This was asked 14 years ago on HN, and the responses were quite interesting. With the improving of these last years, what are the fanciest computer simulations that you know ?
I work at LLNL so I work with people who make cool simulations all the time. The coolest ones I’ve seen lately were the ones that helped with last year’s big fusion ignition shot at NIF.<p>There is a (very) recent article summarizing how simulations contributed to ignition here: <a href="https://www.llnl.gov/news/computing-codes-simulations-helped-make-ignition-possible" rel="nofollow">https://www.llnl.gov/news/computing-codes-simulations-helped...</a>. Just reading about <i>how many</i> different simulation teams were involved and how many different types of physics had to be modeled to get that shot to work is awe-inspiring, at least for me. Optimizing target thickness, modeling plasma in the target, laser coupling at the entrance hole, etc. - there are a ridiculous number of things that had to be modeled, together, at very different scales.<p>The prior article describing how simulation contributed to the pre-ignition, 1.3 MJ shot goes into some more detail and has some cool visualizations: <a href="https://lasers.llnl.gov/news/models-and-simulations-help-map-nifs-path-ignition" rel="nofollow">https://lasers.llnl.gov/news/models-and-simulations-help-map...</a>. The one showing the target fill tube perturbing the implosion in 3D stands out to me - it shows the types of tiny things that can cause a fusion shot to go wrong.
PavelDoGreat's WebGL Fluid Simulation is the first that came to my mind. Check it out on mobile too, it's amazing.<p><a href="https://paveldogreat.github.io/WebGL-Fluid-Simulation/" rel="nofollow">https://paveldogreat.github.io/WebGL-Fluid-Simulation/</a><p><a href="https://github.com/PavelDoGreat/WebGL-Fluid-Simulation">https://github.com/PavelDoGreat/WebGL-Fluid-Simulation</a><p>It's been on HN a few times already: <a href="https://hn.algolia.com/?query=WebGL%20Fluid%20Simulation&type=story&dateRange=all&sort=byDate&storyText=false&prefix&page=0" rel="nofollow">https://hn.algolia.com/?query=WebGL%20Fluid%20Simulation&typ...</a>
General answer that I've seen a lot throughout my career, simulation of blood pumps and cardiovascular medical devices, this is one popular package foe doing so:<p><a href="https://www.ansys.com/applications/cardiovascular" rel="nofollow">https://www.ansys.com/applications/cardiovascular</a>
Boosting photovoltaics through simulation of photosynthesis which is a quantum mechanical process.<p><a href="https://chemistry.illinois.edu/news/2021-03-08/high-level-simulations-bring-insights-quantum-effects-photosynthesis" rel="nofollow">https://chemistry.illinois.edu/news/2021-03-08/high-level-si...</a>