A NOVEL PARALLEL FAST BOUNDARY ELEMENT METHOD

RESEARCHERS ARE DEVELOPING A PARALLEL 3-D FAST BOUNDARY ELEMENT METHOD WITH ENHANCED COMPUTATIONAL SPEED LOW STORAGE REQUIREMENT, AND REDUCED INTERPROCESSOR COMMUNICATION OVERHEAD. A PRELIMINARY 2-D CALCULATION DEMONSTRATED THE FEASIBILITY OF THE METHOD. IT IS BASED ON AN APPLICATION OF A FAST METHODOLOGY DEVELOPED FOR A FAST VORTEX COMPUTATION. A NEW INTERPROCESSOR COMMUNICATION ALGORITHM WITH LOW OVERHEAD, DEVELOPED FOR THE PARALLEL FAST VORTEX METHOD, IS ALSO BEING USED. TWO APPLICATIONS OF THE NEW METHOD ARE BEING CARRIED OUT: (1) FLOW AROUND SOLID BODY FOR AERONAUTICAL APPLICATION, AND (2) ELECTROSTATIC INTERACTIONS IN SOLVATED MACROMOLECULES FOR PHARMACEUTICAL APPLICATION. THE ENHANCEMENT TO THE BOUNDARY ELEMENT METHOD ALLOWS REALISTIC REPREENTATION OF THE COMPLEX SURFACE GEOMETRY ENCOUNTERED IN A COMPLETE AIRCRAFT CONFIGURATION, OR A PROTEN MACROMOLECULE USING AS MANY AS TENS OF THOUSANDS OF COMPUTATIONAL BOUNDARY ELEMENTS.