A prototype of a turbine designed by the firm MCE was visualized in the CAVE at the Ars Electronica Center. The application is an early example of industrial simulation in the CAVE environment.

A series of tests has to be run and measurements made before a turbine can go into production. To simplify this, the firm MCE commissioned a virtual model of a Kaplan turbine. The simulation of the behavior of the water flowing through the turbine made it possible to conduct elaborate flow tests in real time in the CAVE. Engineers can take a “virtual walk” through the turbine from the rotor blades to the generator in order to study it in detail.

The simulation of the turbine as a CAVE application is also a key element in training maintenance technicians, and demonstrated then for the first the usefulness and importance of VR technology in the development of prototypes.