Frameworks: Advanced Cyberinfrastructure for Sustainable Community Usage of Big Data from Numerical Fluid Dynamics Simulations

In most computer simulation-based research, the prevailing approach has been to perform large simulations that generate so much data that only some quantities can be computed during the simulation runs while at most a few representative snapshots are stored and shared for subsequent analysis. Storing the entire time evolution creates access and distribution bottlenecks that have been a pervasive challenge.

This project addresses the challenge and broadens the impact of high-performance scientific computing in one of the disciplines at the frontier of high-performance scientific computing: fluid turbulence. Improved tools for turbulence research are required to model many natural processes in atmospheric and ocean sciences and to develop engineering applications.

The project builds easily accessible and useable databases from world-class turbulence simulations that help bridge the increasing resource gap between top computer simulators and the wider turbulence data user community.

The project develops and implements an advanced cyberinfrastructure framework for turbulence databases that enables ground-breaking research on fluid turbulence in various engineering, atmospheric and ocean flows. Novel services include user-programmable server computation, efficient batch processing tools, easy-to-use inspections of the data that also allow users to store and query the locations of specific flow patterns.

The system extends the applicability of notebook-based, AI-augmented data analyses accessing a diverse federation of structured databases with more complex data objects, and includes datasets for various new flows of engineering and geophysical interest at increasing Reynolds numbers. It contains backwards compatible elements with a legacy system, to support and maintain compatibility with an existing active community of users.

Research training and mentoring focus on the interplay between physical concepts and computer and computational science aspects of massive simulation-based datasets. Over 2.5 Petabytes of data will become available to support breakthroughs in turbulence research.

This award by the Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure is jointly supported by the National Science Foundation Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental and Transport Systems within the Directorate for Engineering; and by the Physical Oceanography Program, Physical and Dynamic Meteorology Program, and the Division of Integrative and Collaborative Education and Research within the Directorate for Geosciences.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.