What is the virtual lab and how does it simulate experiments?

The virtual lab is a physics and chemistry-aware simulation environment. AI agents run your experimental protocol step-by-step, validating thermodynamic constraints, checking kinetic feasibility, and flagging solubility or compatibility issues before you go to the bench. Every step is grounded in real physical and chemical laws.

How does Vicena find and extract protocols from scientific sources?

The AI agent searches PubMed, arXiv, and the open web for papers matching your experiment. It then extracts every variable -- temperatures, concentrations, durations, reagents -- independently from each source, cross-references them, and assigns confidence scores so you know which values are well-supported and which need verification.

Can the AI agents actually carry out experiments in a virtual world?

Yes. The simulation agent takes your complete protocol and executes each step in a virtual environment that models real-world physics and chemistry. It checks energy balances, reaction rates, and reagent compatibility at every stage, producing a feasibility report that tells you whether the experiment will work and why.

What scientific databases does Vicena search?

Vicena searches PubMed, arXiv, Google Scholar, Google Patents, PubChem, and the open web in parallel. It uses adaptive query refinement to ensure comprehensive coverage of your research topic and can cross-reference results across all sources.

CFD & Aerodynamics · Vicena Compute Beta

Simulate flow, forces, and aerodynamic performance.

Move from geometry to validated meshes, open-source solvers, pressure and velocity fields, forces, wakes, and design sweeps for external, internal, and rotating flows—with every acceptance gate visible.

Explore a complete CFD example Download its reproducibility package

Geometry → mesh

OpenFOAM + SU2

Evidence at every gate

Al_Rihla_mesh_visualization.ipynb

Executed artifact

Centre-plane CFD velocity and pressure fields comparing a stationary and rotating football

Flow

25 m/s

Rotation

0 and 8 rev/s

Method

OpenFOAM URANS

Geometry to CFD mesh

Audit, repair, scale, remesh, and validate STL or surface geometry before it reaches a solver.

Open-source solvers

Build reproducible OpenFOAM and SU2 studies through isolated Vicena Compute jobs.

Flow and force analysis

Extract pressure, velocity, drag, lift, moments, wake behavior, and uncertainty-aware comparisons.

Inspectable artifacts

Keep meshes, configurations, logs, result files, notebooks, and visual evidence connected to the study.

Example study · Al Rihla football

From a 3D-print file to a time-resolved aerodynamic study.

Vicena turns imperfect geometry into an inspectable scientific process: audit the input, repair the surface, reject weak meshes, run open-source solvers, and increase complexity only when the evidence supports it.

The public package includes the executed Jupyter notebook, attributed repaired STL, validation records, mesh-repair scripts, complete OpenFOAM cases, Vicena Compute submission templates, force histories, and compact pressure and velocity field data.

The source geometry is licensed under CC BY 4.0 and was modified for this exploratory study. Attribution, trademark notices, and scientific limitations are included in the archive.

This is the latest compact 263,891-cell, 0.05 s companion study. Some figures on this page intentionally document earlier workflow stages; the archive provenance and summary files identify the packaged reference results.

Source geometry by generalista3D (@adelin) Creative Commons Attribution 4.0

Executed notebook

Attributed repaired geometry

Mesh repair and OpenFOAM cases

Vicena Compute job submissions

Compact force and field results

Methodology and provenance

Download full package ZIP · 9.3 MB

Independent exploratory study. Not official ball CAD or certified aerodynamic data.

SHA-256 checksum

The starting point

Science rarely starts with perfect geometry.

This case started with a downloadable 3D-printing model of the 2022 Al Rihla football. It looked detailed, but it was the wrong scale, formally non-watertight, and contained microscopic holes, a non-manifold edge, and triangles spanning an extreme size range.

The visible grooves could be useful for exploratory CFD, but the file contained no manufacturer metrology. Vicena preserved that uncertainty instead of presenting the model as certified ball geometry.

500,055

source triangles

boundary edges

microscopic holes

70.5

model-unit diameter

User-supplied visualization model of the Al Rihla football used as the starting geometry

Input classification

Third-party visualization / printing mesh. Physical seam fidelity unverified.

One continuous workflow

Every result earns the next level of complexity.

The value is not one dramatic flow image. It is a traceable chain of decisions in which inputs are questioned, failures are informative, and weak intermediate results do not quietly become scientific conclusions.

Start with the real input

Uploaded asset

The study began with a 3D-printable football model—not clean engineering CAD. Vicena treated it as an uncertain scientific input instead of assuming it was CFD-ready.

Audit before simulation

Geometry evidence

Topology, scale, orientation, triangle quality, holes, and non-manifold edges were measured. The first conclusion was revised when a better sphere fit changed the roughness estimate.

Repair and remesh

Validated surface

The surface was centered, scaled, repaired, and remeshed while preserving the supplied macroscopic features. OpenFOAM then independently checked the result.

Reject weak meshes

Quality gate

Several volume meshes were deliberately not used for science. Skewed cells, concavity, missing prism layers, and an oversized refinement region were surfaced as evidence—not hidden.

Increase complexity carefully

Controlled progression

A smooth sphere established the solver and force-extraction baseline before transferring the workflow to the actual ball, rotation, and multiple fixed orientations.

Resolve the changing wake

Time-resolved CFD

Transient URANS advanced the flow through physical time, producing force histories and wake snapshots rather than one frozen steady-state answer.

Geometry evidence

Repair the target before refining the air around it.

Refining the volume mesh could not fix collapsed and badly distributed triangles in the source surface. A feature-preserving remesh created a watertight, consistently oriented target with far more uniform triangles.

remeshed surface triangles 243,240

closed, watertight topology Euler 2

99th-percentile source deviation 0.171 mm

median remeshed edge length 1.30 mm

Comparison of original and repaired football surface meshes from four viewpoints — Notebook evidence: original versus repaired and feature-preserving remeshed surfaces. Geometry preservation is quantified; physical seam accuracy remains unverified.

Scientific packages

The scientific packages behind geometry, meshing, and flow.

OpenFOAM

13

Primary CFD environment

Builds and checks volume meshes, solves steady and transient flow, and extracts pressure, velocity, and aerodynamic forces.
Official project
snappyHexMesh

OpenFOAM 13

Body-fitted meshing

Turns validated surface geometry into a three-dimensional computational mesh with local surface and wake refinement.
Official project
trimesh

4.12

Geometry audit and repair

Inspects connected bodies, boundaries, normals, scale, triangle quality, and surface deviations before CFD meshing.
Official project
SU2

8.5

Aerodynamic verification

Provides an independent open-source route for airfoil, external-flow, multiphysics, and design-optimization studies.
Official project

From baseline to the real surface

Build confidence without skipping controls.

A smooth sphere first verified meshing, solver stability, and force extraction. The same workflow then moved to the repaired ball, comparing non-rotating and rotating cases at 25 m/s while retaining the actual field outputs.

Velocity magnitude and gauge pressure around non-rotating and rotating football geometry — Actual centre-plane fields from the repaired ball geometry. The ball rendering is embedded as visual context; the computed boundary follows the remeshed surface. OpenFOAM · k–ω SST

The model challenged its own answer

A suspicious force became the next experiment.

The non-rotating ball produced a surprisingly large lateral force. Instead of accepting it, Vicena rotated the same geometry through four fixed orientations. The predicted drag, wake, and lateral-force direction changed substantially—evidence that surface orientation and steady-state numerics needed deeper testing.

Drag and lateral coefficient sensitivity at four fixed football orientations

Scientific interpretation

The calculation confirmed orientation sensitivity in this numerical model. It did not prove that the predicted magnitude is physically correct.

0° → 135°

four controlled orientations

Sign change

lateral force reversed

Steady RANS

useful diagnostic, limited mean

Next gate

transient time averaging

Time-resolved airflow

From one frozen wake to a changing flow field.

Transient URANS advanced pressure and velocity through physical time. Matching non-rotating and 8 rev/s pilots captured force histories and four actual wake states, revealing what a steady solution cannot.

A bounded pilot, not a final claim

The 0.10 s runs verified the workflow but were too short for statistically converged wake averages or a reliable shedding frequency.

Transient URANS velocity-deficit snapshots behind stationary and rotating football geometry — Four computed wake states at 0.025, 0.050, 0.075, and 0.100 seconds.

Time histories of drag and lateral coefficients for non-rotating and rotating football CFD pilots

Transient artifact

Wake comparison animation

Animated comparison of non-rotating and rotating football wake velocity and pressure

Beyond this football

The workflow generalizes. The evidence stays case-specific.

Vicena reuses reliable workflow contracts for common CFD tasks while preserving room to build a new workflow when the geometry, physics, or solver requirements are different.

External aerodynamics

Airfoils, vehicles, drones, sports equipment, buildings, and bluff-body wakes.

Internal flows

Ducts, manifolds, valves, pressure losses, cooling channels, and flow distribution.

Rotating machinery

Fans, propellers, turbines, rotating bodies, moments, and spin-dependent forces.

Design exploration

Geometry comparisons, parameter sweeps, operating envelopes, and evidence-backed iteration.

Geometry audit

Watertight surface

Mesh-quality record

Solver configuration

Pressure and velocity fields

Drag and lateral-force history

Wake animation

Reproducible notebook

Try a real engineering question

Start with the problem—not a solver command.

Bring the messy first file

Vicena can help turn it into a study you can inspect, challenge, and improve.

Beta workflows can still encounter solver, geometry, and resource limits. Vicena keeps those failures visible and returns the evidence needed to make the next attempt more informed.