Metaphoric optical computing for fluid dynamics

• Published in: Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering (ISSN: 0277786X), vol. 5735, num. null, p. 1-8
• Publication date: 2005

We show that an optical pulse inherently computes three-dimensional classical fluid dynamics. Taking optical diffraction, dispersion and nonlinearity into account, one can define the metaphoric fluid density, velocity and vorticity in the optical pulse. We propose the use of the group-velocity-delayed time to represent the third dimension of the fluid, and the "split-step" method to combine optical devices as a configurable system that simulates fluid flow. Optical systems, with the inherent speed, parallelism and configurability, may one day be utilized to assist the study of fluid dynamics.

Reference

• EPFL-CONF-155391
• doi:10.1117/12.601656
• View record in Scopus

Record created on 2010-11-23, modified on 2017-05-10