National SimCenter Research
Integrated Research and Education
The current SimCenter research program is focused by research in computational methods and their application to complex practical engineering analysis and design problems involving aerodynamics, hydrodynamics, propulsion, and electromagnetics. The National SimCenter will leverage its expertise in these areas to expand and broaden its research and education programs to promising new areas important to U.S. technology leadership including national issues such as sustainable energy, environment, health care and defense.
 The Computational Engineering M.S. and Ph.D. programs are integrated with the SimCenter research program to offer a unique educational environment in which students can participate in interdisciplinary team research, with opportunities for significant student interaction with multiple researchers. The program prepares its graduates to develop and apply advanced computational simulation and design software for real-world engineering analysis and design problems and to contribute their expertise in an interdisciplinary team research environment. |
Current research projects include:
- Computational analysis and design of fuel cell components
- Computational electromagnetics
- Aerodynamic analysis and design of integrated embedded aircraft propulsion systems
- Aerodynamics of ground vehicles
- Modeling and analysis of combustion instability in rocket engines and motors
- Computational analysis of synthetic jet actuators for control of aircraft
- Computational turbomachinery analysis
- Agent-Based Simulations
- Predicting hydrodynamic performance of high-speed ships
- Plasma dynamics modeling and simulation
- Parallel Eulerian-Lagrangian two-phase flow solvers
- Shallow-water simulations
- Extensible adjoint methods for sensitivity analysis, error estimation, and adaptive meshing
- Geometric manipulation for computational simulation and design
- Advanced computational methods for global, regional and local climate simulation
- Numerical solution of the Boltzmann equation
- Constrained design optimization for general supersonic configurations
- Atmospheric dispersion at spatial resolutions below mesoscale
“TENASI” Chosen as Name for SimCenter Simulation Software
A versatile and evolving software system has been developed to perform the many types of complex simulations required for numerous SimCenter sponsored research projects, examples of which are shown in our gallery.
The SimCenter has named this software system “Tenasi,” a Native American settlement in East Tennessee, named after the bends of a river. Tenasi (also spelled Tanasi) was the Capital of the Cherokee Nation from 1721 to 1730 and is the origin of the name of the State of Tennessee. The current spelling “Tennessee” was first recorded on a 1762 map and was selected as most appropriate for the nation's 16th state in 1796.
Prospective Students
The multidisciplinary Computational Engineering program is open to qualified students with undergraduate degrees in engineering, mathematics, computer science, or a physical science. Prospective students must have a strong interest in engineering problem solving, numerical methods, and scientific computer programming. Each student’s program of study is individually tailored to his or her educational background and research goals, and includes emphasis in 1) an engineering application area, 2) scientific supercomputing, and 3) mathematics of computation.
Prospective students can apply by following application procedures of the UTC Graduate School and the Computational Engineering Program.
