Scalable multi-grid preconditioning techniques for the even-parity S_N solver in UNIC

The Even-parity neutron transport equation with FE-S_N discretization is solved traditionally using SOR preconditioned CG method at the lowest level of iterations in order to compute the criticality in reactor analysis problems. The use of high order isoparametric finite elements prohibits the formation of the discrete operator explicitly due to memory constraints in peta scale architectures. Hence, a h-p multi-grid preconditioner based on linear tessellation of the higher order mesh is introduced here for the space-angle system and compared against SOR and Algebraic MG black-box solvers. The performance and scalability of the multi-grid scheme was determined for two test problems and found to be competitive in terms of both computational time and memory requirements. The implementation of this preconditioner in an even-parity solver like UNIC from ANL can further enable high fidelity calculations in a scalable manner on peta flop machines. (author)