Experience

Large-scale numerical physical field calculations are one of the features of the last 50 years, which has been made possible by the rapid progress of computing technologies. The objective need for such calculations is the production, the development of new products, and the characterization of natural sciences, including climate, and even cosmological scale structures.

Numerical methods and their implementation in software products are rapidly evolving into modern production trends such as material economics, automated design, consumer product culture dictated by a quick product life cycle, cost of experimental development, and for other reasons.

Computer Fluid Dynamics and mechanical calculations are gaining ever more influence in the design and optimization of new products, allowing to save on financial, raw materials, and time resources. The creation of new products in today’s industry is almost unthinkable without accompanying numerical simulations.

Solid body deformation and load calculations, fatigue load and fracture mechanics, heat and mass exchange in liquid and gaseous environments as well as solid body interaction with liquid environment and calculations of electromagnetic field are now engineering physics problems that are addressed by many scientific institutions, manufacturers, and engineering consultants who usually cluster around major industrial centres. The industry’s popularity is based on the diversity of tasks to be addressed, the wide spectrum of physical phenomena involved, the methods used and the complexity of the problems.

Processing of radio astronomical data

Since 2010 ERI VIRAC scientific staff performs tasks related to radio astronomical data processing in various projects, including ERDF program project “Earth’s near-field radio-astronomical research” and 7th Framework Program “NEXPReS”, but data recorders have changed over time. Their recording formats, staff experience and competence have increased, thus enabling the two existing data processing correlators to be upgraded and adapted to specific project tasks (KANA – developed in VIRAC and developed for Earth Observation Data Processing, and SFXC developed in JIVE and designed for Earth’s distant object observation data processing). It should be noted that each correlator is used for different work tasks and each has a set of procedures before processing.

KANA Correlator has been created in 2012 in the HPC department during the implementation of the project “Earth’s near-field radio-astronomical research” and it is intended for processing of Near Earth object data, as it ensures corrections of the observed object frequency and time shift. Time offset compensation is required to cross-correlate signals received at two stations, as the received signal at each station varies at different times, depending on the location of the station on Earth and in response to the object being monitored. Frequency offset compensation is required because Earth-based objects move in relation to the Earth and a Doppler offset that needs to be compensated before cross-correlation of two signals.

As a result of the implementation of the above observations and the processing interferometry data, the new collaboration was started within the Precise project, with the goal to investigate Fast radio bursts. In the Precise Project Several EVN stations participated and part of the observation processing was carried out using VIRAC clusters, thus confirming the ability of VIRAC staff to process observation data in large and significant international projects.

In 2020, research within the local interferometer continues. In collaboration with Yamaguchi University (Japan) and North-West University (South Africa), VIRAC staff were involved in observation and data processing, enhancing the competence of VIRAC staff in VLBI data processing.

VIRAC research and other activities are planned at the middle – HPC cluster level, using the knowledge of Ventspils University of Applied Sciences staff in mechanics and continuous environmental physics. The direction of high-performance computing is based on the experience of research and development projects.

Numerical modelling has been done in support of the local industry (several small calculations of the vertical axis wind generator hydrodynamics and solid state mechanics), as well as studies on Irbene radio telescope complex infrastructure, such as calculations of RT-16 and RT-32 antenna deformations, compared with the tenzogiver readings for the design quality control.

In addition to these activities, the VIRAC High-Performance Computing department has close links with the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland, whose infrastructure – proton beam targets, etc. object calculations are done with the help of the VIRAC High-Performance Computing department.

Similarly, the VIRAC High-Performance Computing department has supported the Crystal Growth Calculation Group of the Department of Environmental Physics of the University of Latvia with numerical hydrodynamic calculations.