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At least 433 records · Page 24
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2000

A Technique of Treating Negative Weights in WENO Schemes

High order accurate weighted essentially non-oscillatory (WENO) schemes have recently been developed for finite difference and finite volume methods both in structural and in unstructured meshes. A key idea in WENO scheme is a linear combination of lower order fluxes or reconstructions to obtain a high order approximation. The combination coefficients, also called linear weights, are determined by local geometry of the mesh and order of accuracy and may become negative. WENO procedures cannot be applied directly to obtain a stable scheme if negative linear weights are present. Previous strategy for handling this difficulty is by either regrouping of stencils or reducing the order of accuracy to get rid of the negative linear weights. In this paper we present a simple and effective technique for handling negative linear weights without a need to get rid of them.

Shi, Jing↗
NASA NTRS2001

The CE/SE Method: a CFD Framework for the Challenges of the New Millennium

The space-time conservation element and solution element (CE/SE) method, which was originated and is continuously being developed at NASA Glenn Research Center, is a high-resolution, genuinely multidimensional and unstructured-mesh compatible numerical method for solving conservation laws. Since its inception in 1991, the CE/SE method has been used to obtain highly accurate numerical solutions for 1D, 2D and 3D flow problems involving shocks, contact discontinuities, acoustic waves, vortices, shock/acoustic waves/vortices interactions, shock/boundary layers interactions and chemical reactions. Without the aid of preconditioning or other special techniques, it has been applied to both steady and unsteady flows with speeds ranging from Mach number = 0.00288 to 10. In addition, the method has unique features that allow for (i) the use of very simple non-reflecting boundary conditions, and (ii) a unified wall boundary treatment for viscous and inviscid flows. The CE/SE method was developed with the conviction that, with a solid foundation in physics, a robust, coherent and accurate numerical framework can be built without involving overly complex mathematics. As a result, the method was constructed using a set of design principles that facilitate simplicity, robustness and accuracy. The most important among them are: (i) enforcing both local and global flux conservation in space and time, with flux evaluation at an interface being an integral part of the solution procedure and requiring no interpolation or extrapolation; (ii) unifying space and time and treating them as a single entity; and (iii) requiring that a numerical scheme be built from a nondissipative core scheme such that the numerical dissipation can be effectively controlled and, as a result, will not overwhelm the physical dissipation. Part I of the workshop will be devoted to a discussion of these principles along with a description of how the ID, 2D and 3D CE/SE schemes are constructed. In Part II, various applications of the CE/SE method, particularly those involving chemical reactions and acoustics, will be presented. The workshop will be concluded with a sketch of the future research directions.

Chang, Sin-Chung↗
NASA NTRS2001

Parallel Programming Strategies for Irregular Adaptive Applications

Achieving scalable performance for dynamic irregular applications is eminently challenging. Traditional message-passing approaches have been making steady progress towards this goal; however, they suffer from complex implementation requirements. The use of a global address space greatly simplifies the programming task, but can degrade the performance for such computations. In this work, we examine two typical irregular adaptive applications, Dynamic Remeshing and N-Body, under competing programming methodologies and across various parallel architectures. The Dynamic Remeshing application simulates flow over an airfoil, and refines localized regions of the underlying unstructured mesh. The N-Body experiment models two neighboring Plummer galaxies that are about to undergo a merger. Both problems demonstrate dramatic changes in processor workloads and interprocessor communication with time; thus, dynamic load balancing is a required component.

Biswas, Rupak↗
NASA NTRS2001

National Combustion Code: Parallel Performance

This report discusses the National Combustion Code (NCC). The NCC is an integrated system of codes for the design and analysis of combustion systems. The advanced features of the NCC meet designers' requirements for model accuracy and turn-around time. The fundamental features at the inception of the NCC were parallel processing and unstructured mesh. The design and performance of the NCC are discussed.

Babrauckas, Theresa↗
NASA NTRS1999

High-Resolution Genuinely Multidimensional Solution of Conservation Laws by the Space-Time Conservation Element and Solution Element Method

In this overview paper, we review the basic principles of the method of space-time conservation element and solution element for solving the conservation laws in one and two spatial dimensions. The present method is developed on the basis of local and global flux conservation in a space-time domain, in which space and time are treated in a unified manner. In contrast to the modern upwind schemes, the approach here does not use the Riemann solver and the reconstruction procedure as the building blocks. The drawbacks of the upwind approach, such as the difficulty of rationally extending the 1D scalar approach to systems of equations and particularly to multiple dimensions is here contrasted with the uniformity and ease of generalization of the Conservation Element and Solution Element (CE/SE) 1D scalar schemes to systems of equations and to multiple spatial dimensions. The assured compatibility with the simplest type of unstructured meshes, and the uniquely simple nonreflecting boundary conditions of the present method are also discussed. The present approach has yielded high-resolution shocks, rarefaction waves, acoustic waves, vortices, ZND detonation waves, and shock/acoustic waves/vortices interactions. Moreover, since no directional splitting is employed, numerical resolution of two-dimensional calculations is comparable to that of the one-dimensional calculations. Some sample applications displaying the strengths and broad applicability of the CE/SE method are reviewed.

Himansu, Ananda↗
NASA NTRS2001

High-Performance Java Codes for Computational Fluid Dynamics

The computational science community is reluctant to write large-scale computationally -intensive applications in Java due to concerns over Java's poor performance, despite the claimed software engineering advantages of its object-oriented features. Naive Java implementations of numerical algorithms can perform poorly compared to corresponding Fortran or C implementations. To achieve high performance, Java applications must be designed with good performance as a primary goal. This paper presents the object-oriented design and implementation of two real-world applications from the field of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD): a finite-volume fluid flow solver (LAURA, from NASA Langley Research Center), and an unstructured mesh adaptation algorithm (2D_TAG, from NASA Ames Research Center). This work builds on our previous experience with the design of high-performance numerical libraries in Java. We examine the performance of the applications using the currently available Java infrastructure and show that the Java version of the flow solver LAURA performs almost within a factor of 2 of the original procedural version. Our Java version of the mesh adaptation algorithm 2D_TAG performs within a factor of 1.5 of its original procedural version on certain platforms. Our results demonstrate that object-oriented software design principles are not necessarily inimical to high performance.

Riley, Christopher↗
NASA NTRS2001

Overview of the NCC

A multi-disciplinary design/analysis tool for combustion systems is critical for optimizing the low-emission, high-performance combustor design process. Based on discussions between then NASA Lewis Research Center and the jet engine companies, an industry-government team was formed in early 1995 to develop the National Combustion Code (NCC), which is an integrated system of computer codes for the design and analysis of combustion systems. NCC has advanced features that address the need to meet designer's requirements such as "assured accuracy", "fast turnaround", and "acceptable cost". The NCC development team is comprised of Allison Engine Company (Allison), CFD Research Corporation (CFDRC), GE Aircraft Engines (GEAE), NASA Glenn Research Center (LeRC), and Pratt & Whitney (P&W). The "unstructured mesh" capability and "parallel computing" are fundamental features of NCC from its inception. The NCC system is composed of a set of "elements" which includes grid generator, main flow solver, turbulence module, turbulence and chemistry interaction module, chemistry module, spray module, radiation heat transfer module, data visualization module, and a post-processor for evaluating engine performance parameters. Each element may have contributions from several team members. Such a multi-source multi-element system needs to be integrated in a way that facilitates inter-module data communication, flexibility in module selection, and ease of integration. The development of the NCC beta version was essentially completed in June 1998. Technical details of the NCC elements are given in the Reference List. Elements such as the baseline flow solver, turbulence module, and the chemistry module, have been extensively validated; and their parallel performance on large-scale parallel systems has been evaluated and optimized. However the scalar PDF module and the Spray module, as well as their coupling with the baseline flow solver, were developed in a small-scale distributed computing environment. As a result, the validation of the NCC beta version as a whole was quite limited. Current effort has been focused on the validation of the integrated code and the evaluation/optimization of its overall performance on large-scale parallel systems.

Liu, Nan-Suey↗
NASA NTRS1998

The Design and Evaluation of "CAPTools"--A Computer Aided Parallelization Toolkit

Writing applications for high performance computers is a challenging task. Although writing code by hand still offers the best performance, it is extremely costly and often not very portable. The Computer Aided Parallelization Tools (CAPTools) are a toolkit designed to help automate the mapping of sequential FORTRAN scientific applications onto multiprocessors. CAPTools consists of the following major components: an inter-procedural dependence analysis module that incorporates user knowledge; a 'self-propagating' data partitioning module driven via user guidance; an execution control mask generation and optimization module for the user to fine tune parallel processing of individual partitions; a program transformation/restructuring facility for source code clean up and optimization; a set of browsers through which the user interacts with CAPTools at each stage of the parallelization process; and a code generator supporting multiple programming paradigms on various multiprocessors. Besides describing the rationale behind the architecture of CAPTools, the parallelization process is illustrated via case studies involving structured and unstructured meshes. The programming process and the performance of the generated parallel programs are compared against other programming alternatives based on the NAS Parallel Benchmarks, ARC3D and other scientific applications. Based on these results, a discussion on the feasibility of constructing architectural independent parallel applications is presented.

Yan, Jerry↗
NASA NTRS1998

Multi-Dimensional Quantum Effect Simulation Using a Density-Gradient Model and Script-Level Programming Techniques

A density-gradient (DG) model is used to calculate quantum-mechanical corrections to classical carrier transport in MOS (Metal Oxide Semiconductor) inversion/accumulation layers. The model is compared to measured data and to a fully self-consistent coupled Schrodinger and Poisson equation (SCSP) solver. Good agreement is demonstrated for MOS capacitors with gate oxide as thin as 21 A. It is then applied to study carrier distribution in ultra short MOSFETs (Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor) with surface roughness. This work represents the first implementation of the DG formulation on multidimensional unstructured meshes. It was enabled by a powerful scripting approach which provides an easy-to-use and flexible framework for solving the fourth-order PDEs (Partial Differential Equation) of the DG model.

Rafferty, Connor S.↗
NASA NTRS2003

Finite Volume Methods: Foundation and Analysis

Finite volume methods are a class of discretization schemes that have proven highly successful in approximating the solution of a wide variety of conservation law systems. They are extensively used in fluid mechanics, porous media flow, meteorology, electromagnetics, models of biological processes, semi-conductor device simulation and many other engineering areas governed by conservative systems that can be written in integral control volume form. This article reviews elements of the foundation and analysis of modern finite volume methods. The primary advantages of these methods are numerical robustness through the obtention of discrete maximum (minimum) principles, applicability on very general unstructured meshes, and the intrinsic local conservation properties of the resulting schemes. Throughout this article, specific attention is given to scalar nonlinear hyperbolic conservation laws and the development of high order accurate schemes for discretizing them. A key tool in the design and analysis of finite volume schemes suitable for non-oscillatory discontinuity capturing is discrete maximum principle analysis. A number of building blocks used in the development of numerical schemes possessing local discrete maximum principles are reviewed in one and several space dimensions, e.g. monotone fluxes, E-fluxes, TVD discretization, non-oscillatory reconstruction, slope limiters, positive coefficient schemes, etc. When available, theoretical results concerning a priori and a posteriori error estimates are given. Further advanced topics are then considered such as high order time integration, discretization of diffusion terms and the extension to systems of nonlinear conservation laws.

Barth, Timothy↗
NASA NTRS2003

Gust Acoustic Response of a Single Airfoil Using the Space-Time CE/SE Method

A 2D parallel Euler code based on the space-time conservation element and solution element (CE/SE) method is validated by solving the benchmark problem I in Category 3 of the Third CAA Workshop. This problem concerns the acoustic field generated by the interaction of a convected harmonic vortical gust with a single airfoil. Three gust frequencies, two gust configurations, and three airfoil geometries are considered. Numerical results at both near and far fields are presented and compared with the analytical solutions, a frequency-domain solver GUST3D solutions, and a time-domain high-order Discontinuous Spectral Element Method (DSEM) solutions. It is shown that the CE/SE solutions agree well with the GUST3D solution for the lowest frequency, while there are discrepancies between CE/SE and GUST3D solutions for higher frequencies. However, the CE/SE solution is in good agreement with the DSEM solution for these higher frequencies. It demonstrates that the CE/SE method can produce accurate results of CAA problems involving complex geometries by using unstructured meshes.

Scott, James↗
NASA NTRS2004

LSPRAY-II: A Lagrangian Spray Module

LSPRAY-II is a Lagrangian spray solver developed for application with parallel computing and unstructured grids. It is designed to be massively parallel and could easily be coupled with any existing gas-phase flow and/or Monte Carlo Probability Density Function (PDF) solvers. The solver accommodates the use of an unstructured mesh with mixed elements of either triangular, quadrilateral, and/or tetrahedral type for the gas flow grid representation. It is mainly designed to predict the flow, thermal and transport properties of a rapidly vaporizing spray because of its importance in aerospace application. The manual provides the user with an understanding of various models involved in the spray formulation, its code structure and solution algorithm, and various other issues related to parallelization and its coupling with other solvers. With the development of LSPRAY-II, we have advanced the state-of-the-art in spray computations in several important ways.

Raju, M. S.↗
NASA NTRS2004

EUPDF-II: An Eulerian Joint Scalar Monte Carlo PDF Module : User's Manual

EUPDF-II provides the solution for the species and temperature fields based on an evolution equation for PDF (Probability Density Function) and it is developed mainly for application with sprays, combustion, parallel computing, and unstructured grids. It is designed to be massively parallel and could easily be coupled with any existing gas-phase CFD and spray solvers. The solver accommodates the use of an unstructured mesh with mixed elements of either triangular, quadrilateral, and/or tetrahedral type. The manual provides the user with an understanding of the various models involved in the PDF formulation, its code structure and solution algorithm, and various other issues related to parallelization and its coupling with other solvers. The source code of EUPDF-II will be available with National Combustion Code (NCC) as a complete package.

Raju, M. S.↗
NASA NTRS2004

Unstructured Adaptive (UA) NAS Parallel Benchmark

We present a complete specification of a new benchmark for measuring the performance of modern computer systems when solving scientific problems featuring irregular, dynamic memory accesses. It complements the existing NAS Parallel Benchmark suite. The benchmark involves the solution of a stylized heat transfer problem in a cubic domain, discretized on an adaptively refined, unstructured mesh.

Feng, Huiyu↗
NASA NTRS1994

An Implicit Upwind Algorithm for Computing Turbulent Flows on Unstructured Grids

An implicit, Navier-Stokes solution algorithm is presented for the computation of turbulent flow on unstructured grids. The inviscid fluxes are computed using an upwind algorithm and the solution is advanced in time using a backward-Euler time-stepping scheme. At each time step, the linear system of equations is approximately solved with a point-implicit relaxation scheme. This methodology provides a viable and robust algorithm for computing turbulent flows on unstructured meshes. Results are shown for subsonic flow over a NACA 0012 airfoil and for transonic flow over a RAE 2822 airfoil exhibiting a strong upper-surface shock. In addition, results are shown for 3 element and 4 element airfoil configurations. For the calculations, two one equation turbulence models are utilized. For the NACA 0012 airfoil, a pressure distribution and force data are compared with other computational results as well as with experiment. Comparisons of computed pressure distributions and velocity profiles with experimental data are shown for the RAE airfoil and for the 3 element configuration. For the 4 element case, comparisons of surface pressure distributions with experiment are made. In general, the agreement between the computations and the experiment is good.

Anerson, W. Kyle↗
NASA NTRS1998

LSPRAY: Lagrangian Spray Solver for Applications With Parallel Computing and Unstructured Gas-Phase Flow Solvers

Sprays occur in a wide variety of industrial and power applications and in the processing of materials. A liquid spray is a phase flow with a gas as the continuous phase and a liquid as the dispersed phase (in the form of droplets or ligaments). Interactions between the two phases, which are coupled through exchanges of mass, momentum, and energy, can occur in different ways at different times and locations involving various thermal, mass, and fluid dynamic factors. An understanding of the flow, combustion, and thermal properties of a rapidly vaporizing spray requires careful modeling of the rate-controlling processes associated with the spray's turbulent transport, mixing, chemical kinetics, evaporation, and spreading rates, as well as other phenomena. In an attempt to advance the state-of-the-art in multidimensional numerical methods, we at the NASA Lewis Research Center extended our previous work on sprays to unstructured grids and parallel computing. LSPRAY, which was developed by M.S. Raju of Nyma, Inc., is designed to be massively parallel and could easily be coupled with any existing gas-phase flow and/or Monte Carlo probability density function (PDF) solver. The LSPRAY solver accommodates the use of an unstructured mesh with mixed triangular, quadrilateral, and/or tetrahedral elements in the gas-phase solvers. It is used specifically for fuel sprays within gas turbine combustors, but it has many other uses. The spray model used in LSPRAY provided favorable results when applied to stratified-charge rotary combustion (Wankel) engines and several other confined and unconfined spray flames. The source code will be available with the National Combustion Code (NCC) as a complete package.

Raju, Manthena S.↗
NASA NTRS1998

EUPDF: Eulerian Monte Carlo Probability Density Function Solver for Applications With Parallel Computing, Unstructured Grids, and Sprays

The success of any solution methodology used in the study of gas-turbine combustor flows depends a great deal on how well it can model the various complex and rate controlling processes associated with the spray's turbulent transport, mixing, chemical kinetics, evaporation, and spreading rates, as well as convective and radiative heat transfer and other phenomena. The phenomena to be modeled, which are controlled by these processes, often strongly interact with each other at different times and locations. In particular, turbulence plays an important role in determining the rates of mass and heat transfer, chemical reactions, and evaporation in many practical combustion devices. The influence of turbulence in a diffusion flame manifests itself in several forms, ranging from the so-called wrinkled, or stretched, flamelets regime to the distributed combustion regime, depending upon how turbulence interacts with various flame scales. Conventional turbulence models have difficulty treating highly nonlinear reaction rates. A solution procedure based on the composition joint probability density function (PDF) approach holds the promise of modeling various important combustion phenomena relevant to practical combustion devices (such as extinction, blowoff limits, and emissions predictions) because it can account for nonlinear chemical reaction rates without making approximations. In an attempt to advance the state-of-the-art in multidimensional numerical methods, we at the NASA Lewis Research Center extended our previous work on the PDF method to unstructured grids, parallel computing, and sprays. EUPDF, which was developed by M.S. Raju of Nyma, Inc., was designed to be massively parallel and could easily be coupled with any existing gas-phase and/or spray solvers. EUPDF can use an unstructured mesh with mixed triangular, quadrilateral, and/or tetrahedral elements. The application of the PDF method showed favorable results when applied to several supersonic-diffusion flames and spray flames. The EUPDF source code will be available with the National Combustion Code (NCC) as a complete package.

Raju, M. S.↗
NASA NTRS1995

A General Purpose Sparse Matrix Parallel Solvers Package

A general purpose solver package for constructing and solving a range of sparse linear systems arising from discretization of PDEs on unstructured meshes is developed. Once the sparse symmetric complex matrix is constructed, it can be solved by either a preconditioned bi-conjugate gradient solver, a two-stage Cholesky LDLT factorization solver, or a hybrid solver combining the above two methods.

solver sparse matrix solvers package PDE↗