Scientific Applications:
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Deploys Digipede Network
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is deploying the Digipede
Network to speed modeling of storms in order to better understand the
potential damage from storm-driven waves. By reducing the time it takes
to simulate a variety of scenarios on a daily basis, it allows the
USACE to gain results sooner, which in turn makes it possible to find
new ways to keep coastal communities safer from the damaging effects of
storms, including hurricanes.
"In order to better understand the
root causes of the damage caused by storm-driven waves, we are running
simulations that show the impact of storm surge and wave action under a
variety of different historical storms. We are using the Digipede
Network to spread the heavy computing load across servers and
workstations in our Vicksburg, Miss., facility to expand the number of
scenarios examined each day," said Jarrell Smith, research hydraulic
engineer at the Corps' Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC).
Smith continued, "For example, ERDC researchers recently used
the Digipede Network in simulations of waves for 40 historical storms
in the Chukchi Sea in Alaska to evaluate the feasibility and design of
a navigation channel. These simulations were completed overnight
instead of over a couple of days, as would have been the case if the
simulations were run on a single desktop PC. We see additional
applications for this Grid computing tool in improving our
understanding of a variety of hydrological effects."
ERDC
researchers also plan to use the Digipede software in future hurricane
impact studies. "The software will allow us to look at more hurricane
scenarios in less time. We can then predict potential storm damage from
waves and beach erosion, which could assist field engineers in
protecting coastal communities from storms like Hurricane Katrina."
Digipede
Technologies CEO John Powers added, "Digipede is delighted to be part
of this important effort; those who doubt the increasing impact of
distributed computing need to look no further than this application. As
the Army Corps of Engineers improves its ability to model storm damage
accurately, the Digipede Network is providing a significant boost to
their analysis throughput, helping to keep coastal communities safer.
We were particularly pleased to see that the Corps got their secure and
scalable grid up and running in production on such complex applications
within just a few days."
The U.S Army Corps of Engineers (USACE)
is made up of approximately 34,600 civilian and 650 military members.
Its military and civilian engineers, and diverse workforce of
scientists, biologists, geologists, hydrologists, natural resource
managers and other specialists and professionals collaborate to provide
engineering services to meet national security and emergency response
requirements. Its mission is to provide quality, responsive engineering
services to the nation in five distinct areas: water resources,
environment, infrastructure, homeland security, and warfighting. USACE
manages billions of dollars annually to keep the nation's
infrastructure secure.