An exploration to visualize finite element data with a DSL
This work addresses visualization challenges for researchers in scientific computing using PDEs, but it is incremental as it extends an existing language with modest examples.
The paper tackled the problem of visualizing finite element (FE) data from PDE modeling, which existing tools could not fully handle, by exploring the use of the Diderot domain-specific language; it demonstrated a modest approach with examples like simple sampling and volume rendering, showing Diderot's ability to visualize FE data for Firedrake.
The scientific community use PDEs to model a range of problems. The people in this domain are interested in visualizing their results, but existing mechanisms for visualization can not handle the full richness of computations in the domain. We did an exploration to see how Diderot, a domain specific language for scientific visualization and image analysis, could be used to solve this problem. We demonstrate our first and modest approach of visualizing FE data with Diderot and provide examples. Using Diderot, we do a simple sampling and a volume rendering of a FE field. These examples showcase Diderot's ability to provide a visualization result for Firedrake. This paper describes the extension of the Diderot language to include FE data.