Advanced Computational Techniques for Counterproliferation Problem

The task of computationally simulating the dispersion and/or neutralization of toxic chemical/biological (CB) agents, released from weapons of mass destruction (WMD), puts a very high demand on the capability of current generation computational dynamics (CFD) codes. Current advanced computational tools for WMD threat simulation fail to address the necessary physics, do not incorporate emerging computational techniques nor do they take full advantage of the latest scalable, computer hardware. Under the proposed effort, a modern finite-element based unstructured, fully implicit Navier-Stokes code, entitled CRUNCH, which is optimized for operation on scalable parallel platforms, will be utilized as the basis for developing a tool for simulating WMD threat scenarios. CRUNCH embodies multi-phase physics, advanced turbulence modeling, grid adaptation, generalized chemical kinetics and employs Godunov-based robust numerics with low Mach number pre-conditioning. Innovations such as domain decomposition, load balancing, GUI-driven pre-/post-processing utilities and finally, programming in High Performance Fortran (HPF), C++ and JAVA, provide an ideal, next-generation platform to begin assessment of requirements for performing WMD threat simulations. CRUNCH/WMD will include detailed sub-models to represent energy release from thermobaric materials, neutralization of biological agent, etc. Finally, validation of the model will be conducted against recent DTRA-sponsored sub-scale and large-scale test data.