Research for the Environment

Computational Mechanics includes the development of numerical methods for the solution of multi-field problems such as thermo-hydro-mechanical-chemical (THMC) coupled problems in porous media. Both Eulerian (FEM) und Lagrangian (Particle Tracking) methods are developed. (e.g. DECOVALEX project)

Hydroinformatics: Numerical simulation of coupled hydrosystems comprising surface water, vadose zone and groundwater systems, several catchments have been modelled (e.g. in Jordan Rift Valley and Meuse basin) based on the compartment approach. (e.g. AquaTerra project)

High-Performance-Computing is a key technology for the progress in computational environmental analysis. More realistic models based on high resolution data require extreme computational resources. Therefore we develop parallel computation schemes based on domain and process decomposition methods. Current HPC plat-forms used are Linux clusters (TESSIN-HPCLab) and super computers (e.g. DEISA project).

Software Engineering: OpenGeoSys is an object-oriented scientific software platform for the numerical solution of coupled multi-field problems (THMC processes) and of coupled hydrosystems.

Scientific Visualization: Visualization is the key to understanding data and simulation results. In order to enable scientists to examine large and structurally complex data sets and to be able to collaborate in work-groups with people of different backgrounds, a projection-based high resolution stereoscopic virtual environment is used which is driven by a workstation cluster (TESSIN-VISLab)