IDENTIFICATION OF COHERENT STRUCTURES IN THREE-DIMENSIONAL SIMULATIONS OF A FLUID-MIX PROBLEM

The use of high-performance computers in computer simulations of physical phenomena has resulted in the generation of massive amounts of data. The analysis of these data can be challenging given their size and the complexity of the structures observed. In this paper, we describe how we can use image processing techniques to identify and count coherent structures in three-dimensional simulations of the Rayleigh-Taylor instability, which occurs when one fluid is being accelerated by a second fluid. As the two fluids mix, coherent structures are formed which grow, shrink, change shape, split, and merge with time. We describe the challenges faced in the analysis and show how we can combine image processing techniques with problem-specific characteristics to successfully analyze terabyte-sized data sets.