2011 IEEE Visualization Contest Winner: Visualizing Unsteady Vortical Behavior of a Centrifugal Pump

In the 2011 IEEE Visualization Contest, the dataset represented a high-resolution simulation of a centrifugal pump operating below optimal speed. The goal was to find suitable visualization techniques to identify regions of rotating stall that impede the pump´s effectiveness. The winning entry split analysis of the pump into three parts based on the pump´s functional behavior. It then applied local and integration-based methods to communicate the unsteady flow behavior in different regions of the dataset. This research formed the basis for a comparison of common vortex extractors and more recent methods. In particular, integration-based methods (separation measures, accumulated scalar fields, particle path lines, and advection textures) are well suited to capture the complex time-dependent flow behavior. This video (http://youtu.be/oD7QuabY0oU) shows simulations of unsteady flow in a centrifugal pump.