Eric Heien, Ph.D. & Hiro Matsui, Ph.D.
University of Davis, California

Numerical simulations of planetary dynamos have revealed many scientific insights over the past several years.  However, due to the limitations of computing power current models are unable to properly resolve turbulent dynamos or approach simulation of realistic liquid metal dynamos.  In order to better understand the best path forward to a realistic dynamo simulation, we have performed accuracy and performance benchmarks using 17 codes which use different numerical methods (spectral, finite difference, finite element, hybrid methods) and different domain decompositions.  We examine the convergence rates of different methods, parameters necessary to resolve different physical regimes, and scalability of different schemes up to large numbers of processes.  The goal of this work is to understand which methods work best in preparation for high resolution runs on O(10^5) cores.

[All 2014-15 webinars] [YouTube]

1. Heien
2. Matsui
3. webinar
4. 2015