llnl / llnl/sundials

Solver recommendation for large advection-diffusion (500k cells)

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Description

Hi,
I'm at the New University of Lisbon (NOVA), working on a collaborative project with Dalhousie University and the Canadian DFO.
Background: I've successfully used CVODE for a diagenetic model (stiff biogeochemistry + vertical advection-diffusion in sediment layers). It works brilliantly - thank you to the development team!
New problem: I'm extending a related application that simulates dissolved substance transport (e.g. ammonia) from fish farms. The spatial domain is large:

100-120 × 100-120 XY cells
20-30 vertical (Z) layers
Up to ~500,000 cells total

The physics is advection-diffusion between cells - not stiff, just large. Currently using explicit Euler/RK but hitting stability limits with diffusion.
Question: Which SUNDIALS solver would you recommend for this scale?

Memory efficiency is a key concern given the matrix size.
Thanks for any guidance,
João G. Ferreira

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

Research direction

Start with the SUNDIALS solver overview and the CVODE documentation, focusing on the stated 500,000-cell advection-diffusion case and its memory constraints. Compare the relevant solver guidance against the reported explicit Euler/RK stability problem. Done means documenting a justified solver recommendation for this scale.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
c
Domain
hpc
Issue type
Documentation
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
25/100

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