PROPOSITION DE SUJET DE THESE Intitulé : Adaptive memory-aware hybrid linear solvers for compressible flows
ONERA
France
Deadline: May 31, 2026
Details
Profil et compétences recherchées
Master’s degree or equivalent with a background in Applied Mathematics or Computer Science. A keen interest in
numerical linear algebra and programming (C++, Fortran, Python) would be welcome.
Context
High-fidelity simulations of turbulent compressible flows in aerodynamics typically require the numerical
analysis of three-dimensional flows around complex geometries. In optimization, linear analysis or data
assimilation area, typical Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) workflows, such as fixed-point iterations or
adjoint-state methods, require the solution of large, sparse, non-symmetric and ill-conditioned linear
systems. An active area of research focuses on developing parallel, robust and efficient solvers capable of
delivering solutions to such systems within a prescribed error tolerance. A key challenge, especially as
problem sizes approach billions of unknowns, is the design of effective preconditioning operators. Although
the solve phase still account for a substantial portion of the total CPU time in parallel simulations, the number
of computing cores is usually dictated by the requirements of the CFD study itself, rather than by the needs
of the linear solver
Objectives
Recent studies [1-4] have demonstrated the strong performance of hybrid direct-iterative strategies. In these
approaches, from the algebraic decomposition of the matrix, a flexible Krylov method is employed with a
domain decomposition method as preconditioner [5] and an approximate direct method [6] as subdomain
solver. The main objective is now to design a preconditioning operator that fully exploits the memory budget
already allocated for the CFD simulation. The first MPI paradigm splits the study domain geometrically into
well-balanced partitions. We aim to introduce a second MPI paradigm devoted to linear systems: enlarging
subdomains for the local approximate direct solvers may significantly enhance the global numerical
efficiency of the approach. To mitigate the computational and memory costs traditionally associated with
direct solvers, we rely on the general-purpose multifrontal MUMPS solver [7] that exploits variable precision
and possible low-rank property of matrices [8]. Initial numerical experiments using a fixed accuracy Block
Low-Rank (BLR) multifrontal factorization [9, 10, 11] as the subdomain solver have already shown promising
CPU-time reductions, together with a significant memory compression of the L and U factors compared with
a classical full LU factorization. The new HPC capabilities available in MUMPS, combined with variable
subdomain sizes, may open further opportunities for performance improvements. In addition, adapting the
accuracy of the subdomain solver to the subdomain stiffness may offer further benefits [12, 13]. To preserve
scalability under such heterogeneous configurations, we will also investigate load-balancing techniques with
weighted graph partitioning.
Key steps
The ONERA CFD code SoNICS [14] will rely on the MUMPS library to define a mixed-precision BLR-LU
solver within each subdomain, initially using a uniform accuracy. A second MPI parallelization strategy will
then be developed through the ParaDiGM library [15], already used by SoNICS, to generate a new
partitioning better suited to linear system solves. Subsequently, a non-uniform accuracy strategy will be
explored, adjusting the subdomain accuracy in combination with load-balancing techniques. Numerical
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