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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1996

Global Load Balancing with Parallel Mesh Adaption on Distributed-Memory Systems

Dynamic mesh adaption on unstructured grids is a powerful tool for efficiently computing unsteady problems to resolve solution features of interest. Unfortunately, this causes load imbalance among processors on a parallel machine. This paper describes the parallel implementation of a tetrahedral mesh adaption scheme and a new global load balancing method. A heuristic remapping algorithm is presented that assigns partitions to processors such that the redistribution cost is minimized. Results indicate that the parallel performance of the mesh adaption code depends on the nature of the adaption region and show a 35.5X speedup on 64 processors of an SP2 when 35% of the mesh is randomly adapted. For large-scale scientific computations, our load balancing strategy gives almost a sixfold reduction in solver execution times over non-balanced loads. Furthermore, our heuristic remapper yields processor assignments that are less than 3% off the optimal solutions but requires only 1% of the computational time.

Biswas, Rupak↗
NASA NTRS1996

Global Load Balancing with Parallel Mesh Adaption on Distributed-Memory Systems

Dynamic mesh adaptation on unstructured grids is a powerful tool for efficiently computing unsteady problems to resolve solution features of interest. Unfortunately, this causes load inbalances among processors on a parallel machine. This paper described the parallel implementation of a tetrahedral mesh adaption scheme and a new global load balancing method. A heuristic remapping algorithm is presented that assigns partitions to processors such that the redistribution coast is minimized. Results indicate that the parallel performance of the mesh adaption code depends on the nature of the adaption region and show a 35.5X speedup on 64 processors of an SP2 when 35 percent of the mesh is randomly adapted. For large scale scientific computations, our load balancing strategy gives an almost sixfold reduction in solver execution times over non-balanced loads. Furthermore, our heuristic remappier yields processor assignments that are less than 3 percent of the optimal solutions, but requires only 1 percent of the computational time.

Biswas, Rupak↗
NASA NTRS1998

Analysis of Linear Aerospike Plume Induced X-33 Base Heating Environment

Computational analysis is conducted to study the effect of an linear aerospike engine plume on the X-33 base-heating environment during ascent flight. To properly account for the freestream-body interaction and to allow for potential plume-induced flow-separation, the thermo-flowfield of the entire vehicle at several trajectory points is computed. A sequential grid-refinement technique is used in conjunction with solution-adaptive, patched, and embedded grid methods to limit the model to a manageable size. The computational methodology is based on a three-dimensional, finite-difference, viscous flow, chemically reacting, pressure-based computational fluid dynamics formulation, and a three-dimensional, finite-volume, spectral-line based weighted-sum-of-gray-gases absorption, computational radiation heat transfer formulation. The computed forebody and afterbody surface pressure coefficients and base pressure characteristic curves are compared with those of a cold-flow test. The predicted convective and radiative base-heat fluxes, the effect of base-bleed, and the potential of plume-induced flow separation are presented.

Wang, Ten-See↗
NASA NTRS2015

Visualization and Quantification of Rotor Tip Vortices in Helicopter Flows

Helicopter aeromechanics encompasses a highly vortical flow field. The vortices generated at each blade tip contain unsteady, complex, three-dimensional structures, which interact with each other, other blades, the fuselage and various components of the helicopter. It is crucial to understand vortex kinematics and their subsequent dynamic evolution. Much research has been devoted to the understanding of helicopter vortex dynamics, including a number of experimental studies.1-6 In May 2010 Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) measurements of a full-scale UH-60A rotor were acquired in the National Full-Scale Aerodynamics Complex (NFAC) 40- by 80-Foot Wind Tunnel.1 These measurements were taken at a plane just downstream of the advancing blade in the vicinity of the blade tip—the so-called PIV plane. The resulting PIV data were then processed using an ensemble-average approach to create graphical representations of the vortical wake velocity and vorticity fields, which, in turn, have enhanced the understanding of rotorcraft vortical wake flow field physics and have provided a more detailed validation of vortical wake computer simulations.7 A common approach used to analyze flow field features is to compute and plot color contour maps of various scalar quantities such as pressure, velocity magnitude and vorticity magnitude. For example, the color map of the vorticity magnitude is typically used to determine vortical flow structure. With this approach the vortex core may appear larger or smaller, depending on the contour levels that are selected. Thus, the resulting visualization is sensitive to user-specified contour levels. For vortex core radius measurements, it is more accurate to calculate the vortex core radius using the cross-flow velocity profile across the vortex core. The task of extracting the cross-flow velocity profile can be time consuming with existing tools since the user needs to manually select the core center then specify sampling points along the profile axis. The task becomes even more challenging when the associated grid system uses AMR (Adaptive Mesh Refinement) where the profile axis could span multiple grid blocks. There are a number of existing techniques for profiling of vortex core attributes;8-9 however, these techniques are not fully automatic in that the user still needs to select the vortex core center to compute the cross-flow velocity profile. The present study introduces a new color map scheme that is based on the vortex core radius, which is fully automatic and does not require user intervention. Analysis and visualization of blade tip vortices on the PIV plane using the proposed new color map scheme are described in Section II. The new approach is evaluated using two case studies, which are described in Section III. The paper ends with a summary in Section IV.

Quantification↗
NASA NTRS2004

Spaceflight Operations Services Grid (SOSG)

In an effort to adapt existing space flight operations services to new emerging Grid technologies we are developing a Grid-based prototype space flight operations Grid. This prototype is based on the operational services being provided to the International Space Station's Payload operations located at the Marshall Space Flight Center, Alabama. The prototype services will be Grid or Web enabled and provided to four user communities through portal technology. Users will have the opportunity to assess the value and feasibility of Grid technologies to their specific areas or disciplines. In this presentation descriptions of the prototype development, User-based services, Grid-based services and status of the project will be presented. Expected benefits, findings and observations (if any) to date will also be discussed. The focus of the presentation will be on the project in general, status to date and future plans. The End-use services to be included in the prototype are voice, video, telemetry, commanding, collaboration tools and visualization among others. Security is addressed throughout the project and is being designed into the Grid technologies and standards development. The project is divided into three phases. Phase One establishes the baseline User-based services required for space flight operations listed above. Phase Two involves applying Gridlweb technologies to the User-based services and development of portals for access by users. Phase Three will allow NASA and end users to evaluate the services and determine the future of the technology as applied to space flight operational services. Although, Phase One, which includes the development of the quasi-operational User-based services of the prototype, development will be completed by March 2004, the application of Grid technologies to these services will have just begun. We will provide status of the Grid technologies to the individual User-based services. This effort will result in an extensible environment that incorporates existing and new spaceflight services into a standards-based framework providing current and future NASA programs with cost savings and new and evolvable methods to conduct science. This project will demonstrate how the use of new programming paradigms such as web and grid services can provide three significant benefits to the cost-effective delivery of spaceflight services. They will enable applications to operate more efficiently by being able to utilize pooled resources. They will also permit the reuse of common services to rapidly construct new and more powerful applications. Finally they will permit easy and secure access to services via a combination of grid and portal technology by a distributed user community consisting of NASA operations centers, scientists, the educational community and even the general population as outreach. The approach will be to deploy existing mission support applications such as the Telescience Resource Kit (TReK) and new applications under development, such as the Grid Video Distribution System (GViDS), together with existing grid applications and services such as high-performance computing and visualization services provided by NASA s Information Power Grid (IPG) in the MSFC s Payload Operations Integration Center (POIC) HOSC Annex. Once the initial applications have been moved to the grid, a process will begin to apply the new programming paradigms to integrate them where possible. For example, with GViDS, instead of viewing the Distribution service as an application that must run on a single node, the new approach is to build it such that it can be dispatched across a pool of resources in response to dynamic loads. To make this a reality, reusable services will be critical, such as a brokering service to locate appropriate resource within the pool. This brokering service can then be used by other applications such as the TReK. To expand further, if the GViDS application is constructed using a services-based mel, then other applications such as the Video Auditorium can then use GViDS as a service to easily incorporate these video streams into a collaborative conference. Finally, as these applications are re-factored into this new services-based paradigm, the construction of portals to integrate them will be a simple process. As a result, portals can be tailored to meet the requirements of specific user communities.

Bradford, Robert N.↗
NASA NTRS2004

Developing parallel GeoFEST(P) using the PYRAMID AMR library

The PYRAMID parallel unstructured adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) library has been coupled with the GeoFEST geophysical finite element simulation tool to support parallel active tectonics simulations. Specifically, we have demonstrated modeling of coseismic and postseismic surface displacement due to a simulated Earthquake for the Landers system of interacting faults in Southern California. The new software demonstrated a 25-times resolution improvement and a 4-times reduction in time to solution over the sequential baseline milestone case. Simulations on workstations using a few tens of thousands of stress displacement finite elements can now be expanded to multiple millions of elements with greater than 98% scaled efficiency on various parallel platforms over many hundreds of processors. Our most recent work has demonstrated that we can dynamically adapt the computational grid as stress grows on a fault. In this paper, we will describe the major issues and challenges associated with coupling these two programs to create GeoFEST(P). Performance and visualization results will also be described.

adaptive mesh refinement (AMR)↗
NASA NTRS1998

Dynamic Load Balancing for Adaptive Meshes using Symmetric Broadcast Networks

Many scientific applications involve grids that lack a uniform underlying structure. These applications are often dynamic in the sense that the grid structure significantly changes between successive phases of execution. In parallel computing environments, mesh adaptation of grids through selective refinement/coarsening has proven to be an effective approach. However, achieving load balance while minimizing inter-processor communication and redistribution costs is a difficult problem. Traditional dynamic load balancers are mostly inadequate because they lack a global view across processors. In this paper, we compare a novel load balancer that utilizes symmetric broadcast networks (SBN) to a successful global load balancing environment (PLUM) created to handle adaptive unstructured applications. Our experimental results on the IBM SP2 demonstrate that performance of the proposed SBN load balancer is comparable to results achieved under PLUM.

Das, Sajal K.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Numerical simulation of rotorcraft

The objective of the research is to develop and validate accurate, user-oriented viscous CFD codes (with inviscid options) for three-dimensional, unsteady aerodynamic flows about arbitrary rotorcraft configurations. Unsteady, three-dimensional Euler and Navier-Stokes codes are developed, adapted, and extended to rotor-body combinations. Flow solvers are coupled with zonal grid topologies, including rotating and nonrotating blocks. Special grid clustering and wave-fitting techniques were developed to capture low-level radiating acoustic waves. Significant progress was made in computing the propagation of acoustic waves due to the interaction of a concentrated vortex and a helicopter airfoil. The need for higher-order schemes was firmly established in relatively inexpensive two-dimensional calculations. In three dimensions, the number of grid points required to capture the low-level acoustic waves becomes very large, so that large supercomputer memory becomes essential. Good agreement was obtained between the numerical results obtained with a thin-layer Navier-Stokes code and experimental data from a model rotor. In addition, several nonrotating configurations that are sometimes proposed to simulate rotor blade tips in conventional wind tunnels were examined, and the complex flow around the radical tip shape of the world's fastest helicopter is under investigation. These studies demonstrate the flexibility and power of CFD to gain physical insight, study novel ideas, and examine various possibilities that might be difficult or impossible to set up in physical experiments. As a prelude to studies of rotor-body aerodynamic interactions, a preliminary grid topology and moving-interface strategy were developed. A new Euler/Navier-Stokes code using these techniques computes the vortical wake directly, rather than modeling it, as in most previous rotorcraft studies. Several hover cases were run for conventional and advanced-geometry blades. Numerical schemes using multi-zones and/or adaptive grids appear to be necessary to simulate the complex vortical flows in rotor wakes.

Mccroskey, William J.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Unstructured adaptive mesh computations of rotorcraft high-speed impulsive noise

A new method is developed for modeling helicopter high-speed impulsive (HSI) noise. The aerodynamics and acoustics near the rotor blade tip are computed by solving the Euler equations on an unstructured grid. A stationary Kirchhoff surface integral is then used to propagate these acoustic signals to the far field. The near-field Euler solver uses a solution-adaptive grid scheme to improve the resolution of the acoustic signal. Grid points are locally added and/or deleted from the mesh at each adaptive step. An important part of this procedure is the choice of an appropriate error indicator. The error indicator is computed from the flow field solution and determines the regions for mesh coarsening and refinement. Computed results for HSI noise compare favorably with experimental data for three different hovering rotor cases.

Strawn, Roger↗
NASA NTRS1986

Uniformly high order accurate essentially non-oscillatory schemes 3

In this paper (a third in a series) the construction and the analysis of essentially non-oscillatory shock capturing methods for the approximation of hyperbolic conservation laws are presented. Also presented is a hierarchy of high order accurate schemes which generalizes Godunov's scheme and its second order accurate MUSCL extension to arbitrary order of accuracy. The design involves an essentially non-oscillatory piecewise polynomial reconstruction of the solution from its cell averages, time evolution through an approximate solution of the resulting initial value problem, and averaging of this approximate solution over each cell. The reconstruction algorithm is derived from a new interpolation technique that when applied to piecewise smooth data gives high-order accuracy whenever the function is smooth but avoids a Gibbs phenomenon at discontinuities. Unlike standard finite difference methods this procedure uses an adaptive stencil of grid points and consequently the resulting schemes are highly nonlinear.

Harten, A.↗
NASA NTRS1987

Uniformly high order accurate essentially non-oscillatory schemes. III

In the present continuation of development and analysis efforts towards essentially nonoscillatory shock-capturing approximations of hyperbolic conservation laws, the Godunov (1959) scheme and its MUSCL second-order-accurate extension are generalized to an arbitrary order of accuracy by means of a hierarchy of uniformly high-order-accurate schemes. The design method, which involves the solution's essentially nonoscillatory piecewise polynomial reconstruction on the basis of its cell averages, followed by time-evolution through an approximate solution of the resulting initial value problem and its averaging over each cell, employs an adaptive stencil of grid points to yield schemes that are highly nonlinear.

Harten, Ami↗
NASA NTRS1991

Sonic boom predictions for three generic models using a solution-adaptive full-potential code

The TranAir full-potential code, which utilizes a solution-adaptive, unstructured Cartesian grid, was used to compute near-field pressure signatures of three generic supersonic configurations: a cone-cylinder, a low aspect ratio rectangular wing, and a delta-wing/body. TranAir pressure signatures are extrapolated to near- and mid-field distances using a quasi-linear extrapolation technique. Results are compared with existing wind tunnel data and, where possible, with extrapolated experimental data and quasi-linear Whitham-method results. In general, the extrapolated TranAir data is in good agreement with experimental and Whitham-method pressure signatures, but peak pressures are slightly under-predicted. It is thought that computed data obtained too near to the model was the main reason for the discrepancies. Flow-field grid structure was also found to be important in obtaining accurate offbody data.

Madson, Michael D.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Computational methods in the prediction of advanced subsonic and supersonic propeller induced noise: ASSPIN users' manual

This document describes the computational aspects of propeller noise prediction in the time domain and the use of high speed propeller noise prediction program ASSPIN (Advanced Subsonic and Supersonic Propeller Induced Noise). These formulations are valid in both the near and far fields. Two formulations are utilized by ASSPIN: (1) one is used for subsonic portions of the propeller blade; and (2) the second is used for transonic and supersonic regions on the blade. Switching between the two formulations is done automatically. ASSPIN incorporates advanced blade geometry and surface pressure modelling, adaptive observer time grid strategies, and contains enhanced numerical algorithms that result in reduced computational time. In addition, the ability to treat the nonaxial inflow case has been included.

Dunn, M. H.↗
NASA NTRS1992

A numerical study of three-dimensional surface tension driven convection with fre surface deformation

The steady three-dimensional thermocapillary motion with a deformable free surface is studied numerically in both normal and zero gravity environments. Flow configurations consist of a square cavity heated from the side. In the analysis, the free surface is allowed to deform and the grid distribution is adapted to the surface deformation. The divergence-free condition is satisfied by using a dual time-stepping approach in the numerical scheme. Convective flux derivatives are evaluated using a third-order accurate upwind-biased flux-split differencing technique. The numerical solutions at the midplane of the square cavity are compared with the results from two-dimensional calculations. In addition, numerial results for cases under zero and normal gravity conditions are compared. Significantly different flow structures and surface deformation have been observed. The comparison of calculated results will be compared with experimental data in the updated version of this paper.

Hsieh, Kwang-Chung↗
NASA NTRS1992

Computational fluid dynamics '92; Proceedings of the European Computational Fluid Dynamics Conference, 1st, Brussels, Belgium, Sep. 7-11, 1992. Vols. 1 & 2

A conference was held on Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and produced related papers. Topics included CFD algorithms, transition and turbulent flow, hypersonic reacting flow, incompressible flow, two phase flow and combustion, internal flow, compressible flow, grid generation and adaption, boundary layers, environmental and industrial applications, and non-Newtonian flow.

Hirsch, Charles↗
NASA NTRS1994

Sonic boom predictions using a solution-adaptive full-potential code

The TranAir full-potential code, which utilizes a solution-adaptive, unstructured Cartesian grid, was used to compute near-field pressure signatures of three generic geometries: (1) a cone-cylinder; (2) a low aspect ratio rectangular wing; and (3) a delta-wing/body. Pressure signatures computed by TranAir are extrapolated to near- and midfield distances using a quasilinear extrapolation technique. Results are compared with wind-tunnel data and, where possible, with extrapolated wind-tunnel data and Whitham-method results. In general, extrapolated TranAir data is in good agreement with experimental and Whitham-method pressure signatures, but peak pressures are slightly underpredicted. It is felt that data computed too close to the model caused some of the discrepancies. The flowfield grid structure was also found to be an important issue in obtaining accurate off-body data. Results were encouraging enough to proceed with the application of TranAir to conceptual configurations in support of the NASA high speed research program (HSRP).

Madson, Michael D.↗
NASA NTRS1998

Numerical Study of Interaction of a Vortical Density Inhomogeneity with Shock and Expansion Waves

We studied the interaction of a vortical density inhomogeneity (VDI) with shock and expansion waves. We call the VDI the region of concentrated vorticity (vortex) with a density different from that of ambiance. Non-parallel directions of the density gradient normal to the VDI surface and the pressure gradient across a shock wave results in an additional vorticity. The roll-up of the initial round VDI towards a non-symmetrical shape is studied numerically. Numerical modeling of this interaction is performed by a 2-D Euler code. The use of an adaptive unstructured numerical grid makes it possible to obtain high accuracy and capture regions of induced vorticity with a moderate overall number of mesh points. For the validation of the code, the computational results are compared with available experimental results and good agreement is obtained. The interaction of the VDI with a propagating shock wave is studied for a range of initial and induced circulations and obtained flow patterns are presented. The splitting of the VDI develops into the formation of a non-symmetrical vortex pair and not in a set of vortices. A method for the analytical computation of an overall induced circulation Gamma(sub 1) as a result of the interaction of a moving VDI with a number of waves is proposed. Simplified, approximated, expressions for Gamma(sub 1) are derived and their accuracy is discussed. The splitting of the VDI passing through the Prandtl-Meyer expansion wave is studied numerically. The obtained VDI patterns are compared to those for the interaction of the VDI with a propagating shock wave for the same values of initial and induced circulations. These patterns have similar shapes for corresponding time moments.

Povitsky, A.↗
NASA NTRS1997

Tetrahedral and Hexahedral Mesh Adaptation for CFD Problems

This paper presents two unstructured mesh adaptation schemes for problems in computational fluid dynamics. The procedures allow localized grid refinement and coarsening to efficiently capture aerodynamic flow features of interest. The first procedure is for purely tetrahedral grids; unfortunately, repeated anisotropic adaptation may significantly deteriorate the quality of the mesh. Hexahedral elements, on the other hand, can be subdivided anisotropically without mesh quality problems. Furthermore, hexahedral meshes yield more accurate solutions than their tetrahedral counterparts for the same number of edges. Both the tetrahedral and hexahedral mesh adaptation procedures use edge-based data structures that facilitate efficient subdivision by allowing individual edges to be marked for refinement or coarsening. However, for hexahedral adaptation, pyramids, prisms, and tetrahedra are used as buffer elements between refined and unrefined regions to eliminate hanging vertices. Computational results indicate that the hexahedral adaptation procedure is a viable alternative to adaptive tetrahedral schemes.

Biswas, Rupak↗