High performance parallel computing of flows in complex geometries: I. Methods

Efficient numerical tools coupled with high-performance computers, have become a key element of the design process in the fields of energy supply and transportation. However flow phenomena that occur in complex systems such as gas turbines and aircrafts are still not understood mainly because of the models that are needed. In fact, most computational fluid dynamics (CFD) predictions as found today in industry focus on a reduced or simplified version of the real system (such as a periodic sector) and are usually solved with a steady-state assumption. This paper shows how to overcome such barriers and how such a new challenge can be addressed by developing flow solvers running on high-end computing platforms, using thousands of computing cores. Parallel strategies used by modern flow solvers are discussed with particular emphases on mesh-partitioning, load balancing and communication. Two examples are used to illustrate these concepts: a multi-block structured code and an unstructured code. Parallel computing strategies used with both flow solvers are detailed and compared. This comparison indicates that mesh-partitioning and load balancing are more straightforward with unstructured grids than with multi-block structured meshes. However, the mesh-partitioning stage can be challenging for unstructured grids, mainly due to memory limitations of the newly developed massively parallel architectures. Finally, detailed investigations show that the impact of mesh-partitioning on the numerical CFD solutions, due to rounding errors and block splitting, may be of importance and should be accurately addressed before qualifying massively parallel CFD tools for a routine industrial use.