Computational strategies for three-dimensional flow simulations on distributed computer systems

Abstract

An increasing amount of research activity in computational fluid dynamics has been devoted to the development of efficient algorithms for parallel computing systems. The increasing performance to price ratio of engineering workstations has led to research to development procedures for implementing a parallel computing system composed of distributed workstations. This thesis proposal outlines an ongoing research program to develop efficient strategies for performing three-dimensional flow analysis on distributed computing systems. The PVM parallel programming interface was used to modify an existing three-dimensional flow solver, the TEAM code developed by Lockheed for the Air Force, to function as a parallel flow solver on clusters of workstations. Steady flow solutions were generated for three different wing and body geometries to validate the code and evaluate code performance. The proposed research will extend the parallel code development to determine the most efficient strategies for unsteady flow simulations.