A parallel solver for the 3D simulation of flows through oil filters

Abstract

The performance of oil filters used in automotive engines and other areas can be significantly improved using computer simulation as an essential component of the design process. In this chapter, a parallel solver for the 3D simulation of flows through oil filters is presented. The Navier-Stokes-Brinkmann system of equations is used to describe the coupled laminar flow of incompressible isothermal oil through open cavities and cavities with filtering porous media. The space discretization in the complicated filter geometry is based on the finite-volume method. Two parallel algorithms are developed on the basis of the sequential numerical algorithm. First, a data (domain) decomposition method is used to develop a parallel algorithm, where the data exchange is implemented with MPI library. The domain is partitioned between the processes using METIS library for the partitioning of unstructured graphs. A theoretical model is proposed for the estimation of the complexity of the proposed parallel algorithm. A second parallel algorithm is obtained by the OpenMP parallelization of the linear solver, which takes 90% of the total CPU time. The performance of implementations of both algorithms is studied on multicore computers.