Department of Aerospace Engineering, University of Glasgow
Abstract
The parallel execution of an aerodynamic simulation code on a non-dedicated, heterogeneous
cluster of workstations is examined. This type of facility is commonly
available to CFD developers and users in academia, industry and government laboratories
and is attractive in terms of cost for CFD simulations. However, practical
considerations appear at present to be discouraging widespread adoption of this technology.
The main obstacles to achieving an efficient, robust parallel CFD capability
in a demanding multi-user environment are investigated. A static load-balancing
method, which takes account of varying processor speeds, is described. A dynamic
re-allocation method to account for varying processor loads has been developed.
Use of proprietary management software has facilitated the implementation of the
method
