Parallel single grid and multigrid solution of industrial compressible flow problems

The Euler and Navier-Stokes equations with a k-epsilon turbulence model are solved numerically in parallel on a distributed memory machine IBM SP2, a shared memory machine SGI Power Challenge, and a cluster of SGI workstations. The grid is partitioned into blocks and the steady stare solution is computed using single grid and multigrid iteration. The multigrid algorithm is analyzed leading to an estimate of the elapsed time per iteration. Based on this analysis, a heuristic algorithm is devised for distributing and splitting the blocks for a good static load balance. Speed-up results are presented for a wing, a complete aircraft and an air inlet. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.