Parallel processing algorithms for hydrocodes on a computer with MIMD architecture (DENELCOR's HEP)
In real time simulation/prediction of complex systems such as water-cooled nuclear reactors, if reactor operators had fast simulator/predictors to check the consequences of their operations before implementing them, events such as the incident at Three Mile Island might be avoided. However, existing simulator/predictors such as RELAP run slower than real time on serial computers. It appears that the only way to overcome the barrier to higher computing rates is to use computers with architectures that allow concurrent computations or parallel processing. The computer architecture with the greatest degree of parallelism is labeled Multiple Instruction Stream, Multiple Data Stream (MIMD). An example of a machine of this type is the HEP computer by DENELCOR. It appears that hydrocodes are very well suited for parallelization on the HEP. It is a straightforward exercise to parallelize explicit, one-dimensional Lagrangean hydrocodes in a zone-by-zone parallelization. Similarly, implicit schemes can be parallelized in a zone-by-zone fashion via an a priori, symbolic inversion of the tridiagonal matrix that arises in an implicit scheme. These techniques are extended to Eulerian hydrocodes by using Harlow's rezone technique. The extension from single-phase Eulerian to two-phase Eulerian is straightforward. This step-by-step extension leads to hydrocodes with zone-by-zone parallelization that are capable of two-phase flow simulation. Extensions to two and three spatial dimensions can be achieved by operator splitting. It appears that a zone-by-zone parallelization is the best way to utilize the capabilities of an MIMD machine. 40 references.
- Research Organization:
- Idaho National Engineering Lab., Idaho Falls (USA)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC07-76ID01570
- OSTI ID:
- 5487001
- Report Number(s):
- EGG-SAAM-6452; ON: DE84004941
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
TWO-PHASE FLOW
COMPUTER CALCULATIONS
WATER COOLED REACTORS
ALGORITHMS
COMPUTERS
DATA PROCESSING
LAGRANGE EQUATIONS
SIMULATION
DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS
EQUATIONS
FLUID FLOW
MATHEMATICAL LOGIC
PARTIAL DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS
PROCESSING
REACTORS
220900* - Nuclear Reactor Technology- Reactor Safety