A computing framework for Discrete Multiphysics

The Discipline Hopping Award supports researchers willing to develop new skills and collaborations from ICT to other disciplines or vice versa. In this case, Dr Alexiadis, a researcher in Chemical Engineering, aims at bringing a Computer Science perspective to his discipline. The proposal revolves around the computer implementation of Discrete Multiphysics.

In 2015, the proponent published the seminal paper on Discrete Multiphysics: a mathematical modelling technique that can be used for the computer simulation of complex systems.

Discrete Multiphysics has several advantages with respect to traditional multiphysics. Many cases that are very difficult or impossible for traditional multiphysics become amenable when tackled with Discrete Multiphysics. Examples are solid-liquid flows that account for particle break-up and dissolution, or flows that account for phase-change and agglomeration/clotting.

Given these features, Discrete Multiphysics has quickly established itself in the accademic community and currently is been used by many scientist around the world (see Impact Summary for details) on a variety of fields that include medicine, energy, military applications (in collaboration with the US Navy) and even space travel (in collaboration with researchers at NASA).

The quick development of Discrete Multiphysics, however, poses new challenges. At the moment, Discrete Multiphysics has been implemented by writing in-house software on a problem-specific basis. However, as the interest in Discrete Multiphysics grows, the need for going beyond a case-specific computer implementation and produce software effectively usable by others research groups becomes a pressing necessity.

This goal, however, requires higher skills in software engineering that Dr Alexiadis expects to gain during the Hopping scheme with the help and support of Dr Moulitsas and Dr Filippone at the Centre for Computational Engineering Sciences at Cranfield University.

Methodologically, the proposal objectives will be achieved by means of a combination of Research Objectives and Learning Objectives. Research Objectives are hands-on activities where Dr Alexiadis and Dr Moulitsas will work together to implement specific Discrete Multiphysics features in an Open Source code called LAMMPS. Learning Objectives are learning activities designed to unlock specific knowledge and prepare the ground for the next Research Objectives.

As mentioned in the Beneficiaries section, the main impact of Discrete Multiphysics, so far, lies in the academic community. However, a reason behind this application is to create the premises for extending this impact to industry.

This has been the evolution of other modelling techniques such as CFD or traditional multiphysics. They originate in academia; spread in the scientific community, where they are applied to a variety of different problems; and, after a critical mass of users is achieved, they are adopted by industry.

From this point of view, the fact that Cranfield University is the 'Hopping partner' of the proposal is an important circumstance. Traditionally, Cranfield University has a strong connection with industry and a large part of its funding comes from industry. Besides the Research and Learning objectives described in the Objectives section, collaboration with Cranfield will also provide links and networking opportunities to disseminate Discrete Multiphisics in applied settings of industrial interest.