Establishment of a Consortium for Next Generation Combustion Systems CAE

RIKEN has established a Consortium for Next Generation Combustion Systems CAE (Computer-Aided Engineering). This project aims to create a framework for producing next-generation combustion systems using simulation technology in a HPC environment, such as the K computer, and based on industry-government-academia collaboration.

Prior to commencing the project, the RIKEN Center for Computational Science (Kobe) held a first meeting last Friday to celebrate the project’s launch. At this meeting the project proposal was deliberated and approved.

RIKEN aims to build a framework for producing next-generation combustion systems based on industry-government-academia collaboration. In the future, rapid technology transfer of research results to industry, exchanging research information, and cooperation in sharing and solving the challenges of industry will be essential.

With greater demand from society in recent years to reduce the burden on the environment, such as by preventing global warming, the need for more effective lower-emission combustion systems used in various types of energy and transportation devices, such as engines and boilers, is increasing.

However, development of the system and selection of optimal operating conditions tend to rely on the experience and intuition of the engineers and scientists, which requires numerous repeated tests that involve a huge amount of time and cost. To solve this challenge, multiple research institutions and heavy industry companies formed the “Research group for the advancement of combustion and gasification analysis technology” in 2011, and have been doing research to develop data simulations and studying the accuracy and effectiveness of the simulations, with the aim to support equipment design and selection of the best conditions to operate the equipment.

Seeking to advance the results of these studies, the Consortium for Next Generation Combustion Systems CAE was established at the RIKEN Cluster for Science, Technology and Innovation Hub as part of RIKEN’s outreach activities.

The Consortium will review the accuracy and effectiveness of CAE (Computer-Aided Engineering) as a tool to support the design of combustion equipment and the selection of optimal operating conditions. The Consortium will also discuss the high-precision of the CAE technology and how to increase its speed.

Also, by facilitating close discussion and information exchange between the academic community and industry, the Consortium aims to build a framework for producing next-generation combustion systems through collaboration between industry, government, and academia. With the aim to realize rapid application of the research, RIKEN will work on activities to reflect discussions of the Consortium on national policy and on the design of next-generation supercomputers, so that it leads to an enhanced role in representing the opinions of industry. With these objectives, RIKEN will work on the two major missions described below.

A total of 45 people from eleven companies and seven universities and national research organizations participated in the launch last Friday. The reasons for establishing the Consortium, its concept and the purpose of its activities, the organizational structure, as well as the FY 2018 (from May 2018 through March 2019) project plan and draft budget were introduced and approved at the meeting. A plan for setting up working groups was also approved, and the groups began their activities at the launch by holding their first discussions.

President
Ryoichi Kurose, Dr. Eng., Senior Visiting Scientist, RIKEN Center for Computational Science; Professor, Graduate School of Engineering, Kyoto University

Vice Presidents
Nobuyuki Oshima, Dr. Eng., Professor, Graduate School of Engineering, Hokkaido University
Makoto Tsubokura, Ph. D., Team Leader, Complex Phenomena Unified Simulation Research Team, RIKEN Center for Computational Science
Teruyuki Okazaki, Ph. D., Research & Innovation Center, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd.

Executive Secretaries
Hiroaki Watanabe, Ph. D., Associate Professor, Graduate School of Engineering, Kyushu University
Kenji Tanno, Dr. Eng., Senior Research Scientist, Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry
Masahiro Uchida, Dr. Eng., Senior Researcher, Heat & Fluid Dynamics Department, Research Laboratory, IHI Corporation

The Consortium is made up of two types of members:

The Consortium set up a specialized working group that is approved by the general meeting. The working group is for the members and people from academia with specialized knowledge, who are interested in studying further challenges of the technologies than information exchanges.

Three working groups, described as below, have been established with approvals and began their activities.

Office of Consortium for Next Generation Combustion Systems CAE
Computational Science Promotion Office, RIKEN