CSE 291 (SP 2023 E00) Physics Simulation
Welcome to CSE 291 Topics in CSE: Physics Simulation.
- Lecture: Tue Thu 2:00pm - 3:20pm
- Classroom: Center Hall 205.
- Instructor: Albert Chern (Office Hour: Tue 4:00–5:00pm, location CSE Building 4112)
- TA: Shiyang Jia (Office Hour:
MondayThursday 4:00-5:00pm, location: CSE Building B250A)
- TA: Shiyang Jia (Office Hour:
- Sites:
- This page: Slides, lecture notes, HW
- Canvas: Link to Gradescope, and link back to this page.
- Piazza: https://piazza.com/ucsd/spring2023/cse291_sp23_e00/home Q&A forum for the class.
- Gradescope: https://www.gradescope.com/courses/528287 (log in with School credential, entry code: NX736Z) HW submissions.
- Lecture note: Physics Simulation
Visit Canvas (for all info including Zoom links), Gradescope (HW submission) and Piazza (Q&A).
Syllabus
| Week | Tuesday | Thursday | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4/4: Introduction
|
4/6: Dimensional analysis | |
| 2 | 4/11: Vector duality
|
4/13: Differentials and gradients | |
| 3 | 4/18: Calculus of variations
|
4/20: Least action principle | |
| 4 | 4/25: Rigid body motion | 4/27: Differential geometry, Constrained systems | |
| 5 | 5/2: Geodesic equation, Incremental potential
|
5/4: Incremental potential | |
| 6 | 5/9: Tensors
|
5/11: Tensors | |
| 7 | 5/16: Elasticity | 5/18: Elasticity | |
| 8 | 5/23: Fluids | 5/25: Fluids | |
| 9 | 5/30: Fluids (numerics)
|
6/1: Fluids | |
| 10 | 6/6: Hamiltonian mechanics | 6/8: No class (instructor unavailable) | |
| Final | 6/13: No class
|
6/15: No class | |
| Summer break | |||
Overview
The course covers the mathematical and computational basis for various physics simulation tasks including solid mechanics and fluid dynamics. A main focus is constitutive modeling, that is, the dynamics are derived from a few universal principles of classical mechanics, such as dimensional analysis, Hamiltonian principle, maximal dissipation principle, Noether’s theorem, etc. These principles are the foundation to computational methods that can produce structure-preserving and realistic simulations.
You are expected to have basic programming and visualization skill.
Some highlight:
- Dimensional analysis: Utilize the scaling symmetry of a physical system to estimate the expected result, to identify equivalent models, or to reduce the number of parameters.
- Variational principles: Instead of accounting for all internal forces in a physical system, derive them by taking derivative of energy functions.
- Incremental potential: Turn each time step into an optimization problem, encompassing dissipative systems and impulsive systems.
- Constrained systems: Holonomic and nonholonomic constraints, quasivelocities, and the KKT conditions for inequality constraints.
- Continuum mechanics: An exposition of tensor analysis involving differential forms and their Lie transportations.
- Elasticity: Interaction between strain and stress, which are dual vector-valued forms related by a variational principle.
- Fluids: Navier–Stokes equation, vorticity formulation, surface waves, Eulerian and Lagrangian methods.
Course Logistics
Getting Started (make sure to follow it in Week 1)
- Sign up to Piazza and Gradescope.
- HW0 is due 4/11 (Tue).
Class Rules
- Do the assignments individually. Discussion is strongly encouraged, since there are many challenging new mathematical concepts and part of the learning experience is to try out your understanding to your peers.
- You can look up coding/math questions online. You are also welcomed to post questions (and answer others' questions) on Piazza.
- Follow Academic Integrity (c.f. https://senate.ucsd.edu/Operating-Procedures/Senate-Manual/Appendices/2).
Grades
There is no quiz or exam. The grades are made of the following HWs and project:
- HW0 (miniproject): 5%
- HW1 (written): 10%
- HW2 (written+minimproject): 25%
- HW3 (miniproject): 30%
- HW4 (miniproject): 30%
Late policy
- HW0–4 late penalty: You have one quota of using a 24 hour extension.