Pohl, Thomas

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Projects

• FreeWiHR - Simulation von Metallschäumen

  
  (Own Funds)
  Abstract

  In the last few years methods, cellular automata (CA) became increasingly popular to simulate the physical phenomena that have to be considered when developing and manufacturing new materials. Among these phenomena are the formation of grain structures or dendrites during solidification. A special CA called Lattice Gas or Lattice Boltzmann Method (LBM) is perfectly suited for modeling flows in complex and time- dependent geometries as they are encountered in the context of metal foams or of composite materials that are manufactured by infiltrating fiber or powder preforms. In both cases, free surfaces have to be modeled and simulated accurately. In the last three years, a new algorithm has been successfully developed by the 'Material Science and Technology Group, University of Erlangen' (WTM) to describe free surfaces in the context of LBM in two dimensions.
  Based on these promising techniques, the model will now be extended to three dimensions. This step implies an increase in the computational costs by a factor of about 1000 to 10000. To keep the computational time within reasonable limits the use of high performance computers is mandatory.
  The goal of the project is to port the extended model to the super computer Hitachi SR8000-F1 in a cooperation of the 'Material Science and Technology Group' (WTM) and the 'System Simulation Group, University of Erlangen' (LSS).
  The research focus of the WTM will be the development of numerical methods that can handle complex surfaces in three dimensions in the context of LBM. On the other hand, the LSS will concentrate its research on implementing and testing data structures to store the surface topology efficiently and are able to exploit the given computer hardware (shared/distributed memory parallelism, adaptive load balancing, cache hierarchy).
  

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• Development of a simulation tool for the prognosis of the spreading and the degradation of contaminants in the saturated and vadose zone

  
  (Third Party Funds Group – Sub project)
  Abstract

  The project included the mathematical modelling of natural attenuation processes in the subsurface and the extension of a software tool for complex reactive multicomponent processes in the framework of mixed hybrid and conforming finite elements. New  parameter identification methods allow the parametrization of unknown functions or a formfree optimization, and help to overcome the dilemma of missing data in complex models. Work included instationary 3D simulations and scenarios of  contaminated sites explored by project partners. The findings of the joint research project resulted in guidelines for authorities and consulting engineers dealing with natural attenuation at contaminated sites.
  

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Publications