Extending the Uintah Framework through the Petascale Modeling of Detonation in Arrays of High Explosive Devices

Abstract

The Uintah software framework for the solution of a broad class of fluid-structure interaction problems has been developed by using a problem-driven approach that dates back to its inception. Uintah uses a layered task-graph approach that decouples the problem specification as a set of tasks from the adaptive runtime system that executes these tasks. Using this approach, it is possible to improve the performance of the software components to enable the solution of broad classes of problems as well as the driving problem itself. This process is illustrated by a motivating problem: the computational modeling of the hazards posed by thousands of explosive devices during a deflagration-to-detonation transition that occurred on Highway 6 in Utah. In order to solve this complex fluid-structure interaction problem at the required scale, substantial algorithmic and data structure improvements were needed to Uintah. These improvements enabled scalable runs for the target problem and provided the capability to mode...