About the SPHERIC Workshop


Theme

The workshop exclusively focuses on the Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) methodology and related simulation approaches. The methodology has recently gained enhanced attention by various researchers in the area of scientific computing. The SPH method was initially developed to study the development of galaxies in astrophysics. Yet, a number of developments based on this approach have been launched by various research teams in association with e.g. environmental engineering, applied solid mechanics, marine and coastal engineering, nuclear power engineering, medical engineering and geotechnical applications, amongst others.

Applications involve problems from macro-scale to submicro scale. Prominent examples refer to tsunami and landslide simulations, cosmic structure formation and galaxy collisions, liquid gas sloshing in LNG tankers, solid fracturing due to high-velocity impact, wave energy generation using floating bobber arrays, slamming loads on offshore structures, flooding of ships sections, decay of tip vortices behind aircrafts and human lung respiration simulations, amongst others. Due to the huge computational effort associated to SPH simulations, a significant branch of SPH research is concerned with high-performance computing on the most recent hardware technologies (e.g. massively parallel CPU & GPU computing). Moreover, the methodology is often applied to achieve ambitious virtual-reality animations and to support the virtual training, e.g. of medical students.

Characteristics of the Workshop

 Starting from the first workshop in Rome 2006, which involved approximately 30 presentations, the subsequent workshops in Madrid 2007, Lausanne 2008, Nantes 2009, Manchester 2010, Hamburg 2011, Prato 2012 , Trondheim 2013 , Paris 2014 and Parma 2015 continuously grew towards a three-day event with approximately 90 participants, about 50-55 oral presentations, including 2 keynote lectures. Each contribution is supplemented by an 8 page colour paper. Proceedings are published with an ISBN.

Dedicated to the aim of stimulating an enhanced direct exchange of ideas between the community of SPH researchers, there will be no parallel session during the Workshop. All abstracts of the offered contributions are screened by at least three experts. Associated to the Workshop, an SPH Training Day (13th June) is offered to researchers who are familiar with the fundamentals of SPH but are beginning their work in the field. The best student contribution to the workshop is awarded (Libersky Prize).

Background Organisation

Following the impulse generated by a collection of national initiatives, a need of fostering and clustering efforts and developments has been identified around 2005. In conclusion, the Special Interest Group (SIG) SPH European Research Interest Community (SPHERIC) has been installed under the aegis of the European Research Community for Flow Turbulence and Combustion (ERCOFTAC). The goal of SPHERIC is indeed to foster the spread of this simulation method within Europe (& abroad). It forms a framework for closer cooperation between research groups working on the subject and serves as a platform for the information exchange from science to industry. At present the network involves 62 members, among them are 15 industrial partners. Additional information about SPHERIC can be found on the SPHERIC website.