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Computer science from A to Z
S is for Simulation
What do a supersonic aircraft, a tropical cyclone, a plant and a nuclear reactor have in common?
Answer:
computer-aided simulation.
Computer-based simulations are used for numerous complex systems to study their properties or predict their behaviour.
The aim is to find mathematical relationships that make it possible to calculate the relevant variables (temperature, pressure, speed, etc.) at every point in the system. Every point? No, that would mean an infinite number of points! So we restrict ourselves to a “mesh”: a certain number of points distributed in a more or less regular fashion within the volume under consideration.
Graphical representations must then be used to track changes in each variable at each point over time... bearing in mind the neighbouring points and using equations that are often highly complicated.
Simulating a deformable object is even more difficult: it is sometimes necessary to completely modify the mesh during the calculation!
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