Visualization as a Bridge Between Chemical and Nuclear Engineering Simulations

Collaborating across disciplines can be a difficult task for a variety of reasons, one of which being the lack of common methodologies and tools for visualization and analysis. Tools developed in one group can rarely be applied directly to data from another group, due to differences in data formats, analysis methodologies, and learning curves associated with the advanced visualization systems necessary for modern scientific data. Despite these difficulties, multi-physics collaboration is key to developing and understanding the next generation of computational models, which couple the dynamic processes and scales of multiple disciplines. As a step towards integrative models, we propose a visualization and analysis system to serve as a common interconnect between chemical and nuclear engineering. This choice allows multiple disciplines to fruitfully exchange data and example visualizations in a reproducible manner, and provides a foundation for productive discussion. Through embracing new platforms for visualization, such as mobile handhelds, we can encourage dynamic collaboration by providing ad hoc methods for data distribution. In this work, we demonstrate the utility of a visualization system as it applies to bridging simulation domains and providing for multidisciplinary research in nuclear and chemical engineering.