llnl / llnl/smith

KINSOL exits prematurely on simple nonlinear problem

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bugfix day
Dominant language
C++
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Avg merge
8d 23h
Merged PRs (30d)
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Description

here's a sourcefile with a reproducer:
[beam_bending.zip](https://github.com/LLNL/serac/files/11578278/beam_bending.zip)

When running this problem with the Kinsol Newton option, it performs a few iterations and exits with the error message:

```
[KINSOL] KINSol
Return value: -7 (KIN_MXNEWT_5X_EXCEEDED)
[KINSOL ERROR] KINSol
Five consecutive steps have been taken that satisfy a scaled step length test.
```

Using the naive Newton method converges monotonically in ~10 steps. It's unclear to me if this is indicative of a bug in our wrapper of Kinsol or if we just need to adjust some knobs.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by unpacking and running the attached beam_bending.zip reproducer with the KINSOL Newton option, then compare its behavior with the naive Newton method. Trace the KINSOL wrapper and configuration involved; done means determining whether the premature KIN_MXNEWT_5X_EXCEEDED exit is a wrapper bug or requires documented solver settings.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
cpp
Domain
hpc
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
30/100

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