Research Equipment Grant: 3D Graphics Superworkstation

A Silicon Graphics workstation is requested to create a local supercomputing environment dedicated to the computational research programs in fluid dynamics, combustion, surface science and catalysis, and polymer science. It will provide the essential computing and graphics power for studies such as modeling of turbulent combustion, simulation of blood flow in artificial hearts, modeling of geometrical effects in capillary systems, and Monte Carlo simulations of surface diffusion in adsorption and polymeric systems. At the same time, its advanced 3D capabilities will allow real time visualization of inherently multidimensional numerical results obtained from these studies. The combination of powerful analysis and graphics performance in this system will improve the quality and broaden the scope of numerical simulations by allowing continuous graphical interaction between the researchers and their applications. Moreover, this workstation is an invaluable tool for parallel algorithm development, and will be used to teach students to make effective use of parallel computing in research.