Fluid Simulation on the World Wide Web: Transient Natural Convection in a Cavity

Abstract

Abstract The primary objective of this research work is the methodology about the development of a fluid simulation package integrated with the Internet, which will allow the user to perform fluid simulation on the World Wide Web (WWW). The web-based software package is developed using tools like Java, ActiveX and HTML and is accessible over the Internet from anywhere in the work. This work is a part of a project on framework of web-based CAE system, which includes the creation of software packages for other CAE issues such as Computer Aided Design (CAD), Computer Aided Geometry Design (CAGD), Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM). The framework of web-based CAE system is a set of CAE packages that can be accessed from all over the world. The simulation package is stored on a powerful server located at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and the input/output (text, graphics, and animation) can be viewed and accessed by any computer supporting a web browser. In this paper, the traditional Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) problem — Transient Natural Convection in a Cavity is used as the example to show how to build a fluid simulation package integrated with the Internet. At first, we will introduce the prospect of such a research work; then, the transient natural convection problem in a cavity is analyzed based on the stream-function and vorticity-function; at last, two solution of web-based fluid simulation will be compared using the example of transient natural convection in a cavity. Experiments on Transient Natural Convection in a Cavity have shown the feasibility for a networked fluid simulation service via the Internet.