High-order visualization with ElVis

Abstract

Accurate visualization of high-order meshes and flow fields is a fundamental tool for the verification, validation, analysis and interpretation of high-order flow simulations. Standard visualization tools based on piecewise linear approximations can be used for the display of highorder fields but their accuracy is restricted by computer memory and processing time. More often than not, the accurate visualization of complex flows using this strategy requires computational resources beyond the reach of most users. This chapter describes ElVis, a truly high-order and interactive visualization system created for the accurate and interactive visualization of scalar fields produced by high-order spectral/hp finite element simulations. We show some examples that motivate the need for such a visualization system and illustrate some of its features for the display and analysis of simulation data.