MICA: a mid-1996 statement

Contents

1. What MICA is
2. The objective of MICA
3. How the objective is to be attained
4. The special sectors currently attended to by MICA
5. Diagrammatic representation
6. What is meant by a front end
   • the Internet connexion
   • the Computer Centres
7. The time frame

1. What MICA is

MICA is an acronym which stands for Model for Industrial CFD Applications.

It is a project, partially funded by the European Commission, as part of the ESPRIT Framework IV Program.

CHAM is the proposer and coordinator of the project; the partners are:

INRIA (France),
U Paderborn & LSTM-Erlangen (Germany),
LITEC-Zaragoza (Spain),
BRE & WAT&G (UK),
CMR (Norway),
Vattenfall & SMHI (Sweden),
NTUA (Greece),
IST-Lisbon (Portugal)
and Hoogovens & Stork-Comprimo (Holland).

The general idea is that:-

• users will have special-purpose VR interface software on PCs;
• these will be linked via Internet to parallel-computer centres;
• these centres will supply advice as well as computations.

2. The objective of MICA

MICA is intended to create, test and publicise,

for the practical use of CFD by industry,

a New Model, which exploits:

• Virtual Reality at the user interface,
• parallel computing at remote computing centres,
• user-to-centre-to-user communication via Internet,
• intelligent software, supplemented by human expertise.

3. How the objective is to be attained

10 industrial sectors have been identified,
5 in the "furnace" and 5 in the "built-environment" areas.

10 sector-specific interfaces are to be designed, created and tested with the aid of associates with special knowledge of each.

Where necessary, sector-specific physical-model attachments will be added to the core software.

Enhancements will be provided to the core software, to enable it better to provide the needed simulations, these enhancements comprising:-

• optimal physical-model selection;
• optimal numerical settings.

4. The special sectors currently attended to by MICA

The ten sectors which have been selected for attention are:

"Environmental" group

• Oil-platform explosions
• Smoke movement and fire spread in buildings
• Heating and ventilating of buildings
• Air and pollutant flow around assemblies of buildings
• Flow around marine structures

Heat-transfer-equipment group

• Coal-fired industrial furnaces
• Glass-melting and refining furnaces
• Annealing furnaces
• Industrial ovens
• Steam condensers for power stations

5. Diagrammatic representation

                     10 front ends
  ___   ___   ___   ___   ___   ___   ___   ___   ___   ___
 |___| |___| |___| |___| |___| |___| |___| |___| |___| |___|
   |     |     |     |     |     |     |     |     |     |
   ---------------------------------------------------------
   |                                                       |
   |                Internet connexion                     |
   |                                                       |
   ---------------------------------------------------------
         |                   |                  |
      ---------           ---------         ---------
      | // // |           | // // |         | // // |
      ---------           ---------         ---------

    3 computer centres with  parallel software

6. What is meant by a front end

• Definition of user requirements in respect of input-data options
• Corresponding creation of VR "world editor" and VR-to-CFD linker
• Definition of user requirements in respect of results display and assessment
• Corresponding creation of VR "world viewer"
• All this to be done for each of the ten sectors listed above.

6.1 What is meant by the Internet connexion

• User's requirements are encoded and transmitted to MICANET system
• Requirement file is routed to appropriate Computing Centre
• Results produced by the CC are filtered, processed and compressed
• Compressed results are transmitted to user
• Money is transferred from user's to service providers' accounts

6.2 What must be done at the Computer Centres

• User-requirement file is supplemented by optimal physical & numerical settings
• Optimal domain-decomposition is made for parallel computing
• Computations are performed with continuous or stage-wise grid adaptation
• Error estimates are attached to the results
• If requested, comments by human experts are also attached
• Cost computations are made, and also transmitted.

7. The time frame

By the end of 1996, create the elements of the MICA model, and the system which connects them.

By the end of 1997:

(a) test, refine and validate the 10 sector-specific models; and

(b) create a technical and business structure which will enable industry to utilise the new model thereafter.