Figure 1: Visualization of swirl and tumble flow using a combination of direct color-mapping, streamlines, isosurfaces, texture-based flow visualization and slicing. (Left) visualizing swirl flow using 3D streamlines and texture-based flow visualization on an isosurface, (middle-left) a clipping plane is applied to reveal occluded flow structures, (middle-right) an isosurface and 3D streamlines visualize tumble motion, and (right) the addition of texture-based flow visualization on a color-mapped slice.
ABSTRACTWe investigate two important, common fluid flow patterns from computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations, namely, swirl and tumble motion typical of automotive engines. We study and visualize swirl and tumble flow using three different flow visualization techniques: direct, geometric, and texture-based. When illustrating these methods side-by-side, we describe the relative strengths and weaknesses of each approach within a specific spatial dimension and across multiple spatial dimensions typical of an engineer's analysis. Our study is focused on steady-state flow. Based on this investigation we offer perspectives on where and when these techniques are best applied in order to visualize the behavior of swirl and tumble motion.