A multiblock solution process for the equations of fluid dynamics on a network of transputers

Abstract

Many computational fluid dynamics (CFD) problems of interest require far greater computational power than is available on any sequential machine. In CFD problems, where a large number of similar operations are performed, a parallel machine can be utilized to exploit the inherent parallelism of the algorithm. Distributed memory machines, although requiring extra programming, can provide truly scalable performance, at a fraction of the cost of current vector supercomputers. At the University of Hertfordshire part of the current work programme involves the parallel implementation of a sequential two-dimensional Euler/Navier-Stokes multiblock aerofoil code. In order to utilize an arbitrary network of transputers, it is necessary to have software which can effect the communication of data between processors and also schedule this data for processing. This paper is concerned with the development and implementation of a general purpose FORTRAN harness as an environment for topology-independent programming. Further, we evaluate the performance of the parallel multiblock Euler/Navier-Stokes solver using this environment.