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Paper: Exploiting the Extensibility of the FLASH Code Architecture for Unsplit Time Integration
Volume: 429, Numerical Modeling of Space Plasma Flows, Astronum-2009
Page: 247
Authors: Lee, D.; Dubey, A.; Olson, K.; Weide, K.; Antypas, K.
Abstract: FLASH is a component-based massively parallel multiphysics simulation code with a wide user base. The time integration in FLASH was originally designed using Strang operator splitting for hydrodynamics. In version 3 of the FLASH release, we added an Unsplit Staggered Mesh Magnetohydrodynamics (USM-MHD) solver based on the constrained transport method of Lee and Deane. This method tested and exercised the modularity and extensibility of the FLASH code architecture, with abstraction of time integration and solution mesh from solvers being the focus. In this paper we present the relevant architectural details of the FLASH code that facilitated the incorporation of unsplit time integration into a primarily directionally split framework. Additionally, we discuss the challenges posed by adaptive mesh refinement to the USM-MHD solver and their solutions. Finally we present analysis of the relative computational performance split versus unsplit methods, and also the weak scaling performance of the unsplit USM-MHD solver in a parallel environment.
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