Parallel simulation of compressible flow using automatic differentiation and PETSc

Many aerospace applications require parallel implicit solution strategies a nd software. The use of two computational tools, the Portable, Extensible T oolkit for Scientific computing (PETSc) and ADIFOR, to implement a Newton-K rylov-Schwarz method with pseudotransient continuation for a particular app lication, namely, a steady-state, fully implicit, three-dimensional compres sible Euler model of flow over an M6 wing is considered. How automatic diff erentiation (AD) can be used within the PETSc framework to compute the requ ired derivatives is described. Performance data demonstrating the suitabili ty of AD and PETSc for this problem are presented. A synopsis of results an d a description of opportunities for future work concludes this paper. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.