This EPSRC Funded grant:  UK Turbulence Consortium (UKTC) is a group of UK researchers committed to undertaking high quality, world leading turbulence simulation and scientific research using high performance computing systems. Funded in 1995, the UKTC has been through six highly successful iterations, with significant growth, from 5 original members to 70 members from nearly 30 UK institutions for the present bid, with an inclusive approach to developing and serving the community.

The aim of the project:

UKTC’s view is that the key to advances in turbulence is by sustaining and stimulating interaction among researchers. It is essential that a diverse range of viewpoints, opinions, strategies and methods are brought together in an efficient and constructive manner. The essence of the UK Turbulence Consortium is to provide the central core of a needed critical mass activity considering the big challenges posed by turbulence.  The project aims o understand, predict and control turbulent flows is of central importance and a limiting factor to a vast range of industries: naval, aeronautical, automotive, power generation, process, pharmaceutical, meteorological and environmental. Many of the environmental and energy-related issues we face today cannot possibly be tackled without a better understanding of turbulent flows.

EPSRC funded UKCOMES consortium aims to advance and lead in mesoscale science and engineering that are crucial to solving emerging societal challenges such as the net zero energy system, high-end manufacturing, healthcare and digital economy. This will be achieved by developing and exploiting cutting-edge mesoscopic modelling and simulation techniques with the aid of HEC (ARCHER2) and tier-2 GPU (Bede) systems. The UKCOMES community of academics, researchers, collaborators and end-users, already the largest and best in the world, will be consolidated and expanded to benefit the wider community and generate greater impact. Community codes as well as in-house codes will be further developed, disseminated and applied, using the best practices. The consortium, in working with CoSeC, will provide a stimulating, collaborative and interdisciplinary environment to train people in optimised use of current HEC and in preparation for the forthcoming exascale platforms, in order to conduct world-leading research and application.

The aim of the project:

The remit of UKCOMES covers both simulation-methodology-orientated developments and application-driven research using HEC and tier-2 platforms. The work of the consortium will be pursued in the following work packages (WPs):

(1) Community Codes Development, Optimisation & Dissemination;

(2) Simulation & Optimisation of Net Zero Energy Systems;

(3) Mesoscale Simulation & Design in Advanced Manufacturing;

(4) Simulation & Application of Multiphase & Interfacial Flows;

(5) Hemodynamics Simulation & Application in Healthcare;

(6) VVUQ, Machine Learning & Data Analytics;

(7) Engagement, Outreach, Dissemination and Impact Delivery.

This EPSRC funded proposal brings together communities from the UK Turbulence Consortium (UKTC) and the UK Consortium on Reacting Flows (UKCRF) to ensure a smooth transition to exascale computing, with the aim to develop transformative techniques for future-proofing their production simulation software ecosystems dedicated to the study of turbulent flows. Understanding, predicting and controlling turbulent flows is of central importance and a limiting factor to a vast range of industries. Many of the environmental and energy-related issues we face today cannot possibly be tackled without a better understanding of turbulence.

The UK is preparing for the exascale era through the ExCALIBUR programme to develop exascale-ready algorithms and software. Based on the findings from the Design and Development Working Group (DDWG) on turbulence at the exascale, this project is bringing together communities representing two of the seven UK HEC Consortia, the UKTC and the UKCTRF, to re-engineer or extend the capabilities of four of their production and research flow solvers for exascale computing: XCOMPACT3D, OPENSBLI, UDALES and SENGA+. These open-source, well-established, community flow solvers are based on finite-difference methods on structured meshes and will be developed to meet the challenges associated with exascale computing while taking advantage of the significant opportunities afforded by exascale systems.

The aim of the project:

A key aim of this project is to leverage the well-established Domain Specific Language (DLS) framework OPS and the 2DECOMP&FFT library to allow XCOMPACT3D, OPENSBLI, UDALES and SENGA+ to run on large-scale heterogeneous computers. OPS was developed in the UK in the last ten years and it targets applications on multi-block structured meshes. It can currently generate code using CUDA, OPENACC/OPENMP5.0, OPENCL, SYCL/ONEAPI, HIP and their combinations with MPI. The OPS DSLs’ capabilities will be extended in this project, specifically its code-generation tool-chain for robust, fail-safe parallel code generation. A related strand of work will use the 2DECOMP&FFT a Fortran-based library based on a 2D domain decomposition for spatially implicit numerical algorithms on monobloc structured meshes. The library includes a highly scalable and efficient interface to perform Fast Fourier Transforms (FFTs) and relies on MPI providing a user-friendly programming interface that hides communication details from application developers. 2DECOMP&FFT will be completely redesigned for a use on heterogeneous supercomputers (CPUs and GPUS from different vendors) using a hybrid strategy.

The project will also combine exascale-ready coupling interfaces, UQ capabilities, I/O & visualisation tools to our flow solvers, as well as machine learning based algorithms, to address some of the key challenges and opportunities identified by the DDWG on turbulence at the exascale. This will be done in collaboration with several of the recently funded ExCALIBUR cross-cutting projects.

The project will focus on four high-priority use cases (one for each solver), defined as high quality, high impact research made possible by a step-change in simulation performance. The use cases will focus on wind energy, green aviation, air quality and net-zero combustion. Exascale computing will be a game changer in these areas and will contribute to make the UK a greener nation (The UK commits to net zero carbon emissions by 2050). The use cases will be used to demonstrate the potential of the re-designed flow solvers based on OPS and 2DECOMP&FFT, for a wide range of hardware and parallel paradigms.

The arrival in the coming years of exascale computers will not just enable bigger, higher-fidelity and faster computations, but also whole new classes of simulation and modelling. It will open new frontiers in our ability to design, optimise and predict highly complex and coupled engineered and natural systems. System-level simulation of complex problems governed by multiple coupled physical processes will become possible, unlocking opportunities to create new, sophisticated engineered systems, with efficient computer simulations of interacting physical processes having the potential to greatly advance progress in high-priority areas and engineering grand challenges.  Further details can be found on the EPSRC Grant Fund page.

The aim of the project:

This project draws together a multidisciplinary team of leading researchers in computational science, high-performance computing, engineering and computational mathematics to create new and necessary mathematical and software tools to make stable, accurate and efficient simulation of integrated systems with coupled physical phenomena possible. It will combine rigorous mathematical analysis with cutting edge software tools to deliver new tools that will open frontiers in computing for science and engineering. The software tools will be open-source, with community building and knowledge exchange a focus throughout.

Three grand challenge problems of high social and industrial impact will direct the technical developments in this project:

– Coupled simulation of fusion modelling, which will support the virtual design and optimisation of future fusion energy systems for the electricity grid, which will have a transformative on reducing CO2 emissions;

– Carbon neutral flight, an in particular new high energy density electric propulsion systems in which the electromagnetic, thermal, mechanical and fluid process are strongly coupled; and

– Coupled simulation techniques for computing the behaviour of large virus structures.

Environmental concerns motivate a transition to liquid hydrogen aviation fuel in coming decades, and for this technology, the size, placement and connections of the hydrogen tank on an aircraft are key decisions. The Hydrogen Aircraft Sloshing Tank Advancement project (HASTA) aims to experimentally and computationally investigate the storage of liquid hydrogen (LH2) for airborne use as fuel in civil aircraft applications. The size and position of a LH2 tank inside an aircraft are limiting factors for range, payload and aircraft size, and consequently play a crucial role in the environmental impact. The goal of facilitating tank design will be achieved through the creation of design criteria for LH2 aircraft tanks; these design guidelines will be based on the different tools and models derived during the project, in particular those aimed at complex cryogenic sloshing. The experimentally validated design tools developed during HASTA are to be used for both conceptual and detailed design in the aircraft industry and therefore span a range of fidelities from reduced order models to full computational methods. The primary focus of this project will be the development of LH2 capabilities, particularly the extension of mature capabilities already available for the sloshing of standard civil aircraft fuel (kerosene) to the cryogenic temperatures associated with LH2. These capabilities are well reflected in the composition of the consortium, which includes partners with both experimental and modelling experience of fuel slosh, as well as cryogenics for space applications. The ultimate goal of the project is the development of experimentally validated numerical and analytical simulation tools to model the complex thermo-fluid dynamics of cryogenic LH2 coupled to the thermo mechanical behaviour of a tank and its operational environment.

The HASTA project brings together a diverse and multidisciplinary consortium composed of 16 partners from 7 European countries and South Africa.

The aim of the project:

The HASTA project aims to develop a robust and validated digital model of an LH2 tank for use in large civil aircraft, facilitating the transition from kerosene-based to hydrogen-based aviation. The specific objectives include:

• Experimental Validation:  To obtain experimental evidence of the effects of sloshing on the thermal and phase change phenomena within a cryogenic tank.
• Model Development: To create numerical and analytical models that can predict the behaviour of LH2 under various operational conditions, including sloshing.
• Model Validation: To validate these models using experimental data and open scientific resources, ensuring their accuracy and reliability for industrial applications.
• Design Implementation: To use the validated models for the conceptual design of a safe, efficient, and airworthy LH2 tank, providing practical guidelines for future hydrogen-powered aircraft.

This is an ongoing collaboration with EDF R&D UK for the development of modelling tools for the technological development of High Temperature Gas -Cooled reactor adoption in the UK. This is in line with the UK Government goal to decarbonise energy generation and achieve net-zero.  The collaboration is mainly centred around the application of Sub-Channel CFD and involved also the Heft group at University of Sheffield

SLOWD (SLOshing Wing Dynamics) is an H2020 collaborative project aiming to investigate the use of fuel slosh to reduce the design loads on aircraft structures. This goal is achieved by investigating the damping effect of sloshing on the dynamics of flexible wing-like structures carrying liquid (fuel) via the development of experimental set-ups complemented by novel numerical and analytical tools.

The primary focus of the project is the application of modelling capabilities to the wing design of large civil passenger aircraft (subject to EASA CS-25 type certification), which are designed to withstand the loads occurring from atmospheric gusts and turbulence and landing impacts.

The SLOWD project began in September 2019 and concluded its activities, having a lifespan of three years, in August 2022. The total budget of the project is approximately 3.2M€, funded by the European Commission under H2020-MG-2018 topic MG-3-1-2018 “Multidisciplinary and collaborative aircraft design tools and processes” (Grant Agreement number 815044). The SLOWD project brings together a diverse and multidisciplinary consortium composed of 10 partners from European countries and South Africa.

The aim of the project:

The main goal of the project is to define a holistic approach (both experimental and numerical) to quantify the energy-dissipation effects associated with the liquid movement inside aircraft fuel tanks, as the wing undergoes dynamic excitations. A substantive (in the order of 50%) increase in the damping characteristics of the structure is expected.

The SLOWD consortium partners bring together industrial know-how and academic research, with the following objectives:

• Setup of an Experimental Campaign to investigate the response to dynamic loading of the wings of a modern passenger airliner (200 passengers or more) carrying fuel. The results of the campaign would be a database of measurements for benchmarking the numerical and analytical methods developed during the remainder of the project. The measured quantities will include time-varying parameters (e.g. accelerations, displacements, wall pressures) from which the damping effect of the slosh will be computed.
• Further Develop Numerical Methods, for the concurrent modelling of the experimental setup. The aim of the modelling is twofold; preliminary calculations will be undertaken to inform the design of the experimental campaign. Subsequently, a high-fidelity digital twin of the experimental setup will be generated, which will provide a wealth of data from which reduced-order models can be built. The numerical methods are to be implemented in executable software and made available to all partners in a common computing environment for the purposes of the project.
• Evaluate Reduced-Order and Analytical Models, as a reduction in the complexity of the numerical models is deemed necessary for subsequent inclusion into an industrial design framework. Several reduced-order and analytical models will be evaluated in terms of their computation efficiency and accuracy in predicting sloshing-related dissipative effects. As per the numerical methods, the methods for deriving ROMs are to be implemented in executable software and made available to the partners in a common computing environment for the purposes of the project.
• Integration of the Models into a Multidisciplinary Design Framework. An industrialised version of the software developed in b) and c) will be used to understand the influence of design parameters such as baffle spacing, baffle openings, and fill level to define an optimal architecture of the wing fuel tanks, which maximises the dissipation effects due to fuel sloshing.

The SLOWD consortium intends to liaise with airworthiness authorities for future inclusion of the tests (or some of their elements) in the certification regulations for large aeroplanes (CS25) so as to provide a safe and more specific acceptable means of compliance for the aeronautical industries operating in the European Union.