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Title: The VRFurnace: A Virtual Reality Application for Energy System Data Analysis

Abstract

The VRFurnace is a unique VR application designed to analyze a complete coal-combustion CFD model of a power plant furnace. Although other applications have been created that analyze furnace performance, no other has included the added complications of particle tracking and the reactions associated with coal combustion. Currently the VRFurnace is a versatile analysis tool. Data translators have been written to allow data from most of the major commercial CFD software packages as well as standard data formats of hand-written code to be uploaded into the VR application. Because of this almost any type of CFD model of any power plant component can be analyzed immediately. The ease of use of the VRFurnace is another of its qualities. The menu system created for the application not only guides first time users through the various button combinations but it also helps the experienced user keep track of which tool is being used. Because the VRFurnace was designed for use in the C6 device at Iowa State University's Virtual Reality Applications Center it is naturally a collaborative project. The projection-based system allows many people to be involved in the analysis process. This type of environment opens the design process to not onlymore » include CFD analysts but management teams and plant operators as well by making it easier for engineers to explain design changes. The 3D visualization allows power plant components to be studied in the context of their natural physical environments giving engineers a chance to use their innate pattern recognition and intuitive skills to bring to light key relationships that may have previously gone unrecognized. More specifically, the tools that have been developed make better use of the third dimension that the synthetic environment provides. Whereas the plane tools make it easier to track down interesting features of a given flow field, the box tools allow the user to focus on these features and reduce the data load on the computer.« less

Authors:
 [1]
  1. Iowa State Univ., Ames, IA (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Ames Lab., Ames, IA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC)
OSTI Identifier:
804044
Report Number(s):
IS-T 2079
TRN: US200302%%402
DOE Contract Number:  
W-7405-Eng-82
Resource Type:
Thesis/Dissertation
Resource Relation:
Other Information: TH: Thesis (M.S.); Submitted to Iowa State Univ., Ames, IA (US); PBD: 25 Jun 2001
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT; 42 ENGINEERING; 97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING; COAL; COMBUSTION; DATA ANALYSIS; DESIGN; DIMENSIONS; ENGINEERS; FURNACES; MANAGEMENT; PATTERN RECOGNITION; PERFORMANCE; POWER PLANTS; TRANSLATORS

Citation Formats

Johnson, Peter Eric. The VRFurnace: A Virtual Reality Application for Energy System Data Analysis. United States: N. p., 2001. Web. doi:10.2172/804044.
Johnson, Peter Eric. The VRFurnace: A Virtual Reality Application for Energy System Data Analysis. United States. https://doi.org/10.2172/804044
Johnson, Peter Eric. 2001. "The VRFurnace: A Virtual Reality Application for Energy System Data Analysis". United States. https://doi.org/10.2172/804044. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/804044.
@article{osti_804044,
title = {The VRFurnace: A Virtual Reality Application for Energy System Data Analysis},
author = {Johnson, Peter Eric},
abstractNote = {The VRFurnace is a unique VR application designed to analyze a complete coal-combustion CFD model of a power plant furnace. Although other applications have been created that analyze furnace performance, no other has included the added complications of particle tracking and the reactions associated with coal combustion. Currently the VRFurnace is a versatile analysis tool. Data translators have been written to allow data from most of the major commercial CFD software packages as well as standard data formats of hand-written code to be uploaded into the VR application. Because of this almost any type of CFD model of any power plant component can be analyzed immediately. The ease of use of the VRFurnace is another of its qualities. The menu system created for the application not only guides first time users through the various button combinations but it also helps the experienced user keep track of which tool is being used. Because the VRFurnace was designed for use in the C6 device at Iowa State University's Virtual Reality Applications Center it is naturally a collaborative project. The projection-based system allows many people to be involved in the analysis process. This type of environment opens the design process to not only include CFD analysts but management teams and plant operators as well by making it easier for engineers to explain design changes. The 3D visualization allows power plant components to be studied in the context of their natural physical environments giving engineers a chance to use their innate pattern recognition and intuitive skills to bring to light key relationships that may have previously gone unrecognized. More specifically, the tools that have been developed make better use of the third dimension that the synthetic environment provides. Whereas the plane tools make it easier to track down interesting features of a given flow field, the box tools allow the user to focus on these features and reduce the data load on the computer.},
doi = {10.2172/804044},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/804044}, journal = {},
number = ,
volume = ,
place = {United States},
year = {Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 2001},
month = {Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 2001}
}

Thesis/Dissertation:
Other availability
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