Crowd Surveillance and Fluid Dynamics

This map of the "finite time Lyapunov exponent" identifies coherent structures in the "flow" of a crowd's movement.

Video monitoring of large crowds is important for reasons of safety and security. But human monitoring can miss critical events. Because the movement of people in a crowd is very similar to the motion of particles in a moving fluid mathematical techniques can be used to convert video images into pixels (particles) and those particles tracked to identify trajectories. Trajectories that don’t match the expected fluid behavior can then be identified for additional scrutiny.

• Visual Crowd Surveillance Through a Hydrodynamic Lens from Communications of the ACM [Note: this link can be slow to open.]

CFD Researcher Receives SWE Achievement Award

Prof. Cristina Amon from the University of Toronto recently received the Society of Women Engineers 2011 Achievement Award for her work in fluid mechanics and her commitment to gender diversity in engineering. Prof. Amon developed CFD methods for solving thermal design problems subject to multiple constraints. In her current role as Dean of Faculty she believes it to be more important than ever to ensure that women engineers are able to help solve the world’s challenges.

• article from Manufacturing Business Technology

This, That, and The Other

• Tecplot is planning a slew of activities at AIAA’s Aerospace Sciences Meeting in January including a sneak peak at Chorus, complimentary training, and a technical paper. [Frankly, I stopped reading when I saw “chocolate fountain.”]
• CAD Exchanger 2.3 is now available and features 64-bit support, improved IGES, STEP, and ACIS readers, and better Linux support.
• Computational fluid dynamics in greenhouses: A review from the African Journal of Biotechnology
• The OpenFOAM Foundation released OpenFOAM 2.1.0. This major release includes an arbitrary mesh interface, multi-phase modeling, free surface flow, and more.
• Altair opened a new high-capacity data center to support its HyperWorks On-Demand service.
• Autodesk acquired “certain technology-related assets” of T-Splines.
• Autodesk released 123D Beta 8, the latest version of their free 3D solid modeling tool.
• The 4th International Conference on Computational Methods will be held 25-27 November 2012 in Gold Coast, Australia.
• CFD and the design of enclosure heaters
• SALOME version 6.4.0 was released.
• The SCORE Center at RPI is seeking a post-doc for adaptive CFD work.

CFD is Changing Cycling

Mesh generated in STAR-CCM+ around a bicycle wheel from FLO cycling.

The folks at FLO Cycling firmly believe that CFD aided design is the way of the future. In this interview with CD-adapco’s Bill Clark they explore why that should be so. At one point in the interview Clark is quoted “In the past, these types of tools (CFD, FEA, CAD) were reserved for engineers with graduate degrees or people with masochistic tendencies.” [Emphasis mine.] I like to believe that mesh generation is the last great frontier for masochists.

• FLO Cycling’s interview

Slo-Mo Video of Droplets Colliding

Enjoy this 5,000 frames per second video of droplets of colored water and milk colliding.

droplets colliding

CFD Saves 35% on Cooling Beer

This light-hearted white paper from Mentor Graphics is a great way to ease into the holiday weekend while also illustrating how FloTHERM and engineering know-how can be used to save 35% on energy costs for a small beer cooler.

• Beer Fridge: A Personal Journey, aka How FloTHERM Helped Me Design a Cooler Mousetrap

Happy holidays everyone!