GE’s Masako Yamada talks Titan with HPCwire
MasakoYamada, GE Global Research
Image Credit: HPCwire
Titan user Masako Yamada of GE Global Research has been named one of HPCwire’s People to Watch 2014. Through an Advanced Scientific Computing Research Leadership Computing Challenge award, she has been using the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility’s (OLCF’s) 27‑petaflop supercomputer to model million-molecule water droplets freezing onto various anti-ice surfaces.
GE researchers are applying the simulations to wind turbine research aimed at reducing ice buildup on turbines located in cold regions.
On Titan’s predecessor, Jaguar, Yamada set out to simulate ice formation on three different anti-ice surfaces at three different temperatures. After the transition to Titan, she was able to increase her number of simulations eight times and include six surfaces and five temperatures.
“Our ultimate goal is to guide the design of new anti-icing surfaces, which could potentially enable wind turbines to run more efficiently in cold climate regions,” Yamada told HPCwire. “The simulation team has already achieved our initial goal of replicating lab observations.”
In future simulations Yamada plans to add the variable of thermal conductivity to models to better study ideal surfaces. She also plans to implement a computational method for further accelerating simulations she and former OLCF computational scientist Mike Brown developed to optimally perform on Titan’s hybrid architecture.
“Oak Ridge National Lab has been a superlative partner in all possible ways, from providing the supercomputer to technical expertise to industrial user support,” Yamada said.
Read more about Yamada’s Titan simulations of ice formation on anti-ice surfaces for wind turbine research. —Katie Jones
