Visualizing Simulated Kevlar Impacts for Science and Fun

Over at YouTube, the Cockrell School of Engineering has posted four videos (including the Winning Video from SciDAC09′s Visualization Night) of various bullet sizes impacting various configurations of aluminum plates and kevlar panels.  The four videos show:

• Impact of a 0.22 Caliber Steel Fragment Simulating Projectile on a Single Layer of Kevlar Fabric
• Impact of a 0.22 Caliber Steel Fragment Simulating Projectile on a Multilayer Kevlar Target
• Impact of a 0.44 Caliber copper bullet on a six layer harness satin weave Kevlar Target
• Hypervelocity Impact of an aluminum sphere on an aluminum-Kevlar Orbital debris shield
• Hybrid Particle-Element simulations of Impact, Perforation, and Fragmentation

Some great visualizations combining high performance computing and high-end rendering & animation tools.  I’ve embedded all four of them after the break, but visit YouTube to see them in their full 1080p glory.

Disclosure: I worked on these videos.

This story written by Randall Hand

Randall Hand is a visualization scientist working for a federal research lab, aiding researchers to discover the insights buried within their terabyte datasets generated on some of the most powerful supercomputers in the world. He also runs VizWorld.com .

Graphics, Science hpc, short, video