November 20, 2012 - by CSCS

This award highlights photographs and videos that illustrate both experimental and numerical investigations of a wide variety of flow phenomena. Judged by a distinguished international panel of referees, winning entries were selected based upon criteria of scientific merit, originality, and artistry/aesthetic appeal.

The simulations of shock-bubble interactions were realized on the CSCS supercomputer «Monte Rosa» by Babak Hejazialhosseini, Diego Rossinelli and Petros Koumoutsakos.

The video shows a computer simulation of a Mach 3 normal shock wave in air that is  directed at a helium bubble. The bubble is compressed as the shock wave passes over it. Vorticity develops on the bubble-air interface and deforms it, then a jet of air shoots out. This sequence of events is followed by the generation of a long-lasting vortical core and finally of a complex mixing zone. The employed software enables simulations with up to 250 billion cells on a supercomputer, and 4 billion cells were used to produce this video.