FX -- Fluid feature eXtraction tool-kit

In the past, feature extraction and identification were interesting concepts, but not required to understand the underlying physics of fluid flow simulations. This is because the results of the more traditional tools were interactive and easily abstracted so they could be represented to the investigator. These visualization tools worked and properly conveyed the collected information at the expense of much interaction. For unsteady flow-fields, the investigator does not have the luxury of spending time scanning only one ``snap-shot'' of the simulation. Automated assistance is required in pointing out areas of potential interest contained within the flow.

Fluid flow features such as vortices, separation, boundary layers and shocks are items of interest that can be found in the results obtained from CFD simulations. The visualization system's suite of general-purpose tools (e.g., streamlines, iso-surfaces, cutting planes, and etc.) produce imagery which requires inference in order to analyze CFD data-sets.

Beta Distribution

FX Programmer's Guide
Distribution. Contains all documentation (including above), source, and coupling examples for both Visual3 and pV3. Compressed (gzip) tar image (213779 bytes).

Shock Gallery

Vortex Core Gallery

Recirculation Gallery

Boundary Layer/Wake Gallery

nothing yet...

Publications

Identification of Swirling Flow in 3-D Vector Fields. AIAA Paper 95-1715, San Diego CA, Jun. 1995.
Vortex Identification -- Applications in Aerodynamics: A Case Study. IEEE Computer Society, Visualization '97, Oct. 1997.
Automatic Vortex Core Detection. IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, IEEE Computer Society, Vol 18. No. 4, pp. 70-74, July/Aug. 1998.
Automated Feature Extraction from Transient CFD Simulations. Proceeding of the 7th Annual Conference of the CFD Society of Canada, Halifax, NS, May 1999. Keynode Address.
Shock Detection From Computational Fluid Dynamics Results. AIAA Paper No. 99-3285, Norfolk VA, June, 1999.
On the Velocity Gradient Tensor and Fluid Feature Extraction. AIAA Paper No. 99-3288, Norfolk VA, June, 1999.
Using Residence Time for the Extraction of Recirculation Regions. AIAA Paper No. 99-3291, Norfolk VA, June, 1999.

MIT Aero/Astro Scientific Visualization home page

Author: Bob Haimes, haimes@orville.mit.edu