Torsion Mobile App for Engineering Education Using a High Performance Computer (HPC) Cluster

Engineering students are rapidly expecting learning tools to be delivered on their tablets and smart phones, including simulation tools for basic courses such as solid mechanics. To address this issue, a basic torsional stress simulation too l for mobile devices was developed and implemented into a traditional first year solid mec hanics class (Mechanics of Materials). The app, Torsion HPC, allows students to determine shear str es es for a variety of common torsional bar cross sections. The app was used in class for discu ssion and homework assignments. The paper presents how the app was developed and used. Running engineering simulations using FEA on a mobi le device was investigated for responsiveness and speed. Users expect quick respon se for tablets and smart phones, but they have relatively slow CPUs when compared to desktop computers. The solution was to do all numerical calculations at a remote server or server cluster. This allowed the actual the FEM code to be compiled for a high-end server with multiple cores. Still, a number of innovative methods had to be developed to ensure multiple users can ac cess the servers at one time. Currently, a 230,000 DOF linear torsional problem can be solved in less than 12 seconds, which includes network communication and solving time. The paper also discusses developing engineering mob ile apps as a non-computer scientist. The work determined that Abobe AIR development framewor k allows relatively easy development of web and mobile apps when compared to native program ming or HTML5 with JavaScript. AIR also avoids programming the same app three times (w b browsers, Android and iOS). Programming with AIR framework requires using Actio nScript which is similar to JavaScript or C#, and is reasonably easy to learn. Unlike traditi onal desktop (and laptop) computers, mobile devices generally must download software through sp ecific web sites such as Apple's iTunes App Store and Google's Play Store.