December 01, 2022 – A team of researchers and technology specialists recently completed a ground-breaking simulation to study aerosol transport, and better understand the potential spread of viruses in packed football stadiums, setting a world record in the process.

Researchers from the University of Eindhoven in the Netherlands and KU Leuven in Belgium were joined by teams from Microsoft and Ansys. Their goal was to leverage the power of Azure High Performance Computing to run one of the largest computational fluid dynamics simulations ever, in addition to investigating aerosol transport in a stadium, under various weather conditions.

The team combined experiments and numerical simulations to investigate atmospheric conditions and aerosol concentrations in a stadium, using pointwise measurements. This would allow the team to better understand how viruses could spread among spectators, which is especially pertinent in light of the FIFA World Cup 2022 which recently took place in Qatar.

Matt Jennings, VP: Global Customer Success at Microsoft, points to the impact of supercomputing capabilities on researchers’ ability to tackle immensely complex challenges in the future.

“The combination of technology, innovation and a laser focus on problem-solving is pushing the boundaries of what’s possible and bringing us closer to solving some of the biggest challenges of our time. Supported by Azure’s supercomputing capabilities, researchers and innovators can now explore solutions that were previously beyond the realm of possibility.”