(488b) Real-Time Simulation of Particle-Fluid Systems--Dream or Reality?

Focusing on the meso-scale phenomena in chemical engineering, believed to be one of important focii of future research in the field, a systematic research has been carried out at the Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, for the last three decades. This presentation will review this series of work from a multi-scale conceptual model for G/S system to a general multi-scale supercomputing paradigm for different multi-phase systems and applications in different industries.

Starting with a simple idea of multi-scale analysis of particle clusters in circulating fluidized beds, a meso-scale model, the so-called EMMS (Energy-Minimization Multi-Scale) model for gas-solid fluidization was established. The compromise between dominant mechanisms was recognized to be critical for correlating different scales of phenomena and for defining the stability conditions. The principle was then verified by discrete simulation, and applied not only to G/S systems but also to many complex systems. In applying this model to different multi-phase systems and to industrial problems, it was recognized that the EMMS model, integrated with the discrete models, presented a new paradigm of multi-scale computation to achieve structural similarity between modelling, software, hardware and the problems to be computed. This paradigm of computation was implemented by establishing a multi-scale supercomputer with a capacity of 1.0 Peta flops through the integration of CPUs and GPUs (Graphic Processing Units) which proves to be highly capable and cost efficient. Quasi-on-line simulations of some chemical processes were achieved, indicating a promising future of virtual reality of process engineering.

Finally, this presentation will be concluded with the prospects of future research of meso-scale problems, the development of multi-scale computation and the possible realization of virtual process engineering.