An implementation of a three-dimensional wave propagation model in a parallel processing computational environment

Abstract

A parallel processor implementation of a three-dimensional parabolic equation approach to acoustic wave propagation was developed using the University of Texas Cray T3E (Lone Star). Lone Star is currently an 84 processor machine. We will discuss results from modeling various underwater acoustic environments where three-dimensional results are required, and the computation speed-up achieved using a multiprocessor approach. High performance computing, i.e., computation on high speed multiple processor machines, is now entering the lower priced small computer era. Environmental acoustic problems heretofore ignored because of the computational intensity required can now be considered for operational field systems. Although the T3E is a mainframe machine, this model is being developed for a low cost clustered processor machine with a combination of shared and distributed memory, which we expect to have in operation this year. [Work sponsored under Independent Research and Development at the Applied Research Laboratories. Computer support on the T3E is funded by the National Partnership for Advanced Computational Infrastructure through the University of Texas Advanced Computing Center for Engineering and Science.]