Our environment consists of solid, liquid and gaseous substances. At the smallest scales, the behaviour of these substances is simulated with molecular dynamics, which assumes individual molecules. On the large scales, on the contrary, continuum models are used, which model a substance as a whole. However, in many practical issues, multiple scales are of great importance simultaneously. Single-scale issues can be solved either with a continuum model or a particle model. For multi-scale systems, a new combination of such methods is required. A better understanding of flows is important within very diverse application areas. Examples include weather forecasting, drying processes in industry, tides and flood forecasting, microelectronics cooling, aircraft aerodynamics, dispersion of pollutants in air and water and noise.
Connecting character
Inter- and multidisciplinary contributions from academic and industrial scientists with varied backgrounds such as physics, engineering, mathematics and computer science are needed to address future challenges. Multi-scale modelling is of great importance for a multitude of socially and industrially highly relevant applications. Socially relevant challenges include: prediction of natural disasters and their impact, better understanding of interventions in ecosystems, and understanding large-scale weather systems and climate models. Within industry, these include understanding turbulence, free surfaces and separations, large gradients, mixtures containing substances in solid, liquid and gas form, interactions between liquids and particles, and combining different simulation methods. This question is relevant to the Water and Climate policy area.
