Parallel processing offers new and exciting possibilitiesin the area of computational fluid dynamics (CFD). This projectdevelops a general purpose parallel software package for performinglarge scale fluid dynamics and heat transfer calculations ofinterest to industry and to government laboratories. The researchaddresses several disciplines crucial to effective utilization ofmodern computer architectures: numerical algorithms, parallelimplementation, graphics, and handling of large data sets. PhaseI incorporates these parallel advances into the spectral elementgeneral-geometry CFD code NEKTON and thereby evaluates the scalingsand interactions of these disciplines in a realistic CFDenvironment. Phase I also demonstrates the results and scalings onthe Intel iPSC/860 hypercube, a medium grained multipleinstruction, multiple data machine, and develops this CFD softwarein a manner appropriate for advanced parallel supercomputers suchas the Intel Touchstone series and similar architectures.Anticipated Results/Potential Commercial Applications as described by the awardee:A general-purpose, accurate, and robust parallelCFD tool is important to materials processing industries and to anyindustries in which fluid flow and heat transfer are important. The advances in efficiency in parallel computation will enable thecost effective solution of significantly more difficult problems inthese industries. The parallel NEKTON tool will enable these industries to shorten design cycles, improve reliability, andimprove competitiveness.
