Section: Overall Objectives

Research fields

Optimizing a complex system arising from physics or engineering covers a vast spectrum in basic and applied sciences. Although we target a certain transversality from analysis to implementation, the particular fields in which we are trying to excell can be defined more precisely.

From the physical analysis point of view, our expertise relies mostly on Fluid and Structural Mechanics and Electromagnetics. In the former project Sinus, some of us had contributed to the basic understanding of fluid mechanical phenomena (Combustion, Hypersonic Non-Equilibrium Flow, Turbulence). More emphasis is now given to the coupling of engineering disciplines and to the validation of corresponding numerical methodologies.

From the mathematical analysis point of view, we are concerned with functional analysis related to partial-differential equations, and the functional/algebraic analysis of numerical algorithms. Identifying the Sobolev space in which the direct or the inverse problem makes sound sense, tailoring the numerical method to it, identifying a functional gradient in a continuous or discrete setting, analyzing iterative convergence, improving it, measuring multi-disciplinary coupling strength and identifying critical numerical parameters, etc constitute a non-exhaustive list of mathematical problems we are concerned with.

Regarding more specifically the numerical aspects (for the simulation of PDEs), considerable developments have been achieved by the scientific community at large, in recent years. The areas with the closest links with our research are:

1. approximation schemes, particularly by the introduction of specialized Riemann solvers for complex hyperbolic systems in Finite-Volume/Finite-Element formulations, and highly-accurate approximations (e.g. ENO schemes),

2. solution algorithms, particularly by the multigrid, or multilevel and multi-domain algorithms best-equiped to overcome numerical stiffness,

3. parallel implementation and software platforms.

After contributing to some of these progresses in the former project Sinus, we are trying to extend the numerical approach to a more global one, including an optimization loop, and thus contribute, in the long-term, to modern scientific computing and engineering design. We are currently dealing mostly with geometrical optimization.

Software platforms are perceived as a necessary component to actually achieve the computational cost-efficiency and versatility necessary to master multi-disciplinary couplings required today by size engineering simulations.