Publications

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A comparison of inexact newton and coordinate descent mesh optimization techniques

Knupp, Patrick K.

We compare inexact Newton and coordinate descent methods for optimizing the quality of a mesh by repositioning the vertices, where quality is measured by the harmonic mean of the mean-ratio metric. The effects of problem size, element size heterogeneity, and various vertex displacement schemes on the performance of these algorithms are assessed for a series of tetrahedral meshes.

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A comparison of two optimization methods for mesh quality improvement

Proposed for publication in Engineering with Computers.

Knupp, Patrick K.

We compare inexact Newton and coordinate descent optimization methods for improving the quality of a mesh by repositioning the vertices, where the overall quality is measured by the harmonic mean of the mean-ratio metric. The effects of problem size, element size heterogeneity, and various vertex displacement schemes on the performance of these algorithms are assessed for a series of tetrahedral meshes.

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A design for a V&V and UQ discovery process

Knupp, Patrick K.; Urbina, Angel U.

There is currently sparse literature on how to implement systematic and comprehensive processes for modern V&V/UQ (VU) within large computational simulation projects. Important design requirements have been identified in order to construct a viable 'system' of processes. Significant processes that are needed include discovery, accumulation, and assessment. A preliminary design is presented for a VU Discovery process that accounts for an important subset of the requirements. The design uses a hierarchical approach to set context and a series of place-holders that identify the evidence and artifacts that need to be created in order to tell the VU story and to perform assessments. The hierarchy incorporates VU elements from a Predictive Capability Maturity Model and uses questionnaires to define critical issues in VU. The place-holders organize VU data within a central repository that serves as the official VU record of the project. A review process ensures that those who will contribute to the record have agreed to provide the evidence identified by the Discovery process. VU expertise is an essential part of this process and ensures that the roadmap provided by the Discovery process is adequate. Both the requirements and the design were developed to support the Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation Waste project, which is developing a set of advanced codes for simulating the performance of nuclear waste storage sites. The Waste project served as an example to keep the design of the VU Discovery process grounded in practicalities. However, the system is represented abstractly so that it can be applied to other M&S projects.

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A manufactured solution for verifying CFD boundary conditions: part II

Knupp, Patrick K.; Ober, Curtis C.

Order-of-accuracy verification is necessary to ensure that software correctly solves a given set of equations. One method to verify the order of accuracy of a code is the method of manufactured solutions. In this study, a manufactured solution has been derived and implemented that allows verification of not only the Euler, Navier-Stokes, and Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equation sets, but also some of their associated boundary conditions (BC's): slip, no-slip (adiabatic and isothermal), and outflow (subsonic, supersonic, and mixed). Order-of-accuracy verification has been performed for the Euler and Navier-Stokes equations and these BC's in a compressible computational fluid dynamics code. All of the results shown are on skewed, non-uniform meshes. RANS results will be presented in a future paper. The observed order of accuracy was lower than the expected order of accuracy in two cases. One of these cases resulted in the identification and correction of a coding mistake in the CHAD gradient correction that was reducing the observed order of accuracy. This mistake would have been undetectable on a Cartesian mesh. During the search for the CHAD gradient correction problem, an unrelated coding mistake was found and corrected. The other case in which the observed order of accuracy was less than expected was a test of the slip BC; although no specific coding or formulation mistakes have yet been identified. After the correction of the identified coding mistakes, all of the aforementioned equation sets and BC's demonstrated the expected (or at least acceptable) order of accuracy except the slip condition.

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A mesh optimization algorithm to decrease the maximum error in finite element computations

Proceedings of the 17th International Meshing Roundtable, IMR 2008

Hetmaniuk, U.; Knupp, Patrick K.

We present a mesh optimization algorithm for adaptively improving the finite element interpolation of a function of interest. The algorithm minimizes an objective function by swapping edges and moving nodes. Numerical experiments are performed on model problems. The results illustrate that the mesh optimization algorithm can reduce the W1,∞ semi-norm of the interpolation error. For these examples, the L2, L∞, and H1 norms decreased also.

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Algebraic mesh quality metrics

SIAM Journal of Scientific Computing

Knupp, Patrick K.

Quality metrics for structured and unstructured mesh generation are placed within an algebraic framework to form a mathematical theory of mesh quality metrics. The theory, based on the Jacobian and related matrices, provides a means of constructing, classifying, and evaluating mesh quality metrics. The Jacobian matrix is factored into geometrically meaningful parts. A nodally-invariant Jacobian matrix can be defined for simplicial elements using a weight matrix derived from the Jacobian matrix of an ideal reference element. Scale and orientation-invariant algebraic mesh quality metrics are defined. the singular value decomposition is used to study relationships between metrics. Equivalence of the element condition number and mean ratio metrics is proved. Condition number is shown to measure the distance of an element to the set of degenerate elements. Algebraic measures for skew, length ratio, shape, volume, and orientation are defined abstractly, with specific examples given. Combined metrics for shape and volume, shape-volume-orientation are algebraically defined and examples of such metrics are given. Algebraic mesh quality metrics are extended to non-simplical elements. A series of numerical tests verify the theoretical properties of the metrics defined.

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Code Verification by the Method of Manufactured Solutions

Salari, Kambiz S.; Knupp, Patrick K.

A procedure for code Verification by the Method of Manufactured Solutions (MMS) is presented. Although the procedure requires a certain amount of creativity and skill, we show that MMS can be applied to a variety of engineering codes which numerically solve partial differential equations. This is illustrated by detailed examples from computational fluid dynamics. The strength of the MMS procedure is that it can identify any coding mistake that affects the order-of-accuracy of the numerical method. A set of examples which use a blind-test protocol demonstrates the kinds of coding mistakes that can (and cannot) be exposed via the MMS code Verification procedure. The principle advantage of the MMS procedure over traditional methods of code Verification is that code capabilities are tested in full generality. The procedure thus results in a high degree of confidence that all coding mistakes which prevent the equations from being solved correctly have been identified.

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Results 1–25 of 51
Results 1–25 of 51