"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," said Jarrell Smith, research hydraulic engineer at the Corps' Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC). "We are using the Digipede Network to spread the heavy computing load across servers and workstations in our Vicksburg, Mississippi facility to expand the number of scenarios examined each day."
For example, Smith said, 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," he said. "We see additional applications for this grid computing tool in improving our understanding of a variety of hydrological effects."
The Digipede Network is built entirely on Microsoft .NET, which dramatically improves the speed and performance of demanding real-world business applications. Using the Digipede Network, developers can easily write .NET-based applications that will take advantage of thousands of computers, bringing the power of grid computing to the Windows platform.
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."
