A cooperation of TU Darmstadt
and RWTH Aachen University

Simulation and Data Lab

The SDL Fluids advances the use of HPC to enable highly resolved and sophisticated Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) applications.

The wide range of competencies regarding CFD applications at TU Darmstadt and RWTH Aachen, e.g., high-order RANS modeling, hybrid and coupled RANS-LES methods, multi-physics coupling, and advanced post-processing methods, supplement each other well, and make the SDL Fluids an ideal framework to advance CFD methods while contributing to the solution of actual engineering challenges.

We use methods like Finite Volume, Discontinuous Galerkin or spline-based finite element methods. Applications are blood flow simulations, flow in turbo machinery, or multi-phase flow.

If you have questions for other groups or general questions like access to the HPC infrastructure, have a look at our support website.

Current research topics:

  • Analysis of turbine rim seal flows:
    During the operation of axial turbines, hot gas from the main annulus flow can enter the wheel space cavity between the rotor and stator disks. Such a hot gas ingress needs decreased the turbine life time and needs to be prevented. In this work, the complex time-dependent turbulent flow field inside the wheel space is analyzed by large-eddy simulations to increase the understanding, which is necessary for the development of high-quality rim seals.
  • Thrombosis modeling, for the understanding of pathological blood clotting:
    Thrombus formation in an otherwise healthy vasculature can lead to myocardial infarction and stroke, as well as venous thromboembolic disorders. Therefore, a detailed understanding of this process is fundamental to predicting and managing pathological states. We are developing a numerical model consisting of convection-diffusion-reaction equations coupled with flow equations under realistic blood flow conditions, intending to investigate the formation process for the influence of particular species and to support the development of a ligand.
  • Spline-based space-time finite element formulations for fluid-structure interaction problems:
    In certain applications, an accurate geometric representation can be of importance. In this work spline-based geometric descriptions are directly applied within numerical simulations of fluid-structure interaction problems.

Support activities:

  • Providing expertise on the effective/efficient application of CFD to real world applications: Through collaboration with a number of project partners, we provide our expertise on numerical methods for various problems (see skills/methods and applications).
  • Extension of software: The software m-AIA developed at the institute of aerodynamics at RWTH Aachen University is a multi-physics flow solver comprising several numerical methods such as Finite Volume, Lattice-Boltzmann, Discontinuous Galerkin. The software is applied to various complex flow problems and will be made publicly available in the beginning of 2022.

Training activities:

  • Master-level courses on related topics: We provide a number of master courses related to numerical simulations and HPC such as:
    – Finite elements in Fluids
    – Isogeometric analysis
    – Fluid-structure interaction
    – Parallel computing in computational mechanics
    – Computational Fluid Mechanics
  • Share research findings with the scientific community:
    – SSD Seminar series
    – Attend scientific conferences and workshops
  • Promote BoSSS-OpenFOAM in collaboration with Prof. Hrvoje Jazak (OpenFOAM maintainer)

Training offers 2024:

Video "My science"

Prof. Stefanie Elgeti, deputy institute head at the Chair for Computational Analysis of Technical Systems (CATS) at RWTH Aachen University, and her team are developing numerical methods that can be used to perform calculations on the properties – of aircraft, for example – before a prototype is built.

Publications

2024

2022

2023

Members

Laurent André

RWTH Aachen University

Prof. Marek Behr, Ph.D.

RWTH Aachen University

Tobias Bongartz

RWTH Aachen University

Felipe González

RWTH Aachen University

Thomas Hösgen

RWTH Aachen University

Prof. Dr. Jeanette Hussong

TU Darmstadt

Apl. Prof. Dr. Suad Jakirlic

TU Darmstadt

Prof. Dr. Martin Oberlack

TU Darmstadt

Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Schröder

RWTH Aachen University

Dr. Martin Smuda

TU Darmstadt

Xiaoyu Wang

TU Darmstadt

Rostislav-Paul Wilhelm

RWTH Aachen University