SUNDIALS: Suite of Nonlinear and Differential/Algebraic System Solvers

Speaker: Carol S. Woodward
Affiliation: Center for Applied Scientific Computing, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Abstract:
SUNDIALS is a suite of advanced computational codes for solving large-scale problems that can be modeled as a system of nonlinear algebraic equations, or as initial-value problems in ordinary differential or differential-algebraic equations. The basic versions of these codes are called KINSOL, CVODE, and IDA, respectively. The codes are written in ANSI standard C and are suitable for either serial or parallel machine environments. Common and notable features of these codes include: inexact Newton-Krylov methods for solving large-scale nonlinear systems; linear multistep methods for time-dependent problems; a highly modular structure to allow incorporation of different preconditioning and/or linear solver methods; and clear interfaces allowing for users to provide their own data structures underneath the solvers. We describe the current capabilities of the codes, along with some of the algorithms and heuristics used to achieve efficiency and robustness. We also describe how the codes stem from previous and widely used Fortran solvers, and how the codes have been augmented with forward and adjoint methods for carrying out first-order sensitivity analysis with respect to model parameters or initial conditions. The SUNDIALS suite is developed and maintained in collaboration with Alan Hindmarsh, Peter Brown, Keith Grant, Steven Lee, Radu Serban, and Dan Shumaker


Last modified: Tue Oct 14 11:05:35 EDT 2003