ITR: A Virtual Stress Testing Machine

San Diego State University Foundation, San Diego CA

Investigators

Abstract

This proposed effort will create an internet-distributed, physics-based, three-dimensional virtual reality stress-testing machine. A stress testing machine (STM) will be purchased and then reproduced as a 3D CAD model, thereby creating a real STM and a virtual STM. The real STM will be placed on the internet using a personal computer. The virtual STM will be displayed using a semi-immersive virtual reality theater and also using a 3D web page. A large deformation elasto-plastic finite element code will be written and deployed on both a remote high performanc eomputer and on a local cluster of workstations. MPI will be used as a platform independent tool for process parallelization. A haptic interface and a data acquitstion tool will drive both the real STM and the virtual STM. The real STM will simply deform tensile specimens. The virtual STM will also deform a virtual object; however, the deformation parameters will be obtained from the near real-time finite element code running on the two aforementioned acrchitectures.Data regarding network communication, process parallelization, fault-tolerance, and graphical displays will be acquired and analyzed. The intellectual merit of this work will be the research into the creation of a platform in physics-based virtual reality for education and research. The broader impact of this effort will be the creation of tools to enable undergraduate students to possess their own personal, virtual physics labs. The result of this will enable universities to save on cost and wear and tear of expensive large-scale hardware.