adds.  “I like that combination.”

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