This Week in CFD

Applications

  • In an article published in Nature Communications, researchers show that animal wings and fins (i.e. natural propulsors) “bend in similar ways within a highly predictable range of characteristic motions.” [Does this surprise anyone? Note: full article available for a fee.]
  • Here’s a performance study of OpenFOAM on the Intel Xeon E7 and other platforms.
Wings and fins pretty much all behave the same. Or so says science. Image from Nature Communications.

Wings and fins pretty much all behave the same. Or so says science. Image from Nature Communications.

News from CD-adapco

STAR-CCM+ v9.02 includes tumble and swirl cost functions for the adjoint solver targeted at internal combustion engine simulations. Image from CD-adapco.

STAR-CCM+ v9.02 includes tumble and swirl cost functions for the adjoint solver targeted at internal combustion engine simulations. Image from CD-adapco.

Events

Miscellania

Reticulation on Canvas

Laura Watt is another artist whose work “explores the possibilities of abstract content as found in pattern and color.” It just proves that you never know where mesh generation will turn up. [“Nobody expects the mesh generation!”]

Laura Watt, Memory Tool, 2007

Laura Watt, Memory Tool, 2007

Don’t believe me? I read a lot of stuff online and recently came across Kelly Norton’s blog (design + engineering) and emailed him about the banner image on a recent post.

Image from Kelly Norton's blog.

Image from Kelly Norton’s blog.

Not surprisingly, when I emailed him about the significance of this mesh he told me I was the first person to ever ask.  Here’s how he creates it:

  1. Generate N random points in 2D from a uniform source.
  2. Compute a Delaunay triangulation of those points.
  3. Pick a random color palette from a set of “good” palettes I have lying around.
  4. Render the triangles selecting the color of each triangle by mapping it’s position onto the color palette (colors from the palette are also assigned to the background and the stroke).
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