A parallel RMA2 model for simulating large-scale free surface flows

In this work, a popular two-dimensional finite element hydrodynamic serial model (RMA2) is ported over to parallel platform using evolving programming paradigms, and its performance tested over both a traditional supercomputer and over a cluster. The parallel code is based on domain decomposition principles and uses MPI protocols for all inter-processor communication. Focus is equally distributed among the performance data and on the accuracy of the end parallel solution. The data structures and kernels available in the portable extensible toolkit for scientific computation (PETSc) libraries have been used in the parallel code formulation. With focus shifting on modeling real life flows, which are characterized by large size domains, the current serial codes are limited by the required computational time. Developing parallel versions of these serial codes, will address this primary limitation without loosing any of the serial modeling audience. The strategy used in this work can aid modelers in developing parallel versions of their serial codes. As the results indicate, one can arrive at the parallel version by using the parallel software libraries, and the serial code need not be rewritten from scratch. Additionally, the format of the input/output data files can be left unchanged. The end parallel code can accelerate the solution to the desired state without loosing any accuracy in the end solution.