Kinetic Solvers with Adaptive Mesh in Phase Space

An Adaptive Mesh in Phase Space (AMPS) methodology has been developed for solving multi-dimensional kinetic equations by the discrete velocity method. A Cartesian mesh for both configuration (r) and velocity (v) spaces is produced using a tree of trees data structure. The mesh in r-space is automatically generated around embedded boundaries and dynamically adapted to local solution properties. The mesh in v-space is created on-the-fly for each cell in r-space. Mappings between neighboring v-space trees implemented for the advection operator in configuration space. We have developed new algorithms for solving the full Boltzmann and linear Boltzmann equations with AMPS. Several recent innovations were used to calculate the discrete Boltzmann collision integral with dynamically adaptive mesh in velocity space: importance sampling, multi-point projection method, and the variance reduction method. We have developed an efficient algorithm for calculating the linear Boltzmann collision integral for elastic and inelastic collisions in a Lorentz gas. New AMPS technique has been demonstrated for simulations of hypersonic rarefied gas flows, ion and electron kinetics in weakly ionized plasma, radiation and light particle transport through thin films, and electron streaming in semiconductors. We have shown that AMPS allows minimizing the number of cells in phase space to reduce computational cost and memory usage for solving challenging kinetic problems

Parallel algorithms for computational fluid dynamics on unstructured meshes

La simulació numèrica directa (DNS) de fluxos complexes és actualment una utopia per la majoria d'aplicacions industrials ja que els requeriments computacionals son massa elevats. Donat un flux, la diferència entre els recursos computacionals necessaris i els disponibles és cobreix mitjançant la modelització/simplificació d'alguns termes de les equacions originals que regeixen el seu comportament. El creixement continuat dels recursos computacionals disponibles, principalment en forma de super-ordinadors, contribueix a reduir la part del flux que és necessari aproximar. De totes maneres, obtenir la eficiència esperada dels nous super-ordinadors no és una tasca senzilla i, per aquest motiu, part de la recerca en el camp de la Mecànica de Fluids Computacional es centra en aquest objectiu. En aquest sentit, algunes contribucions s'han presentat en el marc d'aquesta tesis. El primer objectiu va ser el desenvolupament d'un codi de CFD de propòsit general i paral·lel, basat en la metodologia de volums finits en malles no estructurades, per resoldre problemes de multi-física. Aquest codi, anomenat TermoFluids (TF), té un disseny orientat a objectes i pensat per ser usat de forma altament eficient en els super-ordinadors actuals. Amb el temps, ha esdevingut pel grup una eina fonamental en projectes tant de recerca bàsica com d'interès industrial. En el context d'aquesta tesis, el treball s'ha focalitzat en el desenvolupament de dos de les llibreries més bàsiques de TermoFluids: i) La Basics Objects Library (BOL), que es una plataforma de software sobre la qual estan programades la resta de llibreries del codi, i que conté els mètodes algebraics i geomètrics fonamentals per la implementació paral·lela dels algoritmes de discretització, ii) la Linear Solvers Library (LSL), que conté un gran nombre de mètodes per resoldre els sistemes d'equacions lineals derivats de les discretitzacions. El primer capítol d'aquesta tesi conté les principals idees subjacents al disseny i la implementació de la BOL i la LSL, juntament amb alguns exemples i algunes aplicacions industrials. En els capítols posteriors hi ha una explicació detallada de solvers específics per algunes aplicacions concretes. En el segon capítol, es presenta un solver paral·lel i directe per la resolució de l'equació de Poisson per casos en els quals una de les direccions del domini té condicions d'homogeneïtat. En la simulació de fluxos incompressibles, l'equació de Poisson es resol almenys una vegada en cada pas de temps, convertint-se en una de les parts més costoses i difícils de paral·lelitzar del codi. El mètode que proposem és una combinació d'una descomposició directa de Schur (DDS) i una diagonalització de Fourier. La darrera descompon el sistema original en un conjunt de sub-sistemes 2D independents que es resolen mitjançant l'algorisme DDS. Atès que no s'imposen restriccions a les direccions no periòdiques del domini, aquest mètode és aplicable a la resolució de problemes discretitzats mitjançat l'extrusió de malles 2D no estructurades. L'escalabilitat d'aquest mètode ha estat provada amb èxit amb un màxim de 8192 CPU per malles de fins a ~10⁹ volums de control. En el darrer capitol capítol, es presenta un mètode de resolució per l'equació de Transport de Boltzmann (BTE). La estratègia emprada es basa en el mètode d'Ordenades Discretes i pot ser aplicat en discretitzacions no estructurades. El flux per a cada ordenada angular es resol amb un mètode de substitució equivalent a la resolució d'un sistema lineal triangular. La naturalesa seqüencial d'aquest procés fa de la paral·lelització de l'algoritme el principal repte. Diversos algorismes de substitució han estat analitzats, esdevenint una de les heurístiques proposades la millor opció en totes les situacions analitzades, amb excel·lents resultats. Els testos d'eficiència paral·lela s'han realitzat usant fins a 2560 CPU.Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS) of complex flows is currently an utopia for most of industrial applications because computational requirements are too high. For a given flow, the gap between the required and the available computing resources is covered by modeling/simplifying of some terms of the original equations. On the other hand, the continuous growth of the computing power of modern supercomputers contributes to reduce this gap, reducing hence the unresolved physics that need to be attempted with approximated models. This growth, widely relies on parallel computing technologies. However, getting the expected performance from new complex computing systems is becoming more and more difficult, and therefore part of the CFD research is focused on this goal. Regarding to it, some contributions are presented in this thesis. The first objective was to contribute to the development of a general purpose multi-physics CFD code. referred to as TermoFluids (TF). TF is programmed following the object oriented paradigm and designed to run in modern parallel computing systems. It is also intensively involved in many different projects ranging from basic research to industry applications. Besides, one of the strengths of TF is its good parallel performance demonstrated in several supercomputers. In the context of this thesis, the work was focused on the development of two of the most basic libraries that compose TF: I) the Basic Objects Library (BOL), which is a parallel unstructured CFD application programming interface, on the top of which the rest of libraries that compose TF are written, ii) the Linear Solvers Library (LSL) containing many different algorithms to solve the linear systems arising from the discretization of the equations. The first chapter of this thesis contains the main ideas underlying the design and the implementation of the BOL and LSL libraries, together with some examples and some industrial applications. A detailed description of some application-specific linear solvers included in the LSL is carried out in the following chapters. In the second chapter, a parallel direct Poisson solver restricted to problems with one uniform periodic direction is presented. The Poisson equation is solved, at least, once per time-step when modeling incompressible flows, becoming one of the most time consuming and difficult to parallelize parts of the code. The solver here proposed is a combination of a direct Schur-complement based decomposition (DSD) and a Fourier diagonalization. The latter decomposes the original system into a set of mutually independent 2D sub-systems which are solved by means of the DSD algorithm. Since no restrictions are imposed in the non-periodic directions, the overall algorithm is well-suited for solving problems discretized on extruded 2D unstructured meshes. The scalability of the solver has been successfully tested using up to 8192 CPU cores for meshes with up to 10 9 grid points. In the last chapter, a solver for the Boltzmann Transport Equation (BTE) is presented. It can be used to solve radiation phenomena interacting with flows. The solver is based on the Discrete Ordinates Method and can be applied to unstructured discretizations. The flux for each angular ordinate is swept across the computational grid, within a source iteration loop that accounts for the coupling between the different ordinates. The sequential nature of the sweep process makes the parallelization of the overall algorithm the most challenging aspect. Several parallel sweep algorithms, which represent different options of interleaving communications and calculations, are analyzed. One of the heuristics proposed consistently stands out as the best option in all the situations analyzed. With this algorithm, good scalability results have been achieved regarding both weak and strong speedup tests with up to 2560 CPUs

Adaptive tree multigrids and simplified spherical harmonics approximation in deterministic neutral and charged particle transport

A new deterministic three-dimensional neutral and charged particle transport code, MultiTrans, has been developed. In the novel approach, the adaptive tree multigrid technique is used in conjunction with simplified spherical harmonics approximation of the Boltzmann transport equation. The development of the new radiation transport code started in the framework of the Finnish boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT) project. Since the application of the MultiTrans code to BNCT dose planning problems, the testing and development of the MultiTrans code has continued in conventional radiotherapy and reactor physics applications. In this thesis, an overview of different numerical radiation transport methods is first given. Special features of the simplified spherical harmonics method and the adaptive tree multigrid technique are then reviewed. The usefulness of the new MultiTrans code has been indicated by verifying and validating the code performance for different types of neutral and charged particle transport problems, reported in separate publications.Väitöstutkimuksen tuloksena on kehitetty uusi tietokoneohjelma varauksettomien ja varauksellisten hiukkasten kuten neutronien, fotonien ja elektronien etenemisen mallinnukseen. MultiTrans-ohjelma mahdollistaa säteilyn etenemisen mallinnuksen mielivaltaisessa 3D-geometriassa. Laskentageometria generoidaan suoraan CAD-mallista, jolloin voidaan käyttää moderneja suunnittelutyökaluja. Laskentaverkko on puumaisesti itsetarkentuva materiaalien rajapinnoilla, joissa hila muodostuu automaattisesti hienojakoisimmaksi. Näin monimutkainenkin geometria voidaan kuvata yksityiskohtaisesti merkittävästi pienemmällä hilapisteiden määrällä verrattuna tasajakoiseen hilaan. Laskentaverkon puumaisuudesta seuraa että ongelmalle löytyy aina myös karkeammat hilaesitykset. Tällöin kuljetusyhtälön iteratiivisessa ratkaisussa voidaan käyttää ns. moniverkkotekniikkaa jossa ongelma ratkaistaan ensin hyvin karkeassa esityksessä ja tätä ratkaisua käytetään alkuarvauksena yhä hienojakoisemmissa hiloissa. Näin nopeutetaan iteratiivisen ratkaisun löytymistä huomattavasti. Myös laskentaverkon puumaisuus ja sen myötä hilapisteiden vähäisempi määrä nopeuttaa iteratiivista ratkaisua. Kyseessä on tiettävästä ensimmäinen puumoniverkkotekniikan sovellutus säteilyn etenemisen mallinnukseen. MultiTransia on testattu erilaisten sädehoitojen (esimerkiksi VTT:n Otaniemen ydintutkimusreaktorilla annettavan boorineutronikaappaushoidon) sekä reaktorifysiikan laskentaongelmiin. Ongelmaksi on jossain määrin osoittautunut säteilyn kulkeutumisyhtälölle käytetty yksinkertaistettu palloharmoninen kehitelmä, jonka tarkkuus ei kaikissa tapauksissa vastaa asetettuja vaatimuksia

The physics of streamer discharge phenomena

In this review we describe a transient type of gas discharge which is commonly called a streamer discharge, as well as a few related phenomena in pulsed discharges. Streamers are propagating ionization fronts with self-organized field enhancement at their tips that can appear in gases at (or close to) atmospheric pressure. They are the precursors of other discharges like sparks and lightning, but they also occur in for example corona reactors or plasma jets which are used for a variety of plasma chemical purposes. When enough space is available, streamers can also form at much lower pressures, like in the case of sprite discharges high up in the atmosphere. We explain the structure and basic underlying physics of streamer discharges, and how they scale with gas density. We discuss the chemistry and applications of streamers, and describe their two main stages in detail: inception and propagation. We also look at some other topics, like interaction with flow and heat, related pulsed discharges, and electron runaway and high energy radiation. Finally, we discuss streamer simulations and diagnostics in quite some detail. This review is written with two purposes in mind: First, we describe recent results on the physics of streamer discharges, with a focus on the work performed in our groups. We also describe recent developments in diagnostics and simulations of streamers. Second, we provide background information on the above-mentioned aspects of streamers. This review can therefore be used as a tutorial by researchers starting to work in the field of streamer physics.Comment: 89 pages, 29 figure

Institute for Computational Mechanics in Propulsion (ICOMP)

The Institute for Computational Mechanics in Propulsion (ICOMP) is a combined activity of Case Western Reserve University, Ohio Aerospace Institute (OAI) and NASA Lewis. The purpose of ICOMP is to develop techniques to improve problem solving capabilities in all aspects of computational mechanics related to propulsion. The activities at ICOMP during 1991 are described

Efficient parallel solver for high-speed rarefied gas flow using GSIS

Recently, the general synthetic iterative scheme (GSIS) has been proposed to find the steady-state solution of the Boltzmann equation in the whole range of gas rarefaction, where its fast-converging and asymptotic-preserving properties lead to the significant reduction of iteration numbers and spatial cells in the near-continuum flow regime. However, the efficiency and accuracy of GSIS has only been demonstrated in two-dimensional problems with small numbers of spatial cell and discrete velocities. Here, a large-scale parallel computing strategy is designed to extend the GSIS to three-dimensional high-speed flow problems. Since the GSIS involves the calculation of the mesoscopic kinetic equation which is defined in six-dimensional phase-space, and the macroscopic high-temperature Navier-Stokes-Fourier equations in three-dimensional physical space, the proper partition of the spatial and velocity spaces, and the allocation of CPU cores to the mesoscopic and macroscopic solvers, are the keys to improving the overall computational efficiency. These factors are systematically tested to achieve optimal performance, up to 100 billion spatial and velocity grids. For hypersonic flows around the Apollo reentry capsule, the X38-like vehicle, and the space station, our parallel solver can get the converged solution within one hour

MINARET or the quest towards the use of time-dependent neutron transport solvers for nuclear core calculations on a regular basis

International audienceThe present paper deals with the resolution of the time-dependent neutron transport equation that is involved in the field of nuclear safety studies. Through the presentation of the newly implemented kinetic module in the MINARET solver [24] (developed at CEA in the framework of the APOLLO3\registered $$ project), we aim first of all at presenting a brief and comprehensive overview of the most widespread resolution techniques employed nowadays in neutron transport industrial codes. Given that the main obstacle in the use of this type of accurate solver on a regular basis relies in the long computing times, MINARET has been used in the present work as a support to rigorously quantify the efficiency of the most common sequential and parallel acceleration techniques that are currently used in this field. An important part of the paper will be devoted to study the performances of an acceleration method that has never been considered before in the resolution of this equation, which is the parallelization of the time variable. In this regard, the parareal in time algorithm (a domain decomposition method for the time variable, [20]) has been implemented to explore its potentialities in this particular application