Knowledge Based Control on Large Technical Simulations.
Technical simulations which require supercomputers frequently produce large amounts of complex data. To handle these data fast networks and high power graphical workstations are mandatory.
Only through the availability of supercomputers computational engineering could be developed. The goal is to simulate the behavior of engineering systems before building them. To understand the consequences of this goal one has to be aware that engineering systems like cars, computers, or power plants are very complex. Usually they are hierarchically composed from subsystems, components, subcomponents, parts, etc. Numerous engineers are specialized to develop and optimize certain subcomponents or even parts. They have special methods available, which were derived from both experimental experiences and theoretical insight. Their knowledge on the behavior of their contributions is formulated through data, correlations, equations, relations, structural information and rules. In computational engineering we try to integrate knowledge and experiences of different engineers or even engineering groups into one model which simulates the behavior of the corresponding engineering system. Of course such a model has to be very complex. It has to be able to integrate different sources of knowledge and different ways to deduct new insights. Also it has to support engineers using these models which at least partly were not developed from their own experiences. Thus tools like visualization, use friendly interfaces or systems which provide expertise about model or parts of models are very important.
A frame for the development of computational engineering systems was developed. It is called Integrated Planning and Simulation System. Software engineering combined with mechanical engineering will allow new models to be developed.
As in common engineering practice data- and knowledge bases have been separated from methods to acquire knowledge and data or to derive new information. To further reduce complexity the software engineering principals of modularization and information hiding have been utilized. Consequently the user interface was separated strictly from other parts of the system. Also all the information in the system is treated through abstract data type modules. They operate on complex data objects which are kept in hierarchically organized databases. As a result of these measures it is possible to build computational engineering models which are considered to include a similar degree of complexity as may be found in real engineering systems.
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Supercomputers in climate research
Somewhat surprisingly, for en era in which satellites systematically scan every inch of the globe, a wide variety of environmentally important data are in short supply. New computerized monitoring techniques provide a means of quickly closing some of these data gaps. Beyond monitoring computer systems serve a far more important function: to model industrial and biological systems. The best known of these are likely to be the global warming models. Such simulations require powerful supercomputers, because of the thousands of factors that affect climate
Scientists are known to have theorized since 1896 that emissions of carbon dioxide from the burning of fuels could warm the global atmosphere. It was in the early 1980s, however-when computers sufficiently powerful for modeling the complex behavior of the atmosphere became available-mat they were able to test their theories. Supercomputers at the climatogical centers of the USA have been programmed to stimulate the effects of increased greenhouse gas concentration on the global climate. In minutes, they perform calculations that would take an unaided scientist a lifetime or more. This computer-based modeling of the atmosphere has produced a remarkable consensus among climatoligists about the likelihood and potential scope of global warming. If the earth's atmosphere warms by several degrees within the span of a few decades, there will be enormous impacts on the environment and the global economy. Among the predicted impacts are a rise in sea levels that would threaten coastal populations and shifts in temperatures
Climatologists are also using computers to try to determine from local temperature measurements whether such warming is already beginning to occur. The task would be difficult or impossible without supercomputers, since it involves a complex calculation based on thousands of daily readings from around the world that must be adjusted for a variety of complicating factors, including the uneven geographical distribution of monitoring stations.