Iterative Domain Decomposition For Parallel Computing Of Large-Scale Bem Heat Transfer Models

The solution of heat conduction problems using the boundary element method (BEM) only requires a surface mesh resulting in a fully-populated matrix for the final algebraic set of equations. This poses a serious challenge for large-scale problems due to storage requirements and computational times required by iterative solution of large set of non-symmetric equations. Approaches generally adopted to resolve this problem are: (1) artificial subsectioning of the geometry into a multi-region model in conjunction with algebraic block-solvers reminiscent of FEM frontal solvers, and (2) multipole methods in conjunction with nonsymmetric iterative solvers such as GMRES. We propose to adopt a region-by-region iterative approach and is herein shown that the process converges efficiently, offers significant savings in memory, and does not require complex data-structure preparation. Several examples are presented and a 3-D film-cooled turbine blade geometry is considered. © 1997 by Eduardo Divo, Alain J. Kassab, and Franklin Rodriguez. Published by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc., with permission