Application of the Multi-level Parallelism (MLP) Software to a Finite Element Groundwater Program Using Iterative Solvers with Comparison to MPI

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to give the results of the performance evaluation of the Multi-Level Parallelism (MLP) software versus MPI using the groundwater program FEMWATER on a remediation of a military site where iterative solvers are employed to solve the system of nonlinear equations. A one-to-one correspondence in functionality between MPI and MLP was maintained for all parallel operations so the performance comparisons would be consistent. An unstructured mesh application is one of the most difficult parallel applications, so this represents a good test. In this study, MLP did better in general on 64 PEs or less, but MPI proved more scalable as it did as good or better when using 128 PEs.