Lattice Boltzmann Method fluid simulation

The new version of Visions Of Chaos now supports simulating fluid flows using the Lattice Boltzmann method. Thanks to finding some sample code at LB Method I was able to finally get my LBM code working.

The best thing about being able to implement LBM is that you do get results that can simulate real world phenomena. A classic example is the Karman Vortex Street effect that creates turbulent spiral vortexes behind an obstacle in fluid flow. Here are some examples of real world large scale Von Karman patterns in clouds. Both of them show the air/cloud flowing upwards from the bottom of the pictures hitting an island. This small obstacle creates the vortices behind the obstacles.

So after some work implementing LBM in code it does show similar shapes behind obstacles. This is an example of what Visions Of Chaos can now output. The colors show velocity (both the X and Y velocities combined) shaded between the minimum and maximum velocities. Each part also has a contour plot that is like a contour map showing the areas that have the same velocity amount.

Double-click the above movie and set the resolution to 720 to watch in full HD resolution. The smaller size blurs out a lot of the finer details.

Jason.