GADGET/FV: A Design Support System for Flow Visualization Applications

Modular Visualization Environments (MVEs) are commonly used in many disciplines including fluid science, because of their archivability and extendability, which domain-specific visualization software does not possess. However, it is still difficult for scientists and engineers, who do not have to be visualization experts, to fully utilize a bunch of visualization modules by taking into account their pros&cons and usage for constructing optimal MVE applications. In this paper, we propose a system, called GADGET/FV, which assists the users in designing their MVE applications for flow visualization problems by relying on an extended Wehrend Matrix as its goal-oriented taxonomy to retrieve effective visualization techniques to meet their goals and requirements. In the GADGET/FV system, adaptive and detailed user support in accordance with the progress of their visual analysis is realized through several feature mechanisms to save/reuse visualization processes, and to link research memos explicitly to c rresponding visualization results. Practical fluid analysis is performed to illustrate the usefulness of the present system, with a proof of the system capability in reference to Robertson's criteria to evaluate the performance of visualization systems.