Simulation data sharing to foster teamwork collaboration

This paper introduces Floasys, a Web-based platform to foster the collaboration among engineers involved in Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations. The platform has been designed around the simulation data, i.e., fostering and stimulating sharing, re-use and aggregation of models, simulation results and engineers annotations. Floasys requirements come directly from an extensive requirements study that we conducted with two different teams in Automobiles (FCA), geographically distributed, who daily perform an intense activity of CFD simulations to design vehicle products. Collaborative requirements were gathered through stakeholders’ interviews and a user survey. We describe, first, Functional and Non-Functional requirements as suggested by relevant literature (both in scientific and industrial setting) and by the user survey performed within FCA teams. Then, we show Floasys functionalities and its architecture, that is based on a centrally managed repository of simulation data. By enriching the repository with metadata annotations, Floasys provides all the desired functionalities to allow CFD analysts an easy and immediate access to simulation data and results performed within the teams so that they can leverage them to make the right design decisions. In this paper, we were able to (1) identify key collaborative requirements for CFD design, (2) address each of them with an integrated, extensible and modular architecture, (3) implement a working industrial prototype (currently under testing and evaluation in a real setting like FCA), and (4) identify the possible extensions to different contexts (like aeronautic, rail and naval sectors).