Numerical Simulation Of Hypersonic Flow Research Articles

The numerical simulation of hypersonic flows requires the use of supercomputers and graphic workstations in an efficient manner. The present contribution reports on an implementation of a finite element Navier-Stokes method with grid adaption, by which user interaction is used to optimize efficiency of high performance computing in a supercomputer/workstation network. Scaling laws are derived to predict the feasibility of this technique on other computers and networks with different CPU and data transfer performance. The High Performance Computer Network of Lower Saxony is used as an example for the application of these scaling laws. We find that storage and CPU performance of this example as well as at many other supercomputer sites is sufficient for fine adaptive grids to be used, but data transfer performance must be increased. High speed data links between supercomputers and workstations can increase efficiency of high performance computing at relatively low costs.

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