Parallel computations of the step response of a floor heater with the use of a graphics processing unit. Part 2: results and their evaluation

Abstract

Abstract Using models and algorithms presented in the first part of the article, a spatio-temporal distribution of the step response of a floor heater was determined. The results have been presented in the form of heating curves and temperature profiles of the heater in the selected time moments. The computations results were verified through comparing them with the solution obtained with the use of a commercial program - NISA. Additionally, the distribution of the average time constant of thermal processes occurring in the heater was determined. The analysis of the use of a graphics processing unit in numerical computations based on the conjugate gradient method was done. It was proved that the use of a graphics processing unit is profitable in the case of solving linear systems of equations with dense coefficient matrices. In the case of a sparse matrix, the speed-up depends on the number of its non-zero elements.