Details of Research Outputs

Internal boundaries and interfaces are an important part of many fluid and solid modeling problems. Front Tracking contains a general interface framework, closely related to the non-manifold geometry used in CAD solid modeling packages, to support numerical simulation of such fluid problems. It can thus be considered to be a systematic application of the ideas of computational geometry to computational fluid dynamics. It is based on the principle that finite differences behave best when applied to differentiable functions, and that weak derivatives of nondifferentiable functions can be replaced by regularized expressions such as jump conditions. Front Tracking offers superior resolution for fluid problems with important discontinuities and interfaces, and in some cases, it has provided the unique method to obtain correct answers. Here we present Computer Science issues which have contributed to the success of Front Tracking: software design and organization — modularity, data structures and data hiding. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 1996.