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At least 127 records · Page 7

Simulation of turbomachinery flows

Significant advancements have been made in the last five years in the ability to model turbomachinery flows of engineering interest. This advancement can be directly attributed to the second generation of supercomputers like the Cray XMP and Cray 2 and advanced instrumentation techniques. Early on, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Lewis Research Center recognized the potential gains in turbomachinery performance and life that could be achieved by taking advantage of this technology and instituted a comprehensive research program in turbomachinery flow modeling. This activity combined the areas of fluid flow analysis, computational fluid dynamics, and experimental fluid mechanics. As a result of this activity, Lewis has become an internationally recognized leader in turbomachinery flow modeling. Many of the research activities conducted under this program are utilized by industry. The presentation gives an overview of this program and provides sample illustration of simulation performed to date.

Adamczyk, John J.↗

A three-dimensional application with the numerical grid generation code: EAGLE (utilizing an externally generated surface)

Program EAGLE (Eglin Arbitrary Geometry Implicit Euler) is a multiblock grid generation and steady-state flow solver system. This system combines a boundary conforming surface generation, a composite block structure grid generation scheme, and a multiblock implicit Euler flow solver algorithm. The three codes are intended to be used sequentially from the definition of the configuration under study to the flow solution about the configuration. EAGLE was specifically designed to aid in the analysis of both freestream and interference flow field configurations. These configurations can be comprised of single or multiple bodies ranging from simple axisymmetric airframes to complex aircraft shapes with external weapons. Each body can be arbitrarily shaped with or without multiple lifting surfaces. Program EAGLE is written to compile and execute efficiently on any CRAY machine with or without Solid State Disk (SSD) devices. Also, the code uses namelist inputs which are supported by all CRAY machines using the FORTRAN Compiler CF177. The use of namelist inputs makes it easier for the user to understand the inputs and to operate Program EAGLE. Recently, the Code was modified to operate on other computers, especially the Sun Spare4 Workstation. Several two-dimensional grid configurations were completely and successfully developed using EAGLE. Currently, EAGLE is being used for three-dimension grid applications.

Houston, Johnny L.↗

Flow computations for the Space Shuttle in ascent mode using thin-layer Navier-Stokes equations

The application of CFD techniques to the Space Shuttle ascent environment was aggressively undertaken in the wake of the Challenger accident in order to secure a major new source of aerodynamic information for both the nominal and mission-abort conditions, using Cray 2 and Cray YMP supercomputers. Due to the integrated vehicle's complexity, the 'chimera' composite grid approach, in which an overset body-conforming grid is used to represent each geometric component as well as special flow regions, was employed for the discretization process. Calculation results exhibit general agreement in both flow structure and surface pressure with the available wind tunnel and flight-test results.

Martin, F. W., Jr.↗

An efficient massively parallel Euler solver for unstructured grids

A data parallel mesh-vertex upwind finite-volume scheme for solving the Euler equations on triangular unstructured meshes is described. A novel vertex-based partitioning of the problem is introduced which minimizes the computation and communication costs associated with distributing the computation to the processors of a massively parallel computer. Finally, the performance of this unstructured computation on 8K processors of the Connection Machine CM-2 is compared with one processor of a Cray-YMP. The experiments show that 8K processors of the CM-2 achieve approximately 70 percent of the performance of one processor of the Cray-YMP on the unstructured mesh computations described here.

Hammond, Steven W.↗

A parallel algorithm for generation and assembly of finite element stiffness and mass matrices

A new algorithm is proposed for parallel generation and assembly of the finite element stiffness and mass matrices. The proposed assembly algorithm is based on a node-by-node approach rather than the more conventional element-by-element approach. The new algorithm's generality and computation speed-up when using multiple processors are demonstrated for several practical applications on multi-processor Cray Y-MP and Cray 2 supercomputers.

Storaasli, O. O.↗

Vectorization of a particle code used in the simulation of rarefied hypersonic flow

A limitation of the direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method is that it does not allow efficient use of vector architectures that predominate in current supercomputers. Consequently, the problems that can be handled are limited to those of one- and two-dimensional flows. This work focuses on a reformulation of the DSMC method with the objective of designing a procedure that is optimized to the vector architectures found on machines such as the Cray-2. In addition, it focuses on finding a better balance between algorithmic complexity and the total number of particles employed in a simulation so that the overall performance of a particle simulation scheme can be greatly improved. Simulations of the flow about a 3D blunt body are performed with 10 to the 7th particles and 4 x 10 to the 5th mesh cells. Good statistics are obtained with time averaging over 800 time steps using 4.5 h of Cray-2 single-processor CPU time.

Baganoff, D.↗

SNS programming environment user's guide

This document briefly describes the computing environment for the Supercomputing Network Subsystem (SNS) of the Central Scientific Computing Complex of the Langley Research Center. The major SNS computers are a CRAY-2, a CRAY Y-MP, a CONVEX C-210, and a CONVEX C-220. It describes the software that is common to all of these computers, including; the UNIX operating system, graphics, networking utilities, mass storage, and mathematical libraries. It also describes file management, validation, SNS configuration, documentation and customer services. The document is intended for all SNS users as a ready reference to frequently asked questions and to more detailed information contained within the vendor manuals. It is appropriate for both the novice and the experienced user.

Supercomputing↗

NAS (Numerical Aerodynamic Simulation Program) technical summaries, March 1989 - February 1990

Given here are selected scientific results from the Numerical Aerodynamic Simulation (NAS) Program's third year of operation. During this year, the scientific community was given access to a Cray-2 and a Cray Y-MP supercomputer. Topics covered include flow field analysis of fighter wing configurations, large-scale ocean modeling, the Space Shuttle flow field, advanced computational fluid dynamics (CFD) codes for rotary-wing airloads and performance prediction, turbulence modeling of separated flows, airloads and acoustics of rotorcraft, vortex-induced nonlinearities on submarines, and standing oblique detonation waves.

Source record↗

Antenna pattern control using impedance surfaces

During this research period, we have effectively transferred existing computer codes from CRAY supercomputer to work station based systems. The work station based version of our code preserved the accuracy of the numerical computations while giving a much better turn-around time than the CRAY supercomputer. Such a task relieved us of the heavy dependence of the supercomputer account budget and made codes developed in this research project more feasible for applications. The analysis of pyramidal horns with impedance surfaces was our major focus during this research period. Three different modeling algorithms in analyzing lossy impedance surfaces were investigated and compared with measured data. Through this investigation, we discovered that a hybrid Fourier transform technique, which uses the eigen mode in the stepped waveguide section and the Fourier transformed field distributions across the stepped discontinuities for lossy impedances coating, gives a better accuracy in analyzing lossy coatings. After a further refinement of the present technique, we will perform an accurate radiation pattern synthesis in the coming reporting period.

Balanis, Constantine A.↗

A parallel-vector equation solver for unsymmetric matrices on supercomputers

A parallel-vector unsymmetric equation solver is presented. The solver exploits both vector and parallel capabilities provided by modern, high-performance supercomputers. A special storage scheme and loop-unrolling technique are used to optimize the vector performance. A parallel FORTRAN language is used to develop the solver on the CRAY 2 and CRAY Y-MP multiple processing computer environment. Three numerical examples are presented which demonstrate the efficiency and accuracy of this equation solver. The first two examples demonstrate the improved performance, and the third example utilizes the proposed solver to solve a highly nonlinear, unsymmetric finite element formulation for panel flutter.

Qin, J.↗

Adaptation of multidimensional group particle tracking and particle wall-boundary condition model to the FDNS code

A particulate two-phase flow CFD model was developed based on the FDNS code which is a pressure based predictor plus multi-corrector Navier-Stokes flow solver. Turbulence models with compressibility correction and the wall function models were employed as submodels. A finite-rate chemistry model was used for reacting flow simulation. For particulate two-phase flow simulations, a Eulerian-Lagrangian solution method using an efficient implicit particle trajectory integration scheme was developed in this study. Effects of particle-gas reaction and particle size change to agglomeration or fragmentation were not considered in this investigation. At the onset of the present study, a two-dimensional version of FDNS which had been modified to treat Lagrangian tracking of particles (FDNS-2DEL) had already been written and was operational. The FDNS-2DEL code was too slow for practical use, mainly because it had not been written in a form amenable to vectorization on the Cray, nor was the full three-dimensional form of FDNS utilized. The specific objective of this study was to reorder to calculations into long single arrays for automatic vectorization on the Cray and to implement the full three-dimensional version of FDNS to produce the FDNS-3DEL code. Since the FDNS-2DEL code was slow, a very limited number of test cases had been run with it. This study was also intended to increase the number of cases simulated to verify and improve, as necessary, the particle tracking methodology coded in FDNS.

Chen, Y. S.↗

surf3d: A 3-D finite-element program for the analysis of surface and corner cracks in solids subjected to mode-1 loadings

A computer program, surf3d, that uses the 3D finite-element method to calculate the stress-intensity factors for surface, corner, and embedded cracks in finite-thickness plates with and without circular holes, was developed. The cracks are assumed to be either elliptic or part eliptic in shape. The computer program uses eight-noded hexahedral elements to model the solid. The program uses a skyline storage and solver. The stress-intensity factors are evaluated using the force method, the crack-opening displacement method, and the 3-D virtual crack closure methods. In the manual the input to and the output of the surf3d program are described. This manual also demonstrates the use of the program and describes the calculation of the stress-intensity factors. Several examples with sample data files are included with the manual. To facilitate modeling of the user's crack configuration and loading, a companion program (a preprocessor program) that generates the data for the surf3d called gensurf was also developed. The gensurf program is a three dimensional mesh generator program that requires minimal input and that builds a complete data file for surf3d. The program surf3d is operational on Unix machines such as CRAY Y-MP, CRAY-2, and Convex C-220.

Raju, I. S.↗

LEWICE droplet trajectory calculations on a parallel computer

A parallel computer implementation (128 processors) of LEWICE, a NASA Lewis code used to predict the time-dependent ice accretion process for two-dimensional aerodynamic bodies of simple geometries, is described. Two-dimensional parallel droplet trajectory calculations are performed to demonstrate the potential benefits of applying parallel processing to ice accretion analysis. Parallel performance is evaluated as a function of the number of trajectories and the number of processors. For comparison, similar trajectory calculations are performed on single-processor Cray computers, and the best parallel results are found to be 33 and 23 times faster, respectively, than those of the Cray XMP and YMP.

Caruso, Steven C.↗

High-resolution turbulent simulations using the Connection Machine-2

The spectral method provides an efficient algorithm for solving the 3D incompressible Navier-Stokes equations in periodic boundaries. Most people, so far, have used vectorized machines, such as the CRAY-2, to implement fast Fourier transformations and time integrations in the spectral calculations. In this paper, new results are presented using the spectral calculations on the Connection Machine-2 with a parallel algorithm. The large memory of the Connection Machine-2 and the parallel algorithm allows, of the first time, to implement a 512-cubed mesh resolution for high Reynolds number flows. The computational speed of the present code is about 30 percent faster than the fastest CRAY-2 simulations with four processors. Parallel machines, such as the Connection Machine-2, will possibly provide new computational power for understanding the intermittency and cascade mechanism in fluid turbulence.

Chen, Shiyi↗

Dynamic overset grid communication on distributed memory parallel processors

A parallel distributed memory implementation of intergrid communication for dynamic overset grids is presented. Included are discussions of various options considered during development. Results are presented comparing an Intel iPSC/860 to a single processor Cray Y-MP. Results for grids in relative motion show the iPSC/860 implementation to be faster than the Cray implementation.

Barszcz, Eric↗

Multigrid convergence of an implicit symmetric relaxation scheme

Multigrid has been applied to an existing three-dimensional compressible Euler solver to accelerate the convergence of the implicit symmetric relaxation scheme. This lower-upper symmetric Gauss-Seidel implicit scheme is shown to be an effective multigrid driver in three-dimensions. A grid refinement study is performed including the effects of large cell aspect ratio meshes. Performance figures of the present multigrid code on Cray computers including the new C90 are presented. A reduction of three orders of of magnitude in the residual for a three-dimensional transonic inviscid flow using 920K grid points is obtained in less than 4 minutes on a Cray C90.

Yoon, Seokkwan↗

Systolic array IC for genetic computation

Measuring similarities between large sequences of genetic information is a formidable task requiring enormous amounts of computer time. Geneticists claim that nearly two months of CRAY-2 time are required to run a single comparison of the known database against the new bases that will be found this year, and more than a CRAY-2 year for next year's genetic discoveries, and so on. The DNA IC, designed at HP-ICBD in cooperation with the California Institute of Technology and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, is being implemented in order to move the task of genetic comparison onto workstations and personal computers, while vastly improving performance. The chip is a systolic (pumped) array comprised of 16 processors, control logic, and global RAM, totaling 400,000 FETS. At 12 MHz, each chip performs 2.7 billion 16 bit operations per second. Using 35 of these chips in series on one PC board (performing nearly 100 billion operations per second), a sequence of 560 bases can be compared against the eventual total genome of 3 billion bases, in minutes--on a personal computer. While the designed purpose of the DNA chip is for genetic research, other disciplines requiring similarity measurements between strings of 7 bit encoded data could make use of this chip as well. Cryptography and speech recognition are two examples. A mix of full custom design and standard cells, in CMOS34, were used to achieve these goals. Innovative test methods were developed to enhance controllability and observability in the array. This paper describes these techniques as well as the chip's functionality. This chip was designed in the 1989-90 timeframe.

Anderson, D.↗

Discrete sensitivity derivatives of the Navier-Stokes equations with a parallel Krylov solver

This paper solves an 'incremental' form of the sensitivity equations derived by differentiating the discretized thin-layer Navier Stokes equations with respect to certain design variables of interest. The equations are solved with a parallel, preconditioned Generalized Minimal RESidual (GMRES) solver on a distributed-memory architecture. The 'serial' sensitivity analysis code is parallelized by using the Single Program Multiple Data (SPMD) programming model, domain decomposition techniques, and message-passing tools. Sensitivity derivatives are computed for low and high Reynolds number flows over a NACA 1406 airfoil on a 32-processor Intel Hypercube, and found to be identical to those computed on a single-processor Cray Y-MP. It is estimated that the parallel sensitivity analysis code has to be run on 40-50 processors of the Intel Hypercube in order to match the single-processor processing time of a Cray Y-MP.

Ajmani, Kumud↗