Lead Investigators: Drs. van Dommelen and Wang
One of the most promising new areas enabled by advanced computers is the computation of the complex fluid flows in biological systems. These fluids are highly important to society, and they truly require the power of supercomputing if they are to be addressed accurately and reliably. The center will enable FSU researchers to enter this promising but challenging field while it is still emerging.
We plan a long-term strategy in which we expect to develop a world-class center specializing in the computation of blood flow in its widest sense. Blood flow problems are a major cause of death in developed societies and blood flow is a major factor for many additional health problems and their treatment.
In addition to its importance, blood flow is also an extremely broad and complex scientific problem, hence clearly it will continue to be a major research area for a very long time. With all its different aspects, a tremendous range of research remains to be done.
Currently, most of the research in aspects of blood flow is experimental in nature. However, we expect an increasing trend away from experiments towards numerical computation, as is occurring in other areas of fluid dynamics. With the cost of computational power continuing to decrease at an exponential rate, part of the reason will be economical.
There are other advantages of computations over experiments in addition to economics. One advantage of a computation is that it gives access to the complete set of data about a flow, while an experiment only produces those that can be measured. Computations also avoid the problem of measuring devices interfering with the biological system that is being measured. It can allow numerical ``experiments'' to be performed that would not be possible, in particular, on human subjects. It can simulate conditions that normal experiments cannot, for example, the effect of a zero gravity environment. Computations can also be used to design and validate new experimental techniques. For such reasons, it is clear that the role of computation will continue to expand in the future.
Focussing on a major area such as blood flow has the advantage that we do not have to work in a vacuum. There is already much established knowledge in the area. Selecting a narrower, less explored area would likely require a much stronger experimental component, something that may be a handicap in view of the fact that a medical school is only just being initiated at the Florida State University.
Specific areas of initial interest are investigations into anemic destruction of blood cells by mechanical devices and atherosclerotic development, as well as developing design criteria that minimize such problems.