COUPLING STATE-OF-THE-SCIENCE SUBSURFACE SIMULATION WITH ADVANCED USER INTERFACE AND PARALLEL VISUALIZATION: SBIR Phase I Final Report

This is a Phase I report on a project to significantly enhance existing subsurface simulation software using leadership-class computing resources, allowing researchers to solve problems with greater speed and accuracy. Subsurface computer simulation is used for monitoring the behavior of contaminants around nuclear waste disposal and storage areas, groundwater flow, environmental remediation, carbon sequestration, methane hydrate production, and geothermal energy reservoir analysis. The Phase I project was a collaborative effort between Thunderhead Engineering (project lead and developers of a commercial pre- and post-processor for the TOUGH2 simulator) and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (developers of the TOUGH2 simulator for subsurface flow). The Phase I project successfully identified the technical approaches to be implemented in Phase II.