Algorithms for Advection on Hybrid Parallel Computers

Current climate models have a limited ability to increase spatial resolution because numerical stability requires the time step to decrease. I describe initial experiments with two independent but complementary strategies for attacking this time barrier . First I describe computational experiments exploring the performance improvements from overlapping computation and communication on hybrid parallel computers. My test case is explicit time integration of linear advection with constant uniform velocity in a three-dimensional periodic domain. I present results for Fortran implementations using various combinations of MPI, OpenMP, and CUDA, with and without overlap of computation and communication. Second I describe a semi-Lagrangian method for tracer transport that is stable for arbitrary Courant numbers, along with a parallel implementation discretized on the cubed sphere. It shows optimal accuracy at Courant numbers of 10-20, more than an order of magnitude higher than explicit methods. Finally I describe the development and stability analyses of the time integrators and advection methods I used for my experiments. I develop explicit single-step methods with stability up to Courant numbers of one in each dimension, hybrid explicit-implict methods with stability for arbitrary Courant numbers, and interpolation operators that enable the arbitrary stability of semi-Lagrangian methods

A Parallel Mesh-Adaptive Framework for Hyperbolic Conservation Laws

We report on the development of a computational framework for the parallel, mesh-adaptive solution of systems of hyperbolic conservation laws like the time-dependent Euler equations in compressible gas dynamics or Magneto-Hydrodynamics (MHD) and similar models in plasma physics. Local mesh refinement is realized by the recursive bisection of grid blocks along each spatial dimension, implemented numerical schemes include standard finite-differences as well as shock-capturing central schemes, both in connection with Runge-Kutta type integrators. Parallel execution is achieved through a configurable hybrid of POSIX-multi-threading and MPI-distribution with dynamic load balancing. One- two- and three-dimensional test computations for the Euler equations have been carried out and show good parallel scaling behavior. The Racoon framework is currently used to study the formation of singularities in plasmas and fluids.Comment: late submissio

Development of a multiblock solver utilizing the lattice Boltzmann and traditional finite difference methods for fluid flow problems

This dissertation develops the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) as a strong alternative to traditional numerical methods for solving incompressible fluid flow problems. The LBM outperforms traditional methods on a standalone basis for certain problem cases while for other cases it can be coupled with the traditional methods using domain decomposition. This brings about a composite numerical scheme which associates the efficient numerical attributes of each individual method in the composite scheme with a particular region in the flow domain. Coupled lattice Boltzmann-traditional finite difference procedures are developed and evaluated for CPU time reduction and accuracy of standard test cases. The standard test cases are numerical solutions of the two-dimensional unsteady and steady convection-diffusion equations and two-dimensional steady laminar incompressible flows represented by the backward-facing step flow problem and the flow problem around a cylinder. Multiblock Cartesian grids and hybrid Cartesian-cylindrical grid systems are employed with the composite numerical scheme. A cache-optimized lattice Boltzmann technique is developed to utilize the full computational strength of the LBM. The LBM is an explicit time-marching method and therefore has a time step size limitation. The time step size is limited by the grid spacing and the Mach number. A lattice Boltzmann simulation necessarily requires a low Mach number since it relates to the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations in the low Mach number limit. For steady state problems, the smaller time step results in slow convergence. To improve the time step limitation imposed by the grid spacing, an improved LBM that adopts a new numerical discretization for the advection term has been developed and the results were computed for a convection-diffusion equation and compared with the original LBM. The performance of traditional finite difference methods based on the alternating direction implicit scheme for the convection-diffusion equation and the vorticity-stream function method for the laminar incompressible flow problems is evaluated against the composite numerical scheme. The composite numerical scheme is shown to take lesser CPU time for solving the given benchmark problems