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U.S. Department of Energy
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Monte Carlo photon transport on vector and parallel supercomputers: Final report

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:6011163

The University of Michigan has been investigating the implementation of vectorized and parallelized Monte Carlo algorithms for the analysis of photon transport in an inertially-confined fusion (ICF) plasma. The goal of this work is to develop and test Monte Carlo algorithms for vector/parallel supercomputers such as the Cray X-MP and Cray-2. Previous effort has resulted in the development of a vectorized photon transport code, named VPHOT, and a companion scalar code, named SPHOT, that performs the same analysis and is used for comparative purposes to assess the performance of the vectorized algorithm. A test problem, denoted the ICF test problem, has been created and tested with the VPHOT and SPHOT codes. By comparison with a reference LLNL calculation of the ICF test problem, the VPHOT/SPHOT codes have been verified to predict the correct results. Performance results with VPHOT versus SPHOT and the reference LLNL code have been reported previously and indicate that speedups in the range of 6 to 12 can be achieved with the vectorized algorithm versus the conventional scalar algorithm on the Cray X-MP. This report summarizes the progress made during the last year to continue the investigation of vectorized Monte Carlo (parameter studies, alternative vectorized algorithm, alternative target machines) and to extend the work into the area of parallel processing. 5 refs.

Research Organization:
Michigan Univ., Ann Arbor (USA). Dept. of Nuclear Engineering
DOE Contract Number:
W-7405-ENG-48
OSTI ID:
6011163
Report Number(s):
UCRL-15958; ON: DE88002503
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English