CAREER: Computational Infrastructures for Simulating Hygiene-Related Fluid Phenomena

Georgia Tech Research Corporation, Atlanta GA

Investigators

Abstract

Every pathogen must survive its transmission by suspending in a specific form of fluid. These fluid forms can be bulk liquids, thin sheets, filaments, bubbles, foams, droplets, and aerosols, all of which exhibit mixed-dimensional geometric features, highly nonlinear evolution, and vastly contrasting scales. Because these fluid manifestations constitute the diverse, complex, and in many cases invisible pathways for disease transmission in the physical world, the ability to simulate them with high fidelity, and the accessibility of these simulations to the public, would not only help families, schools, and small businesses solve their different problems but would also pave the way for fundamental advances in hygiene-related science. This research will develop the computational infrastructure to simulate fluid phenomena such as sneezing mucus, splash plumes, and hand-washing foam, which have been out of reach for visual and scientific computing due to their interleaving dynamic and geometric complexities. Project outcomes will have broad impact by making it possible to create novel scientific animations, educational illustrations, and interactive design tools, which jointly support an inclusive and accessible platform that allows scientists, engineers, healthcare professionals and STEM students to investigate these complex flow processes in highly individualized settings. This research will advance the state of the art in computer graphics and scientific computing by establishing a novel set of computational methods to tackle flow phenomena that were previously understudied or intractable. These fluid systems consist of different substances such as mucus, saliva, or biosurfactants, that exhibit intricate geometries such as thin films, filaments, foam, and extremely small droplets, and that encompass multi-physics processes such as thin sheet fragmentation, vortex-capillary interaction, and fluid contact. The project aims to enable the accurate simulations of complex interfacial fluid phenomena characterized by these thin, dynamic, and non-manifold flow features on the mesoscopic length scale between 0.1 micrometer and 1 millimeter. At this intermediate length scale, fluids exhibit complicated flow dynamics and geometric forms due to the interaction between surface tension and other physical ingredients which are remarkably different from their macroscopic or microscopic counterparts (for instance, fluid can bounce, walk, glide, contact, or form non-manifold foam structures which are difficult for conventional approaches to simulate). The work will bridge this scientific gap by leading multifaceted efforts to develop novel geometric data structures, non-manifold interface tracking algorithms, structure-preserving PDE gauge formulations, multiphase coupling schemes and parallel numerical solvers, all of which will be integrated into a unified simulation framework to boost a broad range of hygiene-related applications centered around these flow processes. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.