| Abstract: | A parallel finite volume method for the Navier–Stokes equations with adaptive hybrid prismatic/tetrahedral grids is presented and evaluated in terms of parallel performance. A new method of domain partitioning for complex 3D hybrid meshes is also presented. It is based on orthogonal bisection of a special octree corresponding to the hybrid mesh. The octree is generated automatically and can handle any type of 3D geometry and domain connectivity. One important property of the octree-based partitioning that is exploited is the octree's ability to yield load-balanced partitions that follow the shape of the geometry. This biasing of the octree results in a reduced number of grid elements on the interpartition boundaries and thus fewer data to communicate among processors. Furthermore, the octree-based partitioning gives similar quality of partitions for very different geometries, while requiring minimal user interaction and little computational time. The partitioning method is evaluated in terms of quality of the subdomains as well as execution time. Viscous flow simulations for different geometries are employed to examine the effectiveness of the octree-based partitioning and to test the scalability of parallel execution of the Navier–Stokes solver and hybrid grid adapter on two different parallel systems, the Intel Paragon and the IBM SP2. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. |
