Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “Matrix-free method”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

Schwarz-Based Algorithms for Compressible Flows

We investigate in this paper the application of Schwarz-based algorithms to compressible flows. First we study the combination of these methods with defect-correction procedures. We then study the effect on the Schwarz-based methods of replacing the explicit treatment of the boundary conditions by an implicit one. In the last part of this paper we study the combination of these methods with Newton-Krylov matrix-free methods. Numerical experiments that show the performance of our approaches are then presented.

Tidriri, M. D.↗

Krylov methods for compressible flows

We investigate the application of Krylov methods to compressible flows, and the effect of implicit boundary conditions on the implicit solution of nonlinear problems. Two defect-correction procedures, namely, approximate factorization (AF) for structured grids and ILU/GMRES for general grids, are considered. Also considered here are Newton-Krylov matrix-free methods that we combined with the use of mixed discretization schemes in the implicitly defined Jacobian and its preconditioner. Numerical experiments that show the performance of our approaches are then presented.

Tidriri, M. D.↗

Efficient Preconditioning of a High-Order Solver for Multiple Physics

This work addresses preconditioning approaches for an implicit high-order solver frame-work applied to multiple physics. The solver is based on a space-time spectral element method and matrix-free Newton-Krylov solver developed at NASA over the recent years. Within this context, most preconditioning methods are impractical, as the computational time and memory requirements scale poorly with increasing polynomial orders. To improve computational efficiency, we first describe a novel entity-based Block Jacobi preconditioner for the continuous-Galerkin solution of the linear-elasticity and linear-shell equations. Second, we introduce a multigrid algorithm to further reduce time-to-solution on stiff cases arising from continuous-and discontinuous-Galerkin discretizations. Results obtained on relevant single-physics reference solutions, demonstrate the feasibility of the methods, paving the way for high-order solutions of fully coupled multi-physics problems.

STMD↗

A Least-Squares Finite Element Method for Electromagnetic Scattering Problems

The least-squares finite element method (LSFEM) is applied to electromagnetic scattering and radar cross section (RCS) calculations. In contrast to most existing numerical approaches, in which divergence-free constraints are omitted, the LSFF-M directly incorporates two divergence equations in the discretization process. The importance of including the divergence equations is demonstrated by showing that otherwise spurious solutions with large divergence occur near the scatterers. The LSFEM is based on unstructured grids and possesses full flexibility in handling complex geometry and local refinement Moreover, the LSFEM does not require any special handling, such as upwinding, staggered grids, artificial dissipation, flux-differencing, etc. Implicit time discretization is used and the scheme is unconditionally stable. By using a matrix-free iterative method, the computational cost and memory requirement for the present scheme is competitive with other approaches. The accuracy of the LSFEM is verified by several benchmark test problems.

Wu, Jie↗

eddy Users Manual

eddy is a collection of tools - nonlinear solvers, meshing, post-processing, visualization, optimization, etc. - for performing scale-resolving simulations of multi-physics applications. The framework is designed to enable advanced R&D on a variety of topics by leveraging a mature capability for scale resolving simulations, and simultaneously be an appropriate tool for application analysis and support. Currently, eddy is at a relatively low technical readiness level (TRL), and users and developers should maintain appropriate expectations. The technical details behind eddy are outlined in several publications which can be consulted for more information [1–10]. The solvers are built around an unstructured high-order capability, and heavily utilize the tensor product sum-factorization approach for efficiency. The unsteady formulation utilizes a fully implicit space-time approach with a matrix-free Newton- Krylov method. A primitive steady-state solver is available for testing purposes, but is not expected to converge for all but simple verification cases. The Navier-Stokes fluid solvers do not support either RANS or hybrid-RANS capability, only LES and wall-modeled LES approaches. All of the solvers within eddy support three modes of operation: a primal solve of the full nonlinear problem, and two linearization approaches of the primal solve - the ad joint and the tangent solution. Details on how to select and use these three modes are outlined in Sec. 3.

Murman, Scott M.↗

Tensor-Product Preconditioners for Higher-Order Space-Time Discontinuous Galerkin Methods

space-time discontinuous-Galerkin spectral-element discretization is presented for direct numerical simulation of the compressible Navier-Stokes equat ions. An efficient solution technique based on a matrix-free Newton-Krylov method is developed in order to overcome the stiffness associated with high solution order. The use of tensor-product basis functions is key to maintaining efficiency at high order. Efficient preconditioning methods are presented which can take advantage of the tensor-product formulation. A diagonalized Alternating-Direction-Implicit (ADI) scheme is extended to the space-time discontinuous Galerkin discretization. A new preconditioner for the compressible Euler/Navier-Stokes equations based on the fast-diagonalization method is also presented. Numerical results demonstrate the effectiveness of these preconditioners for the direct numerical simulation of subsonic turbulent flows.

Diosady, Laslo T.↗

Design of a Variational Multiscale Method for Turbulent Compressible Flows

A spectral-element framework is presented for the simulation of subsonic compressible high-Reynolds-number flows. The focus of the work is maximizing the efficiency of the computational schemes to enable unsteady simulations with a large number of spatial and temporal degrees of freedom. A collocation scheme is combined with optimized computational kernels to provide a residual evaluation with computational cost independent of order of accuracy up to 16th order. The optimized residual routines are used to develop a low-memory implicit scheme based on a matrix-free Newton-Krylov method. A preconditioner based on the finite-difference diagonalized ADI scheme is developed which maintains the low memory of the matrix-free implicit solver, while providing improved convergence properties. Emphasis on low memory usage throughout the solver development is leveraged to implement a coupled space-time DG solver which may offer further efficiency gains through adaptivity in both space and time.

Design↗

Implicit Preconditioning for Explicit Multigrid Solvers on Cut-Cell Cartesian Meshes

This work assesses the effectiveness of linearized implicit Euler preconditioning for multigrid solvers using an unpreconditioned, Jacobian-free Newton Krylov method to converge the linear system of equations. Multigrid convergence rates improve to approximately 0.75 across the cases tested including a Mach 2 supersonic wedge, transonic NACA 0012 airfoil, and ONERA M6 wing. While larger Krylov subspaces increase the convergence rate, they also increase the computational cost, such that 4-8 Krylov vectors often offers the fastest turnaround. Further reductions in computational cost are achieved with a sequential hybrid preconditioner that begins with the explicit multigrid solver before transitioning to the preconditioned algorithm later on. In addition, a novel implementation of dual time stepping is extended to include both common BDF methods as well as high-order implicit Runge-Kutta schemes. This particular formulation, which uses A −1 preconditioning, is amenable to matrix-free solvers, and the L-stable methods are especially suited for meshes with arbitrarily small cut-cells. Asymptotic order of convergence is demonstrated for BDF1, BDF2, SDIRK2, and 3rd-order Radau IIA time integration with unsteady 2D vortex simulations.

ARMD↗

Large-scale computation of incompressible viscous flow by least-squares finite element method

The least-squares finite element method (LSFEM) based on the velocity-pressure-vorticity formulation is applied to large-scale/three-dimensional steady incompressible Navier-Stokes problems. This method can accommodate equal-order interpolations and results in symmetric, positive definite algebraic system which can be solved effectively by simple iterative methods. The first-order velocity-Bernoulli function-vorticity formulation for incompressible viscous flows is also tested. For three-dimensional cases, an additional compatibility equation, i.e., the divergence of the vorticity vector should be zero, is included to make the first-order system elliptic. The simple substitution of the Newton's method is employed to linearize the partial differential equations, the LSFEM is used to obtain discretized equations, and the system of algebraic equations is solved using the Jacobi preconditioned conjugate gradient method which avoids formation of either element or global matrices (matrix-free) to achieve high efficiency. To show the validity of this scheme for large-scale computation, we give numerical results for 2D driven cavity problem at Re = 10000 with 408 x 400 bilinear elements. The flow in a 3D cavity is calculated at Re = 100, 400, and 1,000 with 50 x 50 x 50 trilinear elements. The Taylor-Goertler-like vortices are observed for Re = 1,000.

Jiang, Bo-Nan↗

A least-squares finite element method for 3D incompressible Navier-Stokes equations

The least-squares finite element method (LSFEM) based on the velocity-pressure-vorticity formulation is applied to three-dimensional steady incompressible Navier-Stokes problems. This method can accommodate equal-order interpolations, and results in symmetric, positive definite algebraic system. An additional compatibility equation, i.e., the divergence of vorticity vector should be zero, is included to make the first-order system elliptic. The Newton's method is employed to linearize the partial differential equations, the LSFEM is used to obtain discretized equations, and the system of algebraic equations is solved using the Jacobi preconditioned conjugate gradient method which avoids formation of either element or global matrices (matrix-free) to achieve high efficiency. The flow in a half of 3D cubic cavity is calculated at Re = 100, 400, and 1,000 with 50 x 52 x 25 trilinear elements. The Taylor-Gortler-like vortices are observed at Re = 1,000.

Jiang, Bo-Nan↗

Improved Convergence and Robustness of USM3D Solutions on Mixed-Element Grids

Several improvements to the mixed-elementUSM3Ddiscretization and defect-correction schemes have been made. A new methodology for nonlinear iterations, called the Hierarchical Adaptive Nonlinear Iteration Method, has been developed and implemented. The Hierarchical Adaptive Nonlinear Iteration Method provides two additional hierarchies around a simple and approximate preconditioner of USM3D. The hierarchies are a matrix-free linear solver for the exact linearization of Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations and a nonlinear control of the solution update. Two variants of the Hierarchical Adaptive Nonlinear Iteration Method are assessed on four benchmark cases, namely, a zero-pressure-gradient flat plate, a bump-in-channel configuration, the NACA 0012 airfoil, and a NASA Common Research Model configuration. The new methodology provides a convergence acceleration factor of 1.4 to 13 over the preconditioner-alone method representing the baseline solver technology.

Pandya, Mohagna J.↗

Improved Convergence and Robustness of USM3D Solutions on Mixed-Element Grids

Several improvements to the mixed-element USM3D discretization and defect-correction schemes have been made. A new methodology for nonlinear iterations, called the Hierarchical Adaptive Nonlinear Iteration Method, has been developed and implemented. The Hierarchical Adaptive Nonlinear Iteration Method provides two additional hierarchies around a simple and approximate preconditioner of USM3D. The hierarchies are a matrix-free linear solver for the exact linearization of Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations and a nonlinear control of the solution update. Two variants of the Hierarchical Adaptive Nonlinear Iteration Method are assessed on four benchmark cases, namely, a zero-pressure-gradient flat plate, a bump-in-channel configuration, the NACA 0012 airfoil, and a NASA Common Research Model configuration. The new methodology provides a convergence acceleration factor of 1.4 to 13 over the preconditioner-alone method representing the baseline solver technology.

Pandya, Mohagna J.↗

Globalized Newton-Krylov-Schwarz Algorithms and Software for Parallel Implicit CFD

Implicit solution methods are important in applications modeled by PDEs with disparate temporal and spatial scales. Because such applications require high resolution with reasonable turnaround, "routine" parallelization is essential. The pseudo-transient matrix-free Newton-Krylov-Schwarz (Psi-NKS) algorithmic framework is presented as an answer. We show that, for the classical problem of three-dimensional transonic Euler flow about an M6 wing, Psi-NKS can simultaneously deliver: globalized, asymptotically rapid convergence through adaptive pseudo- transient continuation and Newton's method-, reasonable parallelizability for an implicit method through deferred synchronization and favorable communication-to-computation scaling in the Krylov linear solver; and high per- processor performance through attention to distributed memory and cache locality, especially through the Schwarz preconditioner. Two discouraging features of Psi-NKS methods are their sensitivity to the coding of the underlying PDE discretization and the large number of parameters that must be selected to govern convergence. We therefore distill several recommendations from our experience and from our reading of the literature on various algorithmic components of Psi-NKS, and we describe a freely available, MPI-based portable parallel software implementation of the solver employed here.

Gropp, W. D.↗

Development of a High-Order Space-Time Matrix-Free Adjoint Solver

The growth in computational power and algorithm development in the past few decades has granted the science and engineering community the ability to simulate flows over complex geometries, thus making Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) tools indispensable in analysis and design. Currently, one of the pacing items limiting the utility of CFD for general problems is the prediction of unsteady turbulent ows.1{3 Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) methods, which predict a time-invariant mean flowfield, struggle to provide consistent predictions when encountering even mild separation, such as the side-of-body separation at a wing-body junction. NASA's Transformative Tools and Technologies project is developing both numerical methods and physical modeling approaches to improve the prediction of separated flows. A major focus of this e ort is efficient methods for resolving the unsteady fluctuations occurring in these flows to provide valuable engineering data of the time-accurate flow field for buffet analysis, vortex shedding, etc. This approach encompasses unsteady RANS (URANS), large-eddy simulations (LES), and hybrid LES-RANS approaches such as Detached Eddy Simulations (DES). These unsteady approaches are inherently more expensive than traditional engineering RANS approaches, hence every e ort to mitigate this cost must be leveraged. Arguably, the most cost-effective approach to improve the efficiency of unsteady methods is the optimal placement of the spatial and temporal degrees of freedom (DOF) using solution-adaptive methods.

Adjoint↗

Geometrically Flexible and Efficient Flow Analysis of High Speed Vehicles Via Domain Decomposition, Part 1: Unstructured-Grid Solver for High Speed Flows

The ability to solve the equations governing the hypersonic turbulent flow of a real gas on unstructured grids using a spatially-elliptic, 2nd-order accurate, cell-centered, finite-volume method has been recently implemented in the VULCAN-CFD code. This paper describes the key numerical methods and techniques that were found to be required to robustly obtain accurate solutions to hypersonic flows on non-hex-dominant unstructured grids. The methods and techniques described include: an augmented stencil, weighted linear least squares, cell-average gradient method, a robust multidimensional cell-average gradient-limiter process that is consistent with the augmented stencil of the cell-average gradient method and a cell-face gradient method that contains a cell skewness sensitive damping term derived using hyperbolic diffusion based concepts. A data-parallel matrix-based symmetric Gauss-Seidel point-implicit scheme, used to solve the governing equations, is described and shown to be more robust and efficient than a matrix-free alternative. In addition, a y+ adaptive turbulent wall boundary condition methodology is presented. This boundary condition methodology is deigned to automatically switch between a solve-to-the-wall and a wall-matching-function boundary condition based on the local y+ of the 1st cell center off the wall. The aforementioned methods and techniques are then applied to a series of hypersonic and supersonic turbulent flat plate unit tests to examine the efficiency, robustness and convergence behavior of the implicit scheme and to determine the ability of the solve-to-the-wall and y+ adaptive turbulent wall boundary conditions to reproduce the turbulent law-of-the-wall. Finally, the thermally perfect, chemically frozen, Mach 7.8 turbulent flow of air through a scramjet flow-path is computed and compared with experimental data to demonstrate the robustness, accuracy and convergence behavior of the unstructured-grid solver for a realistic 3-D geometry on a non-hex-dominant grid.

White, Jeffery A.↗