Visualization of Nonlinear Vector Field Topology III

The original German name of this project is "Visualisierung nichtlinearer Vektorfeldtopologie III". While the first period of this project focused on the development of topological methods for the analysis and visualization of planar vector fields, the second period was dedicated to the extension of these methods to time-dependent and three-dimensional data. Close collaboration and discussions with engineers from the application domain (fluid dynamics) raised new questions concerning the detection and depiction of special features in flows. The current project addressed these questions.

A central point in the discussions was the combination of three-dimensional and boundary flow analysis for detection and visualization of separation structures and boundary induced vortices. Furthermore, methods for a localized topological analysis were developed in the project. Finally, finding approaches for a topological analysis of particle traces was addressed in another part of the project. The research for the last part was mainly conducted by Tobias Salzbrunn, whereas the work of Alexander Wiebel covers the first two parts.