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NCLab: Public Computing Laboratory

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Abstract

This survey paper describes the Network Computing Laboratory (NCLab), a novel public cloud computing platform for mathematics, programming, scientific computing and computer simulations. Through a web-browser interface, it provides users with free access to interactive graphical modules that include symbolic and numerical methods, programming in several languages, computing with Python scientific libraries, computing with GNU Octave, GPU computing with CUDA, computational geometry, 3D CAD design, computational graph theory, finite element programming with the Hermes library, and interactive graphical finite element modules. Users can upload files and data from their local computers, clone projects from the database, share files, form teams, and collaborate on projects. This paper briefly describes how NCLab operates, and it provides concise descriptions of NCLab computational modules with examples of use.

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Notes

  1. https://github.com/hpfem/hermes-tutorial.git.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory for Electromagnetic Fields and Microwave Electronics, ETH Zürich, Gloriastrasse 35, 8092, Zürich, Switzerland

    Sascha M. Schnepp

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  1. Sascha M. Schnepp
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Correspondence to Sascha M. Schnepp.

Sample Hermes program: linear elasticity

Sample Hermes program: linear elasticity

The following program uses the Hermes library via its Python wrappers in NCLab to define weak forms for the Lamé equations of linear elasticity and solve a sample problem. The XML code representing the finite element mesh is left out. The file is part of the tutorial example A-linear/08-system in the repository hpfem/hermes-tutorial on GithubFootnote 1. All other steps of the algorithm are explained via comments in the code below:

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The output of the script is shown in Fig. 15.

Fig. 15
figure 15

Output of the linear elasticity example—von Mises stress

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Schnepp, S.M. NCLab: Public Computing Laboratory. Computing 95 (Suppl 1), 675–694 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00607-012-0255-3

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