Computational engineering


Computational engineering is an emerging discipline that deals with the development and application of computational models for engineering, known as computational engineering models or CEM. Computational engineering uses computers to solve engineering design problems important to a variety of industries. At this time, various different approaches are summarized under the term computational engineering, including using computational geometry and virtual design for engineering tasks, often coupled with a simulation-driven approach In computational engineering, algorithms solve mathematical and logical models that describe engineering challenges, sometimes coupled with some aspect of AI
In computational engineering the engineer encodes their knowledge in a computer program. The result is an algorithm, the computational engineering model, that can produce many different variants of engineering designs, based on varied input requirements. The results can then be analyzed through additional mathematical models to create algorithmic feedback loops.
Simulations of physical behaviors relevant to the field, often coupled with high-performance computing, to solve complex physical problems arising in engineering analysis and design. It is therefore related to Computational Science and Engineering, which has been described as the "third mode of discovery".
In computational engineering, computer simulation provides the capability to create feedback that would be inaccessible to traditional experimentation or where carrying out traditional empirical inquiries is prohibitively expensive.
Computational engineering should neither be confused with pure computer science, nor with computer engineering, although a wide domain in the former is used in computational engineering and some problems in the latter can be modeled and solved with computational engineering methods.

Methods

Computational engineering methods and frameworks include:
With regard to computing, computer programming, algorithms, and parallel computing play a major role in computational engineering. The most widely used programming language in the scientific community is FORTRAN. Recently, C++ and C have increased in popularity over FORTRAN. Due to the wealth of legacy code in FORTRAN and its simpler syntax, the scientific computing community has been slow in completely adopting C++ as the lingua franca. Because of its very natural way of expressing mathematical computations, and its built-in visualization capacities, the proprietary language/environment MATLAB is also widely used, especially for rapid application development and model verification. Python along with external libraries has gained some popularity as a free and Copycenter alternative to MATLAB.

Open source

There are a number of free and open-source software tools that support computational engineering.
  • OpenSCAD was released in 2010 and allows the scripted generation of CAD models, which can form the basis for computational engineering models.
  • uses Python to generate CAD models and is based on the OpenCascade framework. It is released under the Apache License.
  • is an open-source framework for computational engineering which was released under the Apache License.

    Applications

Computational engineering finds diverse applications, including in: