Approximation Scheme In Space Research Articles

A second-order structure-preserving discretization for the Cahn-Hilliard/Allen-Cahn system with cross-kinetic coupling

We study the numerical solution of a Cahn-Hilliard/Allen-Cahn system with strong coupling through state and gradient dependent non-diagonal mobility matrices. A fully discrete approximation scheme in space and time is proposed which preserves the underlying gradient flow structure and leads to dissipation of the free-energy on the discrete level. Existence and uniqueness of the discrete solution is established and relative energy estimates are used to prove optimal convergence rates in space and time under minimal smoothness assumptions. Numerical tests are presented for illustration of the theoretical results and to demonstrate the viability of the proposed methods.

Parallel-in-time integration of the Landau–Lifshitz–Gilbert equation with the parallel full approximation scheme in space and time

Speeding up computationally expensive problems, such as numerical simulations of large micromagnetic systems, requires efficient use of parallel computing infrastructures. While parallelism across space is commonly exploited in micromagnetics, this strategy performs poorly once a minimum number of degrees of freedom per core is reached. We use magnum.pi, a finite-element micromagnetic simulation software, to investigate the Parallel Full Approximation Scheme in Space and Time (PFASST) as a space- and time-parallel solver for the Landau–Lifshitz–Gilbert equation (LLG). Numerical experiments show that PFASST enables efficient parallel-in-time integration of the LLG, significantly improving the speedup gained from using a given number of cores as well as allowing the code to scale beyond spatial limits.

Task graph-based performance analysis of parallel-in-time methods

In this paper, we present a performance model based on task graphs for various iterative parallel-in-time (PinT) methods. PinT methods have been developed to speed up the simulation time of time-dependent problems using modern parallel supercomputers. The performance model is based on a data-driven notation of the methods, from which a task graph is generated. Based on this task graph and a distribution of time points across processes typical for PinT methods, a theoretical lower runtime bound for the method can be obtained, as well as a prediction of the runtime for a given number of processes. In particular, the model is able to cover the large parameter space of PinT methods and make predictions for arbitrary parameter settings. Here, we describe a general procedure for generating task graphs based on three iterative PinT methods, namely, Parareal, multigrid-reduction-in-time (MGRIT), and the parallel full approximation scheme in space and time (PFASST). Furthermore, we discuss how these task graphs can be used to analyze the performance of the methods. In addition, we compare the predictions of the model with parallel simulation times using five different PinT libraries.

An experimental comparison of a space-time multigrid method with PFASST for a reaction-diffusion problem

We consider two parallel-in-time approaches applied to a (reaction) diffusion problem, possibly non-linear. In particular, we consider PFASST (Parallel Full Approximation Scheme in Space and Time) and space-time multigrid strategies. For both approaches, we start from an integral formulation of the continuous time dependent problem. Then, a collocation form for PFASST and a discontinuous Galerkin discretization in time for the space-time multigrid are employed, resulting in the same discrete solution at the time nodes. Strong and weak scaling of both multilevel strategies are compared for varying orders of the temporal discretization. Moreover, we investigate the respective convergence behavior for non-linear problems and highlight quantitative differences in execution times. For the linear problem, we observe that the two methods show similar scaling behavior with PFASST being more favorable for high order methods or when few parallel resources are available. For the non-linear problem, PFASST is more flexible in terms of solution strategy, while space-time multigrid requires a full non-linear solve.

PFASST-ER: combining the parallel full approximation scheme in space and time with parallelization across the method

To extend prevailing scaling limits when solving time-dependent partial differential equations, the parallel full approximation scheme in space and time (PFASST) has been shown to be a promising parallel-in-time integrator. Similar to space–time multigrid, PFASST is able to compute multiple time-steps simultaneously and is therefore in particular suitable for large-scale applications on high performance computing systems. In this work we couple PFASST with a parallel spectral deferred correction (SDC) method, forming an unprecedented doubly time-parallel integrator. While PFASST provides global, large-scale “parallelization across the step”, the inner parallel SDC method allows integrating each individual time-step “parallel across the method” using a diagonalized local Quasi-Newton solver. This new method, which we call “PFASST with Enhanced concuRrency” (PFASST-ER), therefore exposes even more temporal concurrency. For two challenging nonlinear reaction-diffusion problems, we show that PFASST-ER works more efficiently than the classical variants of PFASST and can use more processors than time-steps.

Parallel-in-time multi-level integration of the shallow-water equations on the rotating sphere

The modeling of atmospheric processes in the context of weather and climate simulations is an important and computationally expensive challenge. The temporal integration of the underlying PDEs requires a very large number of time steps, even when the terms accounting for the propagation of fast atmospheric waves are treated implicitly. Therefore, the use of parallel-in-time integration schemes to reduce the time-to-solution is of increasing interest, particularly in the numerical weather forecasting field.We present a multi-level parallel-in-time integration method combining the Parallel Full Approximation Scheme in Space and Time (PFASST) with a spatial discretization based on Spherical Harmonics (SH). The iterative algorithm computes multiple time steps concurrently by interweaving parallel high-order fine corrections and serial corrections performed on a coarsened problem. To do that, we design a methodology relying on the spectral basis of the SH to coarsen and interpolate the problem in space.The methods are evaluated on the shallow-water equations on the sphere using a set of tests commonly used in the atmospheric flow community. We assess the convergence of PFASST-SH upon refinement in time. We also investigate the impact of the coarsening strategy on the accuracy of the scheme, and specifically on its ability to capture the high-frequency modes accumulating in the solution. Finally, we study the computational cost of PFASST-SH to demonstrate that our scheme resolves the main features of the solution multiple times faster than the serial schemes.

Algorithm 997

In this article, we present the Python framework pySDC for solving collocation problems with spectral deferred correction (SDC) methods and their time-parallel variant PFASST, the parallel full approximation scheme in space and time. pySDC features many implementations of SDC and PFASST, from simple implicit timestepping to high-order implicit-explicit or multi-implicit splitting and multilevel SDCs. The software package comes with many different, preimplemented examples and has seven tutorials to help new users with their first steps. Time parallelism is implemented either in an emulated way for debugging and prototyping or using MPI for benchmarking. The code is fully documented and tested using continuous integration, including most results of previous publications. Here, we describe the structure of the code by taking two different perspectives: those of the user and those of the developer. The first sheds light on the front-end, the examples, and the tutorials, and the second is used to describe the underlying implementation and the data structures. We show three different examples to highlight various aspects of the implementation, the capabilities, and the usage of pySDC. In addition, couplings to the FEniCS framework and PETSc, the latter including spatial parallelism with MPI, are described.

Asymptotic convergence of the parallel full approximation scheme in space and time for linear problems

SummaryFor time‐dependent partial differential equations, parallel‐in‐time integration using the “parallel full approximation scheme in space and time” (PFASST) is a promising way to accelerate existing space‐parallel approaches beyond their scaling limits. Inspired by the classical Parareal method and multigrid ideas, PFASST allows to integrate multiple time steps simultaneously using a space–time hierarchy of spectral deferred correction sweeps. While many use cases and benchmarks exist, a solid and reliable mathematical foundation is still missing. Very recently, however, PFASST for linear problems has been identified as a multigrid method. In this paper, we will use this multigrid formulation and, in particular, PFASST's iteration matrix to show that, in the nonstiff and stiff limit, PFASST indeed is a convergent iterative method. We will provide upper bounds for the spectral radius of the iteration matrix and investigate how PFASST performs for increasing numbers of parallel time steps. Finally, we will demonstrate that the results obtained here indeed relate to actual PFASST runs.

A multigrid perspective on the parallel full approximation scheme in space and time

SummaryFor the numerical solution of time‐dependent partial differential equations, time‐parallel methods have recently been shown to provide a promising way to extend prevailing strong‐scaling limits of numerical codes. One of the most complex methods in this field is the “Parallel Full Approximation Scheme in Space and Time” (PFASST). PFASST already shows promising results for many use cases and benchmarks. However, a solid and reliable mathematical foundation is still missing. We show that, under certain assumptions, the PFASST algorithm can be conveniently and rigorously described as a multigrid‐in‐time method. Following this equivalence, first steps towards a comprehensive analysis of PFASST using blockwise local Fourier analysis are taken. The theoretical results are applied to examples of diffusive and advective type.

Full discretization of a nonlinear parabolic problem containing volterra operators and an unknown dirichlet boundary condition

The reconstruction of an unknown solely time-dependent Dirichlet boundary condition in a nonlinear parabolic problem containing a linear and a nonlinear Volterra operator is considered. The inverse problem is converted into a variational problem in which the unknown Dirichlet condition is eliminated using a given integral overdetermination. A time-discrete recurrent approximation scheme is designed, using Backward Euler's method. The convergence of the approximations towards a solution of the variational problem is proved under appropriate assumptions on the data and on the Volterra operators. The uniqueness of this solution is shown in the case that the nonlinear Volterra operator satisfies a particular inequality. Moreover, the Finite Element Method is used to discretize the time-discrete approximation scheme in space. Finally, full-discrete error estimates are derived for a particular choice of the finite elements. The corresponding convergence rates are supported by a numerical experiment. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 31: 1444–1460, 2015

Interweaving PFASST and Parallel Multigrid

The parallel full approximation scheme in space and time (PFASST) introduced by Emmett and Minion in 2012 is an iterative strategy for the temporal parallelization of ODEs and discretized PDEs. As the name suggests, PFASST is similar in spirit to a space-time FAS multigrid method performed over multiple time-steps in parallel. However, since the original focus of PFASST has been on the performance of the method in terms of time parallelism, the solution of any spatial system arising from the use of implicit or semi-implicit temporal methods within PFASST have simply been assumed to be solved to some desired accuracy completely at each sub-step and each iteration by some unspecified procedure. It hence is natural to investigate how iterative solvers in the spatial dimensions can be interwoven with the PFASST iterations and whether this strategy leads to a more efficient overall approach. This paper presents an initial investigation on the relative performance of different strategies for coupling PFASST iterations with multigrid methods for the implicit treatment of diffusion terms in PDEs. In particular, we compare full accuracy multigrid solves at each sub-step with a small fixed number of multigrid V-cycles. This reduces the cost of each PFASST iteration at the possible expense of a corresponding increase in the number of PFASST iterations needed for convergence. Parallel efficiency of the resulting methods is explored through numerical examples.

Computational technologies for simulation of complex near-wall turbulent flows using unstructured meshes

The work is devoted to the peculiarities of the implementation of hybrid Reynolds’ Averaged Navier-Stokes equations-Large Eddy Simulation (RANS-LES) approaches of the Detached Eddy Simulation (DES) family for simulation of complex near-wall turbulent flows using unstructured meshes. The problems of determining required geometric characteristics in the mesh nodes and adaptation of hybrid approaches to the used accurate numerical approximation scheme in space are considered. The classic benchmark problem of the decay of homogeneous isotropic turbulence and the results of the computation of a complex turbulent flow near the wall with the presence of flow separation and reattachment are considered to verify the implemented technique and to demonstrate its efficiency.