Services for numerical simulations and optimisations in grids

Numerical simulations are typically very computer intensive. A way to satisfy the arising demands for compute power is the employment of grid technology. But today, there exist only a few tools supporting the user in using grids for numerical simulations. In addition, some basic problems of grid technology are not solved with satisfaction. The goal of the project OptiNum-Grid was to address these issues. We present a number of tools that were developed in the project. These are tools for parameter sweeps and optimisations in grids, for data security and automatic software installation, as well as for virtual environments in grids. The tools were evaluated in the context of three different use cases, namely finite element method simulations, analog circuit simulations and e-beam simulations.