Virtual manufacturing and design in the real world - implementation and scalability on HPPC systems

Virtual manufacturing and design assessment increasingly involve the simulation of interacting phenomena, sic. multi-physics, an activity which is very computationally intensive. This chapter describes an attempt to address the parallel issues associated with a multi-physics simulation approach based upon a range of compatible procedures operating on one mesh using a single database - the distinct physics solvers can operate separately or coupled on sub-domains of the whole geometric space. Moreover, the finite volume unstructured mesh solvers use different discretization schemes (and, particularly, different ‘nodal’ locations and control volumes). A two-level approach to the parallelization of this simulation software is described: the code is restructured into parallel form on the basis of the mesh partitioning alone, that is, without regard to the physics. However, at run time, the mesh is partitioned to achieve a load balance, by considering the load per node/element across the whole domain. The latter of course is determined by the problem specific physics at a particular location.

World in motion

Professor Ed Galea CEng, MIFireE provides a welcome to Pedestrian and Evacuation Dynamics 2003, (PED 2003) to be held in London on 20-22 August 2003.

The 2001 World Trade Centre evacuation

The WTC evacuation of 11 September 2001 provides an unrepeatable opportunity to probe into and understand the very nature of evacuation dynamics and with this improved understanding, contribute to the design of safer, more evacuation efficient, yet highly functional, high rise buildings. Following 9/11 the Fire Safety Engineering Group (FSEG) of the University of Greenwich embarked on a study of survivor experiences from the WTC Twin Towers evacuation. The experiences were collected from published accounts appearing in the print and electronic mass media and are stored in a relational data base specifically developed for this purpose. Using these accounts and other available sources of information FSEG also undertook a series of numerical simulations of the WTC North Tower. This paper represents an overview of the results from both studies.

Using an interactive software environment for the parallelization of real-world scientific applications

The parallelization of real-world compute intensive Fortran application codes is generally not a trivial task. If the time to complete the parallelization is to be significantly reduced then an environment is needed that will assist the programmer in the various tasks of code parallelization. In this paper the authors present a code parallelization environment where a number of tools that address the main tasks such as code parallelization, debugging and optimization are available. The ParaWise and CAPO parallelization tools are discussed which enable the near automatic parallelization of real-world scientific application codes for shared and distributed memory-based parallel systems. As user involvement in the parallelization process can introduce errors, a relative debugging tool (P2d2) is also available and can be used to perform nearly automatic relative debugging of a program that has been parallelized using the tools. A high quality interprocedural dependence analysis as well as user-tool interaction are also highlighted and are vital to the generation of efficient parallel code and in the optimization of the backtracking and speculation process used in relative debugging. Results of benchmark and real-world application codes parallelized are presented and show the benefits of using the environment

Approximating the evacuation of the World Trade Center North Tower using computer simulation

This article concerns an investigation of the full scale evacuation of a building with a configuration similar to that of the World Trade Center (WTC) North Tower using computer simulation. A range of evacuation scenarios is explored in order to better understand the evacuation of the WTC on 11 September 2001. The analysis makes use of response time data derived from a study of published WTC survivor accounts. Geometric details of the building are obtained from architects' plans while the total building population used in the scenarios is based on estimates produced by the National Institute of Standards and Technology formal investigation into the evacuation. This paper attempts to approximate the events of 11 September 2001 and pursue several `what if' questions concerning the evacuation. In particular, the study explores the likely outcome had a single staircase survived intact from top to bottom. More generally, this paper explores issues associated with the practical limits of building size that can be expected to be efficiently evacuated using stairs alone.

The Great War on the small screen: Representing the First World War in contemporary Britain

In Britain since the 1960s television has been the most influential medium of popular culture. Television is also the site where the Western Front of popular culture clashes with the Western Front of history. This book examines the ways in which those involved in the production of historical documentaries for this most influential media have struggled to communicate the stories of the First World War to British audiences. Documents in the BBC Written Archives Centre at Caversham, Berkshire, the Imperial War Museum, and the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives all inform the analysis. Interviews and correspondence with television producers, scriptwriters and production crew, as well as two First World War veterans who appeared in several recent documentaries provide new insights for the reader. Emma Hanna takes the reader behind the scenes of the making of the most influential documentaries from the landmark epic series The Great War (BBC, 1964) up to more recent controversial productions such as The Trench (BBC, 2002) and Not Forgotten: The Men Who Wouldn't Fight (BBC, 2008). By examining the production, broadcast and reception of a number of British television documentaries this book examines the difficult relationship between the war's history and its popular memory.

Thinking inside the box: the World Bank position on the private and public sector

An analysis of how the World Bank has maintained a position supportive of mutlinational strategies for privatisation of water. (Brief version).

Thinking inside the box: why the World Bank is not learning

An analysis of how the World Bank has maintained a position supportive of multinational strategies for privatisation of water.

The world nuclear industry status report 2009: with particular emphasis on economic issues

A detailed review of the status of the world nuclear industry with particular emphasis on economic aspects.

Redefining knowledge in an information world – a polemic

This paper looks at knowledge and information as different forms of the same ideas or "memes". Very different, for knowledge is live, and information is dead. Knowledge is personal, difficult to acquire; information is plentiful, a commodity. Dawkins coined the term meme to refer to a "unit of cultural transmission". I distinguish between forms of the meme that are live knowledge – the internal idea, or imago, and the external transient representation of it, the ephemeron – and those which are permanent information (artefact and permaphemeron). It is a mistake to talk of a "content-free" learning experience, as though content were "just information". Content is knowledge. The point of education is not just to regenerate live knowledge from one generation to the next, it is to extend and add to it through knowledge creation. And knowledge creativity does not operate in a knowledge vacuum. You need ideas to breed ideas.

Reality-experiential history documentaries: the Trench (BBC, 2002) and Britain's modern memory of the First World War

Culloden (BBC, 1964) The Great War (BBC, 1964) 1914-18 (BBC/KCET, 1996) Haig: the Unknown Soldier (BBC, 1996) Veterans: the Last Survivors of the Great War (BBC, 1998) 1900s House (Channel 4, 1999) The Western Front (BBC, 1999) History of Britain (BBC, 2000) 1940s House (Channel 4, 2001) The Ship (BBC, 2002) Surviving the Iron Age (BBC, 2001) The Trench (BBC, 2002) Frontier House (Channel 4, 2002) Lad's Army (BBC, 2002) Edwardian Country House (Channel 4, 2002) Spitfire Ace (Channel 4, 2003) World War One in Colour (Channel 5, 2003) 1914: the War Revolution (BBC, 2003) The First World War (Channel 4, 2003) Dunkirk (BBC, 2004) Dunkirk: The Soldier's Story (BBC, 2004) D-Day to Berlin (BBC, 2004) Bad Lad's Army (ITV, 2004) Destination D-Day: Raw Recruits (BBC, 2004) Bomber Crew (Channel 4, 2004) Battlefield Britain (BBC, 2004) The Last Battle (ARTE/ZDF, 2005) Who Do You Think You Are? (BBC, 2004, 2006) The Somme (Channel 4, 2005) [From the Publisher]

The Great War on the small screen: televisual narratives of the First World War.

In Britain since the 1960s television has been the site where the Western Front of popular culture has clashed with the Western Front of history. This talk will examine the ways in which those involved in the production of historical documentaries for this most influential media have struggled to communicate the stories of the First World War to British audiences. From the landmark epic series The Great War (BBC, 1964) up to more recent controversial productions such as The Trench (BBC, 2002) and Not Forgotten: The Men Who Wouldn't Fight (BBC, 2008), Emma Hanna will give an overview of the production, broadcast and reception of a number of British television documentaries to examine the difficult relationship between the war's history and its popular memory. [From the Author]