Organisers

• Anthony Thornton (a.r.thornton@utwente.nl, University of Twente, Enschede, Netherlands)

• Nicolin Govender, (govender.nicolin@gmail.com, University of Johannesburg, South Africa/RCPE, UK)

• Daniel Barreto (Edinburgh Napier University, UK)

Speakers

Abstract

Recently, a European COST network was funded entitled ‘Open Network on DEM simulations (ON-DEM)’ which has many aims including increasing industrial utilisation of open-source codes in the area of particle simulation, increasing the collaboration between different codes, reducing there run-time and increasing the range of physics they can cover and improve their accuracy. The provision of best-practice advice, guidance and normalisation are also key objectives.

In order to achieve these goals we must bring in skills and softwares from outside of the particle community and look at topics like: coupling with other solvers for fluids and solids, machine learning for optimisation and calibration, model order reduction, as well as model verification, validation and benchmarking. In the future this could lead to open-source general physics software tool-kit.

This mini-symposium will start by introducing the ON-DEM COST network; however, talks are open to all interested in particle simulations or integrating other techniques with or for particle simulations. Suggested talk topics are:

• Open-source particle codes

• Increasing industrial utilisation

• Coupling particle codes with fluid/solid solvers

• More efficient contact detection (dealing with large particle numbers and complex particle shape definitions)

• Calibration of particle simulation

• Optimisation of particle simulations

• Standardisation of visualisation and post-processing tools for particle simulation

Review

ESCO is an very good conference for ON-DEM, providing exposure to a wide array of relevant and engaging talks. Many talks we attended were particularly pertinent to our objectives. Additionally, the conference offers valuable networking opportunities with experts in applied mathematics, numerical methods, and AI—areas currently underrepresented in our network.

We plan to continue attending the ESCO conference series in the future as part of ON-DEM. It is likely that we will also utilise this platform to host Working Group (WG) meetings for computationally intensive groups, such as WG 1.

Things to follow up

• Alexander Freyer presented “Intro to libGDX: Java-Based Game Development”; maybe we should write a particle simulation game to both get people into the topic and teach the basics.

• In Singh Balwinder entitled “Software Modernization of the 4-mode Modal Aerosol Module (MAM4) for Global Kilometer-scale Earth System Modeling” the software package Skywalker was presented. This could be used for detailed comparison of different open-source coes.