Section: New Results

Numerical algorithms

Introduction to computational linear algebra

Participant : Jocelyne Erhel.

Publications: [23]

Abstract: The book "Introduction to Computational Linear Algebra" presents classroom-tested material on computational linear algebra and its application to numerical solutions of partial and ordinary differential equations. The book is designed for senior undergraduate students in mathematics and engineering as well as first-year graduate students in engineering and computational science.

The text first introduces BLAS operations of types 1, 2, and 3 adapted to a scientific computer environment, specifically MATLAB. It next covers the basic mathematical tools needed in numerical linear algebra and discusses classical material on Gauss decompositions as well as LU and Cholesky’s factorizations of matrices. The text then shows how to solve linear least squares problems, provides a detailed numerical treatment of the algebraic eigenvalue problem, and discusses (indirect) iterative methods to solve a system of linear equations. The final chapter illustrates how to solve discretized sparse systems of linear equations. Each chapter ends with exercises and computer projects.

Hybrid algebraic sparse linear solvers

Participants : Jocelyne Erhel, David Imberti.

Grants and projects: EXA2CT 9.2.1 , EoCoE 9.2.2 , C2S@EXA 9.1.2

Publications: in preparation.

Abstract: Sparse linear systems arise in computational science and engineering. The goal is to reduce the memory requirements and the computational cost, by means of high performance computing algorithms. Krylov methods combined with Domain Decomposition are very efficient for both fast convergence and fast computations.

Hastings-Metropolis Algorithm on Markov Chains for Small-Probability Estimation

Participant : Lionel Lenôtre.

Grants: H2MNO4 9.1.1

Publications: [12]

Abstract: Shielding studies in neutron transport, with Monte Carlo codes, yield challenging problems of small-probability estimation. The particularity of these studies is that the small probability to estimate is formulated in terms of the distribution of a Markov chain, instead of that of a random vector in more classical cases. Thus, it is not straightforward to adapt classical statistical methods, for estimating small probabilities involving random vectors, to these neutron-transport problems. A recent interacting-particle method for small-probability estimation, relying on the Hastings-Metropolis algorithm, is presented. It is shown how to adapt the Hastings-Metropolis algorithm when dealing with Markov chains. A convergence result is also shown. Then, the practical implementation of the resulting method for small-probability estimation is treated in details, for a Monte Carlo shielding study. Finally, it is shown, for this study, that the proposed interacting-particle method considerably outperforms a simple Monte Carlo method, when the probability to estimate is small.

A Strategy for the Parallel Implementations of Stochastic Lagrangian Methods

Participant : Lionel Lenôtre.

Grants and projects: H2MNO4 9.1.1

Software: PALMTREE 6.5

Publications: [32]

Abstract: We present some investigations on the parallelization of a stochastic Lagrangian simulation. For the self sufficiency of this work, we start by recalling the stochastic methods used to solve Parabolic Partial Differential Equations with a few physical remarks. Then, we exhibit different object-oriented ideas for such methods. In order to clearly illustrate these ideas, we give an overview of the library PALMTREE that we developed. After these considerations, we discuss the importance of the management of random numbers and argue for the choice of a particular strategy. To support our point, we show some numerical experiments of this approach, and display a speedup curve of PALMTREE. Then, we discuss the problem in managing the parallelization scheme. Finally, we analyze the parallelization of hybrid simulation for a system of Partial Differential Equations. We use some works done in hydrogeology to demonstrate the power of such a concept to avoid numerical diffusion in the solution of Fokker-Planck Equations and investigate the problem of parallelizing scheme under the constraint entailed by domain decomposition. We conclude with a presentation of the latest design that was created for PALMTREE and give a sketch of the possible work to get a powerful parallelized scheme.

About a generation of a log-normal correlated field

Participants : Jocelyne Erhel, Géraldine Pichot.

Grants: HYDRINV 9.3.3 , H2MN04 9.1.1

Software: GENFIELD 6.1

Publications: [18] .

Abstract: Uncertainty quantification often requires the generation of large realizations of stationary Gaussian random field over a regular grid.

We compare the classical methods used to simulate the field defined by its covariance function, namely the Discrete Spectral method, the Circulant Embedding approach, and the Discrete Karhunen-Loève approximation. We design and implement a parallel algorithm related to the Discrete Spectral method.