(l-r) Altair's Ernst Burger, CHPC's Charles Crosby & AEDG's Jode Fourie
During the meeting, Charles demonstrated the process that will be followed when using the CHPC Facility to run the impending CFD simulations the AEDG intend running as part of Jode's Masters. This research will include the use of Altair UltraFluidX, a cutting-edge Lattice-Boltzmann solver which promises extraordinarily fast results compared to traditional CFD platforms.
Both Charles and Ernst gave Jode some useful tips and tricks with regards to high-performance computer (HPC) usage which will no doubt save him a lot of hassles!
They also discussed some potential CFD pitfalls regarding model and mesh preparation and suggested taking a step-by-step approach rather than jumping into the deep end when it comes to model complexity. This is relatively new to the AEDG team at this level of operation, so there will be a significant learning curve.
After some coffee and a discussion about CFD and HPC, Charles showed Jode the impressive server room and cooling facilities needed to be able to house and run the 1368 nodes supercluster!
Charles then demonstrated how to run a software GUI directly on a node, which allows the user to pre- and post-process, or simply view CFD results on the system without having to transfer result files to your local desktop. This is a great option for the AEDG team as they are all mostly still working remotely and are also limited by variable in-house computing capacity.
They would be able to view complex flow visualisations or simulation results directly using the HPC system, which takes significant strain off of your own local machine.
This meeting was the first stepping stone to what might become an exciting collaboration with the potential for many future projects needing HPC capabilities.