A DATA PARALLEL FINITE-ELEMENT METHOD FOR COMPUTATIONAL FLUID-DYNAMICS ON THE CONNECTION MACHINE SYSTEM

A finite element method for computational fluid dynamics has been implemented on the Connection Machine systems CM-2 and CM-200. An implicit iterative solution strategy, based on the pre-conditioned matrix-free GMRES algorithm, is employed. Parallel data structures built on both nodal and elemental sets are used to achieve maximum parallelization. Communication primitives provided through the Connection Machine Scientific Software Library substantially improved the overall performance of the program. Computations of three-dimensional compressible flows using unstructured meshes having close to one million elements, such as a complete airplane, demonstrate that the Connection Machine systems are suitable for these applications. Performance comparisons are also carried out with the vector computers Cray Y-MP and Convex C-1.