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With the increase in computational power in the last decade and the forthcoming Exascale supercomputers, a new horizon in computational modelling and simulation is envisioned in combustion science. Considering the multiscale and multiphysics characteristics of turbulent reacting flows, combustion simulations are considered as one of the most computationally demanding applications running on cutting-edge supercomputers. Exascale computing opens new frontiers for the simulation of combustion systems as more realistic conditions can be achieved with high-fidelity methods. However, an efficient use of these computing architectures requires methodologies that can exploit all levels of parallelism. The efficient utilization of the next generation of supercomputers needs to be considered from a global perspective, that is, involving physical modelling and numerical methods with methodologies based on High-Performance Computing (HPC) and hardware architectures. This review introduces recent developments in numerical methods for large-eddy simulations (LES) and direct-numerical simulations (DNS) to simulate combustion systems, with focus on the computational performance and algorithmic capabilities. Due to the broad scope, a first section is devoted to describe the fundamentals of turbulent combustion, which is followed by a general description of state-of-the-art computational strategies for solving these problems. These applications require advanced HPC approaches to exploit modern supercomputers, which is addressed in the third section. The increasing complexity of new computing architectures, with tightly coupled CPUs and GPUs, as well as high levels of parallelism, requires new parallel models and algorithms exposing the required level of concurrency. Advances in terms of dynamic load balancing, vectorization, GPU acceleration and mesh adaptation have permitted to achieve highly-efficient combustion simulations with data-driven methods in HPC environments. Therefore, dedicated sections covering the use of high-order methods for reacting flows, integration of detailed chemistry and two-phase flows are addressed. Final remarks and directions of future work are given at the end. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this work was to analyze the influence of sex hormones and anatomical details (trabeculations and false tendons) on the electrophysiology of healthy human hearts. Additionally, sex- and anatomy-dependent effects of ventricular tachycardia (VT) inducibility are presented. To this end, four anatomically normal, human, biventricular geometries (two male, two female), with identifiable trabeculations, were obtained from high-resolution, ex-vivo MRI and represented by detailed and smoothed geometrical models (with and without the trabeculations). Additionally one model was augmented by a scar. The electrophysiology finite element model (FEM) simulations were carried out, using O'Hara-Rudy human myocyte model with sex phenotypes of Yang and Clancy. A systematic comparison between detailed vs smooth anatomies, male vs female normal hearts was carried out. The heart with a myocardial infarction was subjected to a programmed stimulus protocol to identify the effects of sex and anatomical detail on ventricular tachycardia inducibility. All female hearts presented QT-interval prolongation however the prolongation interval in comparison to the male phenotypes was anatomy-dependent and was not correlated to the size of the heart. Detailed geometries showed QRS fractionation and increased T-wave magnitude in comparison to the corresponding smoothed geometries. A variety of sustained VTs were obtained in the detailed and smoothed male geometries at different pacing locations, which provide evidence of the geometry-dependent differences regarding the prediction of the locations of reentry channels. In the female phenotype, sustained VTs were induced in both detailed and smooth geometries with RV apex pacing, however no consistent reentry channels were identified. Anatomical and physiological cardiac features play an important role defining risk in cardiac disease. These are often excluded from cardiac electrophysiology simulations. The assumption that the cardiac endocardium is smooth may produce inaccurate predictions towards the location of reentry channels in in-silico tachycardia inducibility studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work intends to study the effect of aortic annulus eccentricity and leaflet rigidity on the performance, thrombogenic risk and calcification risk in bioprosthetic aortic valve replacements (BAVRs). To address these questions, a two‐way immersed fluid–structure interaction (FSI) computational model was implemented in a high‐performance computing (HPC) multi‐physics simulation software, and validated against a well‐known FSI benchmark. The aortic valve bioprosthesis model is qualitatively contrasted against experimental data, showing good agreement in closed and open states. Regarding the performance of BAVRs, the model predicts that increasing eccentricities yield lower geometric orifice areas (GOAs) and higher normalized transvalvular pressure gradients (TPGs) for healthy cardiac outputs during systole, agreeing with in vitro experiments. Regions with peak values of residence time are observed to grow with eccentricity in the sinus of Valsalva, indicating an elevated risk of thrombus formation for eccentric configurations. In addition, the computational model is used to analyze the effect of varying leaflet rigidity on both performance, thrombogenic and calcification risks with applications to tissue‐engineered prostheses. For more rigid leaflets it predicts an increase in systolic and diastolic TPGs, and decrease in systolic GOA, which translates to decreased valve performance. The peak shear rate and residence time regions increase with leaflet rigidity, but their volume‐averaged values were not significantly affected. Peak solid stresses are also analyzed, and observed to increase with rigidity, elevating risk of valve calcification and structural failure. To the authors' knowledge this is the first computational FSI model to study the effect of eccentricity or leaflet rigidity on thrombogenic biomarkers, providing a novel tool to aid device manufacturers and clinical practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a novel meshing and simulation approach for wind farms, featuring realignment and mesh adaptation. The turbines are modeled with actuator discs, which are discretized by means of an adaptation process to represent a level set function. The level-set-based simulation framework is combined with an adaptation cycle to capture both the solution and the actuator discs. In addition, we devise a turbine realignment process which takes into account the actual flow in the actuator disc configuration. Several results are presented to highlight the features of the approach. First, the adaptive simulation approach is validated, fulfilling the theoretical convergence rates and improving the accuracy of the boundary tight representations. Second, the adaptive simulation process is applied to a full wind farm configuration featuring 219 turbines, illustrating that is it well devised for complex wind farm configurations. Third, the turbine reorientation process is validated in a one turbine scenario. Finally, the realignment simulation framework is applied in a wind farm featuring 115 turbines. The presented results outline the significance of the proposed work, enabling turbine realignment and mesh adaptation to perform accurate simulations of complex wind farm configurations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerous tsunami numerical models have been proposed, but their prediction accuracies have not been directly compared. For quantifying the modeling uncertainties, the authors statistically analyzed the prediction results submitted by participants in the tsunami blind contest held at the 17th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering. The reproducibility of offshore water level generated due to the tsunami with soliton fission significantly decreased when the nonlinear shallow water equation models (NSWE) was used compared to three-dimensional (3D) models. The inundation depth was reproduced well in 3D models. However, the reproducibility of wave forces acting on the structure and velocities over land was lower in 3D models than that in NSWE models. For cases where the impulsive tsunami wave pressure generated could not be calculated based on the hydrostatic assumption, the prediction accuracy of the NSWE models was higher than that of the 3D models. The prediction accuracies of both models were not improved at small grid-cell sizes. The NSWE model cannot simulate the short-wave component and vertical pressure distribution. Therefore, further developments in 3D models and smoothed particle hydrodynamics methods (SPH) are needed. The presented results contribute to the future development of tsunami numerical simulation tools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High fidelity simulations of expiratory events such as coughing provide the opportunity to predict the fate of the droplets from the turbulent jet cloud produced from a cough. It is well established that droplets carrying infectious pathogens with diameters of 1 – 5 μ m remain suspended in the air for several hours and transported by the air currents over considerable distances (e.g., in meters). This study used a highly resolved mesh to capture the multiphase turbulent buoyant cloud with suspended droplets produced by a cough. The cough droplets' dispersion was subjected to thermal gradients and evaporation and allowed to disperse between two humans standing 2 m apart. A nasal cavity anatomy was included inside the second human to determine the inhaled droplets. Three diameter ranges characterized the droplet cloud, < 5 μ m , which made up 93% of all droplets by number; 5 to 100 μm comprised 3%, and > 100 μ m comprising 4%. The results demonstrated the temporal evolution of the cough event, where a jet is first formed, followed by a thermally driven puff cloud with the latter primarily composed of droplets under 5 μm diameter, moving with a vortex string structure. After the initial cough, the data were interpolated onto a more coarse mesh to allow the simulation to cover ten minutes, equivalent to 150 breathing cycles. We observe that the critical diameter size susceptible to inhalation was 0.5 μ m , although most inhaled droplets after 10 min by the second human were approximately 0.8 μ m. These observations offer insight into the risk of airborne transmission and numerical metrics for modeling and risk assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For complex engineering and scientific applications, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations require a huge amount of computational power. As such, it is of paramount importance to carefully assess the performance of CFD codes and to study them in depth for enabling optimisation and portability. In this paper, we study three complex CFD codes, OpenFOAM, Alya and CHORUS representing two numerical methods, namely the finite volume and finite-element methods, on both structured and unstructured meshes. To all codes, we apply a generic performance analysis method based on a set of metrics helping the code developer in spotting the critical points that can potentially limit the scalability of a parallel application. We show the root cause of the performance bottlenecks studying the three applications on the MareNostrum4 supercomputer. We conclude providing hints for improving the performance and the scalability of each application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: This work studies the implementation of wall modeling for large‐eddy simulation in a finite element context. It provides a detailed description of how the approach used by the finite volume and finite differences communities is adapted to the finite element context. The new implementation is as simple and easy to implement as the classical finite element one, but it provides vastly superior results. In the typical approach used in finite elements, the mesh does not extend all the way to the wall, and the wall stress is evaluated at the first grid point, based on the velocity at the same point. Instead, we adopt the approach commonly used in finite differences, where the mesh covers the whole domain and the wall stress is obtained at the wall grid point, with the velocity evaluated at the first grid point off the wall. The method is tested in a turbulent channel flow at Reτ=2003, a neutral atmospheric boundary layer flow, and a flow over a wall‐mounted hump, with significant improvement in the results compared to the standard finite element approach. Additionally, we examine the effect of evaluating the input velocity further away from the wall, as well as applying temporal filtering on the wall‐model input. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deposition of polydisperse particles representing nasal spray application in a human nasal cavity was performed under transient breathing profiles of sniffing, constant flow, and breath hold. The LES turbulence model was used to describe the fluid phase. Particles were introduced into the flow field with initial spray conditions, including spray cone angle, insertion angle, and initial velocity. Since nasal spray atomizer design determines the particle conditions, fifteen particle size distributions were used, each defined by a log-normal distribution with a different volume mean diameter (Dv50). Particle deposition in the anterior region was approximately 80% when Dv50 > 50μm, and this decreased to 45% as Dv50 decreased to 10μ m for constant and sniff breathing conditions. The decrease in anterior deposition was countered with increased deposition in the middle and posterior regions. The significance of increased deposition in the middle region for drug delivery shows there is potential for nasal delivered drugs to reach the highly vascularised mucosal walls in the main nasal passages. For multiple targeted deposition sites, an optimisation equation was introduced where deposition results of any two targeted sites could be combined and a weighting between 0 to 1 was applied to each targeted site, representing the relative importance of each deposition site. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main computing phases of numerical methods for solving partial differential equations are the algebraic system assembly and the iterative solver. This work focuses on the first task, in the context of a hybrid MPI+X paradigm. The matrix assembly consists of a loop over the elements, faces, edges or nodes of the MPI partitions to compute element matrices and vectors and then of their assemblies. In a MPI+X hybrid parallelism context, X has consisted traditionally of loop parallelism using OpenMP, with different techniques to avoid the race condition, but presenting efficiency or implementation drawbacks. We propose an alternative, based on task parallelism using some extensions to the OpenMP programming model. In addition, dynamic load balance will be applied, especially efficient in the presence of hybrid meshes. This paper presents the proposed methodology, its implementation and its validation through the solution of large computational mechanics problems up to 16k cores. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The focus of this work is on the computational modeling of a pendulum made of a hyperelastic material and the corresponding experimental validation with the aim of contributing to the study of a material commonly used in seismic absorber devices. From the proposed dynamics experiment, the motion of the pendulum is recorded using a high-speed camera. The evolution of the pendulum's positions is recovered using a capturing motion technique by tracking markers. The simulation of the problem is developed in the framework of a parallel multi-physics code. Particular emphasis is placed on the analysis of the Newmark integration scheme and the use of Rayleigh damping model. In particular, the time step size effect is analyzed. A strong time step size dependency is obtained for dissipative time integration schemes, while the Rayleigh damping formulation without time integration dissipation shows time step–independent results when convergence is achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work addresses the prediction of the reacting flow field in a swirl stabilized gas turbine model combustor using large-eddy simulation. The modeling of the combustion chemistry is based on laminar premixed flamelets and the effect of turbulence-chemistry interaction is considered by a presumed shape probability density function. The prediction capabilities of the presented combustion model for perfectly premixed and partially premixed conditions are demonstrated. The effect of partial premixing for the prediction of the reacting flow field is assessed by comparison of a perfectly premixed and partially premixed simulation. Even though significant mixture fraction fluctuations are observed, only small impact of the non-perfect premixing is found on the flow field and flame dynamics. Subsequently, the effect of heat loss to the walls is assessed assuming perfectly premixing. The adiabatic baseline case is compared to heat loss simulations with adiabatic and non-adiabatic chemistry tabulation. The results highlight the importance of considering the effect of heat loss on the chemical kinetics for an accurate prediction of the flow features. Both heat loss simulations significantly improve the temperature prediction, but the non-adiabatic chemistry tabulation is required to accurately capture the chemical composition in the reacting layers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work presents a parallel numerical strategy to transport Lagrangian particles in a fluid using a dynamic load balance strategy. Both fluid and particle solvers are parallel, with two levels of parallelism. The first level is based on a substructuring technique and uses message passing interface (MPI) as the communication library; the second level consists of OpenMP pragmas for loop parallelisation at the node level. When dealing with transient flows, there exist two main alternatives to address the coupling of these solvers. On the one hand, a single-code approach consists in solving the particle equations once the fluid solution has been obtained at the end of a time step, using the same instance of the same code. On the other hand, a multi-code approach enables one to overlap the transport of the particles with the next time-step solution of the fluid equations, and thus obtain asynchronism. In this case, different codes or two instances of the same code can be used. Both approaches will be presented. In addition, a dynamic load balancing library is used on the top of OpenMP pragmas in order to continuously exploit all the resources available at the node level, thus increasing the load balance and the efficiency of the parallelisation and uses the MPI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Broadcast traditionally has been regarded as a prohibitive communication transaction in multiprocessor environments. Nowadays, such a constraint largely drives the design of architectures and algorithms all-pervasive in diverse computing domains, directly and indirectly leading to diminishing performance returns as the many-core era is approaching. Novel interconnect technologies could help revert this trend by offering, among others, improved broadcast support, even in large-scale chip multiprocessors. This article outlines the prospects of wireless on-chip communication technologies pointing toward low-latency (a few cycles) and energy-efficient broadcast (a few picojoules per bit). It also discusses the challenges and potential impact of adopting these technologies as key enablers of unconventional hardware architectures and algorithmic approaches, in the pathway of significantly improving the performance, energy efficiency, scalability, and programmability of many-core chips. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We present an elaborate preconditioning scheme for Krylov subspace methods which has been developed to improve the performance and reduce the execution time of parallel node-based finite-element (FE) solvers for 3-D electromagnetic (EM) numerical modelling in exploration geophysics. This new preconditioner is based on algebraic multigrid (AMG) that uses different basic relaxation methods, such as Jacobi, symmetric successive over-relaxation (SSOR) and Gauss–Seidel, as smoothers and the wave front algorithm to create groups, which are used for a coarse-level generation. We have implemented and tested this new preconditioner within our parallel nodal FE solver for 3-D forward problems in EM induction geophysics. We have performed series of experiments for several models with different conductivity structures and characteristics to test the performance of our AMG preconditioning technique when combined with biconjugate gradient stabilized method. The results have shown that, the more challenging the problem is in terms of conductivity contrasts, ratio between the sizes of grid elements and/or frequency, the more benefit is obtained by using this preconditioner. Compared to other preconditioning schemes, such as diagonal, SSOR and truncated approximate inverse, the AMG preconditioner greatly improves the convergence of the iterative solver for all tested models. Also, when it comes to cases in which other preconditioners succeed to converge to a desired precision, AMG is able to considerably reduce the total execution time of the forward-problem code—up to an order of magnitude. Furthermore, the tests have confirmed that our AMG scheme ensures grid-independent rate of convergence, as well as improvement in convergence regardless of how big local mesh refinements are. In addition, AMG is designed to be a black-box preconditioner, which makes it easy to use and combine with different iterative methods. Finally, it has proved to be very practical and efficient in the parallel context. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We present a nodal finite-element method that can be used to compute in parallel highly accurate solutions for 3-D controlled-source electromagnetic forward-modelling problems in anisotropic media. Secondary coupled-potential formulation of Maxwell's equations allows to avoid the singularities introduced by the sources, while completely unstructured tetrahedral meshes and mesh refinement support an accurate representation of geological and bathymetric complexity and improve the solution accuracy. Different complex iterative solvers and an efficient pre-conditioner based on the sparse approximate inverse are used for solving the resulting large sparse linear system of equations. Results are compared with the ones of other researchers to check the accuracy of the method. We demonstrate the performance of the code in large problems with tens and even hundreds of millions of degrees of freedom. Scalability tests on massively parallel computers show that our code is highly scalable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents the research made on the FP7 project „Magnetic Sorting and Ultrasound Sensor Technologies for Production of High Purity Secondary Polyolefins from Waste“ in order to develop a magnetic fluid equipment for sorting of polypropylene (PP) and polyethylene (PE) from polymers mixed waste streams. Because both PP and PE float in water, it is difficult to separate one from the other. The paper presents the principles of inverse magnetic density separation process and the results obtained in developing of lab scale equipment for high grade separation of polyolefins from different types of polymers mixtures in a single step. Furthermore, the evolution of the equipment design is described, based on the simulation of polyolefins dynamic flow inside magnetic fluid in the magnetic field. The research made on lab scale equipment show fruitful results that encourage the researches for the next step. The consortium of projects is still working on scaling up this equipment for industrial application, which will be installed in Romania in 2013. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SUMMARY In this paper, a highly parallel coupled electromechanical model of the heart is presented and assessed. The parallel-coupled model is thoroughly discussed, with scalability proven up to hundreds of cores. This work focuses on the mechanical part, including the constitutive model (proposing some modifications to pre-existent models), the numerical scheme and the coupling strategy. The model is next assessed through two examples. First, the simulation of a small piece of cardiac tissue is used to introduce the main features of the coupled model and calibrate its parameters against experimental evidence. Then, a more realistic problem is solved using those parameters, with a mesh of the Oxford ventricular rabbit model. The results of both examples demonstrate the capability of the model to run efficiently in hundreds of processors and to reproduce some basic characteristic of cardiac deformation. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]