SBIR Phase II: Visualizing Arbitrary Basis Functions for Advanced Engineering Analysis and Simulation

This Small Business Innovative Research Phase II project will create general-purpose software tools for visualizing the results of advanced numerical simulation. Simulation techniques, which make up a large part of the multi-billion dollar CAD/CAM/CAE market, are widely used to design and build the majority of products manufactured today. Visualization plays an important role in this process by transforming simulation results into images which designers, engineers, and scientists can use to understand and communicate about their products. Recent advances in numerical simulation provide an opportunity for methods based on higher-order basis functions. These functions better model curved geometry and are more accurate than conventional techniques employing linear approximation functions. The use of this technology is limited by a lack of general-purpose visualization software tools for higher-order methods. Providing these tools will accelerate the adoption of this technology into the marketplace resulting in software that will produce superior product designs, in shorter time, and at lower cost. An adaptive tessellation process that converts higher-order basis into linear graphics primitives and preserves the visual accuracy of the solution, while maintaining interactive graphics performance, is proposed. This technology will be licensed and add-on adaptors will be offered that will enable vendors to easily and efficiently interface their systems to this technology.