Collaborative simulation and scientific big data analysis: Illustration for sustainability in natural hazards management and chemical process engineering

Abstract

International audienceClassical approaches for remote visualization and collaboration used in Computer-Aided Design and Engineering (CAD/E) applications are no longer appropriate due to the increasing amount of data generated, especially using standard networks. We introduce a lightweight and computing platform for scientific simulation, collaboration in engineering, 3D visualization and big data management. This ICT based platform provides scientists an "easy-to-integrate" generic tool, thus enabling worldwide collaboration and remote processing for any kind of data. The service-oriented architecture is based on the cloud computing paradigm and relies on standard internet technologies to be efficient on a large panel of networks and clients. In this paper, we discuss the need of innovations in (i) pre and post processing visualization services, (ii) 3D large scientific data set scalable compression and transmission methods, (iii) collaborative virtual environments, and (iv) collaboration in multi-domains of CAD/E. We propose our open platform for collaborative simulation and scientific big data analysis. This platform is now available as an open project with all core components licensed under LGPL V2.1. We provide two examples of usage of the platform in CAD/E for sustainability engineering from one academic application and one industrial case study. Firstly, we consider chemical process engineering showing the development of a domain specific service. With the rise of global warming issues and with growing importance granted to sustainable development, chemical process engineering has turned to think more and more environmentally. Indeed, the chemical engineer has now taken into account not only the engineering and economic criteria of the process, but also its environmental and social performances. Secondly, an example of natural hazards management illustrates the efficiency of our approach for remote collaboration that involves big data exchange and analysis between distant locations. Finally we underline the platform benefits and we open our platform through next activities in innovation techniques and inventive design

A general perspective of Big Data: applications, tools, challenges and trends

“…Timely and cost-effective analytics over Big Data is now a key ingredient for success in many businesses [17,18,[47][48][49], scientific [15,[19][20][21]34,35,50] and engineering [14,51,52] disciplines, and government endeavors [53,54]. The allure of hardware replication and system expandability as represented by Cloud computing [1,55] along with the MapReduce [27,56] and Message Passing Interface (MPI) [57] parallel program systems offers one solution to these challenges by utilizing a distributed approach [8].…”

“…One important paper related to Chemical Engineering is [52]. Belaud et al [52] defined sustainability as a paradigm for thinking about the future in which environmental, societal and economic considerations are equitable in the pursuit of an improved lifestyle.…”

Big data analytics in logistics and supply chain management: Certain investigations for research and applications

“…However, modeling and simulation can benefit from BD (Belaud et al, 2014;Pijanowski et al, 2014). SCA offers more in-depth analysis and processing, and new methods for the simulation problems with massive amounts of data.…”

How to Generate Economic and Sustainability Reports from Big Data? Qualifications of Process Industry

“…Wu et al [45] recommend transforming Big Data into a manageable scale to help build a sustainable production. It is necessary to simultaneously use various types of data, and realize the available resources, and how they could impact on the sustainability of a company [46]. Emission-free production certainly improves the reputation of a company compared with other ones if effects on global warming and environmental impacts are mitigated [15,[47][48][49].…”