Comparison of Frameworks for Next Generation Multiphase Flow Solver, MFIX: A Group Decision-Making Exercise

Journal Article · Mon Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 2007 · Concurrency and Computation: Practice and Experience

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1002/cpe.1085· OSTI ID:931624

Gel, Aytekin ^[1]; Pannala, Sreekanth ^[2]; Syamlal, M ^[3]; O'Brien, T. J. ^[3]; Gel, Esma ^[4]

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1. Aeolus Research Inc.
2. ORNL
3. National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL)
4. Arizona State University

Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations have emerged as a powerful tool for understanding multiphase flows that occur in a wide range of engineering applications and natural processes. A multiphase CFD code called MFIX has been under development at the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) since the 1980s for modeling multiphase flows that occur in fossil fuel reactors. CFD codes such as MFIX are equipped with a number of numerical algorithms to solve a large set of coupled partial differential equations over three-dimensional grids consisting of hundreds of thousands of cells on parallel computers. Currently, the next generation version of MFIX is under development with the goal of building a multiphase problem solving environment (PSE) that would facilitate the simple reuse of modern software components by application scientists. Several open-source frameworks were evaluated to identify the best-suited framework for the multiphase PSE. There are many requirements for the multiphase PSE, and each of these open-source frameworks offers functionalities that satisfy the requirements to varying extents. Therefore, matching the requirements and the functionalities is not a simple task and requires a systematic and quantitative decision making procedure. We present a multi-criteria decision making approach to determining a major system design decision, and demonstrate its application on the framework selection problem.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL)
• Sponsoring Organization: FE USDOE - Office of Fossil Energy (FE)
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-00OR22725
• OSTI ID: 931624
• Journal Information: Concurrency and Computation: Practice and Experience, Journal Name: Concurrency and Computation: Practice and Experience Journal Issue: 5 Vol. 19
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
ALGORITHMS
Analytic Hierarchy Process
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
COMPUTERS
DECISION MAKING
DESIGN
FLUID MECHANICS
FOSSIL FUELS
Frameworks
MULTIPHASE FLOW
Multi-Criteria Decision Making
Multi-CriteriaProblem Solving Environment (PSE)
Multiphase flows
PARTIAL DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS
Problem Solving Environment (PSE)
SIMULATION