Geometric Modeling - Simulation - Visualization

The software GOCAD is specialized in geometrical modelling of the subsurface and is used by many universities and federal state agencies. We currently make use of Gocad to exchange data with our partners in several projects and also to build our own models. Within this context we are extending GOCAD for a tighter integration with the hardware and software used in our department. The idea of this work is to provide a complete workflow from the geometrical modelling of the geological subsurface through the simulation, e.g. of groundwater, to the final visualization, to show and discuss the results in our visualization centre. In order to support this workflow we have extended GOCAD with several plugins: Additional modelling functionality is provided in order to generate a good and meshable boundary representation. Interfaces to open source meshing tools facilitate the use of these tools for generating finite element conforming meshes, and interfaces to the simulation software OpenGeoSys, which is implemented by our department, allow a quick and easy transfer of the created model into this simulator. Finally, implemented interfaces from GOCAD to the Visualization Toolkit (VTK) and to OpenSG allow the rapid visualization of the geometrical model together with the simulation results in our visualization centre.

Zehner, B. (2011): Constructing Geometric Models of the Subsurface for Finite Element Simulation, Conference of the International Association of Mathematical Geosciences (IAMG 2011), Salzburg, Austria, 5th-9th September 2011.

Zehner, B. (2011): Integration von GOCAD in den Arbeitsablauf von der Modellierung über die Simulation zur Visualisierung. In: Helmut Schaeben (Hrsg.), Proceedings des 9. Freiberger Forums für Geoinformationstechnologie, Juni 2011, Fakultät für Mathematik und Informatik, Technische Universität Bergakademie Freiberg, pp.52-59, ISSN 1433-9307,
Get the proceedings as PDF.

Zehner, B. (2011): Constructing Models for Finite Element Simulation Using GOCAD, In: Proceedings of the 31st GOCAD Meeting, June 7th-10th, Nancy, France, CD-ROM

Zehner, B. (2011): Extending Gocad to Improve the Modelling - Simulation - Visualization Workflow. Poster at the EGU General Assembly 2011, April, 2011, Vienna

Examples for the application:

Fischer, T., Zehner, B., Zech, A., Attinger, S., Kolditz, O. (2011): A Vertically Integrated 2D Groundwater Model of the Thuringian Basin, Poster at the EGU General Assembly 2011, April, 2011, Vienna

Zech, A., Zehner, B., Fischer, T., Attinger, S., Kolditz, O. (2011): Modelling of Thermohaline Circulation in Sedimentary Basins, Poster at the EGU General Assembly 2011, April, 2011, Vienna