Voxel — Computational Flow Visualiser
A browser-based flow visualiser powered by a live D2Q9 lattice Boltzmann solver. Designed as an interactive CFD teaching tool with real-time velocity, pressure, and vorticity fields.
Human Engine Labs
The Challenge
Most CFD software requires expensive licenses, steep learning curves, and powerful workstations. Students lose weeks configuring environments before they see a single velocity field.
Existing browser-based demos are toy implementations. They lack real physics, meaningful geometry tools, or educational scaffolding. You can watch a flow, but you cannot interrogate it.
Mobile and tablet users are completely excluded from CFD exploration. The few touch-friendly apps are pre-canned animations with no interactivity.
Our Approach
We implemented a full D2Q9 BGK lattice Boltzmann solver in a Web Worker, keeping the simulation off the main thread so the UI stays responsive even at high Reynolds numbers.
We built an intuitive geometry system: freehand drawing, primitive insertion (cylinder, square, triangle), and a move tool for repositioning obstacles without restarting the simulation.
We designed the visualisation layer around pedagogical clarity, not just spectacle. Speed, pressure delta, and vorticity each have their own carefully tuned colour ramps so students can read the physics at a glance.
We added aerodynamic overlays—Mach waves, shock guides, tip vortices—that explain what the flow is doing, not just what it looks like. The Kutta-Joukowski readout connects the visual field to classical lift theory.
Deliverables & Outcomes
What we delivered
- Real-time 2D lattice Boltzmann solver (D2Q9 BGK)
- Interactive geometry editor with draw, erase, and primitive tools
- NACA airfoil presets with angle-of-attack and Mach overlays
- Speed, pressure delta, and vorticity visualisation modes
- Educational overlays for shocks, Mach waves, and tip vortices
- Kutta-Joukowski circulation and lift estimation
Measured results
60 FPS
Frame Rate
across desktop, tablet, and mobile devices
4
Presets
channel, cylinder, NACA airfoil, backward-facing step
D2Q9 BGK
Physics Fidelity
full lattice Boltzmann solver, not a toy approximation
Project Gallery
Voxel is being extended with exportable simulation datasets and integration with the HEL Research OS for experimental logging.
See how the protocol works
Each case study demonstrates how Respectful Mediation, Structured Cultivation, and Natural Harmony operate at scale.