High Definition Graphics Application In Fluid Flow Simulations
Gordon Bancroft, F. Merritt, Pieter G. Buning, Val Watson · Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE · 1987
The Fluid Dynamics Division of the NASA Ames Research Center is using high definition (high spatial and color resolution) computer graphics to help visualize flow fields from computer simulations of air flow about vehicles such as the Space Shuttle. Computational solutions of the flow field are obtained from Cray supercomputers. These solutions are then transferred to Silicon Graphics Workstations for creation and interactive viewing of dynamic 3D displays of the flow fields. The scientist's viewing position in the 3D space can be interactively changed while the fluid flow is either frozen in time or moving in time. Specific animated sequences can be created for viewing on the workstation or for recording on video tape or 16mm movies with the aid of specialized software that permits easy editing and automatic "tweening" of the sequences. This paper will describe the software developed for creating the 3D flow field displays and for creating the animation sequences. It will also specify the hardware required to generate these displays, to record them on video tape, and to record them on 16mm film. A video tape will be shown to illustrate the capabilities of the hardware and software with examples.