Periodic Reporting for period 1 - CoEC (Center of Excellence in Combustion)
Reporting period: 2020-10-01 to 2022-03-31
The Center of Excellence in Combustion (CoEC) is a collective effort to exploit Exascale computing technologies to address fundamental challenges related to combustion technologies. The CoEC vision is aligned with the decarbonisation goals of the European power and transport sectors and the European roadmap to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The project is a contribution of the European HPC combustion community to a long-term EU greenhouse gas emissions reduction in accordance with the Paris Agreement by supporting the EU leadership with the development of advanced power and propulsion technologies by the use of Exascale computing. It promotes a core of scientific and technological activities aiming at extending the state-of-the-art in combustion simulation capabilities through advanced methodologies enabled by Exascale computing. These advances will increase the TRL of representative codes from the EU combustion community. CoEC is targeting fundamental issues associated with the utilisation and operation of e-fuels by providing further understanding of their performance in realistic environments. The outcomes of the project will provide advanced modelling and Exascale simulation technologies for fuel testing and analysis on engine design and operation, to support the EU leadership in technologies for reducing the adverse effects of climate change in the power and transportation sectors.
The objectives that support the vision of CoEC and will guide its implementation are:
• To target scientific breakthroughs in combustion enabled by Exascale computing.
• To achieve significant advances in bringing combustion simulation technologies to market.
• To develop HPC software and algorithms for the efficient exploitation of Exascale systems.
• To promote and strengthen collaboration between the well-established European combustion and HPC communities, creating the European Exascale Combustion Community.
• To develop a services portfolio that includes standardized workflows and databases - targeting relevant stakeholders of the academic, industrial and Public Governance Bodies.
The objectives that support the vision of CoEC and will guide its implementation are:
• To target scientific breakthroughs in combustion enabled by Exascale computing.
• To achieve significant advances in bringing combustion simulation technologies to market.
• To develop HPC software and algorithms for the efficient exploitation of Exascale systems.
• To promote and strengthen collaboration between the well-established European combustion and HPC communities, creating the European Exascale Combustion Community.
• To develop a services portfolio that includes standardized workflows and databases - targeting relevant stakeholders of the academic, industrial and Public Governance Bodies.
The activities in CoEC during the first 18 months have been mainly focused on the development of new methodologies for computational combustion in (pre-) Exascale systems, testing the codes in new architectures, defining Exascale Challenge Demonstrators (ECDs), creating training and services, and building a community around the project. A dedicated effort has been given to conduct training, where several training courses in virtual format have been conducted and additional courses are in preparation. The first period was aimed at establishing a common language in the CoEC Consortium, between partners from Academic and Research Institutions, HPC centers, Scientific organisations and Industrial and Governmental stakeholders. In the transition from ECDs to Services, end-users are involved in the co-design of Services by defining, in synergy with the CoEC teams and the ECD leaders, the appropriate use-cases and requirements for the validation of the ECDs.
On the technical side, substantial effort has been given to the development of new methodologies for combustion. The activities started with a successful collaboration with the CoE POP in order to obtain a profiling of all the CoEC flagship codes, which was used to identify the requirements and define the development roadmaps of the codes.
From this point, four key methodologies were addressed in CoEC to adapt the codes for Exascale. It includes (1) high-order methods and low-dissipation numerical schemes to improve the accuracy of the numerical simulations and better exploit the parallelism of the heterogenous systems with accelerators, (2) error estimators for spray flames and more generally for turbulent two-phase flows, (3) adaptive chemistry and chemistry reduction strategies through the development and optimization of methodologies for the on-the-fly reduction and optimize ODE solvers adapted to accelerators, and (4) methodologies to deal with two phase flows including Eulerian-Eulerian and Eulerian-Lagrangian methods. The use of Machine Learning with data processing and visualization has been identified to be an enabling tool to tackle some of the fundamental challenges in CoEC, while exploit efficiently the upcoming Exascale architectures, and this has been an active area of development.
CoEC has proposed 13 ECDs that deal with fundamental problem in propulsion and power generation. Those include simulations of hydrogen flames, spray flames, pollutant formation, thermoacoustics, sparks and plasma, and internal combustion engines. The selection of the ECDs has been done in collaboration with the Industrial and Scientific Advisory Boards and has ensured the relevance of the proposed problems to the industrial sectors.
On the technical side, substantial effort has been given to the development of new methodologies for combustion. The activities started with a successful collaboration with the CoE POP in order to obtain a profiling of all the CoEC flagship codes, which was used to identify the requirements and define the development roadmaps of the codes.
From this point, four key methodologies were addressed in CoEC to adapt the codes for Exascale. It includes (1) high-order methods and low-dissipation numerical schemes to improve the accuracy of the numerical simulations and better exploit the parallelism of the heterogenous systems with accelerators, (2) error estimators for spray flames and more generally for turbulent two-phase flows, (3) adaptive chemistry and chemistry reduction strategies through the development and optimization of methodologies for the on-the-fly reduction and optimize ODE solvers adapted to accelerators, and (4) methodologies to deal with two phase flows including Eulerian-Eulerian and Eulerian-Lagrangian methods. The use of Machine Learning with data processing and visualization has been identified to be an enabling tool to tackle some of the fundamental challenges in CoEC, while exploit efficiently the upcoming Exascale architectures, and this has been an active area of development.
CoEC has proposed 13 ECDs that deal with fundamental problem in propulsion and power generation. Those include simulations of hydrogen flames, spray flames, pollutant formation, thermoacoustics, sparks and plasma, and internal combustion engines. The selection of the ECDs has been done in collaboration with the Industrial and Scientific Advisory Boards and has ensured the relevance of the proposed problems to the industrial sectors.
The CoEC envisions a high-level of excellence in science and technology. This is fundamentally supported by the track-record of the scientists involved in the project and also by the ambition on the proposed Exascale Application Challenges (EACs). The excellence in science and technology is driven by the achievements towards the EACs, with the corresponding code developments enabling the use of Exascale machines for this ambition.
The CoEC is oriented to consolidate an enhanced services portfolio from the activities performed in the project, including last findings in combustion modelling and simulation research from the developed ECDs, access to exascale-ready software for practical applications, consultancy, training and feedback for co-design, identifying the best hardware and software setups for particular problems. The Center will support the industrial sector providing on-demand services for large industries and SMEs. It also includes assistance and support to decision-makers in climate change mitigation actions and policies.
The CoEC will increase the socio-economic impact of combustion related science on several fronts:
• Scientific value: it will contribute to obtain new insights on the application of alternative fuels on practical applications by the deployment of advanced simulation software in power and propulsion.
• Capacity building: CoEC will promote the consolidation of a combustion exascale community that will build scientific and societal capacities measured by users and stakeholder’s engagement, research opportunities and public access to data, models and dissemination material.
• Economic value: CoEC will pursue an increase of the TRL of the reference codes from the consortium, while providing services for OEMs creating new business opportunities at European (and global) level.
• Societal value: by training young fellows in combustion engineering, giving support to academic community and providing knowledge about the performance of the proposed technologies with new fuels to achieve the EU decarbonisation objectives.
The CoEC is oriented to consolidate an enhanced services portfolio from the activities performed in the project, including last findings in combustion modelling and simulation research from the developed ECDs, access to exascale-ready software for practical applications, consultancy, training and feedback for co-design, identifying the best hardware and software setups for particular problems. The Center will support the industrial sector providing on-demand services for large industries and SMEs. It also includes assistance and support to decision-makers in climate change mitigation actions and policies.
The CoEC will increase the socio-economic impact of combustion related science on several fronts:
• Scientific value: it will contribute to obtain new insights on the application of alternative fuels on practical applications by the deployment of advanced simulation software in power and propulsion.
• Capacity building: CoEC will promote the consolidation of a combustion exascale community that will build scientific and societal capacities measured by users and stakeholder’s engagement, research opportunities and public access to data, models and dissemination material.
• Economic value: CoEC will pursue an increase of the TRL of the reference codes from the consortium, while providing services for OEMs creating new business opportunities at European (and global) level.
• Societal value: by training young fellows in combustion engineering, giving support to academic community and providing knowledge about the performance of the proposed technologies with new fuels to achieve the EU decarbonisation objectives.