Thanks to evolving web technologies, computational platforms, automation tools and open-source software business model, today, it is possible to develop powerful automatic and virtualized web services for complex physical problems in engineering and design. In particular, in this work, we are presenting a new web based HPC-cloud platform for automatic virtual towing tank analysis. It is well known that the design project of a new hull requires a continuous integration of shape hypothesis and hydrodynamics verifications using analytical tools, 3D computational methods, experimental facilities and sea keeping trial tests. The complexity and the cost of such design tools increase considerably moving from analytical tools to sea keeping trials. In order to perform a meaningful trade-off between costs and high quality data acquiring, during the last decade the usage of 3D computational models has grown pushed also by well-known technological factors. Nevertheless, in the past, there were several limiting factors on the wide diffusion of 3D computational models to perform virtual towing tank data acquiring. On one hand software licensing and hardware infrastructure costs, on the other hand the need of very specific technological skills limited the usage of such virtualized tools only to research centers and/or to large industrial companies. In this work we propose an innovative high-level approach which is embodied in the so-called LincoSim [17] web application in which a hypothetical designer user can carry out the simulation only starting from its own geometry and a set of meaningful physical parameters. LincoSim automatically manages and hides to the user all the necessary details of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modelling and of HPC infrastructure usage allowing them to access, visualize and analyze the outputs from the same single access point made up from the web browser. In addition to the web interface, the platform includes a back-end server which implements a Cloud logic and can be connected to multiple HPC machines for computing. LincoSim is currently set up with finite volume Open-FOAM CFD engine. A preliminary validation campaign has been performed to assess the robustness and the reliability of the tool and is proposed as a novel approach for the development of Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) applications.

中文翻译：

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LincoSim：基于Web的HPC云平台，用于自动虚拟拖曳罐分析

得益于不断发展的Web技术，计算平台，自动化工具和开源软件业务模型，如今，有可能针对工程和设计中的复杂物理问题开发功能强大的自动和虚拟化Web服务。特别是，在这项工作中，我们将展示一个基于Web的新的HPC云平台，用于自动虚拟拖曳罐分析。众所周知，新船体的设计项目需要使用分析工具，3D计算方法，实验设施和航海试验来持续整合形状假设和流体力学验证。从分析工具到海上试验，这种设计工具的复杂性和成本大大增加。为了在成本和高质量数据获取之间进行有意义的折衷，在过去的十年中，3D计算模型的使用也受到了众所周知的技术因素的推动。然而，过去，在执行虚拟拖曳坦克数据获取的3D计算模型的广泛传播方面存在一些限制因素。一方面，软件许可和硬件基础设施成本，另一方面，对非常特定的技术技能的需求将这种虚拟化工具的使用仅限于研究中心和/或大型工业公司。在这项工作中，我们提出了一种创新的高级方法，这种方法体现在所谓的 3D计算模型在执行虚拟拖曳罐数据采集方面的广泛传播存在一些限制因素。一方面，软件许可和硬件基础设施成本，另一方面，对非常特定的技术技能的需求将这种虚拟化工具的使用仅限于研究中心和/或大型工业公司。在这项工作中，我们提出了一种创新的高级方法，这种方法体现在所谓的 3D计算模型在执行虚拟拖曳罐数据采集方面的广泛传播存在一些限制因素。一方面，软件许可和硬件基础设施成本，另一方面，对非常特定的技术技能的需求将这种虚拟化工具的使用仅限于研究中心和/或大型工业公司。在这项工作中，我们提出了一种创新的高级方法，这种方法体现在所谓的LincoSim [17] Web应用程序，假设的设计者用户只能从其自己的几何形状和一组有意义的物理参数开始进行仿真。LincoSim自动管理并向用户隐藏计算流体力学（CFD）建模和HPC基础架构使用的所有必要详细信息，使他们可以访问，可视化和分析来自Web浏览器的同一访问点的输出。除了Web界面之外，该平台还包括一个后端服务器，该服务器实施Cloud逻辑，并且可以连接到多个HPC计算机进行计算。林科辛目前已使用有限体积的Open-FOAM CFD引擎进行设置。已经进行了初步的验证活动，以评估工具的健壮性和可靠性，并被提议作为开发计算机辅助工程（CAE）应用程序的一种新颖方法。