The visualization project for the course Scientific Visualization & Virtual Reality, three challenges from IEEE SciVis contests were implemented. The challenges covered 1) earth mantle convection, 2) deep water asteroid impacts and 3) advanced visualization of neurosurgical planning. A few examples of group projects are shown for these subjects.
Earth Mantle Convection
Animation of the Earth’s mantle convection showing: (1) velocity vectors (arrow glyphs on a selected slab, scaled by vector magnitude), (2) positive (right) and negative (left) spin transition-induced density anomalies (purple-to-green isosurfaces) and (3) positive (right) and negative (left) temperature anomaly (blue-to-yellow isosurfaces).
Deep Water Asteroid Impacts
Animation of air and water pressure waves resulting from a deep water asteroid impact.
The colormap for pressure in the air ranges from the pressure where glass breaks risking serious injury, to the level where earlier research suggests that no humans survive. Air pressure lower than the pressure at which glass breaks is cut off. Air pressure above the colormap range is shown in the darkest shade of the colormap. Water pressure is scaled based on the range of pressures found in the water 5 seconds post asteroid impact, as the pressure decreases exponentially and peak pressure at 5 seconds post impact is likely fatal. To simultaneously see the three dimensional shape but also inside gradients of the pressure level visible without volume rendering, a quarter clip was taken out of the geometry. The speed of the animation is set to match real time and half of the available frames were rendered to reduce the computational expenses. The air pressure wave initially has a higher velocity than the water pressure wave, but slows down more quickly.
Contribution of heat transport by eddies in the Gulf of Aden. Streamlines of a 3D flow field over one month of simulation time are coloured by temperature. Warm surfuce water is vertically mixed with colder deeper water masses by the vortices. The four eddies form a vortex street.
The eddy on the front and the third eddy rotate counter-clockwise and are identified as cyclonic eddies.
The second and fourth eddy rotate clockwise and are identified as anti-cyclonic eddies. The simulated data set was acquired from the Red Sea Modelling and Prediction Group at King Abdullah University of
Science and Technology (KAUST).
This is an animation of the 2-dimensional contour of the water, based on rho. The animation shows the wave generation due to deep water asteroid impact. First a crater is formed which next leads to a standing wave, reaching up to 2 km in height. As the wave collapses a traveling wave is generated. By extracting wave characteristics such as wave length and wave height, one can conclude that this is a tsunami wave.
The animation shows the impact of the asteroid on the water surface and how it creates a pressure wave or “crater” in the water. Because the simulation did not include an asteroid airburst, 100% of the asteroid kinetic energy was present upon impact with the water resulting in an efficient transfer of energy to the water.
Sam Verhezen & Rebecca Davidsson
1. Volume rendering of pressure and temperature over time.
2. Blender reflective surface and shadowing to create realistic effects, adding a sense of depth.