under supervision by
Dr. Benjamin Uekermann TUM (Topic Advisor)
M.Sc. with honors Friedrich Menhorn TUM (Team Advisor)
Motivation
preCICE is an open-source library that allows users to couple existing simulation codes and run multiphysics simulations. It is currently being developed at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and the University Stuttgart.
One of the current objectives of preCICE developers is to introduce the software to a wider range of customers from both industry and academia. In order to reach this goal, potential users of preCICE need to get a simple general overview of the software and a first idea about how to use the library. This is where this honours project comes into the picture. The goal of this project was to create an interactive online tutorial that allows users to get familiar with preCICE and demonstrates its capabilities. The tutorial aims to help attract new users to the library and capture their interest.
Tutorial Test Case and User Story
We simulate a typical example of fluid-structure interaction (FSI) where a fluid flows through a channel and interacts with an elastic flap that is fixed to the floor of the channel. The fluid – in this case air – enters the channel from the left, flows over the flap, and leaves the domain through the outlet on the right. The flap oscillates due to the fluid pressure building up on its surface. We use SU2 to simulate the fluid flow and CalculiX for the structure/flap.
The coupling – performed with preCICE – involves the communication of values at the inter- face between the fluid solver and the structure solver. The pressure exerted by the fluid on the interface is sent from the fluid to the structure solver, so that the displacement of the flap can be calculated. The displacement of the flap surface is then sent back to the fluid solver and used as the new boundary.
User Story
Having come up with an adequate simulation setup, we now want to create a user story out of it that demonstrates the capabilities of preCICE. The user story represents a typical user’s journey through the website where they learn, step by step, how to start using the coupling library. Naturally, this requires a great deal of thought and planning in order to keep the user’s interest and educate him or her about the possibilities and the usage of preCICE.
Web Technology Stack
User Testing
Summary
The main goal of our project was to provide a tool that would provide a simple introduction to preCICE software to potential users. For this purpose, we developed an interactive online tutorial. To give a gentle introduction and provide a brief overview of the coupling library, we prepared a series of simple multiphysics fluid-structure interaction (FSI) simulations. The simulations are organized in the form of a user story that demonstrates various ways to set up a coupled simulation with preCICE. Each configuration brings its own advantages – such as increased stability or decreased runtime.
The user story was implemented in the form of an online tutorial that takes users through all steps of a simulation, from an introduction of the test case to visualization of the final results. The tutorial is highly interactive and requires active participation on each stage. User experience was one of the most significant points for our project. Therefore, we actively collected feedback from users and implemented the suggested improvements during the final stages of the project.
During the project we employed an iterative development approach for both the website and the tutorial content. In this way, the overall quality of the project was gradually improved over ten months. For the final milestone, we provided a user story with five stable and fast FSI simulations, and delivered a website that exhibits consistent behavior across various operating systems and browsers.