Interactive Mesh Generation and Comparison Tools for Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling & Simulation

We propose to develop (1) tools for comparing geometric meshes and (2) user interface components to prepare geometric models for mesh generation. These are important for evaluating the feasibility of reduced order modeling of nuclear reactors and for creating simulations that model the complex geometry of a reactor core inside a pressure vessel with ducting. They are also of interest to a large number of engineering and manufacturing firms that use simulations to evaluate and optimize their designs. Unlike most mesh comparison and generation tools, those proposed here would (1) focus on visualization and direct manipulation to allow domain experts who are not computer savvy a way to direct mesh generation; (2) take advantage of symmetry and other high-level information available in a conceptual geometric model to accelerate mesh generation and assembly; (3) produce open-source software under a license that permits commercial use, which in turn allows closer integration with other simulation pre- processing tasks. In Phase I, we will (1) prototype a high-level mesh comparison tool for use in evaluating whether reduced order modeling is feasible; (2) investigate techniques for illustrating and interacting with (a) mesh sizing functions and (b) modern all-hexahedral remeshing algorithms; and (3) benchmark and demonstrate mesh comparison on a real ensemble of simulation results produced by engineers at INL, obtaining their feedback on how best to characterize the comparison as development proceeds. If Phase II is funded, our tools would be available to the general public (which importantly includes engineering students) for no cost. We plan to market our consulting services to engineering and manufacturing firms in order to adapt and customize the meshing tools to their particular workflows, and to incrementally improve and expand its functionality.