VirtualLab

VirtualLab is an open-source platform which enables performing ‘virtual experiments’ – digital equivalents of real-world laboratory engineering tests.

The motivation for creating a virtual laboratory is manyfold, for example:

• Planning and optimisation of physical experiments.
• Ability to directly compare experimental and simulation data, useful to better understand both physical and virtual methods.
• Augment sparse experimental data with simulation data for increased insight.
• Generating synthetic data to train machine learning models.

VirtualLab is not a simulation code itself, but rather a ‘wrapper’ which joins together several different software packages into a single platform and carries out some pre/post processing tasks to achieve this. Due to its modular nature, VirtualLab is software agnostic and components can be swapped and added as desired by users. As developers of VirtualLab, we have a preference for open-source codes which enables us to package and share the same experience we enjoy with you in the most streamlined way.

The focus of VirtualLab development is for full automation through parameterisation and by utilising its multi-node and high throughput computing (HTC) capabilities. A large number of virtual experiments can be performed for a variety of experimental parameters in a very short space of time, allowing rapid iterations of the engineering design cycle.

For example, VirtualLab has been used to optimise a lab experiment for a heat exchanger component, by suggesting the position of the induction coil which would achieve the desired balance between thermal power input and uniformity across the sample surface.