Performance analysis of a Linux PC cluster using a direct numerical simulation of fluid turbulence code

Abstract

In this paper, we have tested the parallel performance of an Intel Xeon-based Linux PC cluster using a finite element code for direct numerical simulation (DNS) of incompressible fluid turbulence. The parallel performance of the PC cluster, which used up to 64 2.8 GHz processors, was evaluated by comparing three scales of DNS trial runs consisting of 3.3, 5.8, and 10.1 million elements. Subroutines of different natures were contrasted to investigate the scalability of the DNS code. For DNS calculation of sufficiently large scale, the subroutines showed reasonable parallel efficiency. Doubling the number of processors reduced the CPU time by about 40%. Of particular interest was the CPU time required by the two subroutines handling interprocessor communication that was fairly constant within the range of processors tested. PC Linux clusters are thus affordable platforms, compared with more expensive supercomputers, to conduct large-scale scientific computing for fluid turbulence research. © 2005 Sage Publications.